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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

#451
post #445
post #371

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Would you please stop using HN for ideological battle? It's against the site guidelines for good reason—it destroys curious conversation in two ways: first by being predictable (so the signal/noise ratio goes down) and second by being inflammatory (so it evokes worse from other people, leading to a downward spiral). Also, please don't post flamebait and/or unsubstantive comments generally. You've been doing that a lo…

I genuinely think you have it backwards. The SNR went down significantly during the last weeks - which is understandable with events that dominate the news cycle so much. But HN was absolutely flooded with feel-good, no-content articles about just how good the author is, with everyone in the comments chiming in on how good they are and how bad all the opposing voices are. That is not "signal". Voices like mine and th…

The existence of bad comments doesn't justify adding more bad comments, and certainly not worse ones. That's how internet forums destroy themselves. Putting all the blame on the other side is just another battle move.

This has nothing to do with not wanting dissenting opinions. That's a cheap thing to say, because everyone always feels like the mods are against their side and secretly supporting the other. The issue is that your comment was obviously in the flamewar style.

Please stop using HN for ideological battle. We've had to warn you about this more than once before.

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

#452
post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are the first examples that come to mind. There are many more with similar userbases that has migrated from them. Don't forget all the Pizzagate/QAnon stuff, incels, etc. Here's a longer list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversial_Reddit_communiti... Also, quarantined != banned. It's still on reddit, and those users spread out onto other non-quarantined subreddits and spew the same kind of garbage.

Banning a subreddit doesn't ban it's users.

The problem with having a cesspool is that it attracts lots of those types of people to your site in the first place, and ingrains it in them that that kind of behavior is acceptable. They then start acting like that elsewhere on the site and lower the level of discourse everywhere.

Ban the cesspools and most of those people will actually leave the site for good, as what drew them to it in the first place is now gone. You also no longer have any cesspools serving as negative guideposts for making bad contributions. So if you moderate your site well, and just get rid of this kind of stuff, it ends up much better in the long run.

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

#453

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Quite right! In this case, the mailing list writer has built a dichotomy into all their communications: either you say black lives matter or you say "all lives matter" and therefore you are his enemy. Whereas the third option, "I'm just here for Javascript tips", wasn't even under consideration. So unless you engage with and echo their politics, you fall into the enemy camp by default.

What a world it has come to where you are the enemy if you say all lives matters.

If the statement is to be taken at face value, then yes I would agree. But it it shouldn’t be, it’s used a way of denigrating and minimising the concerns of BLM as well as painting the movement as supposed black supremacists when they naturally take offence at the subtext behind the statement.

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

#454
post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I agree that HN is heavily moderated, but from what I've seen the comment moderation is more focused on maintaining civility and tone. I think dang and friends will let you say controversial things as long as they're framed in a productive way and you aren't a jerk about it (and as long as you don't commit the sin of editorializing a post title!) I think that's a stark contrast with reddit, where being a dick is ofte…

"...what I've seen the comment moderation"

It's what you don't see, friend.

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

#455

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 have no idea what the skin color or gender or sexual preferences of other users on HN are and you don't know mine. That's how I prefer it. The other day I unsubscribed from a popular Javascript mailing list, after the writer switched from writing about Javascript to writing about how white people and black people should interact. Or rather I didn't unsubscribe right away: I emailed the writer politely and mentioned…

"I have no idea what the skin color or gender or sexual preferences of other users on HN are and you don't know mine. That's how I prefer it."

This aspect of HN is specifically WHY I feel welcome here and WHY the content + conversation is consistently of higher quality relative to other forums...It's actually one of the few places left online where this feature remains.

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

#456

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a world it has come to where you are the enemy if you say all lives matters.

If the statement is to be taken at face value, then yes I would agree. But it it shouldn’t be, it’s used a way of denigrating and minimising the concerns of BLM as well as painting the movement as supposed black supremacists when they naturally take offence at the subtext behind the statement.

You are in complete control of how you choose to interpret a statement..and choose you will.

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

#457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usenet was the original "reddit."

Forgive the ignorance, but how do I access Usenet? I tried to look it up and I don't feel any closer.

This is part of the problem. It is not easy for new users to access...

First, you need access to a news server. These folks offer a free public one: https://www.aioe.org/ There are also other paid news servers but I don't want to advertise for them.

You also need an NNTP (Usenet) client. I use "slrn" which is a command line app. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Usenet_newsreaders for some others.

Once you find one, you'll need to point it to the news server of your choice (nntp.aioe.org in this example.)

Good luck discovering Usenet! Most groups are not too active.

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

#458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a world it has come to where you are the enemy if you say all lives matters.

If the statement is to be taken at face value, then yes I would agree. But it it shouldn’t be, it’s used a way of denigrating and minimising the concerns of BLM as well as painting the movement as supposed black supremacists when they naturally take offence at the subtext behind the statement.

While I disagree with the BLM movement, I think that All Lives Matter was an obvious attempt to rile up people and create unneeded conflict. I don't know what you are referring to when it comes to subtext, as it seems that the ALM movement really started to counter the idea that only black people get killed by police or are victims of hate crimes.
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