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Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters

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Re: Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters

#171
I don't understand the idea of "preventing a cheater from seeing votes." The only way I can think to "cheat" reddit votes is to just throw a bunch of bots at a post. Presumably, one knows how many bots one has. If the idea is you don't know which bots are shadowbanned and which aren't, it would be trivial to just have your own private subreddit that the bots post in regularly, and see whose posts become visible to other accounts.

Re: Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's unlikely. For clarification, only the breakdown of up/downs was hidden, not the overall score, and it was hidden because when people saw posts with tons of downvotes, it invited more downvotes.

Alexis Ohanian visits Notre Dame, & specifically meets with my advisor. We show them what we are working on in regards to analyzing Reddit (probably not the wisest thing to show them a work in progress, before all the data is collected). They're not thrilled about it. A few weeks later, a crucial part of the information is gone. You tell me.

The change happened in 2014 (http://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/28hjga/reddit...), when Ohanian had less of an affiliation with Reddit.

Re: Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters

#173
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The subreddit in question specifically and continually used the tool in a negative, unconstructive manner I don't think that's true, I think you just don't like the content.

The admins and a sizable portion, if not the majority, of reddit think it's true. It's also odd that you seem to forget that the content in question was specifically and continually addressed to the rest of the community in an often aggressive manner. Hardly any active and constructive discussion, political or otherwise, took place on those threads. Indeed it's hard for that to ever happen when your mods immediately…

Yes, and that's why they make rules that only impact the_donald, which in turn encourages the_donald to lash out. Because they are being singled out for censorship. I think you've got a pretty selective memory of sticked threads in the_donald, but whatever. Should they be nice to a community that consistently calls it the_dipshit, etc, and whose administrators continually make changes to limit the reach of their voice, and their voice alone?

The sticky change came in conjunction with limiting the number of posts it was possible to have on the front page, and a few others. Saying the change to sticky policy is what's keeping the_donald posts off the front page of /r/all would be incorrect.

Re: Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alexis Ohanian visits Notre Dame, & specifically meets with my advisor. We show them what we are working on in regards to analyzing Reddit (probably not the wisest thing to show them a work in progress, before all the data is collected). They're not thrilled about it. A few weeks later, a crucial part of the information is gone. You tell me.

The change happened in 2014 ( http://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/28hjga/reddit... ), when Ohanian had less of an affiliation with Reddit.

That's also when he came to Notre Dame.

Re: Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters

#175
post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is certainly a problem, but I find it happening less on "special interest" boards. I don't think it's too far from Reddit in this respect. On /r/funny you might expect something like this to happen, with the top 2 comment threads being puns, or unenlightened comments. But on /r/EngineeringStudents or /r/compsci or /r/lisp ... (subs I vaguely remember) that's less likely to happen. Right now on /leftypol/ there a…

I meant more as in 4chan and /pol/. Haven't gone to 8chan or /leftypol/ but I'm always interested in quality discussion. That's why I frequent Hacker News.

Re: Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters

#176

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) Sno…

Frankly, I don't believe your post. It's such a wishy washy amalgamation of "of course I was right" rose tinted steps through the past, each stop complete with ham-fisted "they called me all the worst things but I was right". No story is that perfect. You aren't that perfect. And writing this long of a post to try and convince me that conspiracies like Hillary Clinton engaging in a pedohpile sex ring are true because…

> No story is that perfect. You aren't that perfect.

I'm not perfect no. But the story isn't a lie. It's funny to me that you don't believe I was on to surveillance before the Snowden Documents and on to Iraq war propaganda before the UK Iraq War inquiery/report.

> And writing this long of a post to try and convince me that conspiracies like Hillary Clinton engaging in a pedohpile sex ring are true because you believed the Iraq War wasn't about WMDs is just stupid.

I am not writing this or any other post to convince you that Hillary Clinton is engaged in a sex pedophile ring.

> I can't stop you from fellating yourself regarding your overwhelmingly pretentiously perfect view of yourself throughout the past decade, so I guess I should join you.

