411–420 of 433 posts
Can anyone recommend a good subreddit? Something where people are thoughtful and respectful. Perhaps something like HN without the tech...?
"A subreddit for really great, insightful articles, reddiquette, reading before voting and the hope to generate intelligent discussion on the topics of these articles."
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The word "feminist" is more commonly understood to mean a supporter of the modern women's advocacy movement, rather than anyone who believes in equality of the sexes. Imagine a Republican telling you that "Republican" is defined as someone who supports natural human rights, and therefore anyone who truly supports natural human rights is a Republican. The feminist definition of "feminism" is inaccurate for the same re…
I hate it when people give this definition of feminism. Feminism supports gender equality and there are ways that benefits everyone, but that's obviously not the whole of it, and I dislike the idea that men can only be sold on feminism if they think there's something in it for them.
Dislike it all you want, doesn't change the reality that if you have one self-interested faction whose interests appear to conflict with a different self-interested faction, then the interests will need to be "sold" or else forced on the other faction.
Hence: appeals to shared principles like "equality." Even when the positions are demonstrably not about equality at all.
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Last you checked, eh? Where did you do your checking? Let's review some definitions for feminism: "the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities" "the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes" Which part of that do you disagree with that makes you not a feminist? And, if being a feminist means one supports gender equality (which is what it means), how do you belie…
Feminists calling other people "not _real_ feminists" is a full-time hobby for some people. Some people even consider watching the drama to be a spectator sport of sorts. There are entire subreddits dedicated to just observing this sort of drama. Some people, having been accused of being "not _real_ feminists" one time to many, stop self-identifying as such (even though their views on gender equality have not changed…
I suspect the bad reputation is primarily caused by bad actors who are actually anti-feminist, and who don't want us to continue to move toward equality. 4chan has frequently leaked made up "feminist" rants into the internet at large, right wing Christians very frequently paint an extremely negative view of feminism, etc. There are plenty of people who genuinely oppose gender equality who will say or do anything to stop feminism in its tracks.
I used to be squeamish about the term, too. But, then I spent some time reflecting on why. And, the reality is that all the negative connotations I have about feminism (other than the anti-trans so-called "radical feminists" that even feminists make fun of) come from things men who are demonstrably against equality of the sexes have said or done.
The feminists I know (and I know a lot of them; I helped start a pro-choice activist organization here in Texas when the bills that are forcing closure of all but six clinics in the entire state were making their way through the state house) are nothing like the picture Republicans paint of them, nor are they anything like the caricature that some redditors and HN participants seem to believe is the reality. I don't know where these ideas even come from, honestly. The feminists I know are regular people, who see some injustice in our society and are trying to do something about it. They may occasionally be wrong on the details of execution, but they aren't man-hating bitches from hell, and it's really counter-productive to take the most extreme examples of anything and decide that the entire movement can be ignored because a few said something obnoxious.
To be fair, though, I used to identify as Libertarian. But, the bad apples within that movement seemed to overwhelm the reasonable folks; and there seems to be a movement of extreme right wing nationalists calling themselves "libertarian" lately, which finally put the last nail in the coffin for me. When "libertarian" came to mean "we need paramilitary thugs patrolling our borders to keep those illegals out" to the majority of people, it was time for me to opt out completely from using that label (not to mention the idiotic positions on climate change many self-identified libertarians take). So, I understand where you're coming from. I feel as though I've been robbed of an identity by ignorant nationalist racists. And, I guess if I believed everyone saw feminism the way you, and some others seem to, I don't know if I'd be as comfortable using the term.
I don't know what the right thing here is, but I know that there is a strongly anti-woman bias among many participants on reddit, and on HN, and it shows itself in all sorts of subtle and not so subtle ways. My most downvoted comments on both reddit and Hacker News have frequently been about sexism or racism or privilege (and occasionally about Apple, but I'll happily take those lumps), and I find it pretty reactionary and disappointing, but not surprising.
