Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment • Hacker News Board

Re: Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment

#101

Post by sqeaky » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 5:31 PM UTC

doubleunplussed wrote: post #39

It was a seriously cool experiment. Factions rose and fell, alliances were forged, battles waged, "rules of war" developed. It was amazing. But I don't think there's much to be gained from pontificating about it as a model for preventing hate speech. For one, it was moderated. The slow speed of creating things just meant it was easier on moderators. Secondly, the main thing that made it mostly pleasant was that only…

> This would just be pushing filter bubbles to the extreme and driving resentment underground where nobody would notice it until it bubbled over. Then people would be like "whoa, where'd all the hate speech come from?", when it was there all along but not the dominant voice. And they would be making poor decisions regarding their own political strategy, because they mistakenly believed that they had won a battle that they had not.

Doesn't this describe the recent presidential election?

Re: Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment

#102

Post by Nexxxeh » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 5:34 PM UTC

doubleunplussed wrote: post #39

It was a seriously cool experiment. Factions rose and fell, alliances were forged, battles waged, "rules of war" developed. It was amazing. But I don't think there's much to be gained from pontificating about it as a model for preventing hate speech. For one, it was moderated. The slow speed of creating things just meant it was easier on moderators. Secondly, the main thing that made it mostly pleasant was that only…

>Minority ideas, whether good or bad, could not (even the art from small communities was only allowed to exist via alliances with larger communities that could easily destroy their art)

I'd disagree. /r/wales and /r/faroeislands have less than 7k subscribers between us. We had no bots, just a few people in a Discord channel.

Actual: https://i.imgur.com/GtkaGlJl.png

SCtester Cleanup: http://i.imgur.com/GQCTigC.png

Wales also had our dragon beneath the main UK flag along with NI, England and Scotland. There was also a cool Wales places heart.

Re: Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment

#103

Post by callumprentice » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 5:34 PM UTC

Reminds me of a more dynamic version of the Million Dollar Homepage from many years ago. http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/

Re: Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment

#104

Post by ctdonath » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 5:36 PM UTC

Someone's gotta mention http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com :

Early in the history of the Internet, some high school kid set up a web page with a 1000x1000 image and a limited color palette. He sold individual pixels, plus a link from that pixel to anywhere, for $1. Yup, he sold them all in fairly short order.

Re: Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment

#105

Post by lovehashbrowns » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 5:36 PM UTC

SippinLean wrote: post #70

Cool experiment, very disappointing outcome. To me it was an experiment in dynamic, ever-changing art; giving way to creation and destruction. In the end, it was just scripted bots working to preserve art, mostly corporate logos and national flags. Why was there no captcha?!

The bots thing definitely leaves a bitter aftertaste to the whole experiment. I still loved it and enjoyed watching things unfold, though. As for the logos/flags thing.. I think that had more to do with how short the experiment was. Maybe if it went on for a little longer, people would have been slightly more creative. As it stands, even the more creative stuff was very meme-y. Megaman shooting dat boi, for example.

Re: Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment

#106

Post by ctdonath » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 5:39 PM UTC

SippinLean wrote: post #70

Cool experiment, very disappointing outcome. To me it was an experiment in dynamic, ever-changing art; giving way to creation and destruction. In the end, it was just scripted bots working to preserve art, mostly corporate logos and national flags. Why was there no captcha?!

Interesting philosophical contrast between this, your suggestion, and http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com - anarchy vs benevolent dictatorship vs capitalism.

Re: Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment

#107

Post by doubleunplussed » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 5:41 PM UTC

sqeaky wrote: post #101

doubleunplussed wrote: post #39

It was a seriously cool experiment. Factions rose and fell, alliances were forged, battles waged, "rules of war" developed. It was amazing. But I don't think there's much to be gained from pontificating about it as a model for preventing hate speech. For one, it was moderated. The slow speed of creating things just meant it was easier on moderators. Secondly, the main thing that made it mostly pleasant was that only…

> This would just be pushing filter bubbles to the extreme and driving resentment underground where nobody would notice it until it bubbled over. Then people would be like "whoa, where'd all the hate speech come from?", when it was there all along but not the dominant voice. And they would be making poor decisions regarding their own political strategy, because they mistakenly believed that they had won a battle that…

Yes, I wasn't trying to be subtle!

Re: Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment

#108

Post by kjdndisneinj » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 5:44 PM UTC

najati83 wrote: post #47

someguy101010 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was surprised at the lack of swastikas, curse words, and nsfw content on the canvas, but that may say more about me than anything else.

Yes, me too. Admins were fine with a hammer and a sickle and an LGBT flag, though. We all have biases, after all. ;P

I'm sorry, but are you actually comparing Nazi symbolism to the LGBT flag?

This has to be sarcastic, no?

Re: Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment

#109

Post by Buttons840 » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 5:45 PM UTC

baby wrote: post #87

Buttons840 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 :(

My initial instinct was to down vote you, because (as we've discussed) Swastikas are synonymous with Nazism to many people, but on second reading it didn't seem like you were actually supporting Nazis so I decided I would ask. I also thought others might down vote you like I almost did.

I know I could have done a Google search and figured it out on my own, but if we're not allowed to ask questions which are already answered somewhere on the internet then I guess we wouldn't be asking very many questions.

Re: Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment

#110

Post by aryamaan » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 5:46 PM UTC

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…

And another thing I found quite interesting is that people were able to coordinate with each other to make it something planned.

I was feeling it would turn out to be some chaos because it's so easy to screw it up. ELI5, how people didn't screw it.