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Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian Resigns from the Board of Reddit

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Re: Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian Resigns from the Board of Reddit

#411

Post by belorn »

hfourm wrote: post #191
WorkingDead wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BS. The only difference between the two discussion groups is that TD dropped all the pretense. I have seen the same kinds of things that are loosely defined as 'calls to violence' in both places.

People on the donald openly celebrated violence in top upvoted posts. Tons of open racism. Politics has turned into a bit of an echo chamber compared to 10 years ago, but it is in no way the same as T_D. That "dropping pretense" you describe carries a LOT more weight than you are giving it, in who it attracts, and the behaviors it promotes.

I would very much like to see a study on that. Because of the reddit quarantine I can't use a subreddit analysis tool to compare the subs. The only conclusion I can see is that both politics and the donald is likely to share the same word as the most commonly used: Trump.

I would in particular be interesting to know if there is a significant difference in offensive words used in either sub.

Re: Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian Resigns from the Board of Reddit

#412

Post by benji_is_me »

pstuart wrote: post #127
kube-system wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This one seems pretty decent.

This site one is one of the best. If political dialog could be moved to a peer site it would be even better. I'm guilty of engaging in discussing politics here (and tried to do so in a factual and respectful manner) but it's pointless. It just becomes people talking past each other and generates arguments rather than dialog.

This is precisely why I browse Lobste.rs. It's just like HackerNews but without the political posts.

Re: Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian Resigns from the Board of Reddit

#413

Post by [deleted] »

purephase wrote: post #12
minimaxir wrote: post #3

Relevant context: recently, former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao called out Reddit for their policies after Reddit did a statement on Black Lives Matter: > I am obligated to call you out: You should have shut down the_donald instead of amplifying it and its hate, racism, and violence. So much of what is happening now lies at your feet. You don't get to say BLM when reddit nurtures and monetizes white supremacy and hate all da…

Yeah, TD alone was huge in 2016-2017 and was a huge contributor to the dynamic we have in the world today. Ellen is 100% right here and Alex did absolutely nothing to address it. Good on her for publicly calling it out.

[deleted]

Re: Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian Resigns from the Board of Reddit

#414

Post by ramblenode »

GaryNumanVevo wrote: post #285
meowface wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think if TD were banned in 2016, there's a decent chance the world would look even worse and more polarized today, due to the backlash and chain reactions that would have occurred. Picture "TOP SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANY BANS SUPPORT OF THE PRESIDENT" headlines running for months. Picture Trump bringing it up in hundreds of speeches and tweets, demanding regulation and saying how unfair it is that he and his supporters a…

And? De-platforming works very effectively. Look at 8chan, Gab and Voat. All drowning in server costs trying to host "safe spaces" for certain opinions.

Deplatforming internet racists is categorically different from deplatforming the president himself. TD, 8chan? Most people who support the president don't even know what these are, and maybe have a vague idea about Reddit. I would be surprised if Reddit overall had more influence on the election than talk radio, and it doesn't come close to the bully pulpit now that he's president.

Re: Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian Resigns from the Board of Reddit

#415

Post by syshum »

jayd16 wrote: post #368
syshum wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes.. Censorship is wonderful and make no mistake "de-platforming" is censorship

I would argue that "de-platforming" is the platform owner's use of speech/protest. Platforms shouldn't have the power to completely squash voices but monopoly power and such is a different issue.

in away you are correct, and honestly my biggest problem I have with reddit (and other tech companies) is the double speak they employ.

If they come out with a clearly defined OBJECTIVE set of rules that is UNIVERSALLY enforced then my objections would disappear

Instead they have a vague subjective list of rules that they selectively enforce largely based on a political bias they continue to publicly deny exists

They claim their site is open to all political leanings and views, if they want to have a liberal version of thedonald.win then more power to them, put up a banner that says "Democrat Supporters Only, This is Reddit. Our community is a high-energy Democrat rally. There are no exceptions." then my objections, and the objections of many would disappear, of course reddit would lose most of its value and traffic, which is why they want to speak out of both sides of their mouth. Reddit is only of high value if it has a large cross section of the public participating.

