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Reddit’s Astonishing Altruism

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Re: Reddit’s Astonishing Altruism

#41

Post by jamesteow »

rdtsc wrote: post #27
tav wrote: post #4

Am I the only person who found Reddit generally quite unpleasant? It really is heart-warming to hear of all the good that those on Reddit have done. But I can't help feel that it's the exact same mob mentality which made me want to leave Reddit in the first place — discussions got extremely polarised very quickly and there seemed to be very little room for reasoned dialogue. The article makes it sound like a good thi…

> But I can't help feel that it's the exact same mob mentality which made me want to leave Reddit in the first place. To put in the cliché Freudian speak -- Reddit is the Id and HN is Superego. Reddit is the place to call people stupid, post silly pictures of cats, but also a place to get together and donate for a cause, talk someone out of a suicide, or just spread around stupid memes for fun. A well placed witty on…

"Anything too intellectual will likely get a TL;DR type reaction."

I mostly agree with your post except for this. I actually find that Redditor's are extremely good about offering a counterpoint to a sensational title. Oftentimes, someone in the field related to the article will post something intellectual debunking the story (especially in the case of something to do with science or medicine) which will offer far more additional material than the source itself.

Re: Reddit’s Astonishing Altruism

#42

Post by jewbacca »

phlux wrote: post #37
cynicalkane wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the N-hundredth time, "aspergers" is not the same as being a nerd. It's an autism-spectrum condition that carries with it a substantial sensory integration disorder (among other things), which you'll notice most nerds don't posses.

point reinforced seeing as your reply was to my HN comment

How so? Yes, I understand it is geeky to protest a semantic inaccuracy for spite of which the intended meaning of the original point comes through. But you'll see the same thing on any forum (I've seen people who fail to capitalize the beginnings of sentences loose their shit at spelling errors), and I don't see how cynicalkane's not-unreasonable correction (continuing to use "Asperger's" as a synonym for "Nerd" does get a perpetuate its use as an unhealthy crutch for the socially-awkward neurotypical) trips anything but the most wildly flailing, meat-free interpretations of your protest.

To your point itself, very few stories on the front page of HN at any given time have members of HN, or people you would accuse members of HN of playing fawning court to, as participants. Many of them have one or two comments that say "Seriously guys? This isn't Reddit." They're usually buried gray at the bottom, forgotten under a mound of productive discussion on whatever the topic is at hand.

Re: Reddit’s Astonishing Altruism

#43

Post by jewbacca »

heyitsnick wrote: post #31
Lewisham wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit is not a place to have dialogue. Community-moderated areas just aren't very good at it. Even HN has been accused from suffering groupthink. If you want dialogue, forums, mailing lists or better yet, the real world (if you can find the community you need to discuss things with), is a better place to have it.

> If you want dialogue, forums, mailing lists or better yet, the real world (if you can find the community you need to discuss things with), is a better place to have it. Why?

Hmm... more specialized fora will have the more concentrated focus of intentionally-informed people who've gathered explicitly to discuss a topic. Too much off-topic noise will get you shunned, because people come there for the signal (Reddit, though I love it, is noise incarnate). With far fewer threads, people maintain a discussion rather than post and run. In far smaller communities, with active posters within Dunbar's number[0], will call you out on your shit or for bailing whenever you get shut down.

  ---
[0] Dunbar's number is a theoretical cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number

Re: Reddit’s Astonishing Altruism

#44

Post by zeraholladay »

jewbacca wrote: post #36
ronnoch wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, Reddit's problems are caused by its size, the same way that Digg's are caused by its size. But this does not make the groupthink, mob mentality etc. any less irritating.

We're having two discussions in parallel: on the objective value of Reddit given its circumstances, and on our own personal taste for using it. You're probably much better off in many ways for not visiting. I would like to know how informed abstainers see Reddit. I feel like given some contrived option to identify themselves with the heritage of their birth culture or nationality, or by their careers, or by where the…

I'm not sure what you mean by informed abstainers, but if you mean informed abstainers of Reddit then I can speak for myself.

I see Reddit as a self-aggrandizing media outlet. Members generally accept liberal values as status quo. Meaningful discussion imitates base prime time political discourse.

