Almost all of the top subreddits are moderated by the same people(reddit.com)
reddit.com
Almost all of the top subreddits are moderated by the same people
https://www.reddit.com/r/ThatsInsane/comments/pbloje/almost_all_of_the_top_subreddits_are_moderated_by/
318 comments
I'm suspecting that PR firms have understood for some times now how influential those social networks were to reach people that traditional in-your-face propaganda works ineffectively on. If you want to touch the heart of geeks, artists, activits and passionate people, you need to do it in a format that they will accept, and because they are very active on the world, those are important targets.
For things like HN or imgur, I assume there is a way to pay them to get the com you want in a way that appears to be organic. That's the best way to make money for those kind of sites after all. Want to make a billionaire a hero? Suddenly, comments everywhere say how much the guy is great, links to articles of his achievements raise to the top and critics are down voted, or/ and counter answered elaborately by what has all the signs of a long time user account. Want to sell a new movie or a political program? How about some "fan-made" memes or technical article that everybody seems to love?
Even better for those firms, why pay if you can avoid it? In reddit, work patiently to have a lot of accounts that are mods in topics you care about, and you basically own the system for free. Even better, now others will pay you to do com targeting those communities.
In that sense, I think facebook and twitter are at least more honest about how they influence society because they are explicit about their paid communication offers.
For things like HN or imgur, I assume there is a way to pay them to get the com you want in a way that appears to be organic. That's the best way to make money for those kind of sites after all. Want to make a billionaire a hero? Suddenly, comments everywhere say how much the guy is great, links to articles of his achievements raise to the top and critics are down voted, or/ and counter answered elaborately by what has all the signs of a long time user account. Want to sell a new movie or a political program? How about some "fan-made" memes or technical article that everybody seems to love?
Even better for those firms, why pay if you can avoid it? In reddit, work patiently to have a lot of accounts that are mods in topics you care about, and you basically own the system for free. Even better, now others will pay you to do com targeting those communities.
In that sense, I think facebook and twitter are at least more honest about how they influence society because they are explicit about their paid communication offers.
/r/thenetherlands is a joke. So many comments are being removed in order to "maintain community standards".
I once posted a genuine question there: "Do you think /r/thenetherlands is an echo chamber?"
"[Your post was removed for being off topic]"
Oh well. Now I just don't use reddit anymore. My life is better because of it.
I once posted a genuine question there: "Do you think /r/thenetherlands is an echo chamber?"
"[Your post was removed for being off topic]"
Oh well. Now I just don't use reddit anymore. My life is better because of it.
It is funny to read this because of so many redditors will comment on every facebook related post how good their life become after ditching that social network.
And they are immediately forgetting about other social network (reddit) they currently use.
Reddit seems more like an antisocial network.
I would say it more like site that has some sort of glare of anonymity.
That sort of anonymity ables person to be a bit of antisocial (e.g. not everyone would be happy to connect their real life identity to reddit account) but still it is social network.
But there is no network of users on reddit, HN or other similar forums.
I actually like /r/thenetherlands.
You're question does seem too meta and pointless. It's just a sub about Dutch news and stuff.
You're question does seem too meta and pointless. It's just a sub about Dutch news and stuff.
Yeah but everyone thinks their case is special because of X, then spew at the very least 2-3 messages in your inbox, debate whether they've actually broken the rule you wrote or not, and just generally waste your time.
Speaking as someone who used to be the main moderator for a country sub (albeit a smaller one), at a certain point you just go numb and stop justifying your actions (you still communicate it with other mods and they see your ban reason, not visible to the user). That being said, I did enforce one or two temporary bans before handing out permanent ones.
Speaking as someone who used to be the main moderator for a country sub (albeit a smaller one), at a certain point you just go numb and stop justifying your actions (you still communicate it with other mods and they see your ban reason, not visible to the user). That being said, I did enforce one or two temporary bans before handing out permanent ones.
I've yet to come across a location sub that isn't like that.
It might not be forever. I had an admin shadowban me once across the entire site for daring to post on r/indiegaming and r/gaming, two subs I commented on constantly, a single link to a video game I made over six months (well at least that's the best reason I can come up with, I was never told a reason why, I know certain subreddits are super anti-self-promotion for some reason though). I didn't even notice for six months until a moderator PM'ed me and told me he had been manually approving my posts for months in one sub (the rest of the subreddits I posted to I just thought I had suddenly stopped being interesting to people).
I tried to appeal the shadowban and heard nothing from the admins.
Anyway I stayed away from Reddit for a while but eventually created a new account to talk about board games. A few years later I decided to check my other account again, and discovered it wasn't shadowbanned anymore (you can tell by going to your user page in incognito mode, it won't show up like other accounts do if it's shadowbanned). And so now I'm using that old account again.
Although I'll never talk about anything I've ever made on that site ever again, which seems kind of stupid to me, but whatever. Reddit's rules are crap (and new UI, I only use old.reddit), but I do enjoy checking and commenting in a few of the subreddits still.
I tried to appeal the shadowban and heard nothing from the admins.
Anyway I stayed away from Reddit for a while but eventually created a new account to talk about board games. A few years later I decided to check my other account again, and discovered it wasn't shadowbanned anymore (you can tell by going to your user page in incognito mode, it won't show up like other accounts do if it's shadowbanned). And so now I'm using that old account again.
Although I'll never talk about anything I've ever made on that site ever again, which seems kind of stupid to me, but whatever. Reddit's rules are crap (and new UI, I only use old.reddit), but I do enjoy checking and commenting in a few of the subreddits still.
Honest question: Why would you continue using a site that treats you like this? I would go find something else to share my limited attention with. I remember getting banned on Fark (remember them?) and I simply never went back. If you don't want me participating, I won't add free content to your business. I was even a paying subscriber there, and dropped the subscription immediately.
People need to start cutting ties with companies that treat them badly. How many times have you seen this conversation: "A: Company Xyz took my money and screwed something up and can't be contacted. B: That's fraud--Just do a credit card chargeback. A: But, then they'll ban me!" Why the hell do people want to continue using, let alone continue giving money to, a site or business that treats you this way?
On a related note, I seem to be back in that HN purgatory where you can only post a few times a day. As usual, with no indication of what triggered it. <sigh> Getting really close to throwing in the towel here, too.
People need to start cutting ties with companies that treat them badly. How many times have you seen this conversation: "A: Company Xyz took my money and screwed something up and can't be contacted. B: That's fraud--Just do a credit card chargeback. A: But, then they'll ban me!" Why the hell do people want to continue using, let alone continue giving money to, a site or business that treats you this way?
On a related note, I seem to be back in that HN purgatory where you can only post a few times a day. As usual, with no indication of what triggered it. <sigh> Getting really close to throwing in the towel here, too.
I did stay away for about three years (my old Reddit account is like 14 years old at this point). I don't remember what specifically got me to look at their board game subreddit, but I started looking at it without being a member for a while, and eventually I wanted to comment on them enough that I said 'Screw it, I'll join, stick to this one subreddit, and not do the thing that got me shadowbanned.'
I did stick with just that subreddit for quite some time. It was the Covid-19 pandemic that led to me branching out to other subreddits (I wanted to check r/coronavirus specifically) more and discovering my old account was back.
One thing I never did go back to, though, was r/indiegames and r/gaming, the two I most likely got banned from.
Also I don't really bother with r/boardgames anymore and check other subreddits more now. There are Facebook groups that work better for that, as I can see notifications from friends that are in the industry and make sure I keep up with their posts and comments.
Reddit is huge, me not participating isn't going to cause any changes in how the site works at all. I find value in the site still, so I still use it.
I did stick with just that subreddit for quite some time. It was the Covid-19 pandemic that led to me branching out to other subreddits (I wanted to check r/coronavirus specifically) more and discovering my old account was back.
One thing I never did go back to, though, was r/indiegames and r/gaming, the two I most likely got banned from.
Also I don't really bother with r/boardgames anymore and check other subreddits more now. There are Facebook groups that work better for that, as I can see notifications from friends that are in the industry and make sure I keep up with their posts and comments.
Reddit is huge, me not participating isn't going to cause any changes in how the site works at all. I find value in the site still, so I still use it.
I wish more people shared this opinion. There are many Reddit alternatives, which would all improve with wider adoption. As a technical problem, it’s a solved one, and there are some pleasant options.
What are some of these alternatives that aren't overrun with extreme right wing opinions? I've been looking for one as I quit reddit a few months ago.
Lemmy, assuming it’s not still vaporware, is curated by an actual “I think Castro was good” communist.
If you want a leftist Reddit, then I would advise you to consider Reddit.
If you want a leftist Reddit, then I would advise you to consider Reddit.
> I have been locked out of engaging with the communities I was most interested and active in, for no apparent reason and likely forever.
Just make a new account. Screw their "ban circumvention" rule. What are they gonna do, ban you again?
Just make a new account. Screw their "ban circumvention" rule. What are they gonna do, ban you again?
I was under the impression that shadowbanning was a moderation technique reserved for the admins, and unavailable to subreddit moderators; IIRC, it also applied to the entire website.
Some moderators do a soft shadowban where they simply delete every post you make in their sub with no notification. The is functionally like a shadowban - you can see the post in your history and have no way of knowing it was deleted without signing out or using a different account, other than a suspicious lack of votes or replies.
> you can see the post in your history and have no way of knowing it was deleted without signing out or using a different account, other than a suspicious lack of votes or replies.
Reveddit [1] or its accompanying extension [2] can alert you when this happens. I'm the author. You can see the behavior yourself on r/CantSayAnything [3] or read more in the FAQ [4].
[1] https://www.reveddit.com/about/
[2] https://www.reveddit.com/add-ons/direct/
[3] https://www.reddit.com/r/CantSayAnything/
[4] https://www.reveddit.com/about/faq/
Reveddit [1] or its accompanying extension [2] can alert you when this happens. I'm the author. You can see the behavior yourself on r/CantSayAnything [3] or read more in the FAQ [4].
[1] https://www.reveddit.com/about/
[2] https://www.reveddit.com/add-ons/direct/
[3] https://www.reddit.com/r/CantSayAnything/
[4] https://www.reveddit.com/about/faq/
Good to know, thanks! I use /r/shadowban currently. Providing more resources in this area is definitely appreciated.
Mods can set up automoderator with a shitlist of users whose messages are deleted the very moment they're posted, as the moderation system is built into reddit now.
So it's not a true shadowban, but any posts you make on subreddits who have shitlisted you will get deleted instantly.
And of course when a post of yours is deleted on reddit by a mod, reddit does not tell you this or indicate it to you in any way.
So it's not a true shadowban, but any posts you make on subreddits who have shitlisted you will get deleted instantly.
And of course when a post of yours is deleted on reddit by a mod, reddit does not tell you this or indicate it to you in any way.
Some of the posts that I made post-shadowban were let through, and some were only removed after they had been up for several hours and gained replies. So it looks like they were manually deleting my posts.
I've long since stopped caring about the ban itself, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious to learn the reason for it!
I've long since stopped caring about the ban itself, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious to learn the reason for it!
Sometimes, if you're very, very lucky, the moderators will take a look at the posts automod deleted and then manually approve them, which still lets them through. When verifying this, make sure you use an incognito browser tab to see what's actually been deleted. It's all very user-hostile, but should be noted that HN does similar.
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I don't know why you're going through all that effort instead of just creating a new account.
> I don't know why you're going through all that effort instead of just creating a new account.
I think there is some kind of IP or cookie based identification going on.
One of my accounts was permabanned on the German /r/de subreddit for publically questioning a mod decision. At the next login I found that ALL of my accounts that I used for serious and professional subreddits (netsec, python, learnmachinelearning) and never once used on /r/de had also been permabanned.
I wrote to the helpdesk but they only told me to contact the mods of /r/de which is impossible if you're permabanned.
I think there is some kind of IP or cookie based identification going on.
One of my accounts was permabanned on the German /r/de subreddit for publically questioning a mod decision. At the next login I found that ALL of my accounts that I used for serious and professional subreddits (netsec, python, learnmachinelearning) and never once used on /r/de had also been permabanned.
I wrote to the helpdesk but they only told me to contact the mods of /r/de which is impossible if you're permabanned.
I'm not exactly motivated to ever return now that I've learned that this how active community members in good standing can expect to be treated.
Seems you weren't in good standing.
Looking at the level of engagement and fake internet points my posts across the subs in this network received over the last 11 years, I can at least die happy knowing the community members thought I was a pretty cool guy.
The mods can go .. themselves.
The mods can go .. themselves.
Obviously your opinion is not wanted there. So why go the extra mile? Just move on.
Moderators do very rarely speak for the community they moderate.
True, but they are the ones with all the power. I think you’re fighting not just an uphill but an impossible battle. With very little upside to you if you win.
It takes about 10 seconds to create a new Reddit account so it's the moderators who'd be fighting the uphill, impossible battle to keep someone banned.
Reddit provides tooling to identify people on new accounts that have been banned in the past. I think you'd need to couple this with a VPN
Not true. Only admins can see alt accounts(based on IP address), and they never reveal alt accounts of others to even mods.
I've had new accounts banned for participating in subreddits where old accounts had been banned
Speaking as a Reddit mod, it's often possible to identify ban evaders through their use of language.