Re: Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian Resigns from the Board of Reddit

#416

Post by syshum »

GaryNumanVevo wrote: post #348
syshum wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>Reddit puts a NSFW spoiler on violence, porn, etc. Is that considered censorship? yes and no. It is lesser because it empowers the user to self select if they want to see NSFW items. That is the key. I put the quarantine on the same level as this, so I have less of an issue with that than if they just banned it outright. >Is it really censorship if r/t_d had violated numerous Reddit ToS rules? yes, let me be clear…

The Reddit ToS has always had restrictions on communities that brigade and abuse other communities. They didn't need to add an exception for r/t_D. Instead, they made an exception to keep the subreddit around, because it was driving lots of traffic to the site. I implore you to go to ceddit.com/r/the_donald and look at the mod log. See how many slurs and calls to violence you see being manually approved by their mods…

>>The Reddit ToS has always had restrictions on communities that brigade and abuse other communities.

Reddits content policy, by their own admission today, is subjective and poorly defined.

Further it is beyond denial that admin moderation and crack downs on subreddits is often politically biased. for example it has been shown many times Admins will crack down on "calls to violence" in conservative or "right" subreddits but are hands off in progressive or "left" subreddits.

You ask me to go to ceddit or mod logs to see violence and racism, but what about the left subreddits that have it on display with out having to visit an external site or mod logs?

Re: Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian Resigns from the Board of Reddit

#417

Post by Rebelgecko »

asdff wrote: post #203
hart_russell wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that's why she was ousted: https://www.wired.com/2015/07/reddit-ceo-ellen-pao-steps-dow... Turns out only allowing speech that you deem acceptable makes for a pretty boring internet forum.

Here we are on HN, one of the most censored and moderated forums on the internet. Personally, I find it quite refreshing.

I agree that HN is heavily moderated, but from what I've seen the comment moderation is more focused on maintaining civility and tone. I think dang and friends will let you say controversial things as long as they're framed in a productive way and you aren't a jerk about it (and as long as you don't commit the sin of editorializing a post title!)

I think that's a stark contrast with reddit, where being a dick is often excused if one has the right ideology. Not to mention that many subreddits (especially, but not exclusively, the political ones) have become carefully maintained echo chambers thanks rules against disagreeing with even a single facet of the "correct" beliefs. r/The_Donald even had an explicit "no dissent" rule.

Re: Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian Resigns from the Board of Reddit

#418

Post by psychometry »

devado wrote: post #366
psychometry wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes and the people who populate that subreddit comment everywhere else, too. Same goes for other misogynist/racist/right-wing subreddits. The proliferation of these subreddits leads to a proliferation of low-quality users.

doesn't reddit have that extension (forget the name) to ban users across all subreddits and tag them etc ? (not from the site but for your own browsing)

You're talking about literally thousands of people you'd need to ban.

Re: Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian Resigns from the Board of Reddit

#420

Post by BLanen »

nilkn wrote: post #46
minimaxir wrote: post #3

Relevant context: recently, former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao called out Reddit for their policies after Reddit did a statement on Black Lives Matter: > I am obligated to call you out: You should have shut down the_donald instead of amplifying it and its hate, racism, and violence. So much of what is happening now lies at your feet. You don't get to say BLM when reddit nurtures and monetizes white supremacy and hate all da…

This is just scape-goating and finding something recent to blame for a situation that has been going on for 150+ years. Besides, it was effectively shut down, and all that did was lead to the creation of thedonald.win, which by all appearances seems to be thriving and growing rapidly, probably much faster than Reddit itself grew when it was founded. To blame the situation on a forum is to misunderstand that the count…

Because nothing ever changes anything or has any influence on anything it's just all.

Is a very reductive position to take and blatently antiscientific about what we know how racist ideologies spread.

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