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Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Steps Aside, Focuses on Initialized Capital

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Re: Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Steps Aside, Focuses on Initialized Capital

#101

Post by abritinthebay »

Karunamon wrote: post #33
abritinthebay wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not... really. The Donald/GamerGate/alt-right/troll factor has got immeasurably worse over the last 2 years. They’ve done nothing about it - in fact seem to tacitly be ok with it (preferring the useless “leave them in their own space” approach that has kept failing for years ) Reddit is doing far far worse than even Twitter at combatting these issues. At least Twitter seems to be (kinda ineffectually) trying.

As much as I don’t want to bring that particular debate here, this comment reads like anyone with conservative politics is a troll to be silenced. As someone who doesn’t agree, please understand how offensive and unconstructive this statement is.

I like talking with conservatives. I may not be one but I think it is an important political viewpoint that can have valid perspectives.

But unless you’re going to say racism, bigotry, and all the rest that The Donald/alt-right bring to the table are conservative ideals I don’t see ANY way you could take what I said as espousing that.

Re: Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Steps Aside, Focuses on Initialized Capital

#102

Post by abritinthebay »

Karunamon wrote: post #56
eitally wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because those subs have absolutely nothign to do with conservative politics and everything to do with alt-right echo chamber trolling. There are plenty of places you can find polite political discourse on Reddit, like these: /r/PoliticalDiscussion/ And for logical, not emotional political debates: /r/AskAConservative /r/AskALiberal /r/DebateCommunism /r/DebateFascism /r/LibertarianDebates /r/DebateAnarchism

You include /r/politics on that list, which as we speak, has 100% of the front page dedicated to how horrible our president is. That is the absolute opposite of “thoughtful”, certainly not polite once you get into the comments and say anything that doesn't agree with that stance. I’d give you echo chamber, but also point out that applies to most subreddits in your list, but especially to the ask_$ideology types. Peop…

/r/politics is a bit of an echo chamber (tho really that’s due to being sick of the Donald brigades) but Trump is objectively horrible so that isn’t a good yardstick.

Re: Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Steps Aside, Focuses on Initialized Capital

#103

Post by Karunamon »

abritinthebay wrote: post #101
Karunamon wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as I don’t want to bring that particular debate here, this comment reads like anyone with conservative politics is a troll to be silenced. As someone who doesn’t agree, please understand how offensive and unconstructive this statement is.

I like talking with conservatives. I may not be one but I think it is an important political viewpoint that can have valid perspectives. But unless you’re going to say racism, bigotry, and all the rest that The Donald/alt-right bring to the table are conservative ideals I don’t see ANY way you could take what I said as espousing that.

See, the difference here is that as someone who regularly skims the top posts there (if nothing else to get away from the never-ending "trump is a baby eating puppy murderer" stories that exist literally everywhere else), I don't see the "racism and bigotry" that you're talking about.

Re: Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Steps Aside, Focuses on Initialized Capital

#104

Post by Karunamon »

abritinthebay wrote: post #102
Karunamon wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You include /r/politics on that list, which as we speak, has 100% of the front page dedicated to how horrible our president is. That is the absolute opposite of “thoughtful”, certainly not polite once you get into the comments and say anything that doesn't agree with that stance. I’d give you echo chamber, but also point out that applies to most subreddits in your list, but especially to the ask_$ideology types. Peop…

/r/politics is a bit of an echo chamber (tho really that’s due to being sick of the Donald brigades) but Trump is objectively horrible so that isn’t a good yardstick.

You make three statements here. The first is a verifiable fact, the second is an unsubstantiated falsehood, the last is an unfalsifiable opinion.

That opinion, and the constant shouting of it from every rooftop and constant silencing and badgering those who think otherwise, is the reason for the existence of the_donald.

This very thread has someone in it who called me a liar because I posted an image that proves botted content on the front page of /r/politics, and then I had to spend half an hour screwing around with google to debunk it. That is the online reality for anyone who doesn't viscerally hate the president, and it's become very tiresome.

Re: Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Steps Aside, Focuses on Initialized Capital

#105

Post by Quarrelsome »

komali2 wrote: post #14
Quarrelsome wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

probably pay-wall protest. At the very least its a "try-me" position to see how companies who implement pay-walls respond to this obvious outcome.