This was a very large subreddit and my new account had very little content at the time
VPNs dont matter anyway. Just make a new account. Unless you have some topic you constantly focus on, or have a tag line you repeat, you will be invisible.
This is not true (speaking from personal experience)
By kicking out everyone they don't agree with over time they curate an echo chamber of the few that they do speak for.
They will shadowban your new account unless you only use the new account through a VPN (and possibly take other steps to prevent them associating the two accounts).
If an account is banned (not shadow-banned) and reddit finds out the person uses other accounts to evade it, they suspend (but not ban) both temporarily.
I make music and music videos, and used to enjoy posting the work to reddit very much. About 2 years ago the tone of posting on reddit changed to a ban on self promotion. I really never understood how that was supposed to be a valid policy, and saw certain accounts break that rule without any sort of intervention at any time they wanted to.
The fact is that reddit is really an undercover "upvoted for profit" front-site now. After they were done building the community from democracy, it changed to something else, a place where corporate and paying interests now are what push mediocre and triggering content to front pages... They banned me permanently based on my IP. and stripped all 3 of my accounts from access to my subreddit that I spend a lot of time building, and while I could easily get around that, I realized that it's simply easier and better to just work on my own web sites and not have to keep posting to gain traction for sharing my original work.
The same is happening on many social sites that have massive user bases but high overhead... It's not sustainable in the long run, because they will never be able to make everyone succeed no matter how much they pay.
We're reaching a new plateau/failure cliff for large-scale social media, and so many creators and talented people have been chewed up and spit out by the false promises those platforms once made. Now the focus is to go back to real organic growth by starting locally, and cutting losses with social sites...
Myspace is gone now, a neat and tidy profit for good ole Tom, remembered fondly by most... I'm not sure that modern social sites will have the same fate, nor be able to offer the same value to a large community as Myspace once did.
The fact is that reddit is really an undercover "upvoted for profit" front-site now. After they were done building the community from democracy, it changed to something else, a place where corporate and paying interests now are what push mediocre and triggering content to front pages... They banned me permanently based on my IP. and stripped all 3 of my accounts from access to my subreddit that I spend a lot of time building, and while I could easily get around that, I realized that it's simply easier and better to just work on my own web sites and not have to keep posting to gain traction for sharing my original work.
The same is happening on many social sites that have massive user bases but high overhead... It's not sustainable in the long run, because they will never be able to make everyone succeed no matter how much they pay.
We're reaching a new plateau/failure cliff for large-scale social media, and so many creators and talented people have been chewed up and spit out by the false promises those platforms once made. Now the focus is to go back to real organic growth by starting locally, and cutting losses with social sites...
Myspace is gone now, a neat and tidy profit for good ole Tom, remembered fondly by most... I'm not sure that modern social sites will have the same fate, nor be able to offer the same value to a large community as Myspace once did.
Same. The dutch subreddit mods will ban anyone that doesn't align with them on tiny things. So if you want to keep contributing to that community you must swim with the majority or they will ban you.
I find that quite amusing, since The Netherlands was for much of its (short) history the place where everyone with non-standard opinions fled to.
Polder culture is very much about swimming with the majority, doesn't surprise me that the subreddits would reflect this
I often go against the flow in thenetherlands and I haven't gotten banned. You get downvoted to oblivion if you dare go against the progressive, young, left-leaning narrative of the sub, but the same is true on any network. I don't think the "tiny things" will get you banned from the Dutch subreddits, though; it's mostly broad strokes (just post that you've considered voting on one of the "wrong" parties once and you'll get flack). It's a pretty bad situation, but it's the same situation you find on any platform.
HN has some very clear biases that you simply must subscribe to if you don't want your comment to be downvoted. It's clear that people here have certain stocks and don't like certain companies to be put in a negative light, for example. I don't think my account suffers the problems from this too often, but I've seen plenty of comments here at the bottom of the comment section simply because they disagreed with the status quo or because they asked an uncomfortable question.
Every now and then, I also see shadowbanned people here, who continue to make nearly invisible posts for a while and then just leave, seemingly caught by some kind of automatic filter or punished severely for a dumb comment weeks ago.
HN has some very clear biases that you simply must subscribe to if you don't want your comment to be downvoted. It's clear that people here have certain stocks and don't like certain companies to be put in a negative light, for example. I don't think my account suffers the problems from this too often, but I've seen plenty of comments here at the bottom of the comment section simply because they disagreed with the status quo or because they asked an uncomfortable question.
Every now and then, I also see shadowbanned people here, who continue to make nearly invisible posts for a while and then just leave, seemingly caught by some kind of automatic filter or punished severely for a dumb comment weeks ago.
The reason I'm shadowbanned is because I replied to someone who was describing every "FVD" voter as egotistical nazi fascists, that this opinion was toxic, helping no one and he should consider why people actually vote for them. This was just after they won or nearly won some part of an election. I think I'm still shadowbanned for, I think, quite a reasonable comment.
Besides I think you cannot compare shadow banning, banning and down voting at all. Shadow banning should only be reserved for spam. Banning for obvious trolls. If you get down voted that's fine. It only shows your views don't align well with the group majority.
Besides I think you cannot compare shadow banning, banning and down voting at all. Shadow banning should only be reserved for spam. Banning for obvious trolls. If you get down voted that's fine. It only shows your views don't align well with the group majority.
I always wondered why /r/thenetherlands was so left and (very?) progressive and I never saw any comments giving counter weight. But now I know the mods are so quick to shadowban I am not sure I should even bother with the subreddit anymore, it's mostly bullshit anyway.
I didn't know either. I just thought it was because reddit in general is quite left leaning. But the post above triggered me. I just thought I was the unlucky target of a mod with a bad day. But that doesn't seem to be the case.
/r/portland is like this too. You have to adhere to their politics precisely or they might just start deleting everything you post with no warning.
Damn near every sub is like this with the exception of some joke/meme/video subs that are too small and who's mods DGAF about anything.
For real, one of the most glaring fault with Reddit is the power disconnect between admins and moderators.
It's like going to a restaurant and finding out the FOH are there because they're big fans of the food. Oh and they can also dictate how the cooks do their job.
There needs to be people on Reddit's payroll watching over the moderators of big/default subs.
It's like going to a restaurant and finding out the FOH are there because they're big fans of the food. Oh and they can also dictate how the cooks do their job.
There needs to be people on Reddit's payroll watching over the moderators of big/default subs.
There are auto-ban lists that will ban you from all subs that mod has control over, just for being subbed to a sub that mod doesn't like and is on their 'list',you don't even necessarily have to post to the 'offending' sub.
When the ban waves were happening and subs shut down, people tried going to voat. reddits favorite phrase was 'if you dont like it, leave' so we did.
But the mods followed us, especially the infamous mod 'She'. All the mods we tried to get away from bought their way into the voat subs and turned it into the cesspool you see today.
See, no one cares about the bans or shadowbans until it affects them, but by then it's too late.
When the ban waves were happening and subs shut down, people tried going to voat. reddits favorite phrase was 'if you dont like it, leave' so we did.
But the mods followed us, especially the infamous mod 'She'. All the mods we tried to get away from bought their way into the voat subs and turned it into the cesspool you see today.
See, no one cares about the bans or shadowbans until it affects them, but by then it's too late.
I can conform this, because I want through the same process.
It was all fun and games until May last year and all my posts were automatically shadowbanned. Fired of a message to the mods and got no reply, hung out on their Discord but by al measures it didn't seem a fitting place. Since I received no notification about the shadowbans nor any warnings about ban evations I ended up creating a new account and continued to interact with these communities again.
It was all fun and games until May last year and all my posts were automatically shadowbanned. Fired of a message to the mods and got no reply, hung out on their Discord but by al measures it didn't seem a fitting place. Since I received no notification about the shadowbans nor any warnings about ban evations I ended up creating a new account and continued to interact with these communities again.
The same is true for swedish subreddits. /r/sweden for example is also heavily pushed by Reddit as all new users from swedish ips automatically is subbed to that subreddit.
I stopped using Reddit because of the increased amount of censorship and bans for thinking the incorrect stuff and as someone else said my life is better for it.
Reddit was once a beacon of freedom of speech and today it is a tool to supress freedom of speech and thoughts that go against the mainstream.
I stopped using Reddit because of the increased amount of censorship and bans for thinking the incorrect stuff and as someone else said my life is better for it.
Reddit was once a beacon of freedom of speech and today it is a tool to supress freedom of speech and thoughts that go against the mainstream.
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Not sure what your issue is. I find r/sweden pretty okay, not perfect but tolerable. They don't allow outright hate speech which is btw illegal anyway. Misinformation is usually not deleted but often called out and down voted by members. I am 100% okay with that.
r/sverige on the other hand is run by a really angry uncle who probably doesn't like most people.
r/okpolarncp is basically incels and nazis. It is too promoted to front page...
r/sverige on the other hand is run by a really angry uncle who probably doesn't like most people.
r/okpolarncp is basically incels and nazis. It is too promoted to front page...
It sounds like they dissent from those opinions and you don't so you're fine with it and they're not. As Chomsky said "Everyone is in favour of freedom of speech for speech they agree with".
Since I'm quoting people, J.S. Mill wrote down what the problem is for all of us when this happens:
> If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. Were an opinion a personal possession of no value except to the owner; if to be obstructed in the enjoyment of it were simply a private injury, it would make some difference whether the injury was inflicted only on a few persons or on many. But the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.
Since I'm quoting people, J.S. Mill wrote down what the problem is for all of us when this happens:
> If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. Were an opinion a personal possession of no value except to the owner; if to be obstructed in the enjoyment of it were simply a private injury, it would make some difference whether the injury was inflicted only on a few persons or on many. But the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.
You are reading this completely wrong!
I don't agree with much of the discussion on r/sweden. But it has an open discussion without any bullying or hate speech.
There are other subs that promote hate and ban everyone not agreeing with their narrative. What do you feel about them?
I don't agree with much of the discussion on r/sweden. But it has an open discussion without any bullying or hate speech.
There are other subs that promote hate and ban everyone not agreeing with their narrative. What do you feel about them?
>But it has an open discussion
I wouldn't call any discussion where wrongthink gets you excluded to be open.
With Reddit's voting mechanism there's really no great need to censor anything unpopular since the system fudges consensus and anything that even the slightest subset of users finds disagreeable winds up downvoted into oblivion unless there's an equally large subset voting for it.
I wouldn't call any discussion where wrongthink gets you excluded to be open.
With Reddit's voting mechanism there's really no great need to censor anything unpopular since the system fudges consensus and anything that even the slightest subset of users finds disagreeable winds up downvoted into oblivion unless there's an equally large subset voting for it.
I personally want open discussion within boundaries. So does the law.
Regarding the rest, do you realise that HN is worse in this regard since the flag mechanism can be abused by much fewer participants?
Regarding the rest, do you realise that HN is worse in this regard since the flag mechanism can be abused by much fewer participants?
> I personally want open discussion within boundaries. So does the law.
The Taliban want discussion within boundaries, so does the law. It's a valid statement yet provides no insight into whether those boundaries are the same or even of the same category.
Would you support Reddit, as an American company, setting its boundaries for speech to the same limits as American law?
I doubt it.
The Taliban want discussion within boundaries, so does the law. It's a valid statement yet provides no insight into whether those boundaries are the same or even of the same category.
Would you support Reddit, as an American company, setting its boundaries for speech to the same limits as American law?
I doubt it.
> There are other subs that promote hate and ban everyone not agreeing with their narrative. What do you feel about them?
It is your opinion that they promote hate, and you also assume that it being hateful is wrong. Mixing up opinion with fact and not checking your assumptions is a sure route to a belief in infallability, which Mill also warns against.
I am against (in general) bans for simple disagreement, but there is more than one way to silence those you disagree with, especially if you have power over media of communication as these mods and admins do.
> You are reading this completely wrong!
That may be so but you are working hard to give me the impression that you have a tendency to mix up your opinions with facts. If not for the need to avoid irony, at least avoid this so you don't appear so rude.
It is your opinion that they promote hate, and you also assume that it being hateful is wrong. Mixing up opinion with fact and not checking your assumptions is a sure route to a belief in infallability, which Mill also warns against.
I am against (in general) bans for simple disagreement, but there is more than one way to silence those you disagree with, especially if you have power over media of communication as these mods and admins do.
> You are reading this completely wrong!
That may be so but you are working hard to give me the impression that you have a tendency to mix up your opinions with facts. If not for the need to avoid irony, at least avoid this so you don't appear so rude.
Hate speech is not illegal in Sweden, but ok.
They have, at least when I used to be a regular, deleted tons and tons of threads because they had an political incorrect opinion stated. They banned a lot of users for no real reason and revamped the rules many times in order to silence peoples opinions that were widespread on the sub.
Now afaik there is only people like themselves (and presumably yourself) left, I wonder why? Reddit itself took a stance a while ago for specific political opinions and removed a lot of subs that I was subscribed to. Many others were famously quarantines like /r/theredpill and others. If you simply upvote the incorrect thing you can be banned. This is basically punishing thoughts.
You can't claim freedom of speech if you silence a very large group of people from speaking.
They have, at least when I used to be a regular, deleted tons and tons of threads because they had an political incorrect opinion stated. They banned a lot of users for no real reason and revamped the rules many times in order to silence peoples opinions that were widespread on the sub.
