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Reddit subs with millions of followers plan to extend the blackout indefinitely

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Re: Reddit subs with millions of followers plan to extend the blackout indefinitely

#351

Post by tester457 »

WheatMillington wrote: post #188
6gvONxR4sf7o wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The only loser here is the corporation side. I'm not convinced they lose out either. The front page doesn't really feel different than it did before. There are a handful of "Reddit is killing third-party applications (and itself). Read more in the comments" posts, but I'm kinda blind to them the same way I'm blind to ads as I scroll past. Otherwise it just feels like any other day on reddit.

Are we using the same website? Reddit is devoid of any decent content right now, on account of the blackout.

But r/popular looks normal for the most part.

Re: Reddit subs with millions of followers plan to extend the blackout indefinitely

#352

Post by hayst4ck »

WheatMillington wrote: post #199
s1k3s wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't work out for everybody. Lots of high quality communities outside of reddit have been invaded by people looking for an alternative and as a result they are now fighting massive traffic spikes, spam or the general reddit hive-mind taking over their discussion.

Do you have any examples?

There is a noticeable uptick of barely concealed white supremacy here in the last 2 days. I would feel confident saying that the way upvotes and downvotes work on a cultural level has changed.

We've had conservatives here forever, but I haven't seen people talk about things like "replacement theory". I think there's been a definite overton window shift towards the right wing.

Yesterday there was a question where someone asked what /. is and there were 20 replies with "slashdot" in reddit style. I haven't seen a straight out of reddit comment thread like that for months.

I've definitely found myself angrier reading hacker news than I have been in the months previous. I haven't figured out if that's more of a "we become what we behold" (https://ncase.itch.io/wbwwb) or a real change.

Re: Reddit subs with millions of followers plan to extend the blackout indefinitely

#353

Post by lunatuna »

molave wrote: post #143
SecurityMinded wrote: post #112

I am unable to understand this bruhaha about reddit as I am an occasional user of this website and mostly in lurking mode. Was there a promise made to those 3rd party app authors and users that their access would be perpetual, not to be taken away from them, no matter what ? I don't think any for-profit company makes such promises. If you play in someone's walled garden, you should be ready to see them change the rul…

There's a surface-level and deeper-level answer here. Surface-level: the API price hikes are at a glance meant to force out third-party Reddit interfaces. To speculate, this is aimed to funnel users to Reddit's official application. I can say that because the mobile website is getting crippled over time to "encourage" users to use the app. Deeper-level: it is reflective of Reddit corporate's attitudes towards its use…

This story sounds similar. Just yesterday I read about enshitification[0] form a HN post. What is most interesting is how Reddit has ripped a page or two from Musk's twitter playbook for enshitification.

0 - https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/

Re: Reddit subs with millions of followers plan to extend the blackout indefinitely

#354

Post by quickthrowman »

imchillyb wrote: post #195
donmcronald wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe I'm reading it in a biased manner, but that sure has the feel of "if we wait it out the pigs will get hungry and be back at the trough on Wednesday." I don't think they respect their users, he doesn't understand that's a big part of why people are getting so upset, and he just keeps talking. Lol.

> ...I don't think they respect their users... What gave you that idea? The fact that spez (the ceo) was head-mod for /r/jailbait? Or was it spez firing the AMA mod that had -massive- community engagement? Or was it spez bullying one of the top reddit-app developers (Christian, Apollo reddit-app developer)? Reddit /obviously/ respects each and every user, the app developers, the subreddit mods, and it shows! /s

Jeez, now he was the head mod of r/jailbait? This game of telephone is ridiculous.

There’s no need to slander the guy with false information. Reddit used to allow the moderators of a subreddit to automatically make someone a moderator of that subreddit. Then, as things like people being added as an r/jailbait mod against their wishes became widespread, Reddit changed to an invite system which required a user to accept an invite to be a moderator.

Here is a post on Reddit from 10 years ago describing in depth how the ‘new’ mod invite system works and also stating that you could be made a moderator against your wishes: https://www.reddit.com/r/changelog/comments/117wkp/reddit_ch...

Spez was not an actual moderator of r/jailbait, he was added against his wishes. Please don’t spread harmful lies about the guy, there’s enough true things about him to criticize.

You forgot ‘stealth edited the posts of other users by editing the database directly’ in his list of crimes, don’t forget that along with the firing of the AMA person and lying about the Apollo dev. Those things are all based in reality.

