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Reddit Bans Five Communities In New Anti-Harassment Campaign

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Re: Reddit Bans Five Communities In New Anti-Harassment Campaign

#361

Post by PhasmaFelis »

oldmanjay wrote: post #353
PhasmaFelis wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First they came for /r/ShitNiggersSay, and I did not speak out--Because I was not an asshole. [...] Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me. I feel like you're skipping over a lot of slippery slope in the middle there.

If the overarching goal is to create a "safe space" and one of the tenets of that safety is "i do not have to be exposed to opinions and actions that offend me" then the slope is well greased. I'm not saying that is explicitly the case for reddit, but there are a number of internet communities who work from that definition.

I definitely would not want all internet forums to be moderated to "safe space" standards, but I think it's perfectly reasonable for safe spaces to exist for, e.g., victims of rape/abuse/other trauma who have actual medical PTSD that they'd prefer not to trigger.

The thing is, these are different goals. There's no reason to assume that a goal of "we don't want to host a forum exclusively dedicated to egregious bigotry and bullying" will necessarily morph into "we demand that all our forums be safe spaces for PTSD sufferers." You might as well say that, I dunno, installing public security cameras on a college campus will lead to the students being escorted to recess by a hall monitor, and given detention if they're not in their seats when the bell rings.

Re: Reddit Bans Five Communities In New Anti-Harassment Campaign

#362

Post by oldmanjay »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #361
oldmanjay wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the overarching goal is to create a "safe space" and one of the tenets of that safety is "i do not have to be exposed to opinions and actions that offend me" then the slope is well greased. I'm not saying that is explicitly the case for reddit, but there are a number of internet communities who work from that definition.

I definitely would not want all internet forums to be moderated to "safe space" standards, but I think it's perfectly reasonable for safe spaces to exist for, e.g., victims of rape/abuse/other trauma who have actual medical PTSD that they'd prefer not to trigger. The thing is, these are different goals. There's no reason to assume that a goal of "we don't want to host a forum exclusively dedicated to egregious bigotr…

I'm fine with "safe spaces" existing. I have very little interest in helping to create a world with all the edges filed off because a few people can't handle the sharp parts. Reddit seems to explicitly be searching after the second, using the language of the first, and there are good possibilities for it to all go downhill.

I don't care, though. I have never found use in reddit, except as an example of how putting people into internet echo chambers turns them into reference-spouting cliques.

Re: Reddit Bans Five Communities In New Anti-Harassment Campaign

#363

Post by feybay »

freebsdgirl wrote: post #308
__david__ wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Reddit has the Silicon Valley's most notorious gender-baiting troll as it's head… What does "gender-baiting troll" mean?

It means that GW is a white male gamer (this is not supposition, hi GW!) that disagreed with Pao's discrimination lawsuit.

What does being white or a gamer have to do with this?

Re: Reddit Bans Five Communities In New Anti-Harassment Campaign

#364

Post by feybay »

baby wrote: post #193
philwelch wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "stupid, more vocal minority" has done for the word "feminist" what stupid, vocal minorities have done for other well-intentioned ideas like "Christian".

I really don't see the link with a cult.

Yeah, Christianity isn't that bad.

Re: Reddit Bans Five Communities In New Anti-Harassment Campaign

#365

Post by chippy »

Digg users went to reddit, and reddit techies went to HackerNews. The classic early adopters, high technology users were the people going first. They went because there was a better alternative.

Firstly it's the wrong sort of user that is thinking of leaving reddit - these are a lot of the latecomers and consumers rather than the early adopters. Secondly, these types of users will not be going to Voat because it is not a better alternative.

If someone comes along and creates a better alternative, we will be pulled towards it, not pushed from something else.

Re: Reddit Bans Five Communities In New Anti-Harassment Campaign

#366

Post by mahranch »

mattbessey wrote: post #333
mahranch wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Please stop spreading this nonsense. I expected better from HN. She may not have been removing anything, nor any of the other admins, but lnanek2 does bring up a strong point, albeit indirectly: She is hated by a majority of users on reddit. And she's hated because of her bogus lawsuit she now appears to be dragging out, and how her husband is in serious debt due to running a ponzi scheme. Her and her husband are n…

A majority of users? Please, Reddit has ~16M unique users per month. I really don't think 8M people hate Ellen Pao. Hell, I doubt more than 0.1M users know who she is. There's no denying this is the biggest (and frankly hilarious to watch unfold) shitstorm in Reddit's history, but it is a vocal minority. There were only 5k subscribers to /r/fatpeoplehate. It was a silly move to ban it, because its clearly pissed off…

> A majority of users? Please, Reddit has ~16M unique users per month.

