Reddit's top user leaves platform after harassment • Hacker News Board

Re: Reddit's top user leaves platform after harassment

#81

Post by friendlybus » Thu, May 21, 2020, 3:03 PM UTC

BitwiseFool wrote: post #6

I downloaded Reddit Enhancement Suite and it has a feature that marks the cumulative amount of upvotes you've given a user when you see a post of theirs. It is absolutely eye-opening just how much content is posted by the same few dozens of usernames. GallowBoob is the most infamous but to focus on him would be a mistake. It's pretty clear to me that the vast majority of content on Reddit is heavily manipulated and a…

Yes a lot of social media relies on cycling news and has the potential to slide in rumours that come out the 'other side' as fact. It's a flawed system, but it's worth watching the washing machine spin because a lot of great clean clothes come out from between all the suds and dirt.

Re: Reddit's top user leaves platform after harassment

#82

Post by s9w » Thu, May 21, 2020, 3:04 PM UTC

myself248 wrote: post #23

thebouv wrote: post #5

So, I don't get it. Why does it matter if a few volunteer mods manage a ton of subs? Isn't it hard to do? So they have a hard job? And it's volunteer? And .. what? I don't understand the outrage directed at mods I guess. Note: I'm a light Reddit user. I follow a handful of subs. And I can't name a single mod of any of them. Maybe this is more meaningful for people who spend more time on the site and are more involved…

> I follow a handful of subs. And I can't name a single mod of any of them. I unfollowed all of the default subs, they're just not interesting to me. I use reddit for a few technical subs, a few local subs, and a few off-the-beaten-path funny subs. None of them even made the list of top-however-many that showed how they all had a few mods in common. All these critical articles seem to assume that people consume the d…

These people don't just control the big subreddits. r/programming is controlled by spez for example. Not that he would have a problem with just changing the Reddit database manually anyways.

Re: Reddit's top user leaves platform after harassment

#83

Post by mellosouls » Thu, May 21, 2020, 3:04 PM UTC

The issue he was "outed" over (concerning alleged control of a significant portion of reddit by a small number of users) was discussed here previously:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23173018

Re: Reddit's top user leaves platform after harassment

#84

Post by polytely » Thu, May 21, 2020, 3:04 PM UTC

hi41 wrote: post #9

Can someone please explain how doxing works at a technical level? Suppose I post something on Twitter or Youtube that someone does not like how would they dox me? For example, CNN outed a guy who did a video where Trump bashes a guy superimposed with CNN in a boxing ring. Wouldn't such attempts at doxing people also put pressure on their freedom of speech and expression?

There are tons of examples of how 4chan routinely traced down individuals based on little evidence.

For more recent examples see bellingcat.com it's amazing how far you can go with just open sources and a lot of determination. It also helps to have multiple people do the searching, if like a 100 people would trawl through your posting history here they could probably create a pretty detailed profile of you.

For example, on my hackernews profile I link to my mastodon handle. If you would go through my mastodon posting history you would see that I occasionally post links to YouTube music videos I like, I also occasionally post comments under YouTube videos under my real name. If you took all videos I've ever posted to mastodon in like a 2-year period, and compared the comments you could probably find out what my real name is. It would take some hours of menial work, but it's pretty straightforward.

Re: Reddit's top user leaves platform after harassment

#85

Post by ww520 » Thu, May 21, 2020, 3:04 PM UTC

ramphastidae wrote: post #51

eganist wrote: post #4

Relationship Advice lead-ish mod here. We were one of the subs "called out" as being controlled by Gallowboob with the original post and subsequent reposts. We (buu700 and I) added Gallowboob some years back largely to have insight into how other teams modded their subs at a time when we were growing quickly and needed to know what to do to keep up. While useful in meeting that goal, we quickly realized it was pretty…

Why do you free work for a for-profit social network, especially if you say yourself that the work negatively impacts your mental health and that the community you are moderating is toxic? What are you getting out of this?

Power tripping is very addictive.

Re: Reddit's top user leaves platform after harassment

#86

Post by Goronmon » Thu, May 21, 2020, 3:04 PM UTC

collyw wrote: post #76

Goronmon wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you getting out of this? Not the OP, but most people just want to help a community that they are a part of and take a hand in making it better and helping members of the community. You have to remember, this issue is played on pretty much every online community that has likely ever existed, in some form or another. Long before the term "social network" became used.