Now afaik there is only people like themselves (and presumably yourself) left, I wonder why? Reddit itself took a stance a while ago for specific political opinions and removed a lot of subs that I was subscribed to. Many others were famously quarantines like /r/theredpill and others. If you simply upvote the incorrect thing you can be banned. This is basically punishing thoughts.
You can't claim freedom of speech if you silence a very large group of people from speaking.
> Hate speech is not illegal in Sweden, but ok.
Not ok:
https://lagen.nu/1962:700#K16P8S2
> because they had an political incorrect opinion
After complaining some years ago, the mod team was rearranged and now contains people from a wide political spectrum.
> specific political opinions and removed a lot of subs that I was subscribed to
Maybe Reddit is not your private echo chamber and resits your extreme ideas?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversial_Reddit_communi...
Not ok:
https://lagen.nu/1962:700#K16P8S2
> because they had an political incorrect opinion
After complaining some years ago, the mod team was rearranged and now contains people from a wide political spectrum.
> specific political opinions and removed a lot of subs that I was subscribed to
Maybe Reddit is not your private echo chamber and resits your extreme ideas?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversial_Reddit_communi...
I hate that law and consider it to be a violation of free speech but I do not consider it to be hate speech. You can hate disabled people how much you want for example.
> After complaining some years ago, the mod team was rearranged and now contains people from a wide political spectrum.
Yeah.. that is just a load of bs.
> Maybe Reddit is not your private echo chamber and resits your extreme ideas?
This is just the thing. As soon as you have deviating opinions, now you're instantly extreme. Do you know that I consider the Reddit rules and ideas extreme?
What people like you doesn't seem to understand is the wind is only blowing in your direction for now, it will not stay like that forever. It's sad that people have forgotten the importance of free speech and that censorship has been popularized.
Sometimes it really feels like people read 1984 and brave new world as instruction manuals.
> After complaining some years ago, the mod team was rearranged and now contains people from a wide political spectrum.
Yeah.. that is just a load of bs.
> Maybe Reddit is not your private echo chamber and resits your extreme ideas?
This is just the thing. As soon as you have deviating opinions, now you're instantly extreme. Do you know that I consider the Reddit rules and ideas extreme?
What people like you doesn't seem to understand is the wind is only blowing in your direction for now, it will not stay like that forever. It's sad that people have forgotten the importance of free speech and that censorship has been popularized.
Sometimes it really feels like people read 1984 and brave new world as instruction manuals.
I’ve started using saidit
Same with the europe subreddit, it's the same old national mods. They just don't want to give up power
How do you check if you are shadowbanned?
When a moderator deletes one of your posts, it will show up normally for you, but as having been deleted for everyone else. Easiest way to check is opening your posts in context after logging out or in an incognito window.
If many of your posts show as deleted, the subs mods have likely added you to their automoderator blacklist.
If many of your posts show as deleted, the subs mods have likely added you to their automoderator blacklist.
View the thread in a new private window. If you don't see your post, now you know why.
Check https://www.reveddit.com . It can indicate site-level or subreddit-level shadow bans.
Look at your posts from a different account?
Why not create a new account?
This is the most un-dutch thing I’ve ever heard of. How could actual dutch people behave like that?
[deleted]
On the face of it seems strange why anyone would want to moderate popular subreddits, just seems like a lot of unpaid mundane and never ending work.
Younger me might of been excited to do it from the perceived status perhaps.
I do wonder how many off-site deals are done with moderators and third parties. There’s a lot of traffic these people are able to steward and influence I imagine.
Younger me might of been excited to do it from the perceived status perhaps.
I do wonder how many off-site deals are done with moderators and third parties. There’s a lot of traffic these people are able to steward and influence I imagine.
Absolutely well said about the stewarding traffic and influence. For eg mods of country level subs like eg r/India are known to be super overtly biased towards one side and the mods known to be siding with India's archenemy Pakistan. Same collusion is seen on India-relates news in r/Worldnews sub . It is insane levels of so called moderation.
We don't even know if the country level subs are moderated by their respective actual citizens.
[deleted]
Oh story time. You should know, India meta verse drama on reddit is the most infantile stuff around, if it weren’t for the death threats and harassment. And the rabid islamophobia. And the misogyny. And the multiple essentially hate subs which want to have this content on the main subreddit.
I’ve been on that forum for many years, and I’ve seen it all evolve.
Here’s one example of the dumbest things that go around - a troll account called crimsondot, came up with a copy-pasta Where he claims all sorts of things, including that one of hte mods was of Bangladeshi descent.
For years this claim went around, and it morphed into the general claim that one of the mods was Bangladeshi.
Then in the past few years, since Bangladeshi was insufficient, it became changed to Pakistani.
All of this, set up by a troll account, and now a claim repeated on HN.
Frankly people have forgotten the fanatical support you found on r/india for then CM Modi.
I take it as healthy that the sub has been able to constantly find itself at odds with the ruling party. IT suggests that opinion is driven by grumbling users, not by any cabal.
I’ve been on that forum for many years, and I’ve seen it all evolve.
Here’s one example of the dumbest things that go around - a troll account called crimsondot, came up with a copy-pasta Where he claims all sorts of things, including that one of hte mods was of Bangladeshi descent.
For years this claim went around, and it morphed into the general claim that one of the mods was Bangladeshi.
Then in the past few years, since Bangladeshi was insufficient, it became changed to Pakistani.
All of this, set up by a troll account, and now a claim repeated on HN.
Frankly people have forgotten the fanatical support you found on r/india for then CM Modi.
I take it as healthy that the sub has been able to constantly find itself at odds with the ruling party. IT suggests that opinion is driven by grumbling users, not by any cabal.
Meta drama started here too..
seriously both sides in Indian politics are so infantile.
seriously both sides in Indian politics are so infantile.
Tell me about it. I feel bad for even sharing this forum drama here. If you hadn't responded, I would have just deleted my comment.
Sorry if that was offensive. I cringe every time I see either side with their arguments.
Hah, thank you for the consideration, but you weren’t offensive in the least.
Eh, if you look at the other refugee subs that propped up for people who were banished by the main r/india sub you'll see they feature the kind of toxic content that would anyway get banned in any kind of country-specific sub context. The bias existing in r/india comes from the overall general left-leaning tendency of redditors, not from any sinister conspiracy.
Reddit launched an International Ambassador Program a few months ago[1] and they are paying German power users 20 EUR per hour to create German niche subreddits + 250 EUR bonus for each launched subreddit[2]
[1] https://reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/360060476592-Intern...
[2] https://old.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/n8g2om/redd...
[1] https://reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/360060476592-Intern...
[2] https://old.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/n8g2om/redd...
so that's why I've been getting notifications about joining German niche subreddits such as theSimsDE. I'm not proficient in the language yet, but I assume it's because of my location
Fascinating. Not sure whether this is good or bad. German subreddits are usually either trashy or dead. The german community already did something similar some years ago, and created a dozen localized subs of english topsubs and some localized cultural subs. Most of those did not grew very well IMHO.
I think a major problem for this was the limitations of german community. It's seems most are very young with very specific interessts and culture, so naturally they end up with content that caters to just those people, while the rest just hangs out in the better international subs.
I think a major problem for this was the limitations of german community. It's seems most are very young with very specific interessts and culture, so naturally they end up with content that caters to just those people, while the rest just hangs out in the better international subs.
There are a more than a handful good and active German subreddits. Especially finance-related one like r/finanzen (113,151 readers) and r/mauerstrassenwetten (109,592), or subreddits like r/de (480,614), r/600eur (33,871), and r/germanrap (22,459 readers).
But I agree with you and personally spend most of my time on reddit on international subs. But it doesn't make sense for a German to spend much time on r/personalfinance for example because it's too US-centric. That's where r/finanzen (and r/mauerstrassenwetten (like r/wallstreetbets)) is the better place.
But I agree with you and personally spend most of my time on reddit on international subs. But it doesn't make sense for a German to spend much time on r/personalfinance for example because it's too US-centric. That's where r/finanzen (and r/mauerstrassenwetten (like r/wallstreetbets)) is the better place.
I'm a mod on a moderately big sub, just one. We've got one of the power mods in the mod group. He's extremely effective as a mod, doesn't mind doing it, cares and is knowledgeable about the topic.
It's a little like picking up litter while out for a walk. Not exactly fun, but can be fulfilling in a way.
It's a little like picking up litter while out for a walk. Not exactly fun, but can be fulfilling in a way.
That wasn't my experience. The janitorial duties were nice, but some users made our life hell. They would hound some of us around over perceived slights and even spread false rumours about us. Throwaway accounts made rules unenforceable.
There are frequent calls for a change of mods, and a long list of grievances about the current moderators. However, nobody ever volunteers their own efforts to fix anything.
I still see such drama spring up here and there. I'm just glad I'm not the target of it anymore.
"Moderation wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fucking users"
There are frequent calls for a change of mods, and a long list of grievances about the current moderators. However, nobody ever volunteers their own efforts to fix anything.
I still see such drama spring up here and there. I'm just glad I'm not the target of it anymore.
"Moderation wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fucking users"
r/apple mods have been known to remove all duplicate stories and always manage to land on one specific pundit as the official thread for that story. It doesn't matter which user posted first.
> On the face of it seems strange why anyone would want to moderate popular subreddits, just seems like a lot of unpaid mundane and never ending work.
The kind answer is that some people like to host parties, not just attend them.
A real answer for many subs is they enjoy the power of getting to decide who gets to say what.
The kind answer is that some people like to host parties, not just attend them.
A real answer for many subs is they enjoy the power of getting to decide who gets to say what.
I'm convinced the political subs are run by people employed by the two large US political groups
Just as an anecdote, I used to moderate one of the more popular political subreddits. It was a difficult task and burnout on the team was common. I can say that the mod team was not just shills for a particular party (unless they were undercover even to me). The entire mod team, even to this day, is there for altruistic reasons - we felt we were doing a service to our fellow Americans by fostering healthy political discussion.
I moderated that sub through election season and then stepped down in January. At the end of the day the death threats and constant insults aren't what drove me away, but the organizational chaos. No one could figure out how to lead that team, and leaning on practiced organizational structures was apparently too hard for a group of redditors.
I moderated that sub through election season and then stepped down in January. At the end of the day the death threats and constant insults aren't what drove me away, but the organizational chaos. No one could figure out how to lead that team, and leaning on practiced organizational structures was apparently too hard for a group of redditors.
> unless they were undercover even to me
Yes I would expect undercovers to be undercover to other mods. Like imgaine some random guy starts some subreddit adds a few friends as moderators right. Then it blows up, so some influence group decides they need to get in on it. They would certainly not be open about their strategy of gradual take over.
Yes I would expect undercovers to be undercover to other mods. Like imgaine some random guy starts some subreddit adds a few friends as moderators right. Then it blows up, so some influence group decides they need to get in on it. They would certainly not be open about their strategy of gradual take over.
This literally has happened to multiple subreddits too, it's not like this tactic hasn't been effective in the past. /r/punchablefaces comes to mind.
A more pychonesque* idea would be that the political subs of whatever colour are run by only one US government agency to give the illusion of freedom and dissention. "The party is over".
*E.g. Inherent Vice.
A more believable idea as it's based on fact is that Reddit is the playground of paid PR and marketing firms. Makes sense for a PR firm to have moderation powers too. (I suppose this might also be later Pychonesque or more like William Gibson?)
*E.g. Inherent Vice.
A more believable idea as it's based on fact is that Reddit is the playground of paid PR and marketing firms. Makes sense for a PR firm to have moderation powers too. (I suppose this might also be later Pychonesque or more like William Gibson?)
Having been on the PR and PA agency side of things, comments like yours are vastly overestimating the agencies' capabilities and incentives.
Are you, as a senior consultant, going to sell your team's time to a client at £750 an hour per person to astroturf on reddit? How do you plan on quantifying the benefits, vs the same budget going to the same team to influence traditional media and lobbying?
Heck I'd love to know any half-decent agencies that offer these services.
Are you, as a senior consultant, going to sell your team's time to a client at £750 an hour per person to astroturf on reddit? How do you plan on quantifying the benefits, vs the same budget going to the same team to influence traditional media and lobbying?
Heck I'd love to know any half-decent agencies that offer these services.
*Pynchon
I am convinced that r/conspiracy is also run by the same folks...
Although not officially proven, it was ran by either trump's team or people very close to them for a while: https://thisinterestsme.com/r-conspiracy-reddit/
Some see "internet points" as "payment".
But are you sure they aren't paid, ie employed by Reddit? Would totally make sense to either hide an army of moderating "grunts" behind a single user, or moderating bots. Reddit is large, lots to moderate.
But are you sure they aren't paid, ie employed by Reddit? Would totally make sense to either hide an army of moderating "grunts" behind a single user, or moderating bots. Reddit is large, lots to moderate.
Internet points are a form of validation, also the notifications and responses play on our dopamine circuits, namely, on our desire for novelty.
>unpaid
You might be surprised how easy it is for mods of even somewhat popular subreddits to monetize their position. Of course not all do, but there are absolutely subtle ways to profit.
You might be surprised how easy it is for mods of even somewhat popular subreddits to monetize their position. Of course not all do, but there are absolutely subtle ways to profit.
It's certainly not just status and influence.
