everybody on ilx complains about reddit

lol

its almost as if there was reporting and writing done in the interim

I wonder if the dismissal of the community managers who were doing good work was linked to Pao

What if she was a bad manager AND unjustly dogpiled on due to reddit being full of misogynist shitlords?

I read a thing that implied the co-founder/board chairman of reddit fired the beloved AMA mod and let Pao take the heat.

He took plenty of heat too, actually.

I think the moderators of the white supremacist subreddits should get more heat.

I didn't know about them until recently. Nauseating stuff.

spotted this via andy baio on twitter, in response to someone asking "why is reddit described as 'nothing but a cesspool,' it has useful stuff!"

A cesspool would be a big pool that you had to wade through with no way of avoiding the gross bits, yes.

Reddit is more like a restaurant with an awesome eclectic flight of wines. And some of the most popular selections are actually glasses of sewage. And the wine flight is well known to local drinkers for the sewage, whether because they're annoyed about it or because they're big fans of shit-in-a-glass. And if you want to have some friends out to the joint to drink some wine for the first time, you have to give them preemptive instructions on how the first thing they should is carefully dump out all the glasses of sewage and then order some other wine instead. Because the pinot is really nice.

I have complicated feelings about reddit as an aspirational model for link aggregation and discussion, and I don't think it's valueless by a long shot, but the current model has some serious problems when just introducing someone to the site basically requires explaining to them how to avoid being repelled by the actual popular content of the site.

that signal-to-noise argument has been applicable to any sort of content provider a lot longer than reddit's been around; weird how everybody wants to put the emphasis in new media on NEW instead of MEDIA

reddit's "no censorship ever" ethos is gonna constantly falter against the reality that "no censorship" amounts to de facto exclusion of those that are most vulnerable. better to institute a degree of censorship to allow a more productive space of discussion. (I'd argue that a kind of censoring is already in place at reddit, just not one they'd admit to.) voices must be excluded, so why not exclude the shitty ones? their corporate desire is to be a universal platform but that idea isn't really coherent.

^

Reddit is more like a restaurant with an awesome eclectic flight of wines. And some of the most popular selections are actually glasses of sewage. And the wine flight is well known to local drinkers for the sewage, whether because they're annoyed about it or because they're big fans of shit-in-a-glass. And if you want to have some friends out to the joint to drink some wine for the first time, you have to give them preemptive instructions on how the first thing they should is carefully dump out all the glasses of sewage and then order some other wine instead. Because the pinot is really nice.

lol it's a little telling how tortured this metaphor is

That metaphor doesn't seem at all tortured to me?

telling... of what?

needs more instruction about the proper way to swirl the shit around in the glass before drinking in order to fully engage with the bouquet

it's more like going to a shopping mall where you have to walk past the kkk merchandise to get to macy's

except there's no macy's, only spencer's gifts

no one on reddit will understand this because shopping malls have been completely different entities during their lives

replace "spencer's gifts" with "hot topic"

replace "hot topic" with "wine n' sewage"

hot topic seems to roll with the changes a little. the last time i saw an extant spencer's gifts it was still mostly novelties that played fart noises and outdated licensed merchandise

replace "wine n' sewage" with a "Yankee Candle" having one scent: "cinnamon vanilla sewage"

mall gothic

https://www.reddit.com/r/fantanoforever/

http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/NewAnswersControllerServlet?boardid=59

Thought forks' link was gonna be the fanta girls.

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/bitwise/2015/07/hate_speech_on_reddit_a_simple_novel_plan_to_quarantine_it.1.html

i'm pretty skeptical of this idea for a couple reasons, but, it's an idea

1. i v highly doubt that the community would stand for the institution of a public "brand" like that, as it would be "taking sides" on what was hate and what was legitimate

2. as we've seen in any number of other instances the brand will become a mark of solidarity with the "incorrect" if not pride for the worst people anyway.

http://recode.net/2015/07/13/reddit-chief-engineer-bethanye-blount-quits-after-less-than-two-months-on-the-job/

oh reddit

Serious question: why do average redditors care if r/coontown and similar subreddits were shut down? Do they really think this would hurt the "free exchange of ideas" on the site? Or do they want, at some level, to scare away women and minorities? Even if they don't agree with the overt racists, they appreciate the function of their trolling. Just a thought.

