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Reddit’s Astonishing Altruism

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Re: Reddit’s Astonishing Altruism

#51
post #3

reddit is made of people.

Yeah, but you could say the same thing about the Nazi party and the civil rights movement in the United States. That statement is vacuous since I seriously doubt anyone reading this thought Reddit might be made of non-people. What's your point?

EDIT: While I agree with your sentiment and my comment could be interpreted has harsh depending on the tone of voice, I've said this kind of thing before (x is made of people) and always wished I had clarified it more. So please think of it as more of an invitation rather than a challenge.

Re: Reddit’s Astonishing Altruism

#52
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 mo…

I think it really depends on the subreddit. Once you start getting into speciality subreddits, the level of the discourse increases.

Re: Reddit’s Astonishing Altruism

#53

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.

Seriously? You hear of a group of people who do good things, and your response is, "Well, they don't do as well as this other group that does good things!"

They did some really great things, and your response is "disgusting". Sad.

Re: Reddit’s Astonishing Altruism

#54

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.

Seriously? You hear of a group of people who do good things, and your response is, "Well, they don't do as well as this other group that does good things!" They did some really great things, and your response is "disgusting". Sad.

WTF, that's not at all what I said. All I said they're a bunch of self serving douchebags and that churches do this kind of stuff all the time without any praise.

Most of these 'deeds' are pretty worthless. The fact that clicking a button and making a donation makes people feel good, while actual people are starving around the corner. I then see these same type of people on the streets refusing to even spare change.

This is what disgusts me.

Idiot.

Re: Reddit’s Astonishing Altruism

#55
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…

I've actually switched from reading HN to mostly reading Reddit.

The level of discourse increases quite a bit in subreddits, and you can usually find good discussions on even obscure interests. On the other hand, its pretty rare for the level of discourse to get to the level of HN. But level of discourse isn't the only quality of Reddit.

I think the main reason for me switching to mostly reading Reddit was because I found it very comforting to read r/atheism (my family is very Christian, mostly fundamentalist and I was a closeted Atheist). I suspect that emotional support is what a lot of people go to reddit for.

Re: Reddit’s Astonishing Altruism

#56

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 w…

I said I have no problem with people helping others - I'm not a sociopath. It's the whole "look, everyone, at how awesome we are" circle jerk that I find nauseating. Besides, I think reddit has performed an equal number of acts of vengeance as they have acts of altruism and have nailed the wrong person in more than one instance - perhaps that's worthy of a blog post. At least 4chan admits what it is.

Again, my issue isn't that reddit is an active community, it's that it has turned from a link sharing site to a larger, more work friendly version of 4chan with an incredibly inflated sense of self-righteousness.

And to be sure, I'm no reddit noob, I've had an account for 3 years and spent a lot of time cultivating my subreddits. It is a matter of opinion, I realize, but overall it has become a pretty poor source of good web content these days, for me anyhow.

Re: Reddit’s Astonishing Altruism

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 w…

I said I have no problem with people helping others - I'm not a sociopath. It's the whole "look, everyone, at how awesome we are" circle jerk that I find nauseating. Besides, I think reddit has performed an equal number of acts of vengeance as they have acts of altruism and have nailed the wrong person in more than one instance - perhaps that's worthy of a blog post. At least 4chan admits what it is. Again, my issue…

Go find me a significant number of highly voted posts, or ANY, that gloat about how much they've raised. I remember those posts where they were driving. The closest thing imaginable to what you're describing was "we're almost to $xxx,xxx dollars everyone" posts. I've seen OTHER websites talk about it. I've seen Colbert talk about it, but NEVER have I seen a submission, let alone a post, that even remotely read "We're so awesome, go us!". If you think that is the style of comments on reddit, then honestly, I question your actual participation there. You're blindlyand prooflessly questioning their intentions and I find that offensive on their behalf.

Their acts of vengence are terrible and misplaced. Even just now I read a post about the Gizmodo jerk responding and making fun of reddit in a tweet. Someone commented to torment his flickr photos and someone immediately replied back that it would be a dick move.

You forget that reddit is made up of people. When it reaches the size it is, you're guaranteed to have the idiots that do vigilante stuff. But when one of the ADMINS who rarely condemn the community SHREDS into everyone about stopping the vigilantism... I think you're missing the forest for the few rotten trees (and I think it's because you want to).

I still think you are COMPLETELY wrong about the relevancy of posts in the good subreddits. You're doing a poor job of cultivating your subreddits frankly if you can't find a good combo resulting in quality links. Again, you bring up this sense of "self-righteousness" that is COMPLETELY unsubstantiated and not for you to say.

I think you've made your mind up without giving them a chance, and even when pressed for details, you make the same vague claims about their motives and intentions without any more substantiation than the first time you said it.

Re: Reddit’s Astonishing Altruism

#58

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.

People tend to be fascinated when a system does things it is not created to do.

Reddit's primary purpose is to share and comment on links whereas churches are founded to spread goodwill in a community.

Re: Reddit’s Astonishing Altruism

#59
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…

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.

Reddit is a very good place to have a discussion with a small group of people -- thanks to the orangered envelope you get whenever someone replies to one of your posts. HN, by comparison, discussions last only as long as the link remains on the homepage. On reddit, I've had conversations go on for weeks.

Re: Reddit’s Astonishing Altruism

#60
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i attribute that description to 4chan...reddit is kinda meh by comparison

4chan is Chaotic Neutral. Reddit is Neutral Good.

I'm not sure what it says about me that I really enjoy reducing complex individuals and groups to AD&D archetypes.
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