Sometimes you watch a group descend into being a cesspool of awfulness. The light stuff is death by boring memes, insults galore, "just an opinion" that are high-emotion crazy rants.
But the heavy stuff is worse. Watching individuals be egregiously insulted and threatened. Watching people delete their informative and well-meaning posts and never come back, because the first comment was some evil asshole having another content-free belittling attack because that's just what they do, no reason. Watching people be told they are incompetent, useless, should die, are the wrong gender, that sort of thing.
It is perhaps worse on locality-specific forums. Because then you are in view of people you know in your area, or are likely to interact with in future. Assholes don't care, and seem to enjoy the "status" that comes from putting down other people in the local area.
It does not help that such interactions seem to act like magnets in local forums, where putting people down through petty and unjustified insults attracts more of the same, and substantive interactions are lost. I guess that's because easy putdowns are low effort entertainment for some people.
But people finding themselves on the "unwinnable debate" receiving end of that sort of thing, end up leaving forums to get away from it, or are highly stressed whenever they have something to say, and may spend hours trying to carefully word everything just to avoid petty flamage from assholes and get substantive replies instead.
So some people are motivated to try to keep community areas a little gentler and cleaner. To protect and welcome others who appear to be joining in good faith, from the occasional blast of shitty replies. Like another commenter said, it's like clearing up litter when you go for a walk. Would be nice if it wasn't necessary, but because some people litter, others want to clear it up.
That's enough of a motivation for some. I've seen people spend hours moderating out of nothing more than a sense of civic duty and a desire to protect other people and encourage them to stay and feel welcomed and defended, to grow the community in a more friendly directionm, and to try to make the forum a less stressful place for new participants who have doing nothing wrong.
Like any volunteer working for something they feel is a good cause.
Sometimes you watch a group descend into being a cesspool of awfulness. The light stuff is death by boring memes, insults galore, "just an opinion" that are high-emotion crazy rants.
But the heavy stuff is worse. Watching individuals be egregiously insulted and threatened. Watching people delete their informative and well-meaning posts and never come back, because the first comment was some evil asshole having another content-free belittling attack because that's just what they do, no reason. Watching people be told they are incompetent, useless, should die, are the wrong gender, that sort of thing.
It is perhaps worse on locality-specific forums. Because then you are in view of people you know in your area, or are likely to interact with in future. Assholes don't care, and seem to enjoy the "status" that comes from putting down other people in the local area.
It does not help that such interactions seem to act like magnets in local forums, where putting people down through petty and unjustified insults attracts more of the same, and substantive interactions are lost. I guess that's because easy putdowns are low effort entertainment for some people.
But people finding themselves on the "unwinnable debate" receiving end of that sort of thing, end up leaving forums to get away from it, or are highly stressed whenever they have something to say, and may spend hours trying to carefully word everything just to avoid petty flamage from assholes and get substantive replies instead.
So some people are motivated to try to keep community areas a little gentler and cleaner. To protect and welcome others who appear to be joining in good faith, from the occasional blast of shitty replies. Like another commenter said, it's like clearing up litter when you go for a walk. Would be nice if it wasn't necessary, but because some people litter, others want to clear it up.
That's enough of a motivation for some. I've seen people spend hours moderating out of nothing more than a sense of civic duty and a desire to protect other people and encourage them to stay and feel welcomed and defended, to grow the community in a more friendly directionm, and to try to make the forum a less stressful place for new participants who have doing nothing wrong.
Like any volunteer working for something they feel is a good cause.
Does anyone pay you to post here or elsewhere on the internet? I assume no but you still do it. At the end of the day moderation is similar to frequent commenting except it comes with more prestige and power.
Funnily enough, I was shadowbanned from the only community in reddit that I was active and cared about (/r/firefox) after respectfully complaining about the redesign in 2 different posts. Maybe there's a threshold of how many times we're allowed to complain over there?
This was my first shadowban and teached me:
a) It's not worth to invest time in these communities.
b) To be shadow-banned is extremely insulting, especially if you didn't engaged in inflammatory or abusive behavior.
c) I will not engage in a community that shadow-ban people even if they have inflammatory or abusive behavior, everyone should, at the very least, understand why they we're banned and learn from it.
Thankfully, nothing of value was lost and now I simply don't care enough about Firefox or Reddit anymore.
This was my first shadowban and teached me:
a) It's not worth to invest time in these communities.
b) To be shadow-banned is extremely insulting, especially if you didn't engaged in inflammatory or abusive behavior.
c) I will not engage in a community that shadow-ban people even if they have inflammatory or abusive behavior, everyone should, at the very least, understand why they we're banned and learn from it.
Thankfully, nothing of value was lost and now I simply don't care enough about Firefox or Reddit anymore.
I will not engage in a community that shadow-ban people even if they have inflammatory or abusive behavior
I just wanted to point out that hacker news shadow bans...
I just wanted to point out that hacker news shadow bans...
Yup! It shadowbans some domains too. If you're unlucky enough to write blog posts on the shadowbanned domains you won't be notified in any way at all and your submissions will still appear in the listings while you're logged in. Very frustrating.
Can you email me a domain? I'd like to try this. My email is in my bio.
Thanks.
Thanks.
I don't think Dang et al. use it except in cases where the person is being flagrantly abusive and unreasonable.
Do shadow bans show up as dead comments? I have noticed comments from new (green) users sometimes immediately show up as dead, is that related?
Moderators can't shadowban you, only admins, and you can't be shadowbanned from just one subreddit as far as I know.
(In)famously, the account widely believed to belong to Ghislaine Maxwell is a moderator of several major subs:
https://www.reddit.com/user/maxwellhill
(moderator of r/worldnews, r/environment, r/Bad_Cop_No_Donut, r/cyberlaws, r/enviroaction and r/greed)
https://www.reddit.com/user/maxwellhill
(moderator of r/worldnews, r/environment, r/Bad_Cop_No_Donut, r/cyberlaws, r/enviroaction and r/greed)
Somehow I doubt a 60 year old woman with the job title of “socialite” accumulated 15 million karma on Reddit. Call me crazy.
Would you have guessed a 60 year old woman with the job title of “socialite” would be involved in sex trafficking?
No matter who it is, I'd like to know what reason someone might have to abandon 15 million karma.
No matter who it is, I'd like to know what reason someone might have to abandon 15 million karma.
Actually, yeah. The wealthy have always been blamed for pedophile rings, and in places like England, they've gone out of their way to propagate them. People with the job title of "socialite" absolutely do a lot of sex trafficking. Not all of them, but as a whole the group is tremendously guilty.
...and that sort of thing is why I block reddit.com. For any one accurate fact that a redditor learns, there's at least one other that is wrong. The site is like a game of telephone, and what's more half the participants are teenagers, propagandists, attention-seekers, crackpots or pathological liars.
> the participants are teenagers, propagandists, attention-seekers, crackpots or pathological liars.
I quit using reddit regularly about two years ago, but I still checked up on it maybe once a month until a couple of months ago.
What's really telling is opening the site without being logged in to my old account. I never have to scroll more than 5-10 posts down to find an obvious astroturfing political post, or a screenshot of a 15-word tweet being hailed as some masterstroke of political discourse.
Reddit's primary societal function these days seems to be serving interest groups and providing a testing ground for psyops.
I quit using reddit regularly about two years ago, but I still checked up on it maybe once a month until a couple of months ago.
What's really telling is opening the site without being logged in to my old account. I never have to scroll more than 5-10 posts down to find an obvious astroturfing political post, or a screenshot of a 15-word tweet being hailed as some masterstroke of political discourse.
Reddit's primary societal function these days seems to be serving interest groups and providing a testing ground for psyops.
Is there any actual evidence of this? Sharing a similar name is, of course, not proof of anything.
not really, but the account did become inactive right around the time she was imprisoned
I wish reddit and others would archive and preserve accounts of people convicted of various crimes.
It would be extremely enlightening to follow radicalisation and communication of, say, an incel terrorist.
It would be extremely enlightening to follow radicalisation and communication of, say, an incel terrorist.
Radicalisation is actually very interesting and I (ashamedly) nearly succumbed to the same thing myself.
There's a really good youtuber called "Contrapoints" that attempts to deconstruct with low judgement the kind of environment an Incel lives in and what the worldview is.
Empathy is always at the root of deradicalisation, so I always plug her videos when I can.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fD2briZ6fB0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPhrTOg1RUk
There's a really good youtuber called "Contrapoints" that attempts to deconstruct with low judgement the kind of environment an Incel lives in and what the worldview is.
Empathy is always at the root of deradicalisation, so I always plug her videos when I can.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fD2briZ6fB0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPhrTOg1RUk
I'm glad you enjoyed Contrapoints, but I'm going to have to deflate your recommendation somewhat.
She's a good performer, but most of the time she just beats around the bush and doesn't offer any solid conclusions about anything, which can leave you feeling unsatisfied.
She had some interesting insights into Incels because of her gender dysphoria, but those insights never led to any real sympathy for them, and she still essentially blamed them for all of their problems, and shrugged her shoulders about it by the end of the video.
Also, she's made some pretty fallacious claims, like when she said that denying being a fascist was evidence that you were a fascist. Or when you tried citing Christopher Hitchens argument in favor of protecting controversial speech to argue in favor of censorship. (I can reply with specific timestamps if you want to see).
I'm not convinced that she has deradicalized anyone, outside of a handful of teenagers that only ever posted edgy memes on 4chan that the never understood them the first place. None of the people who claim she deraticalized them can actually give concrete examples of what new information Contrapoints provided them that persuaded them to change their opinions about anything. I am certainly willing to listen when someone can. Instead, it is just vague platitudes about feelings and emotions, with zero substance or validation of facts.
She also did better when she included herself in her critiques. But over the last year or so, especially on Twitter, she has degenerated into a less ironic and more self-righteous direction, which is pretty cringe.
She's a good performer, but most of the time she just beats around the bush and doesn't offer any solid conclusions about anything, which can leave you feeling unsatisfied.
She had some interesting insights into Incels because of her gender dysphoria, but those insights never led to any real sympathy for them, and she still essentially blamed them for all of their problems, and shrugged her shoulders about it by the end of the video.
Also, she's made some pretty fallacious claims, like when she said that denying being a fascist was evidence that you were a fascist. Or when you tried citing Christopher Hitchens argument in favor of protecting controversial speech to argue in favor of censorship. (I can reply with specific timestamps if you want to see).
I'm not convinced that she has deradicalized anyone, outside of a handful of teenagers that only ever posted edgy memes on 4chan that the never understood them the first place. None of the people who claim she deraticalized them can actually give concrete examples of what new information Contrapoints provided them that persuaded them to change their opinions about anything. I am certainly willing to listen when someone can. Instead, it is just vague platitudes about feelings and emotions, with zero substance or validation of facts.
She also did better when she included herself in her critiques. But over the last year or so, especially on Twitter, she has degenerated into a less ironic and more self-righteous direction, which is pretty cringe.
If you have a username, content is pretty much permanently archived on the pushshift.io API
https://pushshift.io/api-parameters/
A weakness for the specific application you are interested in is that I don't think it works with banned or quarantined subreddits - the archived dumps probably have that, but not the main API feed
https://pushshift.io/api-parameters/
A weakness for the specific application you are interested in is that I don't think it works with banned or quarantined subreddits - the archived dumps probably have that, but not the main API feed
I didn't recognize the name, so I looked it up (so you don't have to).
"Ghislaine Maxwell...known for her association with financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghislaine_Maxwell
"Ghislaine Maxwell...known for her association with financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghislaine_Maxwell
Astonishing that you didn't know, unless you live under a rock. I applaud you if you manage to escape the news cycle that long.
Just checked, she's hardly ever mentioned in Dutch news articles, and if she is, almost never in the headline. In other words, easy to miss.
I’m under a rock more than most but I’ve heard the name!
Curious about surname I checked and yes she is Robert Maxwell’s daughter, who killed himself in the 80s or 90s was all over the news
Curious about surname I checked and yes she is Robert Maxwell’s daughter, who killed himself in the 80s or 90s was all over the news
He fell off a Yacht.
> It has been speculated that Maxwell was urinating into the ocean nude at the time, as he often did. He was presumed to have fallen overboard from the vessel, which was cruising off the Canary Islands, southwest Spain.
Let's not turn a perfectly reasonable night time piss into suicide. A person like that doesn't kill themselves over a few bad debts.
> It has been speculated that Maxwell was urinating into the ocean nude at the time, as he often did. He was presumed to have fallen overboard from the vessel, which was cruising off the Canary Islands, southwest Spain.
Let's not turn a perfectly reasonable night time piss into suicide. A person like that doesn't kill themselves over a few bad debts.
It's not considered likely that he killed himself; he died mysteriously on his boat. The inquest ruled that it was probably an accidental drowning.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Maxwell#Death
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Maxwell#Death
[deleted]
Maybe they're one of today's lucky 10,000. https://xkcd.com/1053/
Interesting. They supposedly shared content previously that indicated they were not a woman:
https://www.reddit.com/r/redditoroftheday/comments/bdl3o/max...
Maybe, maybe not. What is the proof of the connection? Just the time of disappearance and the username? That is pretty circumstantial, but maybe. Not conclusive though.
