Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian Resigns from the Board of Reddit • Hacker News Board

Re: Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian Resigns from the Board of Reddit

#201

Post by bobcostas55 » Fri, Jun 05, 2020, 6:01 PM UTC

forbiddenlake wrote: post #74

jimbob45 wrote: post #23

Reddit mods wantonly abuse their power and I'm not even talking about politics. Ever been to r/science? 8/10 comments are deleted and those posts can't be read ever again (I'm understating that number, if anything). Honestly, half the reason I come here is because you can still view dead comments - censorship is a surefire way to get me to leave your community.

> Ever been to r/science? 8/10 comments are deleted and those posts can't be read ever again Note that this is clearly spelled out in the subreddit rules, and is by design. 8/10 comments on reddit as a whole are jokes, anecdotes, off topic, or simply low quality. /r/science tries to promote high-quality discussion of actual science, does so by heavy moderation, and doesn't pretend they're not deleting most comments.…

The moderation in /r/science is mostly about removing politically incorrect but true posts, nothing to do with "cruft".

Re: Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian Resigns from the Board of Reddit

#202

Post by empath75 » Fri, Jun 05, 2020, 6:01 PM UTC

MarcellusDrum wrote: post #32

Reddit got too mainstream for its own good. The company desperately wants to become the new social media (think Facebook or Twitter), but many users are standing in the way, making the change from a discussion website to a social media website slow. What made me and many others use Reddit in the first place is that it didn't really matter who you are and what's your political and religious background, the only thing…

Just like good people don't want to work with bad cops and leave the force, good people don't want to be forced to interact with racists and misogynists, and reddit has had a problem with both from day one.

Re: Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian Resigns from the Board of Reddit

#203

Post by asdff » Fri, Jun 05, 2020, 6:02 PM UTC

hart_russell wrote: post #24

minimaxir wrote: post #3

Relevant context: recently, former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao called out Reddit for their policies after Reddit did a statement on Black Lives Matter: > I am obligated to call you out: You should have shut down the_donald instead of amplifying it and its hate, racism, and violence. So much of what is happening now lies at your feet. You don't get to say BLM when reddit nurtures and monetizes white supremacy and hate all da…

But that's why she was ousted: https://www.wired.com/2015/07/reddit-ceo-ellen-pao-steps-dow... Turns out only allowing speech that you deem acceptable makes for a pretty boring internet forum.

Here we are on HN, one of the most censored and moderated forums on the internet. Personally, I find it quite refreshing.

Re: Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian Resigns from the Board of Reddit

#204

Post by aeturnum » Fri, Jun 05, 2020, 6:02 PM UTC

nromiun wrote: post #109

beamatronic wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by "far left"? Can you give an example?

Just take any (communism, revolution etc) agenda from the far left and try to post against that in some popular subreddit. I guarantee that you will get banned immediately. At this point they should just post a "Only Leftists allowed" banner. That would be so much easier.

I mean, a quick search of /r/politics, which is liberal, suggests to me that you're over-stating the case. Conservative posts are often unpopular and people expressing conservative views get a lot of downvotes, but it was simple to find posts that go against the culture of the subreddit[1][2]. I wouldn't recommend /r/politics as a place to discuss politics - I agree it isn't representative of the median US voters' view.

I think it's one thing to say reddit is mostly people'd be leftists, which I agree with, and another to say that conservative opinions are explicitly banned. I think conservative opinions are unpopular and the imbalance makes reddit a poor place to understand the politics of the median person in the US, but non-leftists are allowed.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/fdpixv/city_of_mi...

[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/f8cdys/bernie_san...

Re: Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian Resigns from the Board of Reddit

#205

Post by tossout99 » Fri, Jun 05, 2020, 6:03 PM UTC

purephase wrote: post #12

minimaxir wrote: post #3

Relevant context: recently, former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao called out Reddit for their policies after Reddit did a statement on Black Lives Matter: > I am obligated to call you out: You should have shut down the_donald instead of amplifying it and its hate, racism, and violence. So much of what is happening now lies at your feet. You don't get to say BLM when reddit nurtures and monetizes white supremacy and hate all da…

Yeah, TD alone was huge in 2016-2017 and was a huge contributor to the dynamic we have in the world today. Ellen is 100% right here and Alex did absolutely nothing to address it. Good on her for publicly calling it out.

r/conservative seems to be taking on the role of T_D now, unfortunately.

