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Voat Is Shutting Down

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Re: Voat Is Shutting Down

#191

Post by xeromal »

Brian_K_White wrote: post #89
gerdesj wrote: post #31

"It’s embarrassing but it’s true, I just can’t keep it up. I’ve tried meditation, I’ve tried prayer, I’ve tried reaching out for help. Some solutions worked for a little while but nothing has remedied the underlying issue. No matter what I do, I simply just can’t keep it up. I expect most will be disappointed and let down, while others will just point and laugh. So be it, it’s a problem every man like me will face at…

Heartfelt and well written? "I know I’m going to get a hundred PMs from all of Voat’s hottest girls (Voat has some hot women, fact) with tips and tricks on how to help me keep it up."

Yeah, he sounds kind of like a jokester but it was a fun read. Feels way more genuine than any of our "incredible journey" hangups

Re: Voat Is Shutting Down

#192

Post by h8hawk »

tzs wrote: post #54

Most of the original Voat groups were groups that has been kicked off of Reddit, but then people there made groups that corresponded to groups that were still on Reddit, like /v/science and /v/movies. Reading those is quite an experience. On /v/science right now there is a submission about dark matter and MOND [1], which was also discussed today on HN [2]. The title of the Voat submission will give you a good idea of…

Another headline in v/science : "Nigger Surgeon General Jerome Adams says people .... "

https://voat.co/v/science/4160211

Re: Voat Is Shutting Down

#193

Post by kibwen »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #119
intended wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those days ended fast. I saw it happen. On my forum, that very question was asked, and it wasn’t a philosophical debate. It was an operational one - how do we balance free speech ideals vs actual forum evidence. The framework that fits the evidence and the ideals was 1) we want a market place of ideas to function 2) there is content that easily dominates and sidelines all other ideas. 3) there are Maliciously enginee…

A huge problem, which is the cause of this far more than "free speech" ever was, roots in these platforms optimizing for engagement. And then vacuous controversy maximizes engagement so you're really optimizing for controversy, which is a dumpster fire. But separating the combatants doesn't just stop the algorithmically-promoted unintelligible flame wars. It stops the debate entirely. You lose the ability to even enc…

> roots in these platforms optimizing for engagement.

I don't think so. This pattern has been observed, and has been a problem, since well before the modern eyeballs-and-engagement-obsessed era of the internet, and before ads were even present on forums at all. What you're describing makes it worse, but even in its absence there is a certain vocal subset of humanity for whom dominating a discussion is its own reward. As a forum grows eventually you will attract one of these people, and from that point on the discourse of the forum will be determined by Survival Of The Loudest.

Re: Voat Is Shutting Down

#194

Post by nemothekid »

TameAntelope wrote: post #132
raldi wrote: post #84

Moderated communities beat unmoderated ones on any metric you can name. Always have, always will. Nobody wants to drink at a pub that won't throw out rude patrons.

4chan has a place on the Internet, and if that counts as "moderation" then Voat had moderation too.

The idea that 4chan doesn't have moderation isn't true. I largely have to suspect it has to do with the the time moot stopped making bans public, but 4chan moderation used to be very visible. A number of other alternate chans were created because 4chan was "too strict". Even /pol/'s current political flavor is a product of deliberate moderation. Regardless, despite 4chan's "lack of moderation", with the exception of /pol/, the level of racism and hate you see isn't anywhere near what you would see on voat.