EDIT: This article seems to have more evidence and is at least interesting: https://www.inputmag.com/culture/is-ghislaine-maxwell-secret... I think there is definitely a chance it is her. Strange.
https://www.reddit.com/r/redditoroftheday/comments/bdl3o/max...
Maybe, maybe not. What is the proof of the connection? Just the time of disappearance and the username? That is pretty circumstantial, but maybe. Not conclusive though.
EDIT: This article seems to have more evidence and is at least interesting: https://www.inputmag.com/culture/is-ghislaine-maxwell-secret... I think there is definitely a chance it is her. Strange.
I put very little trust in self-reported information online. Someone like Ghislaine would probably recognize the value and zero cost of sowing nuggets of false information in public posts. (However, this expectation also makes me doubt that Ghislaine Maxwell would choose a username with "maxwell" in it...)
Maxwellhill is an old account. I think online user anonymity is a biggest deal and people realize the value of that. Sort of like op security. So I could see her registering that 14 years ago. But over time she should have realized she need better security. Why she would continue to use it 14 years later is more of a question?
Maybe. The account stopped posting 2 days before she was arrested. And hasn't posted since.
Maybe. The account stopped posting 2 days before she was arrested. And hasn't posted since.
Why is it even suspected to be her? Just because of the account name?
That's way more than Reddit needs to run with the idea.
And the timing of the last post coincides with her arrest.
This post collects some "evidence":
https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/hnfx0r/not_conf...
https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/hnfx0r/not_conf...
If you were to run covert intelligence operations, you would want to embed yourself in the all forms of the media so you can suppress any stories before they come out.
Bit strange to do it under your actual name though.
but it's not under her own name, it is a name that is close to her name. The account is suspected of being hers but as I understand it not proven to be hers.
So that seems a good practice to me - use a name that could be arguably yours so that you are not hiding anything if caught out but enough not yours so there is plausible deniability. Then make a bunch of deeper cover names that you run that are harder to pin on you, if anyone is looking they are looking at the one that is close to your name.
but then maybe I've just read too many books.
So that seems a good practice to me - use a name that could be arguably yours so that you are not hiding anything if caught out but enough not yours so there is plausible deniability. Then make a bunch of deeper cover names that you run that are harder to pin on you, if anyone is looking they are looking at the one that is close to your name.
but then maybe I've just read too many books.
> but it's not under her own name, it is a name that is close to her name.
Bit strange to do it under a name that is close to your name
Bit strange to do it under a name that is close to your name
but that's what my argument in the second paragraph was about?
Well the entire Epstein thing was laughably poorly run.
Sometimes the best place to hide something is in plain sight.
Yes, hiding in plain sight worked masterfully in this case. Nobody suspects anything about socialite Maxwell's secret reddit-moderating account that she named after herself. It's never even come up as a daft conspiracy theory.
What I really want is a big list of subs with actual useful stuff. No memes, no hate or soft-hate [1] but useful things like electronics or how to play the piano.
[1] have you noticed that many of top subs are about either watching others humiliation or judging people? idiotsincar, iamatotalpieceofshit, maliciouscompliance, etc. Do I actually become a better person by following these?
[1] have you noticed that many of top subs are about either watching others humiliation or judging people? idiotsincar, iamatotalpieceofshit, maliciouscompliance, etc. Do I actually become a better person by following these?
>have you noticed that many of top subs are about either watching others humiliation or judging people
This is something I've noticed too! I occasionally browse /r/all and it's awash with judgemental holier-than-thou material. Echoing many posters here, there is a lot of great content on reddit if you dig a bit, but it doesn't often seem be the stuff that gets pushed to the top for me.
Even on subs that do have good content, low effort posts seem to get the most upvotes (perhaps low effort = less effort to read = quicker to upvote?). A concrete example for me is on the /r/unresolvedmysteries subreddit - 2 line updates about a case (e.g. "Police announced no new evidence") are top of the front page daily, while longer insightful breakdowns of cases are often buried.
Perhaps a system for weighting upvote value to content length or complexity could be worth exploring?
This is something I've noticed too! I occasionally browse /r/all and it's awash with judgemental holier-than-thou material. Echoing many posters here, there is a lot of great content on reddit if you dig a bit, but it doesn't often seem be the stuff that gets pushed to the top for me.
Even on subs that do have good content, low effort posts seem to get the most upvotes (perhaps low effort = less effort to read = quicker to upvote?). A concrete example for me is on the /r/unresolvedmysteries subreddit - 2 line updates about a case (e.g. "Police announced no new evidence") are top of the front page daily, while longer insightful breakdowns of cases are often buried.
Perhaps a system for weighting upvote value to content length or complexity could be worth exploring?
[deleted]
I'm been using a tool to simply help filter out negativity:
http://healthy.surf/
It's still a really early version but I know the guy is still working on it
http://healthy.surf/
It's still a really early version but I know the guy is still working on it
The level of hateful, spiteful, and bitter disdain I see in comments across all of Reddit have led me to believe it’s not just popular subs and it’s not even just Reddit: this is where the younger generations in America are right now, emotionally. People are looking for someone or something to judge and hate. It’s not limited to any particular political cohort or socioeconomic strata either. I see it here on HN quite a bit too, even in more anodyne discussions you can read it prowling around the edges of the discourse.
It’s not just that there’s people who make these comments - of course there’s always going to be - but that fact that they’re typically so highly upvoted anywhere there’s a voting/likes system. Anything that attempts to reflect nuance or lower the temperature has no boosters, while anything that reflects the worst, most reductive or least honest take is what bubbles to the top.
It’s not just that there’s people who make these comments - of course there’s always going to be - but that fact that they’re typically so highly upvoted anywhere there’s a voting/likes system. Anything that attempts to reflect nuance or lower the temperature has no boosters, while anything that reflects the worst, most reductive or least honest take is what bubbles to the top.
Or... maybe that's how we will become if we are constantly fed this type of content ?
There is also the lingering effects of the eternal September, with fresh and impressionable new blood being constantly poured into the online communities. It's much easier to radicalize a 13 year old than a 30 year old.
Not that it's impossible to radicalize a 30 year old, just that the less experience you've had in life the more mentally malleable you are.
Not that it's impossible to radicalize a 30 year old, just that the less experience you've had in life the more mentally malleable you are.
That'd be a massive list. I easily find useful subreddits for my interests in bicycling, rowing, climbing, and harmonica playing. My local subreddits are not exactly useful but they're ok for what they are.
Go to the reddit sidebar/wiki's. For example, if you want to learn another language, r/languagelearning has a very helpful wiki that is pretty comprehensive[1].
[1]https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/wiki/guide
[1]https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/wiki/guide
Beware of the Murray Gell-Mann amnesia effect. Based on my experience with the subjects I know intimately my experience is that Reddit advice is roughly equivalent to asking a teenager to Google something for you.
I fully agree that any sub that's core content involves shitting on people has terrible inhabitants and all the quality of commentary that follows from that. Some of the more lighthearted ones are a little better (e.g. holdmybeer vs idiotsincars) when the content is conducive to such but only in the sense that someone with a crippling mental illness might have a good-ish day here and there.
I fully agree that any sub that's core content involves shitting on people has terrible inhabitants and all the quality of commentary that follows from that. Some of the more lighthearted ones are a little better (e.g. holdmybeer vs idiotsincars) when the content is conducive to such but only in the sense that someone with a crippling mental illness might have a good-ish day here and there.
There are subs I subscribe to and subs I'll "just visit".
I'll subscribe to programming, python, csharp, lego, starcraft. Basically anything I'm specifically interested in. To find out what's the general feel of those topics.
But I'll pop in leopardsatemyface, iamverysmart, and a few others just for fun.
I'll subscribe to programming, python, csharp, lego, starcraft. Basically anything I'm specifically interested in. To find out what's the general feel of those topics.
But I'll pop in leopardsatemyface, iamverysmart, and a few others just for fun.
the world of reaction is bigger than the world of action.
any sub that’s practical is inherently less active. There’s only so much good base knowledge.
Reacting to base knowledge is endless low value content.
any sub that’s practical is inherently less active. There’s only so much good base knowledge.
Reacting to base knowledge is endless low value content.
It's social media, the judging drives clicks.
Same with the coronavirus related subs last year:
https://i.4pcdn.org/pol/1582202873483.jpg
It was discovered and some of the mods removed themselves. Honestly I just think they go by another name.
https://i.4pcdn.org/pol/1582202873483.jpg
It was discovered and some of the mods removed themselves. Honestly I just think they go by another name.
That screenshot is from /pol/ so I'm curious if the complaints about "censorship" were that people couldn't call it a china flu.
Of course, because for some reason this is suddenly unacceptable but it is ok to have an Indian variant or a Brazilian variant.
There's a semantic difference with "X virus" and "Y variant". "X virus" denotes the virus was caused by country X and is behind it all, whereas "Y variant" denotes it was mutated in there but is not the root cause of it all.
I don't think that's true. West Nile Virus wasn't caused by people West of the Nile, the Spanish Flu wasn't caused by Spain, MERS is called that because it was discovered in the Middle East, not because people in the Middle East caused it, etc. The form "X virus" does not at all imply that the virus was caused by X.
Then, of course, there is the very real possibility that China literally did cause the virus.
Then, of course, there is the very real possibility that China literally did cause the virus.
Doubt the people in the countries who are associated with those variants appreciate your semantic parsing.
I don't think there is so much, the distinction between "caused by" and "discovered there" escapes most people in casual use
Imho the reason this time it was different with terms like "China flu" is not that it's generally unacceptable to nickname an illness by it's region of first discovery, but that Trump was actively using this terminology to push an agenda
Imho the reason this time it was different with terms like "China flu" is not that it's generally unacceptable to nickname an illness by it's region of first discovery, but that Trump was actively using this terminology to push an agenda
But yet “Havana Syndrome” is freely used everywhere.
Yeah, at a certain point back in 2020 it suddenly was very bad to have variants with geographic origin in the naming. Although that was how it had been done in many other cases.
That's also considered unacceptable, and the reason variants are now assigned sequential names from the phonetic alphabet, hence "Delta Variant".
Zika
Ebola
Lyme
MERS
West Nile Virus
Marburg Virus
Guinea Worm
German Measles
Ross River Fever
Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
Norovirus
Or for a complete list of thousands, simply look up toponymic diseases
Ebola
Lyme
MERS
West Nile Virus
Marburg Virus
Guinea Worm
German Measles
Ross River Fever
Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
Norovirus
Or for a complete list of thousands, simply look up toponymic diseases
2015: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/05/discovered-disease-w...
> The World Health Organization (WHO) mostly works to reduce the physical toll of disease. But last week it turned to another kind of harm: the insult and stigma inflicted by diseases named for people, places, and animals. Among the existing monikers that its new guidelines “for the Naming of New Human Infectious Diseases” would discourage: Ebola, swine flu, Rift Valley Fever, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and monkey pox.
> The World Health Organization (WHO) mostly works to reduce the physical toll of disease. But last week it turned to another kind of harm: the insult and stigma inflicted by diseases named for people, places, and animals. Among the existing monikers that its new guidelines “for the Naming of New Human Infectious Diseases” would discourage: Ebola, swine flu, Rift Valley Fever, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and monkey pox.
German measles is more commonly called rubella
I heard the terms "corona" and "covid" long before the term "china flu"
I remember seeing links to reveddit, a site I made, over this. A competing subreddit claimed censorship [1] by posting low-res screenshots of removed posts [2]. It was just a way to drum up support for their own subreddit. The screenshots were misleading because every subreddit with any history has tons of removed posts, and that's the default view on reveddit. I'm 99% sure most users understood this right away though.
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/Wuhan_Flu/comments/ev6yhy/the_new_s...
[2] https://i.imgur.com/kL8I8qy.png
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/Wuhan_Flu/comments/ev6yhy/the_new_s...
[2] https://i.imgur.com/kL8I8qy.png
Do you think Wuhan_Flu (the creator/mods) had/has bad intentions? At the time it was one of the few subs where you could talk about things you couldn't talk about in other subs (info leaking out from China regarding the virus). That sub was quarantined for spreading misinformation and fearmongering which someone at /r/OutOfTheLoop summarized as:
> The users of that subreddit believe in a conspiracy that the Wuhan Coronavirus is more serious than the governments of China and the United States are telling them. They believe the government is mismanaging the outbreak. They were quarantined because an admin believed the subreddit was spreading misinformation.
> The users of that subreddit believe in a conspiracy that the Wuhan Coronavirus is more serious than the governments of China and the United States are telling them. They believe the government is mismanaging the outbreak. They were quarantined because an admin believed the subreddit was spreading misinformation.
They may well have believed what they shared. In this case, other subs were not removing more content, despite the claims [1], and it was simple to verify.
[1] https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7jqbx/reddit-cant-quarantin...
[1] https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7jqbx/reddit-cant-quarantin...
Thank you. Really appreciate your input. I did read that Vice article before and recently shared it here as well.
From what I remember at the time /r/coronavirus and /r/china_flu removed any discussion about "leaks" (or were they?) from China. On the other hand, not all the "leaks" discussed in /r/Wuhan_Flu turned out to be what they seemed (videos of people "dropping dead" on the streets etc.).
From what I remember at the time /r/coronavirus and /r/china_flu removed any discussion about "leaks" (or were they?) from China. On the other hand, not all the "leaks" discussed in /r/Wuhan_Flu turned out to be what they seemed (videos of people "dropping dead" on the streets etc.).
