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‘I Fundamentally Believe That My Time at Reddit Made the World a Worse Place’

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291–300 of 618 posts

Re: ‘I Fundamentally Believe That My Time at Reddit Made the World a Worse Place’

#291
post #174

This is the latest flavor of humble bragging in the Valley.

Speaking from one of his nine yachts over a satellite phone, Spammy Tachsdodger McScrapyface said "What we did at Zynga was terrible and should be regulated. My new company is available to consult on how that should be done."

Re: ‘I Fundamentally Believe That My Time at Reddit Made the World a Worse Place’

#292
Reddit has been overrun by extremists and special interest groups and has become a dangerous tool for indoctrination and misinformation.

This interview feels disingenuous and a thinly veiled humble brag/promo for Imzy.

Jailbait Really? How can you mention jailbait but not coontown, KKK, fatpeoplehate, incels, boston marathon, there are so many worse communities/incidents that have spilled into general reddit than jailbait.

the cycle is media backlash > ban a few subs > replacements/under the radar alternatives readily available in the ban announcement comments.

no one seems to fully appreciate the massive influence that reddit has on the news cycle/national discourse and how the company policies can actually shape world politics. It's insane we're not studying this and talking about it more.

Re: ‘I Fundamentally Believe That My Time at Reddit Made the World a Worse Place’

#293
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not really relevant to what the author is trying to say at all. Actually, it’s the opposite. Because of the excess of disinterested capital that only values growth, a thing that could be a positive and productive thing is instead a cancer — it grows and grows without purpose. That’s why Reddit (and Tumblr) have massive porn sections that aren’t spoken about and Reddit is a watering hole for white supremacy and p…

Comparing porn to white supremacy is just that kind of political view that feels completely alien to me. It was not many years ago that Monty Python poked fun at a whole nations conservative view about nudity and porn, and it seems like globally we have taken a few new step backwards toward the 19th century views about those topics. The biggest porn section in reddit is currently ranked 61 of all subreddits. Cat pict…

Now now, earth porn is ranked 18. :)

I sometimes think that news and media overblow the nasty sides of the Internet (the sexist / racist side, the trolls, etc.) way out of proportion. For a taste of what average Redditers are interested in, I perfectly think subscription count is reasonable (more so than activity -- people can be very passionate / post a lot about something that is overall a minority opinion).

I cannot comment on the actual communities themselves other than what I see from a quick skim (I don't use Reddit much), but the top community subjects don't feel very toxic. Jokes, knowledge, games, pictures, cuteness, music. Maybe the big news subs (eg worldnews) get political, for all I know, didn't seem too bad on a quick skim.

None of the top list screams "white supremacy" or "political propaganda" to me (some say "politics", sure, but propaganda?). Due to size, of course, I would expect some moderation is needed for those super-huge communities, but that's expected these days. r/conspiracy (probably the biggest community that steps a little bit into a more paranoid worldview) has a lot of people, but r/science has 30x more.

I would even argue that gonewild (the top "porn" subreddit) is atypical compared to most commercial Internet porn sites, which is probably why it actually cracks the top 100.

Re: ‘I Fundamentally Believe That My Time at Reddit Made the World a Worse Place’

#294

I've significantly reduced my time on Reddit. Used to pull up the website out of curiosity every day but the atmosphere is incredibly toxic. My front page was riddled with Russiagate stuff too for some reason and every time you'd bring up an argument that isn't the norm you get a mob after you.

Why is it toxic to share stories about an investigation of the US President?

Re: ‘I Fundamentally Believe That My Time at Reddit Made the World a Worse Place’

#295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The default/popular subreddits are toxic. The smaller, niche subreddits are rarely toxic and usually good communities. As for the Russiagate stuff, the front page is riddled with it because it's a very important subject in the US, Reddit's user base is primarily people from the US, and there are bombshells dropping every day.

Still a nothing burger, it's paid political propaganda on those default reddits, paid teams pushing bs and noise. Share blue for example was given a budget of 40+ million a year to do just that. (Over 100k a day) The other paid campaign is 'deplatforming' (their term). They do your best to silence opinions which don't match the paid script.

