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Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian Resigns from the Board of Reddit

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

#211

Post by fl0wenol »

na85 wrote: post #78
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…

I think the real problem facing the reddit corporate folks is that people on that site are slowly but inexorably coming around to the realization (if they aren't there already) that what makes a site good from the user's standpoint is pretty much antithetical to making it profitable. Unfortunately for reddit, the site owes its existence to the users who built communities there, and when heavy-handed changes are intro…

For a recent history lesson, see tumblr. Or vine.

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

#212

Post by _emacsomancer_ »

jaywalk wrote: post #172
_emacsomancer_ wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would say that Reddit began as libertarian, and is now far-left. In the same way that Biden, who pushed Reagan from the right on 'tough on crime' laws, is portrayed as the far-left.

I wouldn't call Biden far-left by any means, and the support he has on Reddit doesn't seem to be much more enthusiastic than "he's the best chance we have of getting rid of Trump."

There's a lot of wiping away a tear posts about the 'compassion' of the author of the Crime Bill.

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

#213

Post by downerending »

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?

Suspect she's more just looking for something to complain about. In any case, T_D is indeed gone, and no doubt the world is a better place. Or something. I haven't noticed a reduction in vicious posts on Reddit, though.

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

#214

Post by snapetom »

sevenf0ur wrote: post #55
logicslave wrote: post #20

Reddit is so manipulated at this point. The front page always has a political agenda, unbelievable what happened to that website.

Yes, I routinely see left leaning political ads on the front page. I really don't see what good could come from Alexis's resignation. The site is already a left leaning echo chamber and most of the controversial subs are quarantined or outright banned. Any new ones that crop up are routinely removed. The most controversial (the_donald) has been effectively shutdown for months and removed from r/all for years. What mo…

Remember when HuffPo was actually a decent, political scoop/gossip site? It was far more balanced then. It got hot when it veered left, but today it's an unexciting story mill.

I wonder if that's the path reddit is headed towards.

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

#215

Post by commandlinefan »

alecb wrote: post #57
logicslave wrote: post #20

Reddit is so manipulated at this point. The front page always has a political agenda, unbelievable what happened to that website.

What "political agenda"? If anything, the original core of the site was very left-leaning or heterodox technophiles that didn't have a home on Slashdot. The political parts of the site are now very much deadlocked in the center-right frame of the Democratic party, pretty far away from what the site once was.

> the original core of the site was very left-leaning

I don't remember it that way. I remember it being very libertarian (Ron Paul was the Bernie Sanders of 2000's reddit) for a very long time. I believed that the shift to a left-wing orientation was organic and representative of the general population UNTIL the whole T_D thing came along... T_D was doing the same thing, pulling the site to the right, until Reddit's owners worked overtime to make sure that didn't happen. That makes me suspect that the liberalism was also artificial.

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

#216

Post by asdff »

sevenf0ur wrote: post #55
logicslave wrote: post #20

Reddit is so manipulated at this point. The front page always has a political agenda, unbelievable what happened to that website.

Yes, I routinely see left leaning political ads on the front page. I really don't see what good could come from Alexis's resignation. The site is already a left leaning echo chamber and most of the controversial subs are quarantined or outright banned. Any new ones that crop up are routinely removed. The most controversial (the_donald) has been effectively shutdown for months and removed from r/all for years. What mo…

It's simple, you take the inverse. If you are looking for the right leaning accounts, look at the most downvoted and controversial comments in a given political thread.

I will say that true conservatism is few and far between, and it doesn't help that the viral strategy the GOP has settled on in recent years is heaps and heaps of outright false or racist memes, so there just isn't much good right leaning content being written or created to begin with that isn't far right.

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

#217

Post by z9e »

fernandotakai wrote: post #200
z9e wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny how much this is being downvoted.

right? i never ever see right wing content on reddit's /r/all frontpage, but i ALWAYS see left-wing content (including there small subreddits with 10k+ upvotes). see, i'm not conservative (i'm absurdly socially liberal and a bit fiscally conservative -- i prefer less taxes and less government spending in general) but it's baffling that people call reddit a "right-wing-cesspool". if you look at unfiltered /r/all right…

I'm fiscally conservative, and even trying to discuss those ideas on Reddit has met me with downvotes galore without being discussed. Even while trying to be respectful and open-minded. I gave up after a while. A lot of people can't fathom how conservative ideas would be shunned on there until they actually try to discuss them.

Reddit is comprised of a lot of younger people who are indoctrinated to think in certain ways and haven't ventured far outside of their ideological bubble. So I just chalk it up to that and don't even go there anymore because nothing there adds much to my life other than pointless distraction.

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

#218

Post by tick_tock_tick »

ganstyles wrote: post #40
cycrutchfield wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get the feeling they are quite familiar with those communities.

Anecdotally, and interestingly, I've only ever seen the phrase "virtue signal" from the alt-right/white supremacist/Trump supporter group. I think I understand what it's trying to convey, but it seems to be used anytime someone sides with something with which that group disagrees. It's like a "dog whistle" for white supremacists and personally when I see it used, it makes me question everything else that person said.

Really? The lgbtq+ community has huge debates on virtue signaling every year. Many view pride as being completely overtakes by companies virtue signaling.

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

#219

Post by DanielBMarkham »

kbenson wrote: post #107
DanielBMarkham wrote: post #36

I am going to try to say something neutral, not related to current politics. Frankly, I'm doing so because I'm curious if such a comment is even possible. - I applaud anybody who takes a moral stand, especially if it might cost them something they hold dear. - Whenever people complain about social media, the usual response is "But these are private properties. People can do what they like with them." I agree that thi…

> I applaud anybody who takes a moral stand, especially if it might cost them something they hold dear. I also applaud anyone who takes a moral stand about what they are willing to do , especially if it might cost them something they hold dear. If that moral stand involves enforcing a standard of conduct on others, then it's anywhere from slightly to extremely more complicated. Enforcing behavior on others for the pe…

I agree.

You can have a series of these things over a few decades and then suddenly end up in a much different spot than when you started out. Humans have done this before. More than once. In fact, it's probably the natural outcome of situations like this and requires some sort of strong provisions to keep it from naturally happening over and over again. It's not like any of this is new.

A lot of people seem hell-bent that this is not the case, however. I'm curious to see if they're able to look at their own actions from just a small remove. If so, why? If not, why? These are technical, UX questions. They might involve sensitive matters, but that's only the more important reason for working them out.

All UI/UX issues shouldn't be about some version of wringing another .4% of sign-ups out of the funnel. There are things that are more important by orders of magnitude.

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

#220

Post by MrZongle2 »

alecb wrote: post #143
nromiun wrote: post #86

Reddit and 4Chan are the two sides of the same coin for me. Just their ideologies are different. At least the people on 4Chan are self aware about how toxic they are. But the mods (at least on the popular subreddits) on reddit love to ban anything that isn't far left. I don't mind echo chambers but the lack of self awareness always rubs me the wrong way.

How do you develop a worldview where the grotesquely status quo mainstream of Reddit is considered "far-left"?

Post something conservative on /r/politics, and see where that gets you.
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