> Thank you. Really appreciate your input. I did read that Vice article before and recently shared it here as well.
Sure thing.
> From what I remember at the time /r/coronavirus and /r/china_flu removed any discussion about "leaks" (or were they?) from China.
I'm no expert on the content. I only know that the amount of posts removed as shown on reveddit is going to look the same at first glance regardless of what subreddit you are looking at. As for which topics were removed, someone could do a research project on that.
> On the other hand, not all the "leaks" discussed in /r/Wuhan_Flu turned out to be what they seemed (videos of people "dropping dead" on the streets etc.).
I agree and think the top comment on that OOTL post you referenced gives a more balanced view of what was going on [1],
> For background, everyone agrees the outbreak in Wuhan in late 2019 is an easily spread, relatively lethal [edit: relatively lethal compared to influenza], brand new virus. Unfortunately, outside that, details are very sparse and major organizations WHO, CDC are non-committal about predictions.
> Since “official” details are very sparse, true details are emerging outside official channels along with a whole lot of conspiracy theorizing. The two are extremely mixed at this point. A quick review showed the sub in question contains all levels. For example, excellent NEJM articles showing that the virus can spread prior to symptoms interspersed with video footage of a bunch of black birds flying into China because they can apparently smell all the dead bodies.
[1] https://old.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/f6jpm7/what_i...
Sure thing.
> From what I remember at the time /r/coronavirus and /r/china_flu removed any discussion about "leaks" (or were they?) from China.
I'm no expert on the content. I only know that the amount of posts removed as shown on reveddit is going to look the same at first glance regardless of what subreddit you are looking at. As for which topics were removed, someone could do a research project on that.
> On the other hand, not all the "leaks" discussed in /r/Wuhan_Flu turned out to be what they seemed (videos of people "dropping dead" on the streets etc.).
I agree and think the top comment on that OOTL post you referenced gives a more balanced view of what was going on [1],
> For background, everyone agrees the outbreak in Wuhan in late 2019 is an easily spread, relatively lethal [edit: relatively lethal compared to influenza], brand new virus. Unfortunately, outside that, details are very sparse and major organizations WHO, CDC are non-committal about predictions.
> Since “official” details are very sparse, true details are emerging outside official channels along with a whole lot of conspiracy theorizing. The two are extremely mixed at this point. A quick review showed the sub in question contains all levels. For example, excellent NEJM articles showing that the virus can spread prior to symptoms interspersed with video footage of a bunch of black birds flying into China because they can apparently smell all the dead bodies.
[1] https://old.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/f6jpm7/what_i...
Yeah, that sounds about right. The point is that this sub allowed for free discussion about the virus and what was happening in China / Wuhan at a time when not many people were talking about it or knew what was going on. This indeed included "leaked" videos from China of people in hasmat suits, suddenly falling to the ground, spraying streets and buildings etc. It was alarming (in the end I think those videos were created to misdirect).
Those videos were only a small part of the discussion going on there. Quarantining the sub acted for many only as confirmation that certain information was really being suppressed from higher up.
As I said here before. Because of this sub I bought N95 masks early on (some of which I later gave to doctors/nurses in my family), stocked up on food and warned others to stock up before the panic set in. Every once in a while I posted the latest numbers and estimations of the CFR/IFR. The last one I did which was on /r/coronavirus turned out to be accurate a year later. Sadly /r/Wuhan_Flu is now only a shell of its former self.
Later many things turned out to be true as well. All subs were guilty of spreading information which later turned out to not be the case. I really do not like censorship and want to hear from all sides. Luckily there is the website you created, reveddit.
Those videos were only a small part of the discussion going on there. Quarantining the sub acted for many only as confirmation that certain information was really being suppressed from higher up.
As I said here before. Because of this sub I bought N95 masks early on (some of which I later gave to doctors/nurses in my family), stocked up on food and warned others to stock up before the panic set in. Every once in a while I posted the latest numbers and estimations of the CFR/IFR. The last one I did which was on /r/coronavirus turned out to be accurate a year later. Sadly /r/Wuhan_Flu is now only a shell of its former self.
Later many things turned out to be true as well. All subs were guilty of spreading information which later turned out to not be the case. I really do not like censorship and want to hear from all sides. Luckily there is the website you created, reveddit.
> Luckily there is the website you created, reveddit.
Thanks for saying so. It builds on top of similar work. I think there will always be a way to review what gets removed. And as we use more social media with opaque moderation it may become standard practice to check whether your posts are "live" or not.
Thanks for saying so. It builds on top of similar work. I think there will always be a way to review what gets removed. And as we use more social media with opaque moderation it may become standard practice to check whether your posts are "live" or not.
Why would you be banned by a moderator of /r/China_Flu for calling it China flu?
From the subreddit sidebar:
> The name r/China_Flu was created at a time when SARS-CoV-2 had not been named and was only affecting China. Subreddit names cannot be changed after they are created. This subreddit is a place to discuss the 2019 Wuhan-originated novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and the disease it causes, called COVID-19.
> The name r/China_Flu was created at a time when SARS-CoV-2 had not been named and was only affecting China. Subreddit names cannot be changed after they are created. This subreddit is a place to discuss the 2019 Wuhan-originated novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and the disease it causes, called COVID-19.
What the screenshot shows is that only a handful of mods were running all major coronavirus related subs. /r/China_Flu is a major coronavirus related subreddit endorsed and promoted by Reddit themselves. Originally the image is not coming from 4chan.
Links on 4chan's CDN tend to get pruned a few hours after the thread dies. Here's an archive of your image:
https://archive.is/4RJwu/6ec51706a8b44347b50d6ee38cc56191a7d...
https://archive.is/4RJwu/6ec51706a8b44347b50d6ee38cc56191a7d...
The online platforms that were supposed to provide us a democratic free space to communicate are in fact governed by a tyrannical and unaccountable minority. We see the same situation on Facebook with group moderators and on Twitter (albeit less so) with high follower count blue-check accounts. Not to mention the companies themselves having the power to ban any speech they want.
It's almost as if this utopian techno-ararchism is a naive fantasy. And it simply creates digital societies with all of the downsides of their real world equivalents, and none of the checks to power and even more susceptible to manipulation.
And yet it's only a matter of time until another 20 something will announce that they can solve the problems of the world and human nature by creating yet another digital environment free from the rules (and responsibilities) of the real world. And we'll all act shocked when it somehow backfires into unintended consequences and recreates a worse version of the thing it was trying to replace.
And yet it's only a matter of time until another 20 something will announce that they can solve the problems of the world and human nature by creating yet another digital environment free from the rules (and responsibilities) of the real world. And we'll all act shocked when it somehow backfires into unintended consequences and recreates a worse version of the thing it was trying to replace.
A ha! I've found a way to change the world without needing to engage in political or cultural struggle! Surely this will benefit the people and not be co-opted by the powerful!
I highly recommend unsubscribing from all the default subreddits and only subbing to the programming related subreddits. It'll make your Reddit newsfeed more programming-oriented than HN and completely changes your experience with the site.
Except for r/ProgrammerHumor unless you like the same 3 jokes about javascript and awkward screenshots from Tinder showing that a developer somehow, against all odds, got a date with the opposite sex.
Do you have a list of good programming related subs? Most of the ones I've joined seem to be dead or nearly dead.
I personally enjoy r/cpp a lot. Even if I myself rarely use C++.
I just go to the subreddits I like: the main feed has too much crypto stuff.
Reddit puppy and dog forums seem pretty good as well.
Also see https://old.reddit.com/r/The_Cabal/
I also filter, using RES, all posters and commenters with over 100k karma, and it's like taking a trip back in time when the internet wasn't tuned to inane content and advertisers
I also filter, using RES, all posters and commenters with over 100k karma, and it's like taking a trip back in time when the internet wasn't tuned to inane content and advertisers
Nice to see the usual suspects on The Cabal. People who believe ivermectin is some kind of miracle covid drug (even the manufacturers say its ineffective) and those who deny COVID even exists. Quality people.
https://ebm.bmj.com/content/early/2021/05/26/bmjebm-2021-111...
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02081-w
https://ebm.bmj.com/content/early/2021/05/26/bmjebm-2021-111...
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02081-w
Ehrm we already know niche communities attract lunatics - or, better said, make lunatics more visible; the noise to signal ratio of the content is way worse because idiots are louder. But if you filter through the noise you can get some interesting insights.
> Quality people.
A bit trigger happy with the ad hominem there considering you probably think of yourself as the rational side.
> ivermectin
From the first link:
> The use of ivermectin, among others repurposed drugs for prophylaxis or treatment for COVID-19, should be done based on trustable evidence, without conflicts of interest, with proven safety and efficacy in patient-consented, ethically approved, randomised clinical trials.
But there are over 30 RCTs with positive results.
Second link is about one particular study. Again there are over 30 RCTs.
A bit trigger happy with the ad hominem there considering you probably think of yourself as the rational side.
> ivermectin
From the first link:
> The use of ivermectin, among others repurposed drugs for prophylaxis or treatment for COVID-19, should be done based on trustable evidence, without conflicts of interest, with proven safety and efficacy in patient-consented, ethically approved, randomised clinical trials.
But there are over 30 RCTs with positive results.
Second link is about one particular study. Again there are over 30 RCTs.
Maybe you should not go into details¹. Because if you presented that evidence to specialists disagreeing with you, they would have their say. And this thread is unlikely to lure them specifically. Here, you are just making statements that cannot be tackled directly. But for the "there exist people who do not clearly appear as non-«quality people» and nonetheless disagree on some points".
(Just to give an example: I have heard about a plausible argument about that «manufacturers say it[']s ineffective», and I do not think the matter should not be discussed in this context, but arguments exist. Good or bad: that is for the analysis table, not the "I just had two minutes available". If matters were clear-cut, the whole problem would not exist.)
--
¹Edit: for clarity: with «go[ing] into details» I meant that I invite the poster against introducing statements like «people who believe [whatever is controversial]», and especially because this thread is not here have us stuck in those controversies, and because they would not be solved with two sentences, surely, since there are apparent non-lunatics defending those positions.
(Just to give an example: I have heard about a plausible argument about that «manufacturers say it[']s ineffective», and I do not think the matter should not be discussed in this context, but arguments exist. Good or bad: that is for the analysis table, not the "I just had two minutes available". If matters were clear-cut, the whole problem would not exist.)
--
¹Edit: for clarity: with «go[ing] into details» I meant that I invite the poster against introducing statements like «people who believe [whatever is controversial]», and especially because this thread is not here have us stuck in those controversies, and because they would not be solved with two sentences, surely, since there are apparent non-lunatics defending those positions.
It's actually pretty simple to read the evidence and come to the conclusion its not suitable to be used in the treatment of COVID. Unfortunately the issue is plagued by misinformation and those who profit from peddling it.
Which evidence do you find simple - those two links you posted? (Non rhetorical question - in case of doubt.)
People who will read that evidence without full contextual intellectual preparation will not be able to be certain of their evaluation; they are not competent to review it ("review" as in the expression "peer review").
On the other hand, yesterday I started exploring the material of a medical doctor who publishes interesting conferences - found as I was looking for other material, and to my surprise, from what he practices on himself I am sure he would disagree with your previous post. Who to trust?
On the other hand, if I see censorship, few exceptions aside it will be very clear that the censorship will help approaching truth. And for this, one name I will give: Lex Fridman, who denounced the matter a few weeks ago, while interviewing for this podcast one of the notable censored voices.
People who will read that evidence without full contextual intellectual preparation will not be able to be certain of their evaluation; they are not competent to review it ("review" as in the expression "peer review").
On the other hand, yesterday I started exploring the material of a medical doctor who publishes interesting conferences - found as I was looking for other material, and to my surprise, from what he practices on himself I am sure he would disagree with your previous post. Who to trust?
On the other hand, if I see censorship, few exceptions aside it will be very clear that the censorship will help approaching truth. And for this, one name I will give: Lex Fridman, who denounced the matter a few weeks ago, while interviewing for this podcast one of the notable censored voices.
Sorry, critical mistyping as I looked for the best formulation:
«it will be very clear that the censorship will [/not/] help approaching truth».
«it will be very clear that the censorship will [/not/] help approaching truth».
NIH says ivermectin is effective.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8248252/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8248252/
That appears to be a meta review done by Newcastle Uni (amongsth others), rather than any endorsement of Ivermectin by the NIH?
PubMed is a resource for scientific publications hosted by the NIH, and is a repository of work. It is not the publishing arm of the NIH. Unless I am missing something?!
Regarding Ivermectin: Tell that to India, whose states that adopted it into their treatment regimen had a >95% reduction in death and infection in less than five weeks in a population <5% vaccinated, while the states that didn't continued to sky rocket.
https://www.thedesertreview.com/opinion/columnists/indias-iv...
https://www.thedesertreview.com/opinion/columnists/indias-iv...
Thanks for the tip. I gave up on Reddit because its just full of astroturf these days. There's no disagreement allowed on most topics. There's a ridiculous amount of threads where 80 percent of the comments are deleted.
Yes! It's entirely too easy to karma farm by either posting me-too or deeply controversial comments because if people disagree you might get downvoted slightly past zero for a given comment, but if you hit a winner you'll get hundreds or even thousands of upvotes. Detecting and blocking every one of those high noise low signal people would really help. At least until they adapt.
