Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

311–320 of 482 posts

Re: Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th

#311

Post by wpietri »

Aeolun wrote: post #171
village-idiot wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of people over-estimate the resilience of the human emotional state, especially their own. Time and time again we see regular functioning adults get sucked into objectively insane or self-harmful communities, be it the above phenomenon or 4chan crap like QAnon.

I have my own share of mental issues, but I just have a hard time seeing how I could ever get involved in one of these groups, much less believe the bullshit they are spouting. What is the situation that makes these seem like a solid choice?

I try to keep in mind that if a con looks obvious to me, I'm just not the kind of mark the con was designed for. Why will a fish bite on bait that doesn't look edible to me? Because it looks delicious to them. It was made to look delicious to them though a long process of trial and error.

For a long while I was fascinated that people could get caught up in cults. It was very much not the kind of thing I would fall for. So I read a bunch of memoirs from people who had left/escaped cults and eventually it made a lot of sense to me. I would still never fall for one, but I can see how they take advantage of basic human drives and the weaknesses of their particular kind of victim.

Re: Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th

#312

Post by api »

IfOnlyYouKnew wrote: post #288
ASalazarMX wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you hit the nail in the head. Kids (and many grownups) are very vulnerable to groupthink, The only solution I see is encouraging common sense through critical thinking.

Considering most of these groups rally around conspiracy theories, which by definition start from a position of questioning commonly accepted facts (i. e. "critical thinking"), maybe we have actually gone too far with the critical thinking?

We teach the idea of critical thinking but not the intellectual disciplines of doing it honestly and effectively.

Re: Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th

#313

Post by JohnJamesRambo »

x0x0 wrote: post #71
b1r6 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly correct. Sure there are "clean" portions of Tumblr, but from what I can tell the real purpose is to host adult content. And there's nothing wrong with that! It's a fantastic magnet for eyes, with which to show ads. They're basically killing themselves with this.

The vast vast majority of advertisers do not want to be displayed next to porn. Think of tumblr as nothing but a way to get pageviews for Cheerios and Volvo ads. It explains their decisions perfectly.

Do you think porn watchers don't buy Cheerios and Volvos?

Re: Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th

#314

Post by Nasrudith »

trhway wrote: post #178
guid_luckWitDat wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you know that adolescent children are clever enough to lie about their age, AND flout rules enforced by simple button clicks and honor systems?

Browser on locked in system honoring the age metadata would go a long way. It is parental decision whether to give locked or unlocked device to the child.

No offense but that sounds like the most likely effect is promoting tech literacy and sneakiness.

Re: Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th

#315

Post by dvtrn »

groby_b wrote: post #144
briffle wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its bad in general, for sites like Facebook as well. People are now presented with news and stories that they are predicted arithmetically to like, in order to further "user interaction" (ie, more ad impressions). But this leads to an echo chamber, where people are not exposed to alternative ideas, contrasting viewpoints, etc. (And then, when they are my parents, call it 'fake news' when presented with them).

It's worse. It's not an echo chamber - because the recommendation algos don't keep you with like minded people. They purposefully guide you towards more "engagement". And online, the most engagement can be had by trolling, not by agreeing with each other. And "contrasting viewpoints" mean little when they're sheer lunacy.

And online, the most engagement can be had by trolling, not by agreeing with each other.

The example that screams out to me reading this cmoment is Reddit and it's ability to sort comments and threads by "controversial".

Re: Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th

#316

Post by hosbjhsuuvs »

bvinc wrote: post #21

My daughter at 12 got sucked into Tumblr and developed an eating disorder. She was in this gigantic web of pro-ana tumblrs with crazy diet plans that tell you to eat like 100 calories a day. Then the app would just keep suggesting more, "skin and bones", "thinspo", "meanspo". Holy crap there are some scary corners of Tumblr. I of course am more mindful of what she looks at, but she was hiding it and I can't monitor e…

Balancing free speech is easy, more speech the better.

'think or my child' is the absolute bottom of rhetorical speech, it ranks worse than '...but nazis'

Stop sacrifing my basic rights because you're terrified.

Re: Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th

#317

Post by wpietri »

megy wrote: post #307
ASalazarMX wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I knew pro-anorexia groups use slang like "your friend Ana" to hide their actions, but had to google "thinspo" and "meanspo". Thinspo (thin inspiration) is positive anorexia reinforcement, like anorexic role model pictures. Meanspo (mean inspiration) is negative anorexia reinforcement, like aphorisms demonizing fat or destructive critic. Why are young girls so vulnerable to mental disease trends? What can we do bette…

> Why are young girls so vulnerable to mental disease trends? Are you serious? Have you heard of qanon, anti-vax, scientology, pyrmaid schemes? We all are vulnerable to this stuff.

I know this is getting downvoted, but the odds are very good that we each believe something that future generations will correctly see as obviously idiotic. History is just full of things where large fractions of society were wrong. It seems extremely unlikely that this is the moment in history where that stops.

I think it's fair to say that kids are more vulnerable, though, for the same reason that they also get physically sick more. Immune systems develop through exposure, and they just haven't had as much exposure.

Re: Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th

#318

Post by evgen »

bk8335 wrote: post #301
x0x0 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The vast vast majority of advertisers do not want to be displayed next to porn. Think of tumblr as nothing but a way to get pageviews for Cheerios and Volvo ads. It explains their decisions perfectly.

Except people who watch porn also buy Cheerios and Volvo's - I've never understood why such a massive market is always immediately ruled out in such an ad hungry world.

Because the people who sell Cheerios and Volvo's do not want people posting pics of their ads in some camgirl site and annoying the larger audience who don't (admit to) watch porn. Head on over to pornhub, marvel at what must be absolutely mammoth page view counts, and then wonder at the below-the-bottom-of-the-barrel ads that the site is filled with.

Re: Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th

#319

Post by wpietri »

tedsanders wrote: post #277
derefr wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why are young girls so vulnerable to mental disease trends? Nothing to do with young girls in particular, nor "mental disease" in particular. Adolescents are constantly trying to find some axis along which they can excel/stand out, in a way that gives them societal power. (They're trying to "win", without really caring what it is they're winning at. They're just aware that right now they're not winning along any ax…

There is evidence that it's gendered. One example is that hospital admissions for self-harm are higher for girls than boys. It's also going up for girls and not going up for boys. See figures 1 and 2 of: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/26640...

That reminds me that The Economist had some interesting material on suicide rates recently: https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2018/11/30/...

In some countries there has been a huge fall in the suicide rate for women. It seems to be correlated with increasing opportunity and independence.

Re: Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th

#320

Post by ASalazarMX »

IfOnlyYouKnew wrote: post #288
ASalazarMX wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you hit the nail in the head. Kids (and many grownups) are very vulnerable to groupthink, The only solution I see is encouraging common sense through critical thinking.

Considering most of these groups rally around conspiracy theories, which by definition start from a position of questioning commonly accepted facts (i. e. "critical thinking"), maybe we have actually gone too far with the critical thinking?

> maybe we have actually gone too far with the critical thinking?

No, because it would be something else than critical thinking. It's like the scientific method, where you can't dismiss any possibility, unlikely as it be, but pursue the most likely explanations first.

Conspiracy theories bizarrely pursue the least likely explanation. Granted, this explanation might be real, but until new data arrives (Assange, Snowden, Manning, etc.) it can't outweigh the simpler ones.

Post reply on HN