I've been on Gab for six months. The free speech idea appealed to me, and Gab could still be a great site if they dealt with the issues I'm about to describe. However, Gab is not a free speech site as they claim, they're just a wild west of abusive trolls, spam and harassers whose mission is to silence those they disagree with. Gab's ownership refuses to deal with these trolls. Last night alone I received over 50 email notifications of pornographic messages from three troll accounts.
Many Gab users express disagreement by spamming their opponents with the sickest and most disgusting porn they can find. Gab users are expected to flag their posts "NSFW" (not safe for work) if they contain pornography. Flagged posts are automatically filtered out, so you don't have to view them unless you turn off the filter. They also have a reporting system that allows users to report unflagged pornographic posts. However, trolls bypass the system by not flagging their posts.
Which brings me to the main reason I suggest you avoid Gab, unless you have a strong stomach and a high tolerance for being bullied and harassed. Gab has community guidelines. Trouble is, when you report posts (they don't let you report users) they completely ignore complaints. Also, you can't block malicious users (we wouldn't want to deprive abusive and sick people of their rights!) Users have to "mute" malicious trolls, which only means you can't see their posts, but they can still see and comment on yours.
On a technical note, the Gab website is poorly coded which means a lot of glitches. They have exactly one person who does all of their technical support and programming, and he only works for them part time. The owner cares about nothing but attracting new users from third world countries, to increase profits. So, he assigns his tech guy to continually make changes to the site such as adding translation features, rather than fix the existing technical issues. The two biggest problems are:
- the page, if not your browser, freezes and hangs when you try to attach a graphic to your posts.
- many of the text entry fields on the site are so slow they are useless. Imagine typing a letter and then having to wait 5 seconds for it to appear on your screen. That's how bad it is. And these issues have been going on, untouched, for months - in fact they are still ongoing.
Finally, their customer service stinks. Even if you buy a paid subscription, once you're signed up you are unworthy of their notice. Complain about a technical issue, report a malicious user, ask a question - all are equally futile because they arrogantly ignore and do not appreciate their customers. Also, the site owner sics his family members on anyone who files a public complaint about the way they're running the site. I've been attacked and bullied twice by his female relatives. All they care about is attracting new users so they can line their pockets.