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Reddit Bans Five Communities In New Anti-Harassment Campaign

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Re: Reddit Bans Five Communities In New Anti-Harassment Campaign

#151

Post by bramgg »

PopeOfNope wrote: post #80
fleitz wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've got to give Christopher Poole credit, he was never dumb enough to try to police 4chan. This is as laughable as trying to get rid of trolling on IRC.

Yes, he was. When GamerGate happened, that's exactly what he attempted to do. He replaced most of the mods on the site within a very short amount of time and the heavy handed policing started. Most of 4chan left in response. Many alternative chan sites were started, including 8ch.net.

> Most of 4chan left in response. Many alternative chan sites were started, including 8ch.net.

A very small fraction of the worst bored on a bad website left to join an even worse website.

Don't kid yourself.

Re: Reddit Bans Five Communities In New Anti-Harassment Campaign

#152

Post by dylanjermiah »

donw wrote: post #142
eli wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm speculating but it seems like an easy outlet for that "being offensive for its own sake" mindset you see sometimes in kids and young adults. I think it's part of growing up... It just happens that the Internet allows people to focus and concentrate that negative energy.

While that's likely part of it, that's not the entirety of things. To be fair, I would wager that fatpeoplehate had its share of trolls, but I would definitely believe that the vast majority of its denizens were former fat people, and very frustrated at the obesity epidemic in the United States. Frustration leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. You know the rest. I speak here from some experience. Several members of m…

>There are growing social movements that promote obesity as a way of life. This is simply insane. Nobody would promote anorexia as positive, or smoking, or heroin.

I think FPH got created as a counter culture to these movements.

>I do not want to live in a society where this is accepted or encouraged. While I don't think that mocking fat people will solve the problem, I can understand how that particular community could grow so fast.

I agree.

Rather than focusing on education and knowledge they resorted to insults and mockery.

Re: Reddit Bans Five Communities In New Anti-Harassment Campaign

#153

Post by chisleu »

zxcvcxz wrote: post #8

I don't know how to feel about this. On one hand I'm against censorship, on the other I'm against internet bullying. /r/FatPeopleHate was engaging in both. In the end reddit is a private site that can do what it wants. Wikipedia removes things all the time and sites like 4chan remove all sorts of extremely offensive material. I'm glad the mods of the hate oriented subreddits have been shadow banned, I actually think…

Yep. I would post from time to time to point out incorrect "facts" they posted. It doesn't matter how well researched and reasoned your argument is. If you aren't towing the line, you are moderated and banned. They auto moderate and message any user who is voted down by the self-proclaimed shitlords.

It is a pretty disgusting place.

Re: Reddit Bans Five Communities In New Anti-Harassment Campaign

#154

Post by leereeves »

Kalium wrote: post #115
powrtoch wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The front page is pretty worrying. The situation seems almost identical to when Reddit axed r/jailbait: one of their more embarrassing communities started to get too much attention, its users were increasingly behaving in a way that was damaging Reddit, and Reddit decided to kill it (ostensibly for the greater good of the site). But even though that pissed plenty of people off... I don't recall the front page being t…

Pao is attempting to "clean up"... in an environment that cherishes its traditional freewheeling and unrestrained discourse. Even if the stuff getting cleaned up is just the stuff that most people agree deserves it - for some value of deserves - it's a troubling precedent to set. Some people find themselves wondering what opinions will be deemed unsafe next. The policies are not exactly clear-cut, and neither are the…

> The policies are not exactly clear-cut, and neither are the actions of the administration.

Understated.

Re: Reddit Bans Five Communities In New Anti-Harassment Campaign

#155

Post by jfuhrman »

lnanek2 wrote: post #88
teraflop wrote: post #30

This article dramatically understates the magnitude of the shitstorm that is currently unfolding. Check out http://www.reddit.com/r/all/ if you feel like seeing all the ugliness. (And if anyone has any doubts that this is ultimately about harassment, count how many of the posts on the front page (and their comments) are made up of personal attacks and/or obscenities targeted at CEO Ellen Pao.) I don't fault the Reddi…

I think banning the fatpeoplehate subreddit wouldn't have gone over so badly if it wasn't for the fact that Ellen Pao was already kind of hated on the site for constantly banning and deleting anything disagreeing with her viewpoint about her law suit. Even political cartoons with her driving the tank and the reddit alien with a down vote in front were getting deleted, which were quite funny and appropriate, since she…

Please stop spreading this nonsense. I expected better from HN.

