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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

#271

Post by harryh »

xtracto wrote: post #260
harryh wrote: post #85

I think that resignation as a form of protest can be powerful when you are a junior member of a team and you think senior members are doing the wrong thing. But when you are on the board of directors, you are the boss. In that case resignation is an abdication of leadership and a tacit admission that you have done a poor job.

> But when you are on the board of directors, you are the boss. Not if your board is comprised of 8 other people that own 80% of the company.

That's a fair point and I will confess to not being up to speed on the machinations of the Reddit BoD.

I wish Alexis had been more clear about the issues in his statement.

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

#272

Post by tw000001 »

vegannet wrote: post #208
meowface wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>the group of angry young white men inhabiting r/the_donald not conservative voter

The degree to which casual anti-white racism has been normalized on reddit is abhorrent. Even moreso when these people claim to champion anti-racism.

Reddit can't die soon enough. It is a dangerous bastion of propaganda - the comments are designed to look authentic but none of the discourse is truly organic because of a combination of keyword shadowbanning, echo-chamber reinforcing voting algorithms, and heavy handed moderation by full on activists. Millions of people believe they are viewing authentic conversation and while they have their guard down the admin effectively define acceptable viewpoints for entire subs.

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

#273

Post by shibeouya »

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…

Criticizing the_donald but not a word about the countless antifa subreddit literally promoting arson and violence?

Yeah, that does not look partisan at all!

/s

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

#274

Post by derefr »

sailingparrot wrote: post #246
nilkn wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is just scape-goating and finding something recent to blame for a situation that has been going on for 150+ years. Besides, it was effectively shut down, and all that did was lead to the creation of thedonald.win, which by all appearances seems to be thriving and growing rapidly, probably much faster than Reddit itself grew when it was founded. To blame the situation on a forum is to misunderstand that the count…

> Besides, it was effectively shut down, and all that did was lead to the creation of thedonald.win You don't end up on thedonald.win by chance, you go there purposefully. For a long time /r/t_d wasn't quarantined at all meaning anyone browsing /r/all would see their posts all day long (since they were pretty good at mass upvoting their own posts for that purpose). I don't think anyone advocates for entirely banning…

> anyone browsing /r/all would see their posts all day long

I feel like that's only right and correct; in a sufficiently-large community (i.e. a society), anyone intentionally exposing themselves to "everything" should be prepared to view the worst of the worst (of the worst) of "everything." That's what "everything" means!

Honestly, I don't get why /r/all even exists, if it's not there for the people who want to voluntarily immerse themselves in a soul-destroying experience. It's a Total Perspective Vortex. (It thus perplexes me why Reddit—a corporation with PR concerns—would keep it around. It's not something a corporation would want to provide, even if it's something some strange people would like to consume.)

Imagine for a moment what the /r/all equivalent for Usenet would be like. Or the /r/all equivalent for "phpBB forums." Or /r/all for Wordpress blogs. Kind of ridiculous to even want that, no? It'd have no purpose other than instilling existential terror.

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

#275

Post by dredmorbius »

mst wrote: post #222
throwanem wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, how do you feel about the fire-in-a-crowded-theater exception?

Not sure what relevance an "exception" a judge made up to justify censoring protest against WW2 japanese internment camps has to this conversation.

Schenck was WWI (1919) and concerned anti-draft literature distribution. You've got the wrong case.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schenck_v._United_States

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

#276

Post by gigatexal »

The more and more I hear people debating what to do with the overt hate speak on the internet the more I think that having it out in the open (and the harm that follows for the groups that the hate is directed towards) allows the rest of us in the system to offer correction and rebuttal that if censored or deplatformed one is unable to do. I can't say it as clearly as Ben Thompson did on his take on what Facebook did in regards to Trump's subversive tweets.

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

#277

Post by fernandotakai »

orthecreedence wrote: post #264
z9e wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 w…

I'm a libertarian socialist/communist (aka rabid leftist) and even I am often annoyed by how much of a "liberal" (whatever that means anymore) echo chamber reddit is. People who have great points against the hive mind are often downvoted into oblivion. It's less of a place for discourse and more a place for voicing agreement. The worst experiences I've had are in the socialist/communist subreddits themselves. I've be…

>I'm sick of social media platforms deciding for us what views are acceptable and what aren't.

i couldn't agree more. i never commented/subbed to the_donald. i added to my /r/all filter and i don't have to see it anymore.

btw, i do that to 99% of all political subs -- i just filter them, and now i don't have to interact. now, do i want them banned? nah, no way -- everyone deserves a place to discuss whatever they want, be it extreme left or extreme right politics. hell, i even disagree with chapo trap house being quarantined! no community should be "quarantined".

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

#278

Post by StanislavPetrov »

braythwayt wrote: post #136
nilkn wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is just scape-goating and finding something recent to blame for a situation that has been going on for 150+ years. Besides, it was effectively shut down, and all that did was lead to the creation of thedonald.win, which by all appearances seems to be thriving and growing rapidly, probably much faster than Reddit itself grew when it was founded. To blame the situation on a forum is to misunderstand that the count…

That sounds like you’re saying that it’s a waste of time to ever try to change anything because, well, “history.” Feel free to disabuse me of my misconception if I misunderstand. But it sounds an awful lot like what some people say when you try to call out racist cops: “We’re just scapegoating someone for saying aloud what all the police are thinking. It’s a waste of time.”

It sounds to me like what he's saying it that its a waste of time (and often counterproductive) to try to silence voices that you disagree with. They aren't simply going to vanish because you've silenced them on your platform.

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

#279

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#280

Post by [deleted] »

sailingparrot wrote: post #246
nilkn wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is just scape-goating and finding something recent to blame for a situation that has been going on for 150+ years. Besides, it was effectively shut down, and all that did was lead to the creation of thedonald.win, which by all appearances seems to be thriving and growing rapidly, probably much faster than Reddit itself grew when it was founded. To blame the situation on a forum is to misunderstand that the count…

> Besides, it was effectively shut down, and all that did was lead to the creation of thedonald.win You don't end up on thedonald.win by chance, you go there purposefully. For a long time /r/t_d wasn't quarantined at all meaning anyone browsing /r/all would see their posts all day long (since they were pretty good at mass upvoting their own posts for that purpose). I don't think anyone advocates for entirely banning…

[deleted]
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