Why We Shut Down Reddit’s ‘Ask Me Anything’ Forum • Hacker News Board

Re: Why We Shut Down Reddit’s ‘Ask Me Anything’ Forum

#321

Post by dummy7953 » Thu, Jul 09, 2015, 4:55 PM UTC

basch wrote: post #118

imjk wrote: post #32

"We feel strongly that this incident is more part of a reckless disregard for the company’s own business and for the work the moderators and users put into the site. Dismissing Victoria Taylor was part of a long pattern of insisting the community and the moderators do more with less." I think this really gets to the heart of it. The moderators of the site only learned of the termination after a celebrity flew out to…

This article is falling on me as tone deaf. Most people who frequent the site dont care at all about the plight of the moderators. Moderators are not elected, they arent forcefully drafted, they dont step down when the community dislikes them. They are landowners who got there first, followed by a lot of cronyism/nepotism. It's an old boys club. They do a lot of hard work for the site, but they would be easily replac…

Please don't quote South Park.

Re: Why We Shut Down Reddit’s ‘Ask Me Anything’ Forum

#322

Post by Lawtonfogle » Thu, Jul 09, 2015, 6:18 PM UTC

bduerst wrote: post #318

Lawtonfogle wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because the Amendment doesn't apply doesn't mean the ideals behind it are irrelevant. I could choose to exclude all individuals of a certain race from my home. No law could prevent me from doing that. But people would still be against me for the same reasons that there exists laws that prevent discrimination by government or businesses. It just seems most people do not articulate the difference between 'wrong be…

Yes it does. If you banned vandals and violent people from your private property for their malicious behavior, people would not band against you or cry about first amendment "ideals". Ignoring select information, such as the reasoning behind the bans, is exactly what cognitive bias is. If you honestly think that what Reddit did is the equivalent of racism, then that is very clear proof that you have a bias.

>If you banned vandals and violent people from your private property for their malicious behavior, people would not band against you or cry about first amendment "ideals".

The government is allowed to ban such people from its premises as well. You choose a poor example.

As for the reasoning behind the bans, you are ignoring the unequal application of those bans which shows such claimed reasons to have been lies.

>If you honestly think that what Reddit did is the equivalent of racism

I never called it the equivalent of racism. I used racism as an example of where the ideals that ban the government, while not banning the individual, can be used to cast moral judgment upon the individual. That you could confuse these gives evidence to your own strong bias.

Re: Why We Shut Down Reddit’s ‘Ask Me Anything’ Forum

#323

Post by bduerst » Thu, Jul 09, 2015, 7:23 PM UTC

Lawtonfogle wrote: post #322

bduerst wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it does. If you banned vandals and violent people from your private property for their malicious behavior, people would not band against you or cry about first amendment "ideals". Ignoring select information, such as the reasoning behind the bans, is exactly what cognitive bias is. If you honestly think that what Reddit did is the equivalent of racism, then that is very clear proof that you have a bias.

>If you banned vandals and violent people from your private property for their malicious behavior, people would not band against you or cry about first amendment "ideals". The government is allowed to ban such people from its premises as well. You choose a poor example. As for the reasoning behind the bans, you are ignoring the unequal application of those bans which shows such claimed reasons to have been lies. >If…

It's a perfect good example because it's analagous to what Reddit did, and you're splitting hairs because it doesn't fit your own narrative on racism and moral judgement that you crafted for your own personal reality.

You even admit that you don't think that what reddit did is the equivalent of racism, so you admit your analogy isn't even relevant to the situation. Just as if you gave the analogy of "people judge a bar that doesn't let you bear arms because of second amendment ideals!", it's still moot, because while yes, they do pass moral judgement, it's completely irrelevant from people selectively ignoring safety reasons behind the firearm ban.

Passing moral judgement that resulted from a bias is still a bias.

Re: Why We Shut Down Reddit’s ‘Ask Me Anything’ Forum

#324

Post by codingdave » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 5:42 AM UTC

codingdave wrote: post #252

imjk wrote: post #32

"We feel strongly that this incident is more part of a reckless disregard for the company’s own business and for the work the moderators and users put into the site. Dismissing Victoria Taylor was part of a long pattern of insisting the community and the moderators do more with less." I think this really gets to the heart of it. The moderators of the site only learned of the termination after a celebrity flew out to…

I have yet to see anything that looks like disregard for reddit's business. On the contrary, everything I have seen has implied that reddit is trying to monetize the community, and the community does not like it. Of course, I don't have any inside information, so I could be wrong on all counts, but the rumor is that Victoria was fired for resisting turning AMAs into a revenue stream. I have seen other moderators comp…

Just a later note... since I wrote this, Sam Altman and others have repeatedly stated that they are not worried about monetization in the short-term. So I was way off-base...