How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US • Hacker News Board

Re: How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US

#21

Post by Pxtl » Wed, Jul 19, 2017, 4:33 PM UTC

selectodude wrote: post #4

icpmacdo wrote: post #2

I think Reddit is interestingly a net social positive. For all the bad things that come out of it you can often see users helping others in a pretty significant way.

No different than anything involving humans. I think people hate Reddit or twitter because raw humanity is mostly good but sometimes awful.

Every anonymous, troll-heavy forum will eventually chase out the moderates and only the most vile people will remain.

Saying that it's just humanity is unfair to the people who used to like a forum and then left it behind when it was no longer worth fighting for.

Various subreddits are slowly being taken over by racist agitators who know how this works.

Re: How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US

#22

Post by ant6n » Wed, Jul 19, 2017, 4:33 PM UTC

52-6F-62 wrote: post #12

quchen wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s /r/the_donald, and how did it »then happen«?

It's a safe dwelling for a mix of sycophant bots, Trump supporters/red-pillers, trolls, and possibly Russians (depending on who you ask). Warning: once you see it, you can't un-see it.

(Lots of downvotes here but no comments, so I gotta ask. What do people who disagree actually think?)

Re: How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US

#23

Post by Mouse47 » Wed, Jul 19, 2017, 4:34 PM UTC

52-6F-62 wrote: post #12

quchen wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s /r/the_donald, and how did it »then happen«?

It's a safe dwelling for a mix of sycophant bots, Trump supporters/red-pillers, trolls, and possibly Russians (depending on who you ask). Warning: once you see it, you can't un-see it.

Not sure why you're being downvoted. Every bit of what you're saying is true.

Re: How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US

#24

Post by lsmarigo » Wed, Jul 19, 2017, 4:34 PM UTC

icpmacdo wrote: post #2

I think Reddit is interestingly a net social positive. For all the bad things that come out of it you can often see users helping others in a pretty significant way.

Reddit has some fantastic and fascinating communities and really interesting cult-like ones (/r/nofap)

However I'd like to point out the admin policy towards hate groups and speech on reddit is in my opinion incredibly dangerous and damaging to our society. They will take action against subreddits like FPH (fat people hate) because of "real life" actions, meawhile there are thousands of highly upvoted calls to violence daily. Is this just a reflection of our society? Probably but I'm always interested to see which sites allow what. Here's what Jack Dorsey had to say about it regarding twitters ban on hate speech "Abuse is not part of civil discourse. It shuts down conversation and prevents us from understanding each other. Freedom of expression means little if we allow voices to be silenced because of fear of harassment if they speak up"

As a minority I've stopped using reddit and know many others like me, the ones that stay stick around to drop in "As a [insert minority group]...it's totally OK that this racist meme is highly upvoted with racist comments - because its a joke ha ha" posts

The obvious counter-argument is silencing them strengthens their argument and makes them a martyr. I don't buy that argument at all, it's far more dangerous to allow them to indoctrinate and appeal to all the fringe disenfranchised youth which they've become frighteningly effective at. In any case it's clear reddit can be used for good like in this article, I'm just not so sure it's a net positive to society as another poster argued.

Is it fair to say it's their responsibility to police society when they just run the platform? Probably not, but I do know there's a big problem here and it's causing immense damage daily, racism and xenophobia are on the rise.

Re: How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US

#25

Post by mrkrabo » Wed, Jul 19, 2017, 4:35 PM UTC

zeep wrote: post #19

vinhboy wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to think so. I enjoyed Reddit a lot, despite people complaining about it. Then /r/the_donald happened. Now I tread carefully because you never know what kind of propaganda is being spread around. People say stick to the subreddit. But I think that's silly. If the core of Reddit is rotten, then the subreddit themselves will be affected. It has happened to places I visit like /r/environment. There is a constant…

/r/politics is similar to /r/the_donald but it is the exact opposite (it could have been called /r/the_hillary)

And what's even worse: /r/politics doesn't look like a parody (like the_donald does) so some people take it like it's a neutral place for discussion :P

Re: How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US

#26

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jul 19, 2017, 4:35 PM UTC

vinhboy wrote: post #7

icpmacdo wrote: post #2

I think Reddit is interestingly a net social positive. For all the bad things that come out of it you can often see users helping others in a pretty significant way.

