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Reddit cracks down on abuse as CEO apologizes for trolling the trolls

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Re: Reddit cracks down on abuse as CEO apologizes for trolling the trolls

#41
post #27
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Top down narrative. Reddit CEO didn't troll the trolls, it was a huge mistake that can put in check the entire company. TechCrunch could write 99 better stories about this issue than this piece of propaganda. It also reminds me Hillary campaign (and their MSM friends) calling half of US voters deplorable.

He changed statements against him by trolls of the_donald to say the_donald so it appeared they were insulting themselves. Seems like a (mild) form of trolling to me.

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Re: Reddit cracks down on abuse as CEO apologizes for trolling the trolls

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They actively target, brigade (large group upvoting/downvoting), and intentionally troll other communities with their only goal being to fuck with people and overwhelmingly push their rhetoric. [citation needed] I'm there every day and I don't know about that, quite the opposite. We don't link outside the sub, heck we are not even allowed to mention /r/politics in post titles under threat from Reddit admins. It is…

What's there? For the citation, ask any mod of a decently large non-pro-altright subreddit. I've personally witnessed it in several gaming subreddit (/r/hearthstone, /r/overwatch) but the mods pretty quickly crack down on it.

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Re: Reddit cracks down on abuse as CEO apologizes for trolling the trolls

#43

Former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao made a good comment on the controversy: https://reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/5frg1n/tifu_by_e...

That's very childish and lame for Steve Huffman to say "Ellen wasn't the first Reddit engineer, so she probably lacked the expertise to do it, and even if she did, she was smart enough to not". I think this guy needs to grow up.

He's saying, "Ellen probably didn't know how to edit any comment on reddit, but she was smarter than me anyway and wouldn't have done it in the first place."

Re: Reddit cracks down on abuse as CEO apologizes for trolling the trolls

#44
post #20

I don't really want to comment - but I'd just say to anyone (including the writer of this article) to imagine someone artificially limiting the impact of your favorite platform of free expression. Hell just turn the mental corner and consider your arguments FOR net neutrality. Or try to recall your disappointment every time you read about some site being banned in China or Iran. To China and Iran - facebook is a "dis…

The subreddit in question manipulates the algorithm in bad faith and bans any sort of dissent or disagreement.

They're not attacking free expression but trying to reign in abuse of their platform.

Nobody really knows what "liberal" means because it's been used in several very opposite ways in different times and places.

Re: Reddit cracks down on abuse as CEO apologizes for trolling the trolls

#45

Former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao made a good comment on the controversy: https://reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/5frg1n/tifu_by_e...

That's very childish and lame for Steve Huffman to say "Ellen wasn't the first Reddit engineer, so she probably lacked the expertise to do it, and even if she did, she was smart enough to not". I think this guy needs to grow up.

Sounds like you're reading more into it than he said. I didn't hear him say "she's not smart enough to do it", I heard "she didn't write the code so she's not intimitely familiar with how to exploit it". Hell, he even closed with a compliment: if she does know, she's not as stupid as I am.

Re: Reddit cracks down on abuse as CEO apologizes for trolling the trolls

#46
post #20

I don't really want to comment - but I'd just say to anyone (including the writer of this article) to imagine someone artificially limiting the impact of your favorite platform of free expression. Hell just turn the mental corner and consider your arguments FOR net neutrality. Or try to recall your disappointment every time you read about some site being banned in China or Iran. To China and Iran - facebook is a "dis…

It's more along the lines of fixing a bug in the system. It's not about flushing out an ideology like TD wants you to think. They're exploiting Reddits code to have more weight than similarly sized communities. Reddit is balancing that. It has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with these guys actively exploiting the voting system.

if (subreddit == "the_donald") fixTheBug() else notABug()

Re: Reddit cracks down on abuse as CEO apologizes for trolling the trolls

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's very childish and lame for Steve Huffman to say "Ellen wasn't the first Reddit engineer, so she probably lacked the expertise to do it, and even if she did, she was smart enough to not". I think this guy needs to grow up.

Yeah, he is a child. I can't imagine a CEO of any company I have ever worked at acting as such. I wonder how employees of reddit feel at the moment?

I cannot understand how the board hasn't dismissed him over the comment editing subterfuge. It's simply not how a CEO should behave. No matter what is being said about him.

Basically, by not firing him, the board is sending a message. It is saying that 1. The platform and it's comments cannot be trusted. and 2. That it's ok for employees to surreptitiously edit comments. If the CEO did it and didn't get fired, then how could they fire a lower level employee for doing it?

The CEO has set the standard through his own behaviour. And that is now the culture of reddit. By not dismissing the CEO, the board has sent the message that they accept this behaviour.

Re: Reddit cracks down on abuse as CEO apologizes for trolling the trolls

#49
post #20

I don't really want to comment - but I'd just say to anyone (including the writer of this article) to imagine someone artificially limiting the impact of your favorite platform of free expression. Hell just turn the mental corner and consider your arguments FOR net neutrality. Or try to recall your disappointment every time you read about some site being banned in China or Iran. To China and Iran - facebook is a "dis…

The counterargument is that loopholes in the mechanics allowed the community in question to artificially limit the impact of everyone else's favorite platform of free expression. The charitable view is to call what's being done a bandaid to fix a broken mechanic.

It's also not an understatement to say that the level of rule-breaking (doxxing, vote brigading, abuse, etc) from the community, sanctioned (or at least not nearly adequately curtailed) by its moderators, is probably justifiably grounds for banning the whole community (since it's failing to self-moderate) but that can't really happen because it would cause a much larger and more problematic fallout.

The last sentence of your comment is ignorant and needlessly incendiary. I'm sure you'll find that the people you're talking about probably do know what it means. You can disagree with "people who identify as liberals but argue for different actions based on their best judgment than you do" (and there's plenty of fruitful discussions and arguments to be had around those judgments), without snidely saying that they're ignorant schmucks who've lost track of their purpose.

Re: Reddit cracks down on abuse as CEO apologizes for trolling the trolls

#50
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have, overwhelmingly. The problem is it's an anonymous platform and bans are irrelevant for most internet users today. This was all nicely summarized by John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory in 2004.

Was not familiar with the theory - I disagree with it. This site is a wonderful example of the opposite. My experience with reddit (6+ year old account, at this point) is that, just like in life, most people on reddit are fine. The illusion of toxicity comes from a large vocal minority.

HN has made me leave several times for being so god damned ridiculous. We're not special. Wander into any Apple, Google, or Microsoft thread and watch the idiocy. Or anything to do with poliics (not even US politics, I've seen so many flame wars about countries I didn't even know existed).
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