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right, reddit is "doin' it rong!", that's why their projected growth is so high. Part of the reason they've been successful is because the default subreddits draw people in. This isn't about some high and mighty "what is 'proper'", this is about what people find interesting to talk about. The default subreddits are not there to scratch the itch of those like you with their nose in up in the air about "quality". As mu…
Memes, inside jokes and other fluff content are good for attracting new users and light entertainment. That makes sense. What we're saying is that such low-effort content gets old. Users get bored after a while and want something thoughtful and novel. If reddit does not come up with a way to provide such content (without the constant slide toward the lowest common denominator), it may have trouble holding users.
Also, I've been a part of reddit for 7 years now, and was a part of digg before that. I've watched reddit grown.
about 3-4 years ago, IIRC, there was a rather large bucking back from the "old hands" onto the new because they viewed reddit as the "smart digg". uber great content, blah blah blah. They lost that fight and history has shown that reddit was right (it's still continuing to grow).
The post I was responding to is just another person from that era who is still salty about it. But here's the thing:
A large community cannot give that to you. That's the genius of subreddits. That experience is absolutely on reddit. I enjoy both types of content, and so I enjoy doing either. I think most people do as well.
It's only the pretentious pricks who really have a problem with reddit's lighter content.
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right, reddit is "doin' it rong!", that's why their projected growth is so high. Part of the reason they've been successful is because the default subreddits draw people in. This isn't about some high and mighty "what is 'proper'", this is about what people find interesting to talk about. The default subreddits are not there to scratch the itch of those like you with their nose in up in the air about "quality". As mu…
> reddit is "doin' it rong!", that's why their projected > growth is so high and then > much as you'd like to "predict" the downfall of reddit, > all signs point to no While I think Reddit will go from strength to strength, I also remember how Digg pretty much went from (current) Reddit sized to almost nothing in about the course of two weeks. And I remember Myspace. Turns out internetters are fickle folk.
I keep asking this, but it never gets much attention - but why can't reddit put more effort in to a hierarchical structure. As others have said some of the best contents is in the smaller sub-reddits, but they often struggle to get much content because people feel that to get any "attention" they have to post in a sub-reddit. I feel people would be encouraged to submit to smaller sub-reddits if there was a hierarchic…
Now that they have dozens of employees I wish they'd put this high up on their roadmap. As a nearby comment points out, it would be the next step on reddit's journey toward reincarnating the golden age of Usenet.
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Since I cannot Pm you here: 1) Thanks a ton for the site, I have enjoyed many hours on it and find that it has made my world better. 2)As with any growth, things will fall to the human norm. It's fine, but thank you for fighting the good fight, I know it's not said much, but thank you. 3)Best on the new round of funding, yall worked hard and you deserve it. 4)I came to HN to escape reddit, actually. Yes, I'm in a ton…
Stack Overflow isn't much better. "What should I use to do this?" - That question isn't inline with our format "How do I do this?" - This question is a duplicate of "How do I do this exact thing with this version of this software?" - No response, because no one on SO uses that software with that version, which you would have known if you could have asked the "What should I use" question. Don't get me wrong, I love st…
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> One thing I sincerely hope reddit will do with the new injection is to increase the level of quality of content and discussion across the board. Often the advice given is "you've got to find the smaller subreddits" and while that's true, I think having the first few layers filled with terrible content and hive-minded, often racist/sexist discussion is incredibly detrimental to both the site's image and new user exp…
>Do we have any examples of large Internet communities with unilateral good discussion? The somethingawful forums? With the exception of the forums expressly for bad discussions, every thread has high quality content.
Granted, this is subjective to some degree as what I consider "noise" might be considered "signal" by others. I think that it worked because their intention was to make the sort of community that they wanted whereas Reddit seems more interested in making a platform for everyone.
I can see the use for each approach and I still find it one of the best things about internet communities in general. If you want something different, it's relatively easy to take a shot at making something more to your liking.
I just think that same $10 or whatever that it costs to join the SA forums and motivates most members to avoid shitposting would also present a barrier to the sort of broad, mass appeal Reddit is shooting for.
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Mods don't decide to make a subreddit a default, admins do.
That's not true, mods can opt out of becoming a default and at least in some cases the admins talk to the mods first anyway. edit: http://i.imgur.com/IbiMa8g.png