I'm sure it's being brigaded by both sides for political points/fire control.

But you'd have to be willfully blind to describe the events up to now as a "nothing burger."

Re: ‘I Fundamentally Believe That My Time at Reddit Made the World a Worse Place’

#296
post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel that leftist movements are leaking much more than T_D. Comments which — without being racist or sexist — go against the popular & politically correct leftist stance are downvoted to oblivion. Meanwhile, extremely statist stances are tolerated and celebrated by users.

Reddit's hive-mind is ultra-liberal.

It is worth noting that Russia's goal with its initial propaganda efforts was not necessarily to elect Trump, but instead to sow dissent against a likely Clinton presidency. This included a heavy pro-Trump campaign, but also a sizable pro-Sanders campaign. Therefore the extremist views you see on Reddit on both sides of the aisle have likely been spiked by Russian propaganda. I'm not saying Reddit doesn't lean liberal, just that the "ultra-liberal" side of the site that appeared during the 2016 primaries might not be completely genuine.

Re: ‘I Fundamentally Believe That My Time at Reddit Made the World a Worse Place’

#297
The big tech industry is weirdly obsessed with growth. I'd guess that this is because platforms that have collected huge amounts of users can monetize them later.

And...startups that sell for millions make growth look like the best KPI to monitor.

Re: ‘I Fundamentally Believe That My Time at Reddit Made the World a Worse Place’

#298
>if Reddit, specifically, focused all their efforts on the health of their platform, on the people that are really the contributors and not the consumers, they would see growth beyond what they’re getting.

I think Digg tried this, shortly before being crushed by Reddit.

Re: ‘I Fundamentally Believe That My Time at Reddit Made the World a Worse Place’

#299
post #17

I think there is a very important distinction that needs to be made. The popular reddit experience is vastly worse than the customized reddit. It took me a while to realize that my reddit experience was vastly improved once I was very picky about which subreddits I follow.

True, but The_Donald is always leaking. I've seen plenty of sexist/racist content on subreddits for cities, sports teams, memes, etc. Reddit has allowed itself to be a platform used in part for really despicable content, and the despicable people who generate that content regularly venture outside their cesspools.

What does that mean though? People who post in one sub aren't allowed to be in any other sub?

People in TD can write in others subs too, as can people from late stage capitalism. Wanting to forcibly segregate and silence people with different opinions is I think at the heart of the problem with silicon valley right now.

'remove those who disagree with me' has killed hundreds of millions over the years, and is a common and dangerous kind of groupthink.

Re: ‘I Fundamentally Believe That My Time at Reddit Made the World a Worse Place’

#300
post #231
post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I definitely think that dumb content makes the consumer dumber with repeated exposure just like smart/educational content makes them smarter (well, in simple terms). I don't think there is a baseline intelligence level for each person below which they can't possibly fall regardless of what they do. So yes, platforms making dumb content more available do make people dumber long term. I don't know what to do about it,…

> I definitely think that dumb content makes the consumer dumber with repeated exposure Sure, but even if that turns out to be the case what concerns me is how often people automatically take the next step and assume that it should or CAN be controlled top-down, and that doing so will surely result in the average/lowest common denominator consumer suddenly becoming smarter and less ignorant. Basically the assumption…

I would say the general public's level of intelligence in general, and the effect of dumb content on it specifically is definitely significant enough to need a solution. Many solutions, probably.

Of course no one will seriously suggest a gif prohibition (I hope), but regarding fake news specifically, regulation such as the FCC Fairness doctrine could possibly work.

The point is not to eliminate undesired behavior entirely, but to make it less available and less desirable compared to alternatives. For example, smoking cigarettes is being largely successfully solved by education, promotion of general health, gross packaging, putting cigarette cases out-of-sight in supermarkets, and taxes, not outright prohibition.

I don't think that just because the content is digital you can't do anything about it without introducing worse problems for freedom of speech and such. Tons of industries are successfully regulated, this one is not special enough to be unsolvable.

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