Reddit's user uprising against China because Tencent will invest in the platform • Hacker News Board

Re: Reddit's user uprising against China because Tencent will invest in the platform

#251

Post by baq » Sat, Feb 09, 2019, 7:42 PM UTC

wolco wrote: post #236

save_ferris wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wasn't just censorship in the traditional sense, Huffman changed someone else's content that was posted. What an insane and unbelievably poor decision by the CEO of a major company. Sure, the size of Huffman's change was small and limited in scope, but the injustice that it represented combined with the incredible lack of judgment by the Chief Executive rightfully rightfully caused a loud response. He absolutely s…

No one if it is a flawed product the market will decide. Each user gets value feom reddit if they stop they will stop visiting. You are being manipulated everywhere. From constant talk to your doctor in drug ads to learn this series of facts and opinions in school to vote for me because I represent you. You are responsible for filtering and learning.

Trained professionals, experts in manipulation and deception, wielding big data analytics vs single normal person who’s supposed to learn and if he can’t, well, too bad, the market decided he’s a fish. Sounds perfectly fair.

Re: Reddit's user uprising against China because Tencent will invest in the platform

#252

Post by chillacy » Sat, Feb 09, 2019, 7:43 PM UTC

luckylion wrote: post #222

jmknoll wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because one is a website about cats, and one is an authoritarian nation... I’m relatively certain that the reddit admins are not going to jail me as a pawn in a political game, or as a punishment for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nor will they ban me from traveling by plane as a punishment for having low karma.

Reddit admins will indeed not sentence you to 20 years in a labor camp for disagreeing with them politically. But that's because they can't, not because they wouldn't. Reddit would fit perfectly well into the Chinese internet. Just tweak the "permissible opinions" a bit and off you go, the rest can remain unchanged.

The configuration of those permissible bits is exactly the difference between two cultures, no? It’s not like the US is a free speech anarchist haven either, certain speech or images land you in jail here as well. But saying it’s all the same reminds me of a quote from Dr Manhattan about how a living person and dead person have exactly the same number of atoms before and after death, what’s the big deal?

Re: Reddit's user uprising against China because Tencent will invest in the platform

#253

Post by learc83 » Sat, Feb 09, 2019, 7:43 PM UTC

boron1006 wrote: post #125

learc83 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the government wants to use them to pressure Reddit, they can and will. In this instance, Tencent and the government are functionally equivalent.

Using that logic, the CIA and almost every company in existence is functionally equivalent. This is just sloppy thinking. You have to show evidence for your opinions. In this particular instance, do you have any specific evidence?

I don't generally feel the need provide decades of historical context in a 2 line forum post. If you lack that context, feel free to ignore my comment and do some research.

Re: Reddit's user uprising against China because Tencent will invest in the platform

#254

Post by freehunter » Sat, Feb 09, 2019, 7:48 PM UTC

ganeshkrishnan wrote: post #234

bdcravens wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine if you ran a company that didn't rely on outside investment.

How? I am not rich enough to pay for hiring or smart enough to be best in every aspect of a startup. I need to hire people to help me out and I can't take forever to build the business without earning anything in the meantime.

The way it's usually done is start small and focus on profitability from day one. Don't hire until you're making enough money to hire. If you can't start it by yourself or with free labor (from friends etc), well not everyone can succeed in every kind of business. You have to pick what you're good at.

Another way is to start small in your spare time focusing on a need that's so close to you that even if you never made a dime you would still get benefit from it. That way you can grow slowly until the business makes enough that you can quit your day job and focus on growth.

You don't have to be the best at anything, as long as you're good enough at everything. I can't think of any business that has the best employees for every aspect of their business. Lots of companies get by on just "good enough" for most of their non-core business tasks, and good enough is good enough for that. You only need the best at your core business, which you should be if you're the one starting the business.

Re: Reddit's user uprising against China because Tencent will invest in the platform

#255

Post by mgbmtl » Sat, Feb 09, 2019, 7:55 PM UTC

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #66

Are there examples of companies that said “this is enough money” and stopped concentrating on having ever increasing profits every quarter to satisfy VC or stock investors? I think of this a lot lately. It seems companies don’t want to just do what they do well anymore and be satisfied with that. Can someone give me some inspiration? Companies that have such pride in their work that they aren’t constantly looking for…

In textile, Patagonia is a nice example (https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/patagonias-anti-...)