You're off by about 160 million. Reddit had 172 million unique visitors last month. Source: http://www.reddit.com/about/

> There's no denying this is the biggest (and frankly hilarious to watch unfold) shitstorm in Reddit's history, but it is a vocal minority.

Here's the thing. I'm a power user over there. And a power mod. I have access to many of the backroom subreddits for the default mods and a few of the other "in group" communities. That said, I have never, not once, stumbled across anyone who truly likes her. Even the prominent mods of reddit are keeping their mouths shut because they're afraid of being targeted by her or the admins. But the general sentiment among most mods is that she's toxic.

Regular users either hate her or are largely indifferent. But those that are indifferent are either not really into the reddit metasphere, or they're ignorant of Ellen. Once they find out about Ellen's life (lawsuit, ponzi scheme) they usually bristle at the thought of her.

> but make no mistake, most of Reddit doesn't care.

If we were to scale reddit's public opinion of her, the people who don't care or are indifferent would get a zero. People who like her would move the scale to the right, into the positives, while the people who dislike her tip the scale to the left.

You're right in that many people are indifferent. They'd be a zero on this hypothetical scale. But the problem is, the rest of the people who do have an opinion tip the scale significantly to the left, into the negatives. There's virtually zero people who like her (even the people into SJW stuff don't particularly care for her) and there are many, many people who hate her. It's telling that more people liked Yishan Wong, reddit's previous CEO and that guy was a loon.

Re: Reddit Bans Five Communities In New Anti-Harassment Campaign

#367

Post by voxic11 »

mattbessey wrote: post #333
mahranch wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Please stop spreading this nonsense. I expected better from HN. She may not have been removing anything, nor any of the other admins, but lnanek2 does bring up a strong point, albeit indirectly: She is hated by a majority of users on reddit. And she's hated because of her bogus lawsuit she now appears to be dragging out, and how her husband is in serious debt due to running a ponzi scheme. Her and her husband are n…

A majority of users? Please, Reddit has ~16M unique users per month. I really don't think 8M people hate Ellen Pao. Hell, I doubt more than 0.1M users know who she is. There's no denying this is the biggest (and frankly hilarious to watch unfold) shitstorm in Reddit's history, but it is a vocal minority. There were only 5k subscribers to /r/fatpeoplehate. It was a silly move to ban it, because its clearly pissed off…

Now you are the one spreading misinformation /r/fatpeoplehate had over 100k subscribers and was growing extremely fast over the past few months.

Re: Reddit Bans Five Communities In New Anti-Harassment Campaign

#368

Post by brymaster »

feybay wrote: post #363
freebsdgirl wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It means that GW is a white male gamer (this is not supposition, hi GW!) that disagreed with Pao's discrimination lawsuit.

What does being white or a gamer have to do with this?

> What does being white or a gamer have to do with this?

Absolutely nothing, in reality. In terms of Randi Harper though, she is a misandrist using a convenient boogeyman to push her own agenda.

Re: Reddit Bans Five Communities In New Anti-Harassment Campaign

#369

Post by nemothekid »

fenomas wrote: post #293
nemothekid wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think banning a subreddit will solve the problem os assholes on the internet. People have been saying hurtful things before keyboards were a thing.

Pointing out that something doesn't solve anything is no argument against it. I don't think jogging will make me live forever, but I still do it.

Yes it is. "Jogging" isn't something that doesn't solve anything, jogging solves lots of things, and hopefully by jogging you can live longer, if not forever.

Banning 1 hateful subreddit on an open forum does nothing to solve to issue of someone being called a hambeast, or someone being an asshole in general.

Re: Reddit Bans Five Communities In New Anti-Harassment Campaign

#370

Post by cactusface »

nemothekid wrote: post #369
fenomas wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pointing out that something doesn't solve anything is no argument against it. I don't think jogging will make me live forever, but I still do it.

Yes it is. "Jogging" isn't something that doesn't solve anything, jogging solves lots of things, and hopefully by jogging you can live longer, if not forever. Banning 1 hateful subreddit on an open forum does nothing to solve to issue of someone being called a hambeast, or someone being an asshole in general.

Jogging solves things A, B, and C. Banning a subreddit does not solve D and E. But, jogging does not solve D and E either. Maybe banning a subreddit solves some things like F, G, and H?
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