How do you filter out by karma?
Comment or post karma? I have 200k comment karma just because I have a 9 year old account and post semi-frequently.
That filter idea sounds very good. Gonna try. Thank you.
edit: come to think of it. Can RES hide points?
edit: come to think of it. Can RES hide points?
You'll be happier if you just don't use Reddit.
People sure love to generalize their experience. No, I wouldn't. I've gotten plenty of value out of it without incurring whatever costs you did which make you so sure your experience is universal.
Surely that place has value: in the posted material, if you can scavenge. On the human side, it can be a mess - extremely difficult to have a proper and mature discussion there.
In places that entice emotional participation it is sheerly consequential that gut behaviour is effectively promoted. But this excludes «proper and mature discussion» as a consistent plan. It is very different from "[scope: ] «anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity»".
In places that entice emotional participation it is sheerly consequential that gut behaviour is effectively promoted. But this excludes «proper and mature discussion» as a consistent plan. It is very different from "[scope: ] «anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity»".
The audience and types of conversations vary wildly between subreddits and the issue you are experiencing is likely due to where you have subbed.
I am sure it does - it will depend on the moderators.
For many reasons, I am sure that it will be much, much easier to find there guts-dictated comments - no content, no reasoning, no arguments, but lots of partial statements claiming status of truth, and declarations of sympathy. I have not see it happen here.
Incidentally, I noticed there are guidelines there, being circulated in the past hours, very recently, that are inviting to censorship. Which creates another effect: sequences of "Yea, Well done, This is the way, Down with the scum, Frown on the snakes", with no single "Yes but" and obviously no "Boo". In the section about "horror movies featuring fancy cars", the participants and/or moderators are now scientists with truth in the pocket. Honestly, this makes it unnatural to go to those places to note a fancy car in an horror movie.
For many reasons, I am sure that it will be much, much easier to find there guts-dictated comments - no content, no reasoning, no arguments, but lots of partial statements claiming status of truth, and declarations of sympathy. I have not see it happen here.
Incidentally, I noticed there are guidelines there, being circulated in the past hours, very recently, that are inviting to censorship. Which creates another effect: sequences of "Yea, Well done, This is the way, Down with the scum, Frown on the snakes", with no single "Yes but" and obviously no "Boo". In the section about "horror movies featuring fancy cars", the participants and/or moderators are now scientists with truth in the pocket. Honestly, this makes it unnatural to go to those places to note a fancy car in an horror movie.
Or due to the emotional context and baggage you bring to the website.
Agreed. I find the various subreddits related to things I'm interested in to be a great resource and occasionally, great entertainment.
It's sad to see reddit fall to such low a low level.
Aaron Schwartz is rolling in his grave.
Aaron Schwartz is rolling in his grave.
I agree! For years I frequented Reddit many times a day. No I don't go there at all.
What worked for me was slowly unsubing until it was so boring, it just kind of lost the dopamine hitting effect.
Eventually, I never returned.
What worked for me was slowly unsubing until it was so boring, it just kind of lost the dopamine hitting effect.
Eventually, I never returned.
This article isn't about "you" though. Its about the average joe who does. All the censorship and radicalism we're seeing in real life is because of these wierdos who do nothing but spend their entire existence commenting and accumulating internet reputation - then turning it around to silence any opinions that disagrees with them.
I've been using reddit just for funs for a long time so all.reddit.com/top - and that's it.
Just avoid the main subreddits, and use an alternative client like teddit.net (no ads, fast to load, no tracking). Reddit still has lot of niche communities that are interesting to follow.
I refuse to have it bookmarked, but I do end up there once a day.
It's a mindless escape.
I did enjoy the Wallstreetbets drama with the short.
And there's the boobies. (I still have testosterone?)
It's a mindless escape.
I did enjoy the Wallstreetbets drama with the short.
And there's the boobies. (I still have testosterone?)
Again, you'll be happier with real ones rather than images. Also the more I look into it the more some of the WSB stuff looks fake. Some was certainly real but there was a lot of manipulation going on there.
I recently joined r/afghanistan to get better real time updates on the situation there. I'm not the only one; the forum has basically doubled in size in the past week. Turns out the mods are conservative-leaning think tanks like the Westminster Institute and Hoover Institute. They self-promote their own content by pinning it to the top of the page, and censor criticism of their orgs.
I don't see why Reddit tolerates this behavior on what should be a neutral forum.
I don't see why Reddit tolerates this behavior on what should be a neutral forum.
Reddit hasn't been a neutral forum for at least a decade. It's explicitly a commercial astroturfing zone.
I am convinced that moderating the top subreddits is a very mentally taxing job, not to mention the amount of time that must be spent. Someone who does that kind of work for free is either paid by someone or mentally unbalanced. Neither option seems good for the community.
I think the Aether model is better. Users can revert mod actions and even dispose of the mods if they misbehave or go in a different direction than what the community wants.
https://getaether.net/
https://getaether.net/
Even if you took away all controversy and politics, I hate Reddit. The search function sucks. They shoved their own harebrained video player down everyone’s throats and it constantly plays by itself without opening. And when you do open it it doesn’t fucking play half the time. They also foisted their eye-bleeding updated user interface upon our innocent souls and forever corrupted us. It can only be described as Fischer price from hell. And also the idea of Reddit sucks on a structural level. There are tons of subs that are cool but too narrow to gain a large following. They can’t fill in the template subreddit community. You see overly specific subreddits like “praise the camera man” or “public freak outs” or “woah dude” and they invariably all cycle through the same videos and pictures, the ones getting the most traction, violating the whole premise of having specific communities. It should have been something like you can tag a post “woah dude” or “videos that end too soon” and just submit it to the universal page. People could still track tags of interest and do everything without the whole mess and insanity of subreddits and also without assholes turning subreddits into little fiefdoms.
I still like some parts of Reddit. I can only do so, though, because I exclusively force old.reddit styling instead of the new repulsive design, and I only visit 4ish subreddits with generally smaller subscriber numbers and more niche interests. All of the main/general subreddits are just endlessly repeating the same thing over and over again. Once the subreddit gets too big or seems to be annoying, jump ship or try and find a smaller new version.
Also, I like subreddits outside of the bubble/echo chamber of the main subs. Even if I don't really align with some of the opinions or positions of some of the other subs, it at least feels more like interacting with actual human beings with differing interests.
I also just don't use reddit that much. It's good for trying to solve a question, and maybe having a laugh for 15 mins, but after that it usually overstays its welcome and you can go somewhere else.
Also, I like subreddits outside of the bubble/echo chamber of the main subs. Even if I don't really align with some of the opinions or positions of some of the other subs, it at least feels more like interacting with actual human beings with differing interests.
I also just don't use reddit that much. It's good for trying to solve a question, and maybe having a laugh for 15 mins, but after that it usually overstays its welcome and you can go somewhere else.
I tried to get of my reddit addiction several times now ... going "cold turkey" or easing it of over time. I did that with 9gag a decade ago and never went back since, but with reddit it's hard because there is actually good content on there. Especially in the niche communities with small subscriber numbers.
(very evident in the /r/battletech subreddit that just got overrun by a recent games workshop exodus. Subscriber counts increased, but /r/battletech turned into a meme channel ...)
(very evident in the /r/battletech subreddit that just got overrun by a recent games workshop exodus. Subscriber counts increased, but /r/battletech turned into a meme channel ...)
The way I quit social media is to change my password to something I have no chance of remembering. Did this for reddit when they got all ban crazy a few weeks ago.
The bottom line is, Reddit has value — and not just a little. Whenever I’m trying to figure something out, I can always find a sub that has the answer, or will help.
Most recent example was California drivers safety course. Googled: “Reddit drivers safety course California” and found a class that was entirely self-paced, $10, and got me through it with a letter off to court in under an hour.
Maybe I would’ve found it anyway, but dammit, I was over the moon.
Most recent example was California drivers safety course. Googled: “Reddit drivers safety course California” and found a class that was entirely self-paced, $10, and got me through it with a letter off to court in under an hour.
Maybe I would’ve found it anyway, but dammit, I was over the moon.
This has become my trick to try to get some sort of relevant results from google searches and sift through the SEO hell that modern web has become: tack on "reddit" to my query.
> I did that with 9gag a decade ago and never went back since...
Other than HN, 9gag is the only place on the internet that I still regularly visit. Most people posting and commenting have stuck around for a decade and it has been really nice to age together with an online community.
Other than HN, 9gag is the only place on the internet that I still regularly visit. Most people posting and commenting have stuck around for a decade and it has been really nice to age together with an online community.
No offense, but 9gag and its comments are by far the very worst, stupidest, most toxic "community" I've ever seen, and yes this includes youtube comments.
"Reddit" the default subreddits (and most popular ones) is very different from "reddit" the niche subreddits
You left out the worst thing: the upvote-downvote system, which ensures that an hivemind echo chamber is almost guaranteed to arise. Any slightly controversial post, or in fact anything which does not run with the dominating opinion, is immediately hidden from view.
This is far and away the largest reason I avoid the site beyond niche hobby stuff.
The moment a discussion CAN have dissent, the "game" of the site incentivizes you to only say things people agree with, otherwise you are hidden from conversation, and in many cases limited to respond.
The moment a discussion CAN have dissent, the "game" of the site incentivizes you to only say things people agree with, otherwise you are hidden from conversation, and in many cases limited to respond.
I like to think of reddit as a "glorious" mess - one which will violently offend the sensibilities of people who like order and sensible product design.
If it helps, its worth considering reddit as a template for what can be improved.
I have no idea why the redesign was introduced, especially since there are now apps as well.
However, there is an increasing amount of study on how reddit operates, and how users move through the site. Its the maze which we can learn from - and its moderation is at least hopefully overturned by humans as opposed to the gnomic monoliths of FB and other imperial social networks.
If it helps, its worth considering reddit as a template for what can be improved.
I have no idea why the redesign was introduced, especially since there are now apps as well.
However, there is an increasing amount of study on how reddit operates, and how users move through the site. Its the maze which we can learn from - and its moderation is at least hopefully overturned by humans as opposed to the gnomic monoliths of FB and other imperial social networks.
The redesign was quite obviously introduced for the express purpose of monetization. In the old UI, ads can only take up so much space. The 3rd link down from the list (which is typically the link where promoted content is placed) in old.reddit takes up perhaps 7% of total available screen space. In the new UI, users are forced to look at full screen advertisements, which advertisers are willing to pay a lot more $$ for.
> They shoved their own harebrained video player down everyone’s throats and it constantly plays by itself without opening
I can’t even listen to music anymore while browsing Reddit because some goddamn ad or post I scroll past will hijack audio thanks to this stupid auto polar, which I’m pretty sure I disabled in the settings.
Prior to a recent update, I couldn’t even find a pause button to press while viewing comments.
I can’t even listen to music anymore while browsing Reddit because some goddamn ad or post I scroll past will hijack audio thanks to this stupid auto polar, which I’m pretty sure I disabled in the settings.
Prior to a recent update, I couldn’t even find a pause button to press while viewing comments.
Nevertheless:
reddit: flag to turn off seo spam, limiting results to earnest musings in the style of usenet posts that feckless old programmers are always pining for
"best vacuum cleaner reddit"
"honda civic 2021 reddit"
reddit: flag to turn off seo spam, limiting results to earnest musings in the style of usenet posts that feckless old programmers are always pining for
"best vacuum cleaner reddit"
"honda civic 2021 reddit"
I browse pics at r/WeWantPlates. Reddit is great for that as long as old.reddit.com works, NSFW subreddits are also great link aggregators for specific niches. Other than that I don't know why would anyone want to be there
The only good social media search is Twitter's.
are these the list of users who created the subs, or are these users who joined after the sub was created and then made to mods? one is fine. other is crazy.
funny angle is: even if the usernames were different, we wouldn't know whether those are same persons or indeed different persons.
reddit is certainly a very biased / skewed place with respect to "moderation"
funny angle is: even if the usernames were different, we wouldn't know whether those are same persons or indeed different persons.
reddit is certainly a very biased / skewed place with respect to "moderation"
Funny that the post is deleted. THAT will convince people that there is no conspiracy going on.
Funny thing is there is actually no conspiracy, it 's just the way people behave when they have the power to do so. It's impossible to have power and be mother Teresa at the same time, yet people irrationally believe in wise leaders.
> It's impossible to have power and be mother Teresa at the same time, yet people irrationally believe in wise leaders.
It's not impossible but it's rare enough you shouldn't bet anything of value on it.
It's not impossible but it's rare enough you shouldn't bet anything of value on it.
I deleted all my accounts.
The non-stop ads disguised as content, and the consorship of posts critical of xi and ccp were the final nails in the coffin. I recall a story breaking about China and human rights, and it was chilling to watch shit disappear every second as I refreshed the comment thread.
I do not miss it, in the rare case of quality content/discussion that's relevant to my interests is often posted to here or some other aggregate.
10+ years I spent in that place, watched it get worse and worse. I quit reddit 2 years ago, and I do not miss it, at least not what it is now.
The non-stop ads disguised as content, and the consorship of posts critical of xi and ccp were the final nails in the coffin. I recall a story breaking about China and human rights, and it was chilling to watch shit disappear every second as I refreshed the comment thread.
