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Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters

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Re: Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters

#131
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I literally just addressed both of those points. Sticked posts are mod tools. They didn't do anything else. You literally pointed out exactly what I did. >It's not a global change to everybody. It's only for that one specific subreddit. Again, I already pointed this out. >Then why not apply it to every subreddit? Once again, in my reply to you: >consistent and continual abuse of those mod tools to antagonize the rest…

So not using a tool in the way that the designer intends constitutes abuse now? An interesting perspective for a community with hacker in the name.

Haha. Exactly.

They're using it exactly as it was intended. Arguably, they're just better at using it.

Re: Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters

#132
My trust is broken.

Am I a provably nasty actor who ... etc?

My trust has been broken repeatedly, by things like the Snowden documents (and the media coverup of its contents) and Iraq War propaganda (with media participation), and yes by gamed use of scoring algorithms and selective/politicized moderation of social media.

My trust was particularly broken when Facebook censored (literally did not allow me to post) Snowden documents.

When I see media coverage today of, let's say Syria, and see all the ways its spun and partially covered, it's hard for me to have faith in the rest of what's being said.

And - regarding censorship of let's say even the most vitriolic of activity or just plain widespread belief in certain communities of certain facts - do you want a Trump Administration (or really any state police) to be in charge of that?

I was criticized as being a paranoid conspiracy monger for speaking about US government surveillance before Snowden, and for being vocal about the fact Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11, wasn't connected to Anthrax, and didn't have weapons of mass destruction.

People called me paranoid, vitriolic and a 'truther', creating a straw man of my case and finding every reason not to listen to what I had to say. A million people dead and a destabilized region later, with a vacuum filled by religious extremism exploited for proxy war - and still people can barely muster up a revision to their earlier perspective and an admission that the Iraq War was not only illegal, but a war of choice, a war of aggression and one bolstered by an extremely efficient and systemic capability to propagandize not only the American people but all audiences of US broadcasting.

I have good, justified reasons to have broken trust. Today I trust, but I verify. And I continually find spin, mis- and dis-information playing a huge role in public, 'polite' conversation.

I dislike being called a paranoid conspiracy monger (again) by the implications of your comment. I watched Reddit transform after it got acquired and Twitter transform after it fell to State Department pressure. I've watched Facebook game its results for a long time, as it has every legal but no moral right to do.

My trust has legitimate reasons to be broken, and invoking 'conspiracy mongering' as an explanation heals no wounds and does not move the community closer to solving the credibility problem of public information services.

Re: Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters

#134
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well thats just not true, the community managers and ellen pao understood the repercussions of it. It destroys the legitimacy of all parts of the site and enflames conspiracies even more. People are not stupid, my first thought was how many times did he do this without getting caught.

Reddit is a content management system for stupidity and spam. Let's not pretend it's some pristine, important institution. Trolling the_donald could only have been a step in the right direction.

I'm not a fan of reddit, but occasionally they have some brilliance.

- http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/296789-gop-chair...

- their AMA's with famous people are pretty amazing, steve wozniak's was great.

- Can't forget their net neutrality protest either http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29127179

- Alot of the programming related subreddits are pretty nice. It's how I got connected with Django Girls.

Re: Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's being downvoted because the comment attempted to show empathy for people with different viewpoints. This cannot be allowed.

No, it was downvitre because it's inaccurate spin that is irrelevant to the conversation

How is referring the actual fact the CEO admitted to such actions inaccurate spin?

Re: Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters

#136
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be interesting if instead of just up and down arrows, you could tag posts as "insightful", "funny", or "inspiring". Too often, the up votes are used for things that are funny, and throwaway one liners and memes dominate all the popular subreddits. I would love to support by insightful and get discussions similar to HN.

Uhm.. I have a very low Slashdot ID number, so I saw that site develop from its start (19 years ago). Back then it was what HN is now. They have those things. It has become unreadable and unusable (has been for years now) - the most idiotic and trite one-sentence statement is tagged "insightful" if it the visiting crowds like it (which happens a lot). Go and see for yourself, if you dare: https://slashdot.org/ Exampl…

One problem with /. is that it favors the quick post. The maximum score is +5, so the tiebreak of whoever posted first comes into play very quickly. So there is a race to post quickly among those who want their opinion to be heard.

Re: Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters

#137
It would be nice to have a clearer understanding of how the algorithm works, and how it purports to stop vote manipulation from state actors, like the capabilities of the GCHQ and NSA from the Snowden documents or the astroturfing contractor centers for the DoD (Earnest Voice, etc).

I'm thinking maybe the algorithm changes slightly alter some brigading from communities, but probably can't handle state-sponsored manipulation.

Re: Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters

#138
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a need for in-sub filtering too for non too specific subs. It's said to be possible with the Reddit Enhanced Suite thing ? but I never used it. I just echo what people say. Sure for very narrow subs, with adequate moderation manpower, the filtering can be done this way.

But you can accomplish the same thing by creating new more moderated subs. That's why we have /r/AskHistorians in addition to /r/history. If the sub isn't specific enough the solution shouldn't be to falsly and silently fragment the sub's users via user-side filtering, it's to explicitly split off a different community that behaves the way you want. In that way there is no "non too specific sub". If you participate i…

Sure, but things are wavey and blurry, you can't always foresee if a dedicated sub should be created, sometimes it's in waves.

Re: Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters

#139
post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> anonymity -- real anonymity -- tends to let you see peoples' real dark opinions No, it lets you see a narrow slice of people's real, dark opinions. There are a whole host of opinions you'll never see on Voat because the user base is antagonistic to the basic ideas which underpin them, so there's no point in trying to express them on that platform. For example, the notion that men are psychologically torturing women…

>No, it lets you see a narrow slice of people's real, dark opinions. There are a whole host of opinions you'll never see on Voat because the user base is antagonistic to the basic ideas which underpin them I don't know how it is on Voat, but on 8chan I'm a frequent user and poster of /leftypol/, titled "Leftist Politically Incorrect", which is basically the flip-side to the infamous /pol/ boards of {8,4}chan. On ther…

Even without moderation, anonymous imageboards have their own way to derail civilized discussion.

Someone could post a thread with an interesting premise, and the first response could be $racial_slur, and then the hivemind would repeat the process and spam $racial_slur indefinitely without any kind of real discussion going on. For the lulz.

Re: Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters

#140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Algorithms that are optimized to show more of what a user is interested in, shouldn't be equated to creating an echo chamber. A good algorithm could include variety and conflicting positions, if that's what the user shows affinity to. I don't think the concept should be discounted because of weak implementations.

> A good algorithm could include variety and conflicting positions, if that's what the user shows affinity to. Most users will not show an affinity to conflicting positions. It is confirmation bias in action.

Maybe the algorithm should be guided somehow by an indication that you like to be challenged. Replying to a post would be a good indicator you had some affinity to it, even if only to debate it.
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