Re: Reddit subs with millions of followers plan to extend the blackout indefinitely

#355

Post by hayst4ck »

jaredhallen wrote: post #344
hayst4ck wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll give you that, but I also don't think it was clear at the time that "next quarters profit" culture would destroy everything good. The culture at the time was "growth is money" and "we can figure out how to monetize later." Today we have the knowledge that monetization requires enshittification, but I think there were dreams that monetization could succeed without enshittification, and now those dreams have died.

But next quarter's profit always destroys everything good. Why should this have been expected to turn out any differently?

I don't think that was a part of the collective consciousness 10 years ago.

People said "but how are you going to monetize" and everyone said "we'll figure that out later."

So even if it was true back then (and it was), spez was probably 20-25 when he sold his soul? You don't exactly have the benefit of worldly wisdom when you are that young.

Re: Reddit subs with millions of followers plan to extend the blackout indefinitely

#356

Post by function_seven »

tester457 wrote: post #350
housemusicfan wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It was right after someone downvoted me because pointed out something that broke with their opinion. It took you 8 years to realize that's how that place operates? Hell, that describes the culture on HN pretty well. Freewheeling downvoting was a flawed idea from the beginning. 20 years later it turns out Slashdot had the right model for moderation.

I've never used Slashdot, how is the moderation model superior?

Instead of plain up- and downvotes, you rated a given comment with one of several positives (insightful, interesting, funny, informative) or negatives (troll, flamebait, offtopic)

The best part was you could set your personal filters to exclude “funny” comments, or boost “offtopic” ones if you want. With thresholds! So the funniest stuff could still break through, but you didn’t have to wade through a million pun posts to find the serious comments.

They also have a metamoderation system where others’ moderation choices are shown to you and you agree or disagree.

Never seen another site like it. Kinda hope /. makes a resurgence.

Re: Reddit subs with millions of followers plan to extend the blackout indefinitely

#357

Post by nomel »

a2tech wrote: post #154
ssl232 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where will reddit get enough mods to police the hundreds (thousands?) of subreddits each with tens of thousands of members that are rebelling against the API changes? Blocking/firing the existing mods would make the site descend into chaos.

[flagged]

I recently learned this is actually something that college aged people do for extra cash.

Re: Reddit subs with millions of followers plan to extend the blackout indefinitely

#358

Post by linuxftw »

actionablefiber wrote: post #341
linuxftw wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the vast majority of Reddit's userbase, normies, won't know the difference and won't care. It will literally be an invisible change.

Will it, though? For how much I see people here saying AI moderation can solve this, I frankly think AI tools are likely to be an order of magnitude better at playing offense than defense - producing huge volumes of AI-generated spam/marketing/offensive content that could fool an AI content moderation algorithm on the other side.

The quality on the popular subs is the equivalent of spam to me, so I don't think most of their users would be able to tell the difference.

Re: Reddit subs with millions of followers plan to extend the blackout indefinitely

#359

Post by ldehaan »

thefourthchime wrote: post #231
depereo wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I added reddit.com to my ublock filters - it was kind of an automatic click a few times a day and it's been a nice way to break the habit so strongly. I've got friends doing the same, and our microcommunity has formed around another platform already, after collectively losing reddit. It was so clearly a half-assed, badly thought out policy. No mention of mod tools. No mention of accessibility tools. No mention of res…

I deleted my 8yo account. It was right after someone downvoted me because pointed out something that broke with their opinion. That kind of summed up my view Reddit. Groupthink circle jerks. Why was I part of any of that??

[dead]

Re: Reddit subs with millions of followers plan to extend the blackout indefinitely

#360

Post by wmoser »

function_seven wrote: post #356
tester457 wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never used Slashdot, how is the moderation model superior?

Instead of plain up- and downvotes, you rated a given comment with one of several positives (insightful, interesting, funny, informative) or negatives (troll, flamebait, offtopic) The best part was you could set your personal filters to exclude “funny” comments, or boost “offtopic” ones if you want. With thresholds! So the funniest stuff could still break through, but you didn’t have to wade through a million pun pos…

If I remember correctly, you also couldn’t moderate on posts that you had commented on so it prevented using downvoting as extra signaling that others agreed with you in an argument. Also, you got 5 moderation points sort of randomly, you didn’t have the option to always be moderating. I browse Slashdot occasionally but once I found HN, the topics and discourse interested me here more, haven’t really spent much time there in years.
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