I do not miss it, in the rare case of quality content/discussion that's relevant to my interests is often posted to here or some other aggregate.
10+ years I spent in that place, watched it get worse and worse. I quit reddit 2 years ago, and I do not miss it, at least not what it is now.
There are subreddits with the same mods for 15 years now. People get old and so do their ideas but subreddit audiences are consistently young. This is problematic for national subreddits (which gain their audience automatically) and other "noun-word" subreddits that are people's first guesses when researching a subject. This is a major reason for bad subreddit culture.
Reddit didn't foresee that its business would last for > 5 years . They need to set expiration dates for mod positions. In democracies we do that every 4-5 years.
Reddit didn't foresee that its business would last for > 5 years . They need to set expiration dates for mod positions. In democracies we do that every 4-5 years.
Accounts are bought and sold. Just because the mod account has been the same for years doesn't mean it's the same person behind the keyboard.
Mod accounts for popular subject and location subs are highly valued and sought after by people looking to move the overton window of discourse on those topics.
Mod accounts for popular subject and location subs are highly valued and sought after by people looking to move the overton window of discourse on those topics.
I wish there were more transparency in who the moderators of news and political subs, what their day jobs are and who pays them.
This could only happen if Reddit actually took some responsibility for the safety of their moderators. Death threats are commonplace for mods of political subs. They're mostly empty threats, but it'd be a much more significant risk if names/employers were public.
I was a mod and drew the line when I got a death threat.
Most mods work as volunteers to keep a sub clean of spam and porn. When the only ‘thanks’ you receive is, ‘we know where you live, watch your back’ I’m done.
The cherry on tip is when you notify the admins that there is nefarious activity and they literally don’t return a response for 3 weeks.
Reddit’s voting system enforces group-think, the users think it’s a ‘democracy’ in that they get to make the rules and mods should just follow orders, then mods need help due to an uprising, admins are no where to be found.
The meme subs aren’t funny any more, pics of cats and dogs are tired. The anti-mask, anti-vax, the_donald, and so much more all incubated in Reddit under the watch of the mods, the admins, and Condi Nast themselves for nothing more than advertising dollars.
I understand Reddit serves a purpose for some but it, in part, is assisting in the downfall of society. By allowing people to downvote without thinking critically, without thinking about the affects of polarizing endlessly until right and wrong don’t matter as long as everyone is in agreement. And if someone isn’t in agreement, downvote them in to oblivion.
Most mods work as volunteers to keep a sub clean of spam and porn. When the only ‘thanks’ you receive is, ‘we know where you live, watch your back’ I’m done.
The cherry on tip is when you notify the admins that there is nefarious activity and they literally don’t return a response for 3 weeks.
Reddit’s voting system enforces group-think, the users think it’s a ‘democracy’ in that they get to make the rules and mods should just follow orders, then mods need help due to an uprising, admins are no where to be found.
The meme subs aren’t funny any more, pics of cats and dogs are tired. The anti-mask, anti-vax, the_donald, and so much more all incubated in Reddit under the watch of the mods, the admins, and Condi Nast themselves for nothing more than advertising dollars.
I understand Reddit serves a purpose for some but it, in part, is assisting in the downfall of society. By allowing people to downvote without thinking critically, without thinking about the affects of polarizing endlessly until right and wrong don’t matter as long as everyone is in agreement. And if someone isn’t in agreement, downvote them in to oblivion.
>The anti-mask, anti-vax, the_donald, and so much more all incubated in Reddit under the watch of the mods, the admins
Those subs are by far in the minority and are always on the line of getting quarantined or outright shutdown.
r/politics is the poster child of what 90% of Reddit is. Reddit is by FAR an echo chamber for leftist ideas than it is for "alt-right" anything.
Those subs are by far in the minority and are always on the line of getting quarantined or outright shutdown.
r/politics is the poster child of what 90% of Reddit is. Reddit is by FAR an echo chamber for leftist ideas than it is for "alt-right" anything.
this is a good point
I didn't realize mods were subject to so much abuse.
I wonder if the death threats would vanish if the users were not anonymous, either.
I didn't realize mods were subject to so much abuse.
I wonder if the death threats would vanish if the users were not anonymous, either.
Of course the post gets removed with some obscure Automod/Review pending flair.
Awful people doing awful business, no surprises here
Awful people doing awful business, no surprises here
For some more context: https://www.protocol.com/reddit-powermods-war
This list is at best deeply misleading; those subreddits often have dozens of moderators.
This list is at best deeply misleading; those subreddits often have dozens of moderators.
The worst echo/bot chambers are the Cryptocurrency subs, including the exchange subs.
Generally low quality content too: "[some person with an obvious vested interest] announces that [some cryptocurrency] will be extremely valuable and fix all the world's problems"
r/cryptocurrency got worse with the addition of moons and moon farming.
Worrying, nonetheless I am suspicious of why this message is being pushed again just as subreddits have banded together to speak out against anti-vax propaganda.
None of this is new, we tried telling people this what 8-10 years ago? Someone not too long ago even made a diagram showing this. This has been since before the first ban wave, when I quit the site.
No one cared, nor did they care about the China astroturfing/censorship, but every so often someone raises the points, makes a stink, a few people leave reddit and it continues with business as usual.
No one cared, nor did they care about the China astroturfing/censorship, but every so often someone raises the points, makes a stink, a few people leave reddit and it continues with business as usual.
"Sorry, this post has been removed by the moderators of r/ThatsInsane."
There should be an option to automatically block anyone with over 1 million in karma.
[deleted]
Does anyone know what happened to /u/beethy? He was one of the coolest and most prolific posters and he just disappeared one day.
It ain't even about the moderators, though, half the content and comments seem to be pushed by astroturfers and bots.
What would happen if I block the mods? I won’t see anymore stuff from their subreddit or anything?
Why aren't there censorship free blockchain-based solutions to public message boards?
Old news, unfortunately: https://old.reddit.com/r/therewasanattempt/comments/gk0w4c/t...
Power Law is everywhere, even where you least expect it.
Yep. Why I left Reddit and haven't missed it.
We live in a power law universe
Reddit modding is a network of cartels; this post is just pointing out the one that controls the front page. There are cartels that control most groups of closely related (by subject or theme) subs as far as I can tell, and subs that are closely related primarily because they are modded by a particular cartel. There's also constant mod drama, with intra-cartel disputes developing into schisms, and inter-cartel disputes developing into wars complete with invasions.
A real problem is that I don't think that the process of becoming a mod is particularly exclusionary, and anyone with ambition can eventually work their way into any cartel they want through flattery and constant online presence. This sounds democratic, so the opposite of a problem, right? But it's not actually democratic, there's no votes, it's appointments all the way down. The only way you can vote on reddit is to leave a sub as a group of users, and move to another sub together, hopefully with enough posting force and shady knowledge of mod tricks to attract more incoming readers/posters than the sub you've left (by "incoming" I mean people encountering that group of related subs for the first time, either through search or through chance.)
Again, why is that bad?
Because it's so easy to game. The people who mod subs are not exceptional at modding subs in terms of fairness and cultivation of interesting dialogues, they're exceptional in their degree of motivation to be mods. An easy way to create exceptional motivation is through paying people. Another way to be exceptionally motivated is to be irrationally motivated, e.g. mental illness.
The motivation that we hope people have is the intrinsic motivation to facilitate/provide pleasure/information to others, but to also do that for free while Reddit gets rich. Not only do I think that borders on irrational, but I also think that in the fight between the intrinsic motivation to help and collaborate with others, and the simple economic utility headwinds, you 1) can't expect many people to be of the type we want, and we 2) certainly shouldn't expect them to remain for very long if they are.
And even worse, the interaction between the paid and the irrationally motivated will always benefit the paid. The paid have a mission, and if they see no means of accomplishing that mission, they leave. For the irrationally motivated, modding is the end, not the means, so if being an enabler of the paid gets them appointed or promoted, they're going to be the best enablers you could ask for.
Reddit, and most forums, need tools that facilitate real democracy (or some sort of open political process), and in certain cases the requirement to use them. This dictatorship of the appointed and the "people willing to do the work (for free)" is just M-L style vanguardism and results in rule by apparatchik.
A real problem is that I don't think that the process of becoming a mod is particularly exclusionary, and anyone with ambition can eventually work their way into any cartel they want through flattery and constant online presence. This sounds democratic, so the opposite of a problem, right? But it's not actually democratic, there's no votes, it's appointments all the way down. The only way you can vote on reddit is to leave a sub as a group of users, and move to another sub together, hopefully with enough posting force and shady knowledge of mod tricks to attract more incoming readers/posters than the sub you've left (by "incoming" I mean people encountering that group of related subs for the first time, either through search or through chance.)
Again, why is that bad?
Because it's so easy to game. The people who mod subs are not exceptional at modding subs in terms of fairness and cultivation of interesting dialogues, they're exceptional in their degree of motivation to be mods. An easy way to create exceptional motivation is through paying people. Another way to be exceptionally motivated is to be irrationally motivated, e.g. mental illness.
The motivation that we hope people have is the intrinsic motivation to facilitate/provide pleasure/information to others, but to also do that for free while Reddit gets rich. Not only do I think that borders on irrational, but I also think that in the fight between the intrinsic motivation to help and collaborate with others, and the simple economic utility headwinds, you 1) can't expect many people to be of the type we want, and we 2) certainly shouldn't expect them to remain for very long if they are.
And even worse, the interaction between the paid and the irrationally motivated will always benefit the paid. The paid have a mission, and if they see no means of accomplishing that mission, they leave. For the irrationally motivated, modding is the end, not the means, so if being an enabler of the paid gets them appointed or promoted, they're going to be the best enablers you could ask for.
Reddit, and most forums, need tools that facilitate real democracy (or some sort of open political process), and in certain cases the requirement to use them. This dictatorship of the appointed and the "people willing to do the work (for free)" is just M-L style vanguardism and results in rule by apparatchik.
> irrationally motivated
This 100%. Once you've interacted with one of these people, you realize how completely insane they have to be to spend as much time as they do doing what they do. All they want is internet power. In real life, they would be that crazy guy in the neighborhood who never shuts up that people just learn to ignore because they know the man doesn't speak with any rationality. Online, they become gods.
If free speech is to be free, then godly reputation internet people should not be allowed to accumulate power, because the personality required to seek it by itself speaks volumes of how opinionated, undemocratic, authoritarian, and morally challenged they are.
This 100%. Once you've interacted with one of these people, you realize how completely insane they have to be to spend as much time as they do doing what they do. All they want is internet power. In real life, they would be that crazy guy in the neighborhood who never shuts up that people just learn to ignore because they know the man doesn't speak with any rationality. Online, they become gods.
If free speech is to be free, then godly reputation internet people should not be allowed to accumulate power, because the personality required to seek it by itself speaks volumes of how opinionated, undemocratic, authoritarian, and morally challenged they are.
I am not surprised that even this post has been removed from Reddit. It is strange to know that even these platforms that are popular to reject the capitalistic agenda and the industrial monopolistic behaviour themselves carry this hypocrisy of controlling the communities and the content being posted on it.
[deleted]
Idiots. We all know that Dang is the only moderator required.
Most of the "free and open" internet is centrally controlled.
HN quickly shadow bans anybody who goes against the dominant ideology.
HN quickly shadow bans anybody who goes against the dominant ideology.
We ban accounts that post tedious ideological boilerplate and get into lame flamewars. People like to flatter themselves with "goes against the dominant ideology" rhetoric (I, the noble freethinker, unjustly suppressed by the servile mods, etc. - https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...), but really it's just tawdry internet stuff that we've all heard countless times.
That's why comments like this never come with links - because readers could then see for themselves and make up their own minds - https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que....
That's why comments like this never come with links - because readers could then see for themselves and make up their own minds - https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que....
I don't think my ideas are uncontroversial, but for the small amount of time I have been in these pages I have found a good deal of respect.
Is it possible that the ban trigger was in the way of expression of said ideas?
Is it possible that the ban trigger was in the way of expression of said ideas?
reddit tends to moderated by folks who've been wearing a mask around the clock for 1.5 years & rarely leave their comfort-zone.
the comments are slowly reflecting the result of this^ sjw-ish, anti-capitalism, anti personal growth etc.
the comments are slowly reflecting the result of this^ sjw-ish, anti-capitalism, anti personal growth etc.
I wore a mask and don’t leave the house, but other wise agree with you, Reddit is mostly an echo chamber for the worst aspects of both the left and right socio-economic ideas.
reddit died when they removed /r/reddit.com
that marked the demise of reddit (in terms of quality, not in terms of revenue)
that marked the demise of reddit (in terms of quality, not in terms of revenue)
Try retalk.
Recently I noticed comments I had posted in those subs over the last few months had completely been ignored.
It turns out I have been shadowbanned, and not just on the primary /r/thenetherlands sub, but on every single one of the communities they manage.
There is no apparent reason for them to have done this to me. My messages to the modteam are being ignored and Reddit support won't help because "moderators are free to run their communities as they see fit".
I have been locked out of engaging with the communities I was most interested and active in, for no apparent reason and likely forever.
And this is just one of many reasons for why having so few moderators control so many communities, is such a bad thing. Allowing them to operate without oversight or accountability is not helping the situation either.