I guess I'm just mystified by the free speech argument. Reddit is a community and communities have norms. Let the racists say what they want but let them be marginalized -- no way Conde Nast should be paying to host that content.

auerbach's solution is so software engineer-y. (surprise.) assign every $user a $hate_score

and give the hatiest users and subreddits a big ol' im_a_hater.jpg badge, which will soon become the must-have accessory. people will queue up to get their hate badge to prove themselves a good outspoken logic-voicing libertarian who doesn't bow down to women, minorities, people who don't like reading horrible things or violating other people, or anyone who has ever had any thoughts which might possibly coincide with those from anyone in any of the aforementioned categories, as those people could not therefore be trusted as logical uberminds

(is this where I confess to having a crush of shame on st3v3 huffm4n after watching his udacity course? this was much easier to justify to myself when he wasn't involved with reddit any more)

Serious question: why do average redditors care if r/coontown and similar subreddits were shut down? Do they really think this would hurt the "free exchange of ideas" on the site?

imho under the right conditions, actual racists, naive people, and people who are actual racists but are too naive to realise it, combine with each other to make a potent group of users with the ability to breed virally

each piece of the creature on its own couldn't do much, but the free speech lot give legitimacy to the racist lot, and the racist lot give a feeling of edginess to the free speech lot, it's like voltron

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBSrP7ub6VA

https://waldinadotcom.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/scarlet-letter.gif

Looks like they might be doing something, amazingly. CEO has posted saying "we also believe that some communities currently on the platform should not be here at all." and "Neither Alexis nor I created reddit to be a bastion of free speech". I'm sure his users will listen to his thoughts with the usual grace and maturity.

woah, really?

Doesn't seem like there's been any action, besides the CEO's post to start 'discussion'. Gawker has some info http://gawker.com/former-reddit-ceo-youre-all-screwed-1717901652

I wouldn't expect action yet but I hope there is followthrough on this.

Or do they want, at some level, to scare away women and minorities?

There is a subtext to a much larger part of the site then hate-based subreddits that re-enforces(upvotes) the victimization of (white) men.

4K upvotes: http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/3cvui3/uh_this_is_kinda_bullshit/

Yeah exactly. Maybe they think the hate subreddits serve as a "buffer" between them and anyone who would challenge their worldview.

4K upvotes: http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/3cvui3/uh_this_is_kinda_bullshit/

― bnw, Wednesday, July 15, 2015 1:48 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

and he got fucking money 3 times

that money goes to reddit tho, not the poster.

But... the most delicious part of this is that on at least two separate occasions, the board pressed /u/ekjp to outright ban ALL the hate subreddits in a sweeping purge. She resisted, knowing the community, claiming it would be a shitshow. Ellen isn't some "evil, manipulative, out-of-touch incompetent she-devil" as was often depicted. She was approved by the board and recommended by me because when I left, she was the only technology executive anywhere who had the chops and experience to manage a startup of this size, AND who understood what reddit was all about. As we can see from her post-resignation activity, she knows perfectly well how to fit in with the reddit community and is a normal, funny person - just like in real life - she simply didn't sit on reddit all day because she was busy with her day job.

Ellen was more or less inclined to continue upholding my free-speech policies. /r/fatpeoplehate was banned for inciting off-site harassment, not discussing fat-shaming. What all the white-power racist-sexist neckbeards don't understand is that with her at the head of the company, the company would be immune to accusations of promoting sexism and racism: she is literally Silicon Valley's #1 Feminist Hero, so any "SJWs" would have a hard time attacking the company for intentionally creating a bastion (heh) of sexist/racist content. She probably would have tolerated your existence so long as you didn't cause any problems - I know that her long-term strategies were to find ways to surface and publicize reddit's good parts - allowing the bad parts to exist but keeping them out of the spotlight. It would have been very principled - the CEO of reddit, who once sued her previous employer for sexual discrimination, upholds free speech and tolerates the ugly side of humanity because it is so important to maintaining a platform for open discourse. It would have been unassailable.

Well, now she's gone (you did it reddit!), and /u/spez has the moral authority as a co-founder to move ahead with the purge. We tried to let you govern yourselves and you failed, so now The Man is going to set some Rules. Admittedly, I can't say I'm terribly upset.

https://np.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/3dautm/content_policy_update_ama_thursday_july_16th_1pm/ct3n7hc

like if u cry erytime

in the interest of comprehensiveness

http://gawker.com/a-big-list-of-the-fascinating-strange-useful-and-non-1717963220

Well, it looks like the charming 'rapingwomen' sub is getting shut down, but other than that it's not clear much else is happening. The racist subs are getting some kind of new NSFW tag, so you have to opt in to see them. Which still leaves reddit with one of the larger white supremacist communities online (I read somewhere that one of the subs is more active than st00rmfr00nt), and one which is very active (and quite determined/successful) in its proselytizing. Don't particularly like hanging around reddit, so I'll probably wait and get my news from third parties from here on out.

the AMA made it pretty clear... in the most reddity way possible, things are only getting shut down/banned if they literally involve direct threats regarding the physical safety of another person, and all the nasty stuff is going to be sequestered (reddit... AFTER DARK) to make the site more appealing to advertisers, yay

there is this weird assumption through it all that subs like c**ntown (specifically mentioned by huffman) represent "differing opinions" and not an actual threat to peoples' lives and livelihoods while still recognizing other ones as inherently dangerous, like has he ever actually visited that place??

Slightly off topic, I see there's an AMA request for j0hn d4rni3ll3.