Sh×tposting before sh×tposting was even a thing

I'm guessing it's unpopular online because most people are not sanitizing their language like that (some don't swear online, but they also do it by just not including them in their posts in the first place), and think of it as censorship even if self-censorship isn't quite the same thing as telling others what they can and cannot say. I see what you are doing as a matter of personal choice, but some people will probably conclude it's you being sanctimonious even if I really don't think it is. Might have to do with you writing out and censoring a swear instead of just writing an entirely different word. Although "posting low-effort memes" really does not carry the same energy as "shitposting," so I understand why that would be a very difficult option to take here.

My second guess is also because this isn't really a behavior popular with thread-based discussion. From what I can gather, it seems to be popular on platforms like Twitter and TikTok, which people who use thread-based discussion tend to look down on (and to be honest, I have that judginess too. Not for those who use the platforms, goodness knows I rot my brain too, just for the platforms themselves). One reason people might censor themselves there is ironically to skirt censorship: "shit" might get autoremoved, but "shxt" will not and everyone will still know what you mean. I'm not sure if those platforms actually do engage in swear censorship since I don't use them, but it is a reason I've seen people give for typing like that.

However as far as I know Lemmy and Mbin don't do swear censorship, so although I don't hold your typing of "shxtposting" instead of "shitposting" against you and think it's insane to downvote you for it especially since you are not being hostile, I cannot understand why you would do it. I know you want this to be more of a sanitized, not-swearing-all-the-time space both because of the rules and because you said this community was created at least partially to look at memes with your kid. But it doesn't make sense, in my mind, to swear and just take out the vowels if you don't want the exposure to bad language. We all know what it means, and if your kid does not, they'll look it up and get the real word pretty fast. I think people are also reacting to that, so I'm curious why you bothered censoring yourself while still mostly using the swear word.

People also seem to have issues with those asking why their actions are disapproved of instead of intuitively grasping it, and at least online, downvote when people ask to understand why. No question is dumb, it's okay to learn, unless it's 'why do people disapprove of my actions', you have to just magically know and will be punished both for not knowing and trying to reach out to learn. So sorry about all your downvotes for asking an innocent question.

I'm with you. I don't get why it's so popular.

Well shit..