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The Reddit Front Page Is Not a Meritocracy

toddwschneider.com

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Re: The Reddit Front Page Is Not a Meritocracy

#11

Post by Guvante »

selmnoo wrote: post #4

One thing I'm interested in knowing is whether Reddit manipulates the votes on its own submissions. See, for example, r/blog: http://www.reddit.com/r/blog/new/ Every submission made there went to the frontpage. What are the chances? I mean, it's hard to believe that mainstream Redditors at this point are so interested in Reddit news that they keep sending every Reddit announcement to the top. What's more likely, to m…

1500 people hitting up arrow because the poster is an admin is believable to me given Reddit's size.

Re: The Reddit Front Page Is Not a Meritocracy

#13

Post by mrfusion »

ThomPete wrote: post #7

I left reddit years ago (and found HN) because although I agree with mostly liberal views it became too much of an echo-chamber for liberal views the frontpage is the extreme example of that. There are many great sub-reddits of course but it's not a place for politicial discussions (in fact I am still looking for a good place to have political discussions) Edit: Why does my personal experience get downvoted?

It's odd the Ron Paul was popular on Reddit for a while though. How do you explain that?

Re: The Reddit Front Page Is Not a Meritocracy

#14

Post by minimaxir »

Relatedly, the Hacker News front page is not a meritocracy either. That's why counterbalance tools like flagging exist. Additionally, dang is implementing algorithms to identify articles that slip through: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8157698

EDIT: I misread the article's argument; there's a lot of luck on HN, but I cannot confirm there's a systemic bias toward people/topic.

Re: The Reddit Front Page Is Not a Meritocracy

#16

Post by andrewstuart2 »

ThomPete wrote: post #7

I left reddit years ago (and found HN) because although I agree with mostly liberal views it became too much of an echo-chamber for liberal views the frontpage is the extreme example of that. There are many great sub-reddits of course but it's not a place for politicial discussions (in fact I am still looking for a good place to have political discussions) Edit: Why does my personal experience get downvoted?

> I am still looking for a good place to have political discussions

I sometimes wonder if such a place can exist. Outside of friendships, I kind of don't think it can.

Re: The Reddit Front Page Is Not a Meritocracy

#17

Post by vuldin »

selmnoo wrote: post #4

One thing I'm interested in knowing is whether Reddit manipulates the votes on its own submissions. See, for example, r/blog: http://www.reddit.com/r/blog/new/ Every submission made there went to the frontpage. What are the chances? I mean, it's hard to believe that mainstream Redditors at this point are so interested in Reddit news that they keep sending every Reddit announcement to the top. What's more likely, to m…

I've always assumed there was no doubt Reddit moved their own posts up to the top in some unmeritocratic, undemocratic way... it serves the same function of sticky threads on phpbb (and other) forums. The massive amount of votes on these posts would happen after being moved to the top as a form of self fulfilling prophecy... people are interested in what Reddit (the org) is doing to improve Reddit (the site).

Re: The Reddit Front Page Is Not a Meritocracy

#18

Post by ThomPete »

mrfusion wrote: post #13
ThomPete wrote: post #7

I left reddit years ago (and found HN) because although I agree with mostly liberal views it became too much of an echo-chamber for liberal views the frontpage is the extreme example of that. There are many great sub-reddits of course but it's not a place for politicial discussions (in fact I am still looking for a good place to have political discussions) Edit: Why does my personal experience get downvoted?

It's odd the Ron Paul was popular on Reddit for a while though. How do you explain that?

I don't. I am not saying everyone there is liberals but most are at least from my experience.

Re: The Reddit Front Page Is Not a Meritocracy

#19

Post by mherdeg »

selmnoo wrote: post #4

One thing I'm interested in knowing is whether Reddit manipulates the votes on its own submissions. See, for example, r/blog: http://www.reddit.com/r/blog/new/ Every submission made there went to the frontpage. What are the chances? I mean, it's hard to believe that mainstream Redditors at this point are so interested in Reddit news that they keep sending every Reddit announcement to the top. What's more likely, to m…

Some discussion at https://www.reddit.com/r/BestOfReports/comments/2g62rg/dont_... ( which, btw, has a pretty funny screenshot of off-topic "reports" that a Reddit blog post got) says that it is possible to unsubscribe from /r/blog and /r/announcements, but it is not the default.

Re: The Reddit Front Page Is Not a Meritocracy

#20

Post by Guvante »

ThomPete wrote: post #7

I left reddit years ago (and found HN) because although I agree with mostly liberal views it became too much of an echo-chamber for liberal views the frontpage is the extreme example of that. There are many great sub-reddits of course but it's not a place for politicial discussions (in fact I am still looking for a good place to have political discussions) Edit: Why does my personal experience get downvoted?

They eventually bit the bullet and removed politics and a few similar subreddits from the default page.
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