Re: Reddit's user uprising against China because Tencent will invest in the platform

#256

Post by chillacy » Sat, Feb 09, 2019, 7:59 PM UTC

rplst8 wrote: post #69

rjf72 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

They have not changed. Well, same wolf, new clothes made by sheep. They persecute religious groups, Muslim, Christian, and Buddhist alike. They control their laborers, harvest organs from prisoners, and they've been occupying Tibet since 1949 and actively pursue families that send their children to Buddhist schools.

I think these are separate issues (but totally valid), the great leap forward wasn't made to persecute minorities insofar as... well the result of a state planned economy. The parent is pointing out that the great leap forward wouldn't happen again because of a switch to capitalism.

You're saying the persecution of minorities hasn't changed, which is a different topic. Capitalist economies can still persecute minorities. That requires a different level of regard for human rights that doesn't exist there.

Re: Reddit's user uprising against China because Tencent will invest in the platform

#257

Post by chillacy » Sat, Feb 09, 2019, 8:02 PM UTC

mistermann wrote: post #80

fxfan wrote: post #68

I think the concern shouldn't just be about censorship but also about political interference. First Russia and now China. Foreign ownership of media is a national security concern.

What direct, trustworthy evidence is there of Russia political interference? Not a criminal charge, but the most convincing evidence ?

Depending on how you define "direct" and "trustworthy", you may never find evidence meeting your threshold.

Some people lack "direct, trustworthy" evidence for the holocaust, after all. Anything which we don't experience directly (which is a lot of knowledge) we'll have to get from other sources.

Re: Reddit's user uprising against China because Tencent will invest in the platform

#258

Post by luckylion » Sat, Feb 09, 2019, 8:06 PM UTC

chillacy wrote: post #252

luckylion wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit admins will indeed not sentence you to 20 years in a labor camp for disagreeing with them politically. But that's because they can't, not because they wouldn't. Reddit would fit perfectly well into the Chinese internet. Just tweak the "permissible opinions" a bit and off you go, the rest can remain unchanged.

The configuration of those permissible bits is exactly the difference between two cultures, no? It’s not like the US is a free speech anarchist haven either, certain speech or images land you in jail here as well. But saying it’s all the same reminds me of a quote from Dr Manhattan about how a living person and dead person have exactly the same number of atoms before and after death, what’s the big deal?

> The configuration of those permissible bits is exactly the difference between two cultures, no?

Sure. And that can be changed in an instant. Just put "Tiananmen Square", "Tibet" etc on your black list and the site can operate the exact same way it does today. Most users won't even notice ("it's a site to share cat pictures, why would I talk about politics"), others will not care ("oh well, those guys probably deserved it") and the rest will move to voat (or start something new, I don't know how well Chinese critics and racists mix).

Re: Reddit's user uprising against China because Tencent will invest in the platform

#259

Post by chillacy » Sat, Feb 09, 2019, 8:10 PM UTC

luckylion wrote: post #258

chillacy wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The configuration of those permissible bits is exactly the difference between two cultures, no? It’s not like the US is a free speech anarchist haven either, certain speech or images land you in jail here as well. But saying it’s all the same reminds me of a quote from Dr Manhattan about how a living person and dead person have exactly the same number of atoms before and after death, what’s the big deal?

> The configuration of those permissible bits is exactly the difference between two cultures, no? Sure. And that can be changed in an instant. Just put "Tiananmen Square", "Tibet" etc on your black list and the site can operate the exact same way it does today. Most users won't even notice ("it's a site to share cat pictures, why would I talk about politics"), others will not care ("oh well, those guys probably deser…

Sure, laws can be changed relatively fast as well. But what's your pitch here? Is it that we're all just on a sliding scale of censorship? Or that we shouldn't censor at all and truly embody our ideal of "freedom of speech"?

Re: Reddit's user uprising against China because Tencent will invest in the platform

#260

Post by s4vi0r » Sat, Feb 09, 2019, 8:22 PM UTC

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #66

Are there examples of companies that said “this is enough money” and stopped concentrating on having ever increasing profits every quarter to satisfy VC or stock investors? I think of this a lot lately. It seems companies don’t want to just do what they do well anymore and be satisfied with that. Can someone give me some inspiration? Companies that have such pride in their work that they aren’t constantly looking for…

"This is enough money" generally not being a thing is an inherent issue and contradiction of capitalism. Hopefully more people will realize the absolute ridiculousness and damage the idea of infinite growth the system has baked into it causes to people and nature.