Re: Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian Resigns from the Board of Reddit

#206

Post by nromiun » Fri, Jun 05, 2020, 6:03 PM UTC

_emacsomancer_ wrote: post #177

nromiun wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because I have seen multiple times that any political post or comment right of the far left getting banned? And reddit isn't connected to real life and "mainstream" in any way. In fact they can give Twitter a run for their money based on how disconnected from reality they are.

> Because I have seen multiple times that any political post or comment right of the far left getting banned? Try posting anything that is mildly critical of Biden from a slightly further left position on r/politics and see how well you fare.

My original point was that Reddit is nothing but a toxic echo chamber. So I think you are agreeing with me?

Re: Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian Resigns from the Board of Reddit

#207

Post by snapetom » Fri, Jun 05, 2020, 6:04 PM UTC

koheripbal wrote: post #59

minimaxir wrote: post #3

Relevant context: recently, former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao called out Reddit for their policies after Reddit did a statement on Black Lives Matter: > I am obligated to call you out: You should have shut down the_donald instead of amplifying it and its hate, racism, and violence. So much of what is happening now lies at your feet. You don't get to say BLM when reddit nurtures and monetizes white supremacy and hate all da…

I'm confused. T_D was shut down. The sub was quarantined, then hidden, and finally all the mods were removed and the sub was more-or-less locked. Does she mean that it should have been done sooner?

I'm confused, too. Shortly after Pao left is when all the quarantining, admin interventions, bannings, and 18+ warnings popped up on reddit. It was clear that reddit felt going mainstream was the only way for profitability.

When Pao said:

"Ultimately, the board asked me to demonstrate higher user growth in the next six months than I believe I can deliver while maintaining Reddit’s core principles."

Some, and I agree with them, interpreted this as Pao being the one that actually tried to keep reddit more of a discussion/free-speech site (the "core principles" she referred to), and the mob was wrong all along. Therefore, on the surface, either we were completely wrong, or Pao is changing the narrative today.

Either way, and it goes without saying, there's far more going on here than anyone outside of the board room knows.

Re: Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian Resigns from the Board of Reddit

#208

Post by vegannet » Fri, Jun 05, 2020, 6:05 PM UTC

meowface wrote: post #162

purephase wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, TD alone was huge in 2016-2017 and was a huge contributor to the dynamic we have in the world today. Ellen is 100% right here and Alex did absolutely nothing to address it. Good on her for publicly calling it out.

I think if TD were banned in 2016, there's a decent chance the world would look even worse and more polarized today, due to the backlash and chain reactions that would have occurred. Picture "TOP SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANY BANS SUPPORT OF THE PRESIDENT" headlines running for months. Picture Trump bringing it up in hundreds of speeches and tweets, demanding regulation and saying how unfair it is that he and his supporters a…

I don’t think this alarmist view makes much sense because all of that has happened, and more. The Right (the group of angry young white men inhabiting r/the_donald not conservative voters) spend every moment outraged about censorship and supposed sleights against them — real or not. Everything you describe is happening every single day and has been since before Donald Trump and will continue after him. If the_donald had been shut down it would have been a positive, without question.

Re: Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian Resigns from the Board of Reddit

#209

Post by asdff » Fri, Jun 05, 2020, 6:06 PM UTC

alecb wrote: post #70

MarcellusDrum wrote: post #32

Reddit got too mainstream for its own good. The company desperately wants to become the new social media (think Facebook or Twitter), but many users are standing in the way, making the change from a discussion website to a social media website slow. What made me and many others use Reddit in the first place is that it didn't really matter who you are and what's your political and religious background, the only thing…

The site became mainstream while still being extremely vulnerable to manipulation by a very small pool of individuals. They've done next to nothing to address how effective and rampant brigading is (among other tactics).

It really doesn't take much to brigade. Write some scripts to get 100 accounts upvoting your posts while they are on new, and chances are after that initial hump you've surmounted with your bots it will catch exponential viewership over the course of the day and make it to the front page.

Re: Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian Resigns from the Board of Reddit

#210

Post by _emacsomancer_ » Fri, Jun 05, 2020, 6:06 PM UTC

nromiun wrote: post #206

_emacsomancer_ wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Because I have seen multiple times that any political post or comment right of the far left getting banned? Try posting anything that is mildly critical of Biden from a slightly further left position on r/politics and see how well you fare.

My original point was that Reddit is nothing but a toxic echo chamber. So I think you are agreeing with me?

I think in the big political (and even many of the non-political) subreddits, there is tolerance only for a very narrow band of centrist Dem opinions, and anything outside that band to the left or the right is heavily downvoted.