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Study and Interactive Visualization of Toxicity in Reddit Communities

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Re: Study and Interactive Visualization of Toxicity in Reddit Communities

#21

Post by erglkjahlkh »

brighteyes wrote: post #16
makebelieves wrote: post #15

This is rather hilariously slanted. "Bigotry by subreddit". Really? "[TumblrInAction], a subreddit dedicated to mocking Tumblr – where marginalized groups, particularly LGBTQ, post about their experiences" Here they neatly imply r/TumblrInAction mocks LGBTQ issues when in fact, it mocks people who use identities as tools to divide and hit people over the head with. Which is incidentally what this report does: "Overt…

I think the more important point is that tumblrinaction mocks people. The same is true of shitredditsays. Both subreddits believe they are mocking and hating people for good and justified reasons, but the fact is, they are communities built around hatred. Communities built around hatred, justified or not, always end up being toxic. Hatred is sometimes - rarely - justified and necessary, but it is not a healthy emotio…

Well put.

"Hatred (or hate) is a deep and emotional extreme dislike. It can be directed against individuals, groups, entities, objects, or ideas. Hatred is often associated with feelings of anger, disgust and a disposition towards hostility."

-- Wikipedia (Hatred)

It is alright until you get to the three last words. Disposition towards hostility. Things tend to go downhill from there, especially with large groups of people. People get dragged into all kinds of spats, some see no problem with doxxing, spreading outright lies, continuous flow of ad hominem and other logic errors, ... The a few actually good people tend to leave quietly as time passes, and what is left is toxic wasteland of bigotry.

Re: Study and Interactive Visualization of Toxicity in Reddit Communities

#22

Post by rodgerd »

A_COMPUTER wrote: post #20
JulianMorrison wrote: post #7

I wonder how the scores would be changed if the code could be updated to treat intruding outsiders differently from supported regulars ? I bet you'd see ShitRedditSays and TwoXChromosomes suddenly sink down the "bigoted" ratings, while climbing right to the top of the "under siege" rating.

It should be expected that a subreddit would get high ratings for bigotry and for being under siege when it is explicitly dedicated to singling out and insulting other people on the same site. So I suspect that if such a measurement were done, TwoXChromosomes would drop and ShitRedditSays would stay put.

> It should be expected that a subreddit would get high ratings for bigotry and for being under siege when it is explicitly dedicated to singling out and insulting other people on the same site.

The fact you think TwoX is "dedicated to insulting other people on the site" says a lot more about you than it does about that subreddit. None of it especially complimentary.

Re: Study and Interactive Visualization of Toxicity in Reddit Communities

#23

Post by rmc »

ShitRedditSays, and the "most toxic" subreddit in that result, is actually a joke subreddit. It's a "circle jerk" where everyone flips around the standard racism and sexism (so sexism jokes against men) etc. "breaking the jerk", actually taking it seriously, is a bankable offense.

I think this makes their analysis flawed. If you were to look at spelling and grammar, you might conclude that people on polandball are the worst sellers, but the bad spelling is part of the style. Likewise shitredditsays for insults.

Re: Study and Interactive Visualization of Toxicity in Reddit Communities

#24

Post by rmc »

brighteyes wrote: post #16
makebelieves wrote: post #15

This is rather hilariously slanted. "Bigotry by subreddit". Really? "[TumblrInAction], a subreddit dedicated to mocking Tumblr – where marginalized groups, particularly LGBTQ, post about their experiences" Here they neatly imply r/TumblrInAction mocks LGBTQ issues when in fact, it mocks people who use identities as tools to divide and hit people over the head with. Which is incidentally what this report does: "Overt…

I think the more important point is that tumblrinaction mocks people. The same is true of shitredditsays. Both subreddits believe they are mocking and hating people for good and justified reasons, but the fact is, they are communities built around hatred. Communities built around hatred, justified or not, always end up being toxic. Hatred is sometimes - rarely - justified and necessary, but it is not a healthy emotio…

Yes, most people on SRS hate sexism, racism etc. This is a good thing to hate.

