Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment

arstechnica.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 284 posts

Re: Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment

#81

Post by flying_kangaroo »

ggggtez wrote: post #50
brink wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It got annoying going to certain subreddits that I subscribe to for content started getting flooded with "Man the decks, we need to defend this!". To be fair, it is arguable that it deserved attention, as the final picture is now a part of internet history.

I don't think that argument is easy to defend, considering how big the internet is and that this is just a copy of existing ideas that have been done before.

On the flip side, however, reddit is (as of today on Alexa) the 4th most visited site in the US. Given that user-base, I think a lot of internet users have noticed this.

Re: Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment

#82

Post by ehsankia »

scrollaway wrote: post #14

Reddit's AF this year was excellent, probably my favourite AF experiment of all time. I usually really dislike AF on the internet - some (most) sites become completely unusable for a day and, last thing the internet needs, it gets even harder to tell real news from the fake bits. (Did you know Takei is running for 2018 congress? That was true! Actually it wasn't. But it was! Well, no, it wasn't.) But I'm really fond…

I absolutely love AF on the internet. Yes, there will always be sites that produce low effort, boring and annoying content, but when isn't that true? On the other hand, you have plenty of companies and sites that produce genuinely funny and well thought out content.

Reddit has consistently been the best for the past few years. Google, Blizzard, Razer and a few other companies always produce a couple good videos too. I definitely agree with you though that creativity and experimentation is far more interesting than cheap little tricks.

Re: Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment

#83

Post by grive »

Navarr wrote: post #55
eatitraw wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think there is anything actually political on the final /r/place piece other than country flags. There are various flags of different anarchist movements, very long trans* flag, LGBT flags here and there. IMO, all these count as "actually political".

Anarchist movements I can see, but I don't think trans/LGBT flags count as "political." It's an identity, not a political statement. It'd be like calling christian crosses "political"

Identity is very tightly related to political views.

Moreover, LGBTQ pride is definitely political, even in Western democracies (see contentions about gay marriage).

LGBT activism is definitely marked on the left political spectrum in the USA. Christians values will inherently push toward traditionalism, so social conservatism.

It is the same in many European countries.

Re: Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment

#84

Post by TeMPOraL »

ggggtez wrote: post #50
brink wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It got annoying going to certain subreddits that I subscribe to for content started getting flooded with "Man the decks, we need to defend this!". To be fair, it is arguable that it deserved attention, as the final picture is now a part of internet history.

I don't think that argument is easy to defend, considering how big the internet is and that this is just a copy of existing ideas that have been done before.

Context matters. This is Reddit, so that particular effort will become a part of remembered Internet history for the next decade or more.

Re: Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment

#85

Post by EGreg »

rmccoy6435 wrote: post #6

I think this was a pretty neat experiment. For the first 24 hours everything was chaos, then it settled down in the middle as communities formed, then at the end it was just annoying as every subreddit was trying to take over real-estate, and far too many people were taking it way too seriously. It got annoying going to certain subreddits that I subscribe to for content started getting flooded with "Man the decks, we…

I am interested in this as a microcosm of any shared space or community.

To see how countries form and mutual cooperation strategies take hold.

Re: Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment

#86

Post by CarVac »

bsamuels wrote: post #76
CarVac wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was another fascinating aspect of politics that sprang up due to Place: inter-community politics. My community (Madoka Magica) was continuously communicating with our neighbors on all sides, ranging from the gigantic PrequelMemes to our right, Canada to our south, Homestuck, the Greek and Turkish flags mentioned in the article (which really were warring for quite a time before the heart appeared), and even tiny…

> it was like a game of Diplomacy more than anything else. Maybe that's why the EVE Online guys were able to hold their own so well against the larger and more popular games right next to their logo :)

They also held a much more modestly-sized area.

The larger you are, the bigger the attack surface and the more your defenses are spread out.

Plus, you attract more attention when larger; the 1G logo northwest of Canada was originally a good deal bigger, but a rival streamer told his followers to wipe it out and it was completely dissolved within about ten minutes; very scary.

Personally I was against expansion but I underestimated our community's size, I think, because we grew to be fairly large and prominent.

Re: Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment

#87

Post by baby »

Buttons840 wrote: post #18
baby wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When are we going to see this beautiful sign back in our culture as a positive symbol :( that and the Hitler mustache. I'm guessing we need a few hundred years before we can use these things without it being associated to Nazism.

You need to explain yourself better. You seem to be opposed to Nazism, but in favor of their symbol. Why?

I upvoted you because it is sad that ignorance is downvoted :(

Re: Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment

#88

Post by spike021 »

cyphar wrote: post #48
darkstar999 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more about reddit being able to sell ads than anything else. I'd say it falls under: > Threatens, harasses, or bullies or encourages others to do so

While some users might feel that way, I'm not sure how an image (which is a collection of pixels on a screen that has many different historical interpretations) would threaten, harass or bully someone. Or incite it. Of course, these days ad networks are hyper-sensitive about this topic, so from an advertising perspective it does make sense.

I don't want to assume you lack a connection to swastikas used as they were during the Holocaust.

For me personally, my grandfather and his family were persecuted along with other family members and friends. My grandfather was even beaten by Hitler Youth, among experiencing other horrible events (Kristallnacht in particular). I wish it weren't the case but the symbol is strongly associated with the feelings from this era of time.

So yes, an image (which is a collection of pixels on a screen) does feel bullying to me. Maybe it's not active bullying where someone is specifically setting out to piss me off/scare me/whatever, but it's most certainly passive bullying because unfortunately there are people who still feel very strongly about it and its use in one of the most horrible eras of history.

Re: Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment

#89

Post by bbctol »

CarVac wrote: post #59
rmccoy6435 wrote: post #6

I think this was a pretty neat experiment. For the first 24 hours everything was chaos, then it settled down in the middle as communities formed, then at the end it was just annoying as every subreddit was trying to take over real-estate, and far too many people were taking it way too seriously. It got annoying going to certain subreddits that I subscribe to for content started getting flooded with "Man the decks, we…

There was another fascinating aspect of politics that sprang up due to Place: inter-community politics. My community (Madoka Magica) was continuously communicating with our neighbors on all sides, ranging from the gigantic PrequelMemes to our right, Canada to our south, Homestuck, the Greek and Turkish flags mentioned in the article (which really were warring for quite a time before the heart appeared), and even tiny…

The way that compromises emerged was actually kind of inspiring. Everyone knew that a harmonious picture would be more pleasing than a chaotic blob, and it would be easy for a failed negotiation to descend into chaos, so neighboring groups had a good incentive to work together and find ways of solving their problems. My favorite was when the cute dog subreddit /r/goodboye was starting to overlap with the Dutch flag; they mutually agreed to have the dogs wear clogs.

Re: Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment

#90

Post by freeflight »

baby wrote: post #13
beefhash wrote: post #5

It's worth nothing that the admins did actively ban users trying to make swastikas. /b/ tried and found that out the hard way. Reddit's content policy[1] was still applicable and was very much enforced. [1] https://www.reddit.com/help/contentpolicy/

When are we going to see this beautiful sign back in our culture as a positive symbol :( that and the Hitler mustache. I'm guessing we need a few hundred years before we can use these things without it being associated to Nazism.

>I'm guessing we need a few hundred years before we can use these things without it being associated to Nazism.

Imho this has more to do with a lack of knowledge among the general (western) populations which mostly only know the symbol from the Nazis. But not all swastika are same as there are quite a few differences in orientation and details between the Nazi Swastika and the actual Hindu/Buddhist symbols.

Post reply on HN