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A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

larslofgren.com

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Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#321

Post by all2 »

safety1st wrote: post #226
neilv wrote: post #84

I don't know about this particular case, but, generally... bad actor subreddit moderators have been an occasional thing for well over a decade. And it's also been widely known for that long that Reddit is an influential venue in which to take over a corner -- for marketing or propaganda. What's an equal concern to me is how insufficiently resilient Reddit collectively appears to be, in face of this. A bad actor mod o…

Reddit has a moderation problem, and it's a big one. They've now been asked to appear in front of Congress to address concerns about politically motivated violence being incited through their platform: https://oversight.house.gov/release/chairman-comer-invites-c... Personally I believe I've seen more people in the past few years wish a politically motivated death on somebody else via Reddit, than I have anywhere else…

There's an article on the reddit blog, still out on archive.org, showing that a huge percentage of the website's traffic comes from... Eglin AFB? in the United States. That base also happens to be home of at least three distinct units that engage in "cyber" stuff.

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#322

Post by immibis »

neilv wrote: post #84

I don't know about this particular case, but, generally... bad actor subreddit moderators have been an occasional thing for well over a decade. And it's also been widely known for that long that Reddit is an influential venue in which to take over a corner -- for marketing or propaganda. What's an equal concern to me is how insufficiently resilient Reddit collectively appears to be, in face of this. A bad actor mod o…

> have been an occasional thing for about a decade.

I'd estimate way higher. Most moderators of meaningful subreddits are corrupt. Occasionally one makes it visible.

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#323

Post by SilverElfin »

fancyswimtime wrote: post #275
Aurornis wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And it's also been widely known for that long that Reddit is an influential venue in which to take over a corner -- for marketing or propaganda. Capturing moderation of a subreddit has long been a strategy of marketing agencies. Even when they can’t take over the actual mod positions, they’ll shower the mods with free product and make them feel like a VIP. I watched this happen from inside one company and I couldn’…

this seems to be happening on city based subs as well where the split is political; creating echo chambers for each side. This feels dangerous as any potential middle ground gets eroded away.

Example?

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#324

Post by simianwords »

michaelnovati wrote: post #157
simianwords wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would really like to hear both sides to the story. But from the data it seems like you have been obsessively commenting on the subreddit about codesmith for more than a full year. And almost 80% have been negative. This looks unhinged because you are a moderator of the subreddit. What's the other side to this?

I was being threatened by anonymous Reddit accounts a few weeks ago so I made some defensive PR docs but I need to sleep on it to decide what to do. This is what I do all day: https://github.com/mnovati But yeah two sides to every story and if this has been going on for years, "1000 posts", there's clearly more to the story, and it's irresponsible to not reach out for comment if you are going to try to summarize that…

I just don’t see how a GitHub link is supposed to answer the question. We all have day jobs too.

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#325

Post by tchalla »

dragnettle wrote: post #315
GavinMcG wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why on earth should your brand new account be considered trustworthy when it comes to commenting on either party?

It shouldn't, nor should anyone's accounts on most topics. You should do the research and draw your own conclusions.

Yes and the conclusion is pretty clear that most people believe the article not your comment.

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#326

Post by AngryData »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #300
safety1st wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit has a moderation problem, and it's a big one. They've now been asked to appear in front of Congress to address concerns about politically motivated violence being incited through their platform: https://oversight.house.gov/release/chairman-comer-invites-c... Personally I believe I've seen more people in the past few years wish a politically motivated death on somebody else via Reddit, than I have anywhere else…

What country are you from? To " wish a politically motivated death" on someone is illegal there? Reddit set itself up as a speakeasy, people speak their minds openly because it appears in some areas to be free of thought policing. Do you think it is wrong to wish a dictator dead? Over the past decades USA has not only wished it, but made it happen, at the cost of many lives.

Reddit definitely has not set themselves up that way. Many people got banned just for saying they understand and empathize with Luigi's motivations.

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#327

Post by [deleted] »

user_7832 wrote: post #280
UltraSane wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was banned from /r/comics for saying a comic wasn't funny. Hacker news doesn't ban anyone for such stupid reasons.

Let me guess: it was a Pizza Cake Comics post? (Context, she's made posts about how women are always paranoid about men and men minimize/make fun of that and she says she's not anti men as she has a son herself. All this (edit: plus lots of commenters and mod drama) in the span of a single comic btw.) Edit: this comment on such a politically touchy topic lasted almost 40 minutes before getting 2 downvotes, honestly I…

[deleted]

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#328

Post by BryantD »

safety1st wrote: post #226
neilv wrote: post #84

I don't know about this particular case, but, generally... bad actor subreddit moderators have been an occasional thing for well over a decade. And it's also been widely known for that long that Reddit is an influential venue in which to take over a corner -- for marketing or propaganda. What's an equal concern to me is how insufficiently resilient Reddit collectively appears to be, in face of this. A bad actor mod o…

Reddit has a moderation problem, and it's a big one. They've now been asked to appear in front of Congress to address concerns about politically motivated violence being incited through their platform: https://oversight.house.gov/release/chairman-comer-invites-c... Personally I believe I've seen more people in the past few years wish a politically motivated death on somebody else via Reddit, than I have anywhere else…

I can’t help but notice that Twitter and TikTok didn’t get called for that session. In November 2023, Twitter went from a zero tolerance policy for violent speech to “we may remove or reduce the visibility of violent speech.” Seems really relevant for the topic of the hearings! And yet.

I’m thus unwilling to take Rep. Comey’s decision to call Reddit to testify as evidence of anything. Feels more like political theater to me. This doesn’t either condemn or absolve Reddit, it’s just not strong evidence.

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#329

Post by LexiMax »

NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #151
ceejayoz wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most online communities work that way. It’s highly unusual to have some sort of judicial process.

Most older forums had an element of self-selection... people don't hang out where they're not wanted. But with Reddit, it's the only forum left (for any number of broad and narrow topics) so you're either there or nowhere. This forces to some extent people who would gravitate away from each other, and personalities go overboard. There's more need of a judicial process there, than there would be elsewhere. And that wa…

> But with Reddit, it's the only forum left (for any number of broad and narrow topics) so you're either there or nowhere.

Reddit wasn't even that good as a community space in the first place. It was a content aggregator with user-moderated comment sections, and those make for pretty awful communities because on anything remotely controversial you get factions dog piling each other trying to hide each other's posts.

That said, communities are all on discord now, and quite honestly I think it's for the better. It gives moderators a lot more discretion, but balances the scales by making it very easy to create new servers where one can invite like-minded people and grow organically.

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#330

Post by mcny »

Jensson wrote: post #316
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What country are you from? To " wish a politically motivated death" on someone is illegal there? Reddit set itself up as a speakeasy, people speak their minds openly because it appears in some areas to be free of thought policing. Do you think it is wrong to wish a dictator dead? Over the past decades USA has not only wished it, but made it happen, at the cost of many lives.

> What country are you from? To "wish a politically motivated death" on someone is illegal there? It is illegal in most countries, no? Even in USA you aren't allowed to instigate murder.

I didn't think it should be illegal to say "I wish X were dead" unless you have the means to make it happen like a rabid audience with a track record of killing people you wish were dead. Even then, I think there needs to be coordination or a wink nod of some kind that needs to be proven to muzzle free speech.

Freedom of speech we don't like is the true litmus test of free speech. It is trivial to say I support free speech when someone says nice things about me.

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