Here on HN people hate bad code, hate bad practices, had programming, etc

Re: Study and Interactive Visualization of Toxicity in Reddit Communities

#25

Post by A_COMPUTER »

rodgerd wrote: post #22
A_COMPUTER wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It should be expected that a subreddit would get high ratings for bigotry and for being under siege when it is explicitly dedicated to singling out and insulting other people on the same site. So I suspect that if such a measurement were done, TwoXChromosomes would drop and ShitRedditSays would stay put.

> It should be expected that a subreddit would get high ratings for bigotry and for being under siege when it is explicitly dedicated to singling out and insulting other people on the same site. The fact you think TwoX is "dedicated to insulting other people on the site" says a lot more about you than it does about that subreddit. None of it especially complimentary.

I don't think that, I was contrasting it with SRS which is why I said twox would go down on that metric. Sorry if I was unclear.

Re: Study and Interactive Visualization of Toxicity in Reddit Communities

#26

Post by intended »

rmc wrote: post #23

ShitRedditSays, and the "most toxic" subreddit in that result, is actually a joke subreddit. It's a "circle jerk" where everyone flips around the standard racism and sexism (so sexism jokes against men) etc. "breaking the jerk", actually taking it seriously, is a bankable offense. I think this makes their analysis flawed. If you were to look at spelling and grammar, you might conclude that people on polandball are th…

With srs and As with other older joke subreddits - new subscribers can't make out the difference between seriousness, sarcasm and humor. SRS has evolved into a sub that takes itself seriously from what I've witnessed.

Re: Study and Interactive Visualization of Toxicity in Reddit Communities

#27

Post by smosher_ »

rodgerd wrote: post #22
A_COMPUTER wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It should be expected that a subreddit would get high ratings for bigotry and for being under siege when it is explicitly dedicated to singling out and insulting other people on the same site. So I suspect that if such a measurement were done, TwoXChromosomes would drop and ShitRedditSays would stay put.

> It should be expected that a subreddit would get high ratings for bigotry and for being under siege when it is explicitly dedicated to singling out and insulting other people on the same site. The fact you think TwoX is "dedicated to insulting other people on the site" says a lot more about you than it does about that subreddit. None of it especially complimentary.

Please try to read all the words before making implications about the author's character.

Re: Study and Interactive Visualization of Toxicity in Reddit Communities

#28

Post by tomp »

I disagree with the criteria for toxicity. The first one is OK, but the second one makes little sense for some communities.

For example, if we have a white suprematist community, you can expect many overtly bigoted comments. However, if these comments are only general and are never ad hominem attacks, I don't see that as toxicity. A black person being able to argue against white supremacy without being called "nigger" (in a white suprematist subreddit) is no different than a religious person being able to argue against atheism without ad hominem attacks (in an atheist subreddit). Both might be uncomfortable, but they are uncomfortable because of the subject matter (and almost any subject will have people who are uncomfortable with it), not because of the community itself.

Therefore, ad hominem attacks subsumes overt bigotry against a specific individual, while overt bigotry in general is not toxic IMO.

Re: Study and Interactive Visualization of Toxicity in Reddit Communities

#29

Post by stefantalpalaru »

> I set out to scientifically measure toxicity

You can't mix science and rhetorics. There's nothing toxic about comments. Nobody gets sick and/or dies from them. So you need to choose from being objective and scientific or taking a bath in cultural clichés and linguistic masturbation.

>Toxic comments are ones that would make someone who disagrees with the viewpoint of the commenter feel uncomfortable and less likely to want to participate

Ah, the beauty of subjectivity! So any comment that any touchy-feely individual may disagree with is toxic. Toxic in general, not just for the weakling. Scientific indeed...

> By measuring both Toxicity and Supportiveness we are able to get a holistic view of community health that can be used to more fairly compare and contrast subreddit communities.

But only when the Moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars, right?

Re: Study and Interactive Visualization of Toxicity in Reddit Communities

#30

Post by [deleted] »

rmc wrote: post #24
brighteyes wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the more important point is that tumblrinaction mocks people. The same is true of shitredditsays. Both subreddits believe they are mocking and hating people for good and justified reasons, but the fact is, they are communities built around hatred. Communities built around hatred, justified or not, always end up being toxic. Hatred is sometimes - rarely - justified and necessary, but it is not a healthy emotio…

Yes, most people on SRS hate sexism, racism etc. This is a good thing to hate. Here on HN people hate bad code, hate bad practices, had programming, etc

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