Judging from most moderators that are active it would appear to be a power thing for them.

Oh for sure, for some people that's definitely true. And honestly, the community itself self-selects for people for who that's true as well, since most reasonable people realize that being a moderator is actually kind of terrible in reality. So the people who last the longest tend to be the people who aren't just in it out of altruism (users work hard to drive that motive into the ground).

But at the end of the day, you need moderators. And the job sucks and is unpaid, so you can't exactly select only the "perfect" candidates.

Re: Reddit's top user leaves platform after harassment

#87

Post by jboog » Thu, May 21, 2020, 3:05 PM UTC

commandlinefan wrote: post #21

BitwiseFool wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a moderator you have the power to control what people see - subscribers and visitors alike. To me, it's easy to see how moderators with an agenda can curate content to match their views. It also wouldn't surprise me if some moderators are compensated - under the radar - by influencers and marketers.

When I first started on Reddit like 10 years ago, it leaned pretty libertarian (pro Ron Paul, pro free speech, etc.). I noticed over time that it leaned farther and farther left, and I wondered what had happened to all the previous users. Then there came a conspiracy theory that a handful of users had gamed the moderation system to take control of the tone of the site overall - especially the one that's the topic of…

I started on Reddit about a decade ago also.

Early reddit was a lot more like current HN. You're right you'd see more pro Ron Paul and libertarian stuff. Then the site went mainstream.

Users on the internet are more liberal than the general pop. Add that to the fact that Reddit up/downvote system does a terrible job of allowing unpopular/controversial views to reach the top.

Those same Ron Paul fans are all in r/conservative or r/The_donald, or other conservative subs now. There are way more now than there ever were.

You don't really need a conspiracy theory when the very nature of the site and the internet explain what happened really effectively.

Re: Reddit's top user leaves platform after harassment

#88

Post by raverbashing » Thu, May 21, 2020, 3:05 PM UTC

karaterobot wrote: post #61

raverbashing wrote: post #33

The way I see it is someone who has enjoyed a "privileged" position without transparency or accountability for a long time is surprised that people find issues with concentration of moderation powers (especially across subreddits). Makes me wonder what is it that people find so appealing in having moderation of subreddits as an almost full time job.

Concentration of influence in the media is a real issue, yes. However, doxing him isn't a reasonable or helpful response to those concerns.

Completely agree.

And while there are advantages to those positions being "anonymous" the impact of an eventual doxxing is heightened by it.

Maybe an initial greater transparency would have been better in the long run. Or something like rotation of positions, etc.

Re: Reddit's top user leaves platform after harassment

#89

Post by intopieces » Thu, May 21, 2020, 3:05 PM UTC

iratewizard wrote: post #45

Reddit's top user in the sense that he reposts to farm karma and moderates over 1000 subreddits. He is an opportunist seeking power. Generally, he is disliked by a large portion of reddit. Spamming reddit at that scale to become self appointed "top user" has a major impact on the site, and it's for the worse when it dilutes the content on a site. Unsurprisingly, there are several accusations of him selling his influe…

> Generally, he is disliked by a large portion of reddit.

Huh? 98.1% of users don't post [0]. The user mentioned in the article has the most points of anyone, meaning their posts have the most votes. That doesn't indicate dislike. Quite the opposite, actually.

Was there a poll about this user to gauge sentiment?

[0]https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/b5f9wi/let...

Re: Reddit's top user leaves platform after harassment

#90

Post by RyJones » Thu, May 21, 2020, 3:05 PM UTC

bredren wrote: post #15

I am a freshman moderator of /r/portland. I had thought working as a moderator would be a great way to help grow the subreddit's base. Offer more useful real world interaction points and basically have a big impact on Portland. Instead what I've found is that 99% of the time the moderators are dealing with bad actors and that has to be the primary focus to keep the sub from falling apart. It isn't just dealing with t…

I used to mod /r/answers. It took over my life, in a bad way. There is (or was) next to no support from paid staff on serious problems.