I have no problem with protesting pay walls, I hate them too. However, correct me if I'm wrong, reprinting wholesale a journal's article is a copyright crime in the USA, is it not? Or I guess it constitutes fair use somehow?

so is speeding on the highway... and yet.

Re: Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Steps Aside, Focuses on Initialized Capital

#106

Post by etjossem »

Karunamon wrote: post #97
pentagonpapers wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it possible that those users were deleted after this was revealed?

That appears to be what has happened. Contrary to etjossem's post, Google still has the history of their posts. howard_lowery: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm8e2/paul_ryan_... john_valtierra: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm7zz/could_sput... frank_calder: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm88x/donald_tru... terry_moore: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm79m/khizr_kh…

Okay - you're right. I'm surprised none of those show up in a title search. Reddit's search feature must be broken, because title queries are supposed to show even if the author is deleted.

So it looks like someone did make super obvious sockpuppets that posted some pro-Democrat content once. I still don't think you can generalize that to a trend - certainly nothing on the order of the Russian bots. If anything, /r/politics had a reputation at the time of being extremely favorable to conservatives.

Re: Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Steps Aside, Focuses on Initialized Capital

#107

Post by wldcordeiro »

shostack wrote: post #100
wldcordeiro wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They've already started! They're A/B testing the sign-up modal being uncloseable which of course means it'll pass because some marketing schmuck can say "See we get conversions!"

Can you elaborate on this test? Do you mean they are leaning towards not letting you browse Reddit without signing in? Or rather moving away from unverified accounts without an email attached?

The former, I'm a member of their beta and while I hadn't seen it since I've been logged in another user had posted in the /r/beta subreddit that when they were lurking and not logged in, the sign up modal came up but the close button had been removed. Users found that it was an A/B test.

https://www.reddit.com/live/x3ckzbsj6myw/updates/9d3e8984-e0...

https://www.reddit.com/r/beta/comments/7kletc/feedback_whats...

https://www.reddit.com/r/beta/comments/7jw57r/encountered_an...

https://www.reddit.com/r/beta/comments/7m2rko/feedback_homep...

Re: Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Steps Aside, Focuses on Initialized Capital

#108

Post by TheAdamAndChe »

slg wrote: post #96
coryrc wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the old days someone had to make a conscious decision to visit a site like SPLC. You weren't going to go there unless you already were interested in racist ideals. On Reddit those ideals are mixed in with everything else.

This is the exact type of thing I am talking about. You see this bothsiderism all over the place on Reddit. I am sure the author of this comment doesn't think of themselves as a racist (and perhaps there was sarcasm intended in this comment that is lost in the printed word). Many users might read this comment without considering it is racist. Yet the comment is drawing a direct parallel between Stormfront and the Sou…

Bad groups can hide behind good ideals. Just because they are a "nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation" does not mean they aren't racist or politically extreme.

I do agree that SPLC and Stormfront do not compare, but it could be argued that Reddit blocks or suppresses conservative, non-multiculturalist views much more than liberal ones. That asymmetry is part of what fuels the growing extremism IMO.

Re: Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Steps Aside, Focuses on Initialized Capital

#109

Post by sodosopa »

kn0thing wrote: post #75
hglaser wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's likely that the largest advertisers don't use the self-serve ad manager. They call their rep who operates the system for them. This is why the self-serve ad managers for AdWords, Facebook Ads, etc. are all pretty unloved.

Yes. The team has started making some good improvements to self serve, though, and it'll keep getting better.

shutting down the_donald would be a great improvement.

Re: Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Steps Aside, Focuses on Initialized Capital

#110

Post by hysan »

wldcordeiro wrote: post #107
shostack wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate on this test? Do you mean they are leaning towards not letting you browse Reddit without signing in? Or rather moving away from unverified accounts without an email attached?

The former, I'm a member of their beta and while I hadn't seen it since I've been logged in another user had posted in the /r/beta subreddit that when they were lurking and not logged in, the sign up modal came up but the close button had been removed. Users found that it was an A/B test. https://www.reddit.com/live/x3ckzbsj6myw/updates/9d3e8984-e0... https://www.reddit.com/r/beta/comments/7kletc/feedback_whats... ht…

Can confirm. I got it as a non-beta user while lurking. It also looked slightly different from screenshots others posted. So definitely being A/B tested with a few bugs (got PMed by a mod asking for details since users like me aren't supposed to get it).
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