Some of my specific gripes are:

1. Racism on Reddit is an acceptable subtext, as long as the subtext is funny. 2. Sexism on Reddit is acceptable as long as your mother, wife, or daughter are not directly considered. 3. Israel is wrong on Reddit.

I know I'm painting a pretty nasty picture of a lot of people, and I apologize to those who don't deserve it, but I've seen group think plenty of times before in my life and Reddit is it.

Re: Reddit’s Astonishing Altruism

#45

Post by marknutter »

I actually find reddit to be somewhat nauseating. Call me cynical, but I can't help but think the Reddit community performs every kind act with an air of smug, self-centerdness you often find in creepy church youth groups or after school specials. I started visiting reddit because digg's links started sucking, and now I visit HN primarily because reddit is no longer about good links either. It's a maassive geek circle jerk where people share semi amusing images, write self-affirming posts, and run every meme known to man into the ground. Reddit's new slogan about sums it up: "The Voice of the Internet." That's a lofty claim. Anyways, the same thing is bound to happen to HN at some point. The problem with social news sites is that they all get worse as the user base grows.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for helping people. But reddit was a link aggregator at one point, and it has been disappointing to see that side of it melt away over the years.

Re: Reddit’s Astonishing Altruism

#47

Post by drivebyacct2 »

ronnoch wrote: post #19
jewbacca wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps compared to HN. But I would characterize Reddit (as characterized by what's voted up into default visibility) as fairly open-minded, even compulsively contrarian. While a large proportion of the up/down-voting is from petty agreement, there is still a strong enough core of "productive discussion" voting to overcome it. Especially with knee-jerk outrage stories, there's as much skepticism as I've seen in any o…

> But I would characterize Reddit (as characterized by what's voted up into default visibility) as fairly open-minded, even compulsively contrarian. Have you been there recently? They're "contrarian" in the sense that they disagree with the non-Reddit mainstream, but they hardly respect contrarianism to their own views. I definitely would not call them "open-minded." (At least, not in the main subreddits. There are s…

That's simply an overexaggeration. I wouldn't even say that reddit likes to go against the mainstream. Liberalism, pro-gay marriage, pro-pot. These things don't fit with the current law, but they certainly are not minority views in the broader public.

Even then, go read /r/trees, it's full of people who are very sensible and will contradict other "Ents" if they're being stupid about their use of cannabis. They chastise other Democrats for having extreme views.

It's cheap to sit on the sidelines and classify reddit. If you're only reading the headlines and not participating in the discussion then you're missing the point. Similarly, if you're only subscribed to the default subreddits, you're missing the truly good stuff.

It's unbelievable how much GOOD content appears in the android, ubuntu, electronic music subreddits that people never see because they dismiss it they way you are.

Re: Reddit’s Astonishing Altruism

#48

Post by drivebyacct2 »

marknutter wrote: post #45

I actually find reddit to be somewhat nauseating. Call me cynical, but I can't help but think the Reddit community performs every kind act with an air of smug, self-centerdness you often find in creepy church youth groups or after school specials. I started visiting reddit because digg's links started sucking, and now I visit HN primarily because reddit is no longer about good links either. It's a maassive geek circl…

I will call you cynical. How can you sit there and say that? You have no examples of them doing this for self-serving purposes and quite frankly, the volume and repetition of their generosity is so great that it is bewildering to think that they are doing it for self serving purposes. And who gives a shit if I get off on helping people? Isn't it a good thing that I feel good about helping people? Isn't that in line with a sense of humanity?

edit: Additionally, remove /r/pics, /r/funny, /r/atheism and add the more obscure tech subreddits. There is plenty of tech content that comes through in /r/programming and /r/javascript that shows up before it shows up here. It is a link aggregator. Please take the 5 minutes, make an account and setup your subreddits correctly. I think you could be very pleasantly surprised.

Re: Reddit’s Astonishing Altruism

#49

Post by revoltingx »

Reddit and its community blows balls. There are churches out there who contribute in much bigger ways and get less publicity.

What a bunch of self serving douchebags. I'm sure they contribute online, but what will they do when someone in need approaches them in the street?

This kind of behavior is disgusting.

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