Re: Voat Is Shutting Down

#195

Post by [deleted] »

cbozeman wrote: post #141
ignoranceprior wrote: post #4

Voat was founded as a neutral free-speech platform. After alt-right extremists were booted off reddit, they found a new home there. The site was bombarded by /pol/ chan culture, and after that nobody else of other political persuasions really wanted to join. Kind of like that "paradox of intolerance" meme. Free speech platforms usually end up becoming extremist platforms. I remember going on voat a couple years ago a…

Its not that free speech platforms are destined to fail, its anonymity. You're not responsible for your words. That's why these fail. Notice I use my real name here on this website. Not a pseudonym. Whatever I say here, I would say to you in front of your face. Same as I do on Facebook and Twitter and Reddit and the other areas I post. I've always used my real name. I'll always use my real name. We don't require anyo…

[deleted]

Re: Voat Is Shutting Down

#196

Post by triceratops »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #160
eropple wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds good until you realize that we're dealing with literal-not-figurative fascists here. The world has figured out how to deal with a Nazi. I've linked this elsewhere in the thread, but it is worth understanding the lessons of this story deeply: https://twitter.com/IamRageSparkle/status/128089153745134387... Say you're something anodyne, like /r/RomanHistory or something (I don't know if that's real). For obv…

[flagged]

> So anyone espousing Soviet ideas like socialized medicine should be excommunicated as well

That's a Soviet idea? It seems national health insurance was first conceived in Imperial Germany[0] (which the Weimar Republic, then the Nazis continued), then adopted in Britain, then Imperial Russia (which presumably the Soviets continued). Get your facts straight.

0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_health_care#History

Re: Voat Is Shutting Down

#198

Post by sthnblllII »

aaron-santos wrote: post #111
intended wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those days ended fast. I saw it happen. On my forum, that very question was asked, and it wasn’t a philosophical debate. It was an operational one - how do we balance free speech ideals vs actual forum evidence. The framework that fits the evidence and the ideals was 1) we want a market place of ideas to function 2) there is content that easily dominates and sidelines all other ideas. 3) there are Maliciously enginee…

Makes sense. Lies spread faster than truth, and repetition legitimizes are fundamentally incompatible with the marketplace of ideas mindset.

Really? It took a huge mobilization of media manipulation fear mongering and gas lighting to get the American public to swallow the Weapons of Mass Destruction and/or Saddam did 9/11 lies. If people had been free to speak their minds (https://www.democracynow.org/2013/3/21/phil_donahue_on_his_2...) back then we wouldn't have been lead into that war like lemmings. Information is control. I trust the funny cat lady next door to not start a war with Iran more than I trust anyone on an editorial board of an American newspaper not to. Lies require censorship of truth to survive.

EDIT: added a reference. Keep in mind for every anti-war journalist fired for standing up to the official lies there were easily 100 who kept their heads down. Im not scared of flat earth lies. I'm scared of Iraq war or even worse, World War I levels of deception.

Re: Voat Is Shutting Down

#199

Post by fastball »

dmode wrote: post #46

This is the fallacy of a "free speech" site. It gets taken over by extremists and soon you are just talking to each other in an echo chamber and agreeing with each other. And then you lose interest. That's why I never visit r/politics in Reddit anymore even though I am somewhat aligned with the political attitude of that sub.

I genuinely hope for your sake you are not aligned with the attitudes of /r/politics, that place is fucking bananas.

Re: Voat Is Shutting Down

#200

Post by totony »

weare138 wrote: post #144
zamalek wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It was truly the culture that dominated the site. Voat is proof that we are not yet deserving of free speech. I find beauty in the principle of FoS: we would never have e.g. legalized same-sex marriages without it - and this is why we need it for future ethical advancements, possibly (as one hypothetical example), the right to die/destiny. Advancement of the moral zeitgeist is impossible without it. The utter impos…

>Voat is proof that we are not yet deserving of free speech It's not the we the people are not deserving of free speech, it's the idea the right to 'free speech' supersedes other rights and should go unchecked at the expense of others that undermines the concept for so many. Besides, it wasn't free speech or lack thereof that's causing Voat to fold. Apparently no one wanted to pay to hear what they had to say. Everyo…

>'free speech' supersedes other rights and should go unchecked at the expense of others

Curious about this, what right does anti-Semite/racism rhetoric removes from others? How can words affect your rights as a person?

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