> "[S]o now The Man is going to set some Rules. Admittedly, I can't say I'm terribly upset."
I can't say I am, either. To abuse Lincoln, "I believe this site cannot endure, permanently half adult conversation and half hateful filth."
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
#12Eh... 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…
Yeah, I think its a vocal minority that is truly upset. The issue that compounds all of this is that it only takes a few thousand upvotes to reach the front page. So to extrapolate on your analogy, this is like the racist people in the corner protesting that they can't shout in the corner anymore. Meanwhile most of the shoppers didnt even realize that they were there and dont care enough to comment on the situation.
Re: Former Reddit CEO says the site's about to be purged
#13[deleted]
Re: Former Reddit CEO says the site's about to be purged
#14Eh... 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…
Well, people don't go to Costco for commentary, they go there to buy things. So a more apt comparison would be a section that sells things that certain groups may find offensive - e.g., sex toys, confederate flags, bibles, guns[1]. The metaphor holds mostly, Costco is free to do what it wants to cater to those people, but I don't think it's unreasonable for some groups to want to fight to hold on. It's hard to make blanket statements about some of the groups - of course, that's less true for some than others. I don't have any horses in this race, personally, I don't think anyone is planning on banning r/corgis or r/noideadogs.
As for profitability, I'd argue that stupid people with strong opinions and a need to vocalize them are advertisers favorite kind of people. They're probably surprisingly profitable.
[1] Don't assume I'm putting any of those on the same level as each other, just making a list of what I suspect are violatile items to some groups.
Re: Former Reddit CEO says the site's about to be purged
#15Why not link to the actual statement? https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/3dautm/conte... The tears from all the haters will be delicious.
the problem is, how vague is the term? The previous actions were later excused under reasons differing from what was originally understood yet implemented wholly unnervingly as certain favorite subs of the admins escaped actions.
Eventually everyone will want their definition played out and in this generation of "I am offended, you must be silent" free speech is the real loser. You do not have the right to not be offended.
Re: Former Reddit CEO says the site's about to be purged
#16Anyone remember Tribe.net? They were once San Francisco's coolest social network. Then they had a purge of sex-related topics. Read "No sex please, we're 2.0" by Violet Blue.[1] Tribe went into a screaming dive and is down to one or two employees.
[1] http://www.sfgate.com/living/article/No-sex-please-we-re-2-0...
Re: Former Reddit CEO says the site's about to be purged
#17Eh... 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 switch.
Re: Former Reddit CEO says the site's about to be purged
#18I 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 blatantly racist or post teen creepershots or organize to harass fat people, let them do that somewhere else. That wouldn't harm my reddit experience whatsoever (nor would it harm the experience of 99% of reddit users).
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. There is some merit to it, as reddit seems to be moving the line of appropriateness, but the line just has to be clearly drawn somewhere.
That said, anything Yishan Wong says at this point should be taken with a grain of salt. When you are starting your comments with "AYYYY LMAO" and admittedly take a pleasure in hoping to watch the company that fired you crumble, you're not exactly a neutral or reliable source.
Re: Former Reddit CEO says the site's about to be purged
#19Eh... 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…
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.
Re: Former Reddit CEO says the site's about to be purged
#20Eh... 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…
> While I don't like the idea of what's offensive being so subjective
What's offensive is what causes offense (that's what the word means.)
Its pretty much the textbook example of something that is completely subjective.