The purpose of the prior post is not self-fellation, but to describe to you how the powers to crack down on one 'conspiracy theory' or another will immediately be used to crack down on public dissent about real and ongoing government wrongdoing.

Namely the post is an attempt to motivate you to see how powers you are defending for the Trump Administration would have been used (in fact to some degree were used) by the Bush Administration to aggravate a horrendous war and its resulting terrible consequences.

It's a way to say: pizzagate isn't the extent of how state police will use censorship powers.

And regarding self-fellation: I had just been accused of being a provably nasty actor and conspiracy monger. What you read was a defense of this. I think you'll find if we talk more I'm quite cool-headed, grounded, unflappable and otherwise capable of calm and polite and reasonable conversation.

Re: Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters

#177
post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's the front page of the Internet, not my front page It's your front page, but the method of filtering is a little different. It's gradually turned into an echo chamber filled with like-minded people, and everyone else has been driven off the site or forced to post in "fringe" subreddits that you'll never see unless you make a concerted effort to seek them out. And that's one of the biggest problems with filter b…

I couldn't agree more. In theory, Reddit is a balanced website because of having upvotes/downvotes, yet it couldn't be more obvious on a lot of subreddits that there are slants towards certain ideologies. /r/politics for example swayed heavily between certain candidates during the primaries and election in way that was at times largely hyperbolic. On sports subreddit, heaven forbid something social or political gets…

All good points. The voting system just isn't conducive to balanced discussion. It's a perfect recipe for group-think, especially when overseen by self-selecting moderators.

And to make matters worse, many subreddits rate-limit your account if you receive too many downvotes. You are literally silenced for posting unpopular opinions. They also usually block new accounts, so you can't even participate in the discussion via throwaway.

"Only posts that agree with us" isn't an official rule, but it might as well be.

Re: Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters

#178
post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is certainly a problem, but I find it happening less on "special interest" boards. I don't think it's too far from Reddit in this respect. On /r/funny you might expect something like this to happen, with the top 2 comment threads being puns, or unenlightened comments. But on /r/EngineeringStudents or /r/compsci or /r/lisp ... (subs I vaguely remember) that's less likely to happen. Right now on /leftypol/ there a…

I think it happens less on special interest boards because there are less posts altogether on niche boards.

/p/, /trv/ - slow boards that have their own shitposts.

Re: Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters

#179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate on what you mean by "men are psychologically torturing women just by enacting common male body movement patterns in the workplace" ?

I'm wondering too. The only thing that comes immediately to mind is adjusting your pants in the crotch area, which, well, sometimes it's uncomfortable without there being any sort of excitement, and it's just a matter of comfort. Like pulling your underwear out of your but. If that's an example of what's being referred to, it's really, really unfortunate, because it's a matter of one party acting totally innocently (…

Not off base at all. Even with your off the top of your head example, I'm sure everyone reading this can think of that person they know that would get offended by a male "repositioning" himself.

Re: Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Frankly, I don't believe your post. It's such a wishy washy amalgamation of "of course I was right" rose tinted steps through the past, each stop complete with ham-fisted "they called me all the worst things but I was right". No story is that perfect. You aren't that perfect. And writing this long of a post to try and convince me that conspiracies like Hillary Clinton engaging in a pedohpile sex ring are true because…

> No story is that perfect. You aren't that perfect. I'm not perfect no. But the story isn't a lie. It's funny to me that you don't believe I was on to surveillance before the Snowden Documents and on to Iraq war propaganda before the UK Iraq War inquiery/report. > And writing this long of a post to try and convince me that conspiracies like Hillary Clinton engaging in a pedohpile sex ring are true because you believ…

> I had just been accused of being a provably nasty actor and conspiracy monger.

No you hadn't.

I was referring to /r/the_donald, the nasty trump trolls of /pol/, and the pizzagate conspiracy.

You imagined that I targeted you, because you did not understand my post.

Fueled by that misunderstand, yes, you engaged in a lame tale of self-fellation. You clearly cannot evaluate it as such, so I leave you with the hope that you can improve your self-perception so that you do not falsely interpret others words as targeting you when they do not (and choosing not to ask, but to assume your analysis was correct)

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