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Former Reddit CEO says the site's about to be purged

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Re: Former Reddit CEO says the site's about to be purged

#31

Post by baddox »

austenallred wrote: post #18

I honestly wouldn't mind a "purge." I don't necessarily agree that drawing the line as to what is appropriate on a website is necessarily the destruction of people being able to express themselves. HackerNews doesn't allow racism, but I don't feel my right to express my opinion (for the most part - the hivemind that is caused by upvoting comments is troubling, but another issue altogether). If people want to be blata…

> The only rational argument people can make against the "purging" (of blatantly racist etc. subreddits) is the "slippery slope" argument, which is usually known as a fallacious logical device.

Not at all true. I don't like any removal of content by reddit employees (as opposed to subreddit moderators) beyond what is required by law. Whether it leads to more and more removal in the future is irrelevant. I would like reddit to be a place for completely free, uncensored expression.

And before the political philosophy experts pounce, I am well aware of the argument. It's not a free speech violation when it's a private company choosing what content to host. I'm not saying reddit doesn't have the right to censor. I'm just saying I would prefer that they didn't.

Re: Former Reddit CEO says the site's about to be purged

#32

Post by austenallred »

pavanky wrote: post #17
sharkweek wrote: post #8

Eh... it's their playground. While I don't like the idea of what's offensive being so subjective, there is A LOT of shit on Reddit that I would be happy to see gone. If Costco had a corner in every store where people were allowed to stand around yelling racist commentary all the time, and Costco laid out a policy to remove this from their stores, I think the majority of people would applaud this move, thus improving…

I do not think people would be pissed about reddit enforcing the bans if they did not market themselves as a bastion of free speech on the internet. It was not just Yishan who did it. Redditors even created a new sub[1] showing all instances where someone belonging to reddit has said or implied that they are for free speech on the internet. People who are pissed are angry because it looks and sounds like bait and swi…

Absolutely. Very few are sad to see that /r/coontown is going to be banned; they're frustrated because the goalposts are moving and they don't know where they will end up.

Usually the slippery slope argument is a fallacy, but if a company says "our standard is and always will be 1" and then comes out later and says "our standard is 2," it's hard to believe.

Re: Former Reddit CEO says the site's about to be purged

#33

Post by differentView »

pavanky wrote: post #17
sharkweek wrote: post #8

Eh... it's their playground. While I don't like the idea of what's offensive being so subjective, there is A LOT of shit on Reddit that I would be happy to see gone. If Costco had a corner in every store where people were allowed to stand around yelling racist commentary all the time, and Costco laid out a policy to remove this from their stores, I think the majority of people would applaud this move, thus improving…

I do not think people would be pissed about reddit enforcing the bans if they did not market themselves as a bastion of free speech on the internet. It was not just Yishan who did it. Redditors even created a new sub[1] showing all instances where someone belonging to reddit has said or implied that they are for free speech on the internet. People who are pissed are angry because it looks and sounds like bait and swi…

They should ask for a refund.

Re: Former Reddit CEO says the site's about to be purged

#34

Post by baddox »

sharkweek wrote: post #26
baddox wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The yelling analogy doesn't really work, because the vast majority of the controversial content is content you have to go looking for to find. Obviously there can be some leakages, but most people learn about this stuff because tech blogs or media companies deliberately go looking for it to "expose" how bad reddit is.

Fair - let's make it a little room in the back where someone might accidentally stumble. Especially when Gawker posts a story talking specifically about it sending people to that dark corner making them think THAT is what Costco is all about. Terrible impression to make on new customers, thus Costco decides, eh, fuck it, let's just get rid of the little room entirely to avoid this repetitious problem.

How would you accidentally stumble onto it? You might make a typo, which is a fair point, but that is probably exceedingly rare. Or you might be linked, but you can already be linked anywhere from anywhere else on the web, so that's hardly a meaningful argument.

Re: Former Reddit CEO says the site's about to be purged

#35

Post by austenallred »

baddox wrote: post #31
austenallred wrote: post #18

I honestly wouldn't mind a "purge." I don't necessarily agree that drawing the line as to what is appropriate on a website is necessarily the destruction of people being able to express themselves. HackerNews doesn't allow racism, but I don't feel my right to express my opinion (for the most part - the hivemind that is caused by upvoting comments is troubling, but another issue altogether). If people want to be blata…

> The only rational argument people can make against the "purging" (of blatantly racist etc. subreddits) is the "slippery slope" argument, which is usually known as a fallacious logical device. Not at all true. I don't like any removal of content by reddit employees (as opposed to subreddit moderators) beyond what is required by law. Whether it leads to more and more removal in the future is irrelevant. I would like…

> I'm not saying reddit doesn't have the right to censor. I'm just saying I would prefer that they didn't.

I'm genuinely curious as to why. Do you feel your experience on reddit is harmed if /r/coontown is gone? Or is it just the principle of the matter?

Re: Former Reddit CEO says the site's about to be purged

#36

Post by AndyKelley »

grabcocque wrote: post #21

About time. Reddit is a mean-spirited and self-destructive community, a fearsomely ugly website and all run by an incompetent and blasé bunch of chancers, and yet somehow it still manages to become less than the sum of its parts. It's probably far too late to do anything about it, mind.

This comment has no content other than "I hate Reddit".

Re: Former Reddit CEO says the site's about to be purged

#37

Post by dang »

The rule of thumb for ongoing stories on HN is to have a new thread each time there's significant new information, and (hopefully) have it point to the most substantive source. Neither this story nor the article comes close to passing that test, so I'm burying this post as a dupe.

Re: Former Reddit CEO says the site's about to be purged

#38

Post by johrn »

wnevets wrote: post #25

If you find the content of a particular subreddit offensive, don't subscribe to that subreddit? Why must admins police legal content?

Maybe admins don't want their site to be somewhere that stormfront considers to be their biggest recruitment center. It's not like the users who subscribe to coontown etc keep their opinions to themselves when they are using other parts of the site.

Re: Former Reddit CEO says the site's about to be purged

#39

Post by CameronBanga »

Did this just get pulled from the HN front page?

I'm not a huge fan of Reddit, but it seems like news on this whole debacle has been pulled/silenced from HN. I know Reddit is a one of Y-Combinator's biggest success stories, so curious if this is really happening or if I'm just imagining it.

Re: Former Reddit CEO says the site's about to be purged

#40

Post by dataker »

I'm a strong believer in freedom of speech, but I honestly don't care about the fate of Reddit.

If they start banning content, users will leave and start their own racist/misogynistic/xenophobic/... communities.

Reddit's community is based on certain fundamental principals and, once they start to be violated, it's not like you can't start your own 'country'.

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