>constantly banning and deleting anything disagreeing with her viewpoint about her law suit.

There are multiple posts on multiple reddits, each with thousands of points and comments that were not deleted. Some posts were deleted by sub moderators(not the same as Reddit staff or Pao) on some subs because they were offtopic and were being vote brigaded and had comments full of hate speech.

E.g of posts:

http://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/30j9mn/ellen_pao_loses...

http://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/38qkmx/after_losing_he...

It doesn't make any sense why she would leave those posts up if she really was deleting stuff. It's interesting how the folks against her have made it look like she was. It's just sad how easily so many people are manipulated by false information.

Examples of comments that were being made and upvoted by the brigades on unrelated big subs:

>Somebody needs to fire this whore right fucking now. What a tampon smear...

>She's a lying cunt who is using her pussy pass because she didn't get what she wanted; a big pay-out for being a whore.

Why would subreddit mods want to deal with hundreds of such comments when the story is offtopic to their sub?

Re: Reddit Bans Five Communities In New Anti-Harassment Campaign

#156

Post by leereeves »

felixgallo wrote: post #150
leereeves wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They even censored https://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/39ddnb/if_you_dont_... "If you don't believe in freedom of speech for those you loathe, you don't believe in freedom of speech." (1600 points and gone from http://reddit.com/r/bestof )

In what sense is it ironic? Reddit is a private corporation unaffiliated with the United States Government.

I was wrong, it's not ironic at all. Censoring a post criticizing censorship is perfectly consistent.

Though not entirely consistent with their statement that "we do protect the right of people to express their views".

Re: Reddit Bans Five Communities In New Anti-Harassment Campaign

#157

Post by beloch »

teraflop wrote: post #30

This article dramatically understates the magnitude of the shitstorm that is currently unfolding. Check out http://www.reddit.com/r/all/ if you feel like seeing all the ugliness. (And if anyone has any doubts that this is ultimately about harassment, count how many of the posts on the front page (and their comments) are made up of personal attacks and/or obscenities targeted at CEO Ellen Pao.) I don't fault the Reddi…

An analogy I like is "using a leaf blower in a sealed room full of leaves". Sure, you'll kick users out of their former resting spots on the floor, but they have nowhere to go and will just settle back into new resting spots after being in everybody's face for a little while.

Re: Reddit Bans Five Communities In New Anti-Harassment Campaign

#158

Post by EC1 »

UnoriginalGuy wrote: post #79
EC1 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can turn off messages + friend requests and make your entire FB page private. You can also change the URL. It takes all of 30 seconds.

Are you seriously trying to blame the victims of the bullying and suggest they disconnect from the internet..? I literally cannot comprehend where you're coming from.

This isn't real life. It's access via a screen. In real life, my argument wouldn't stand. On the internet, you are given tools to weather the storm. Shitty people will always exist. Everyone else now has to suffer as casualties of the wide net cast in hopes of eliminating a vitriolic idiots because of a few victims.

Re: Reddit Bans Five Communities In New Anti-Harassment Campaign

#159

Post by bhandziuk »

wisty wrote: post #125
Goronmon wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it both? I don't see how moderation (in the form of removing/editing content) isn't censorship.

Get ready for someone to tell you that the legal definition of "censorship" is only if the government does it.

You were 13 minutes ahead of me but I didn't reload the page so I just said it anyway. :)

Re: Reddit Bans Five Communities In New Anti-Harassment Campaign

#160

Post by Goronmon »

bhandziuk wrote: post #149
Goronmon wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it both? I don't see how moderation (in the form of removing/editing content) isn't censorship.

Because it's not the government doing it I'd say.

But censorship isn't limited to governments.
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