everybody on ilx complains about reddit

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 the last time i saw an extant spencer's gifts it was still mostly novelties that played fart noises and outdated licensed merchandise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.

He frequently answers good questions thoughtfully on Tumblr!

I think B@r@ck 0b@m@ did one too.

Maybe this is sort of an old person thing to worry about, but it's really depressing to me that reddit is leaving the racist subs up. What does it say to black children and teens that this kind of speech not only exists but is hosted on a mainstream website that everyone reads? It's not just bad in an abstract sense: I think it could be upsetting or scarring to people, esp young people, who stumble across it or maybe go there out of curiosity after hearing about it on the news. (Couldn't find a way to phrase that that didn't make me sound like Tipper Gore)

So like, usually I'm skeptical of the speech=harm arguments but here I absolutely think that this speech being hosted on this website could cause a significant degree of harm.

That's not old personish at all

In the days of 'old media' newspapers films etc with a high circulation had obvious and measurable effects on people's lives, so today with websites which have a high circulation

any celebrities who do an AMA are paying the bills that keep the lights on in coontown

It always amuses me when subreddits try and police why people downvote. People are going to downvote for whatever reasons they want to downvote. Can't control the downvoting.

It seems like a catch-22... censoring ugly speech (I don't know what else to call racist/bigoted/hateful speech that doesn't actively incite violence) plays into their narrative of being "the truth THEY don't want you to see!", while leaving their cesspools up lets them influence people receptive to that message but who would otherwise not be extremists or active within the milieu of hate groups.

I think making those subreddits something you have to intentionally search for to encounter is probably the best way to deal with that dynamic.

But, even more importantly, I still think reddit is ugly as sin and the way they display comment threads is terrible and confusing.

tbh the lack of real human moderation on discussion sites in lieu of up/down votes, or even a clear policy for moderation, means eventually your site can become whatever the loudest voices want

iirc kuro5hin, a site I never really frequented but occasionally looked at, fell into the muck when no one had time to do strong moderation

This is pretty much where I get my entertainment online these days:

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

Actually if you wonder what is really up with reddit, this is a good place to start. You can see what goes on in MRA and "coontown" without feeling like you're on their turf. And the other subreddits connected to SRS are good too. Why bother humoring assholes when you can critique their remarks without having to interact with them? Some good discussion here if you care about the future of politics on the Internet.

if we are not currently being quietly raided and 77 infiltrated by a reddit subboard for DAMNING OFF-THE-RECORD GAWKER EVIDENCE in the aftermath of the c-suite exec debacle, i will be awfully surprised
i ask that redditors please spell my government name incorrectly when doxxing and note my meticulous work in the fields of pottery, cemetery photography and spotify list curation when i am put up against the wall

tbh I feel like the "shitredditsays" thing is less a surfacing of bad content and just a self-congratulatory churn of bad content surfaced for other reddit users to pat themselves on the back

You can see what goes on in MRA and "coontown" without feeling like you're on their turf.

you are on their turf. you are literally helping to pay the bills that pay their rent.

Like a million threads with self-oblivious idiots complaining about how touchy other people are.

I'm conflicted about this, but having spent more time on Twitter than Reddit, I can't say I'm convinced that Twitter is any better. It is full of creepy far-right posters who just censor themselves better, and they will flood people with sub-tweets, making reading anything political a disturbing and discouraging experience. I don't know why people think Twitter is less dangerous - the far-right and gun nut crowd seems emboldened by the legitimacy of it.

I feel like my own community has a lot to lose by ignoring far right groups, I can't do that. I feel safer keeping tabs on them in some way.