I used to think so. I enjoyed Reddit a lot, despite people complaining about it. Then /r/the_donald happened. Now I tread carefully because you never know what kind of propaganda is being spread around. People say stick to the subreddit. But I think that's silly. If the core of Reddit is rotten, then the subreddit themselves will be affected. It has happened to places I visit like /r/environment. There is a constant…

[deleted]

Re: How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US

#27

Post by alikoneko » Wed, Jul 19, 2017, 4:35 PM UTC

vinhboy wrote: post #7

icpmacdo wrote: post #2

I think Reddit is interestingly a net social positive. For all the bad things that come out of it you can often see users helping others in a pretty significant way.

I used to think so. I enjoyed Reddit a lot, despite people complaining about it. Then /r/the_donald happened. Now I tread carefully because you never know what kind of propaganda is being spread around. People say stick to the subreddit. But I think that's silly. If the core of Reddit is rotten, then the subreddit themselves will be affected. It has happened to places I visit like /r/environment. There is a constant…

How is /r/t_d different from /r/theredpill or any of the other racist/sexist/terrible subs? I haven't really seen any overflow in a lot of the not-default subs, but it could also be the subs I visit. I mostly stick to subs for games I play, programming, and a couple BP support subs.

For me, the crucial change of how I curate my subs happened when 2x became a default. I hated the sudden influx of bad posts, mansplaining, and terrible/abusive comments.

Re: How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US

#28

Post by BoratObama » Wed, Jul 19, 2017, 4:35 PM UTC

pat_space wrote: post #5

icpmacdo wrote: post #2

I think Reddit is interestingly a net social positive. For all the bad things that come out of it you can often see users helping others in a pretty significant way.

I don't think of Reddit as a single entity, but as a platform for communities(subreddits). The differences between subreddit communities are vast, ranging from 100% toxic to 100% positive.

My view of reddit has changed similarly. I think of it as something similar to vBulletin or bbPress with r/all or r/popular as a flagship gateway to subreddits. And recently I purged all my subreddits and started from scratch to build a better reddit experience geared towards self improvement and a more wholesome experience. No more toxic communities. I look for niche communities with civil discourse and common interests.

Re: How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US

#29

Post by vinhboy » Wed, Jul 19, 2017, 4:35 PM UTC

zeep wrote: post #19

vinhboy wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to think so. I enjoyed Reddit a lot, despite people complaining about it. Then /r/the_donald happened. Now I tread carefully because you never know what kind of propaganda is being spread around. People say stick to the subreddit. But I think that's silly. If the core of Reddit is rotten, then the subreddit themselves will be affected. It has happened to places I visit like /r/environment. There is a constant…

/r/politics is similar to /r/the_donald but it is the exact opposite (it could have been called /r/the_hillary)

No it's not. This exactly the kinda of propaganda you should be aware of.

/r/the_donald specifically exists to spread false information, and to dox and harass people.

/r/politics is opinionated because of it's user base. It's not intentionally a propaganda machine.

Re: How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US

#30

Post by pcnix » Wed, Jul 19, 2017, 4:35 PM UTC

zeep wrote: post #19

vinhboy wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to think so. I enjoyed Reddit a lot, despite people complaining about it. Then /r/the_donald happened. Now I tread carefully because you never know what kind of propaganda is being spread around. People say stick to the subreddit. But I think that's silly. If the core of Reddit is rotten, then the subreddit themselves will be affected. It has happened to places I visit like /r/environment. There is a constant…

/r/politics is similar to /r/the_donald but it is the exact opposite (it could have been called /r/the_hillary)

/r/politics does not outright run itself as a safe space for a particular group though, unlike /r/the_donald. Any criticism on /r/the_donald gets you a ban, whereas any criticism on /r/politics just gets you downvotes, which are entirely consistent with how the sub should be run.