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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

#441

Post by raxxorraxor »

basq wrote: post #317
mr_gibbins wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always felt the downvote option was a colossal mistake and just allowed controversial or unpopular points of view to disappear, strengthening the filter effect for everything else. I mean even 4chan doesn't have downvote functionality, if people disagree with you they'll just call you a f* or n* which, while nasty, doesn't actually change visibility of your post, plus only the admins can ban you or delete a post…

But 4chan is also a complete cesspit. Like any place that adopts "free speech absolutist" attitudes. Reddit's heyday is long passed, but at least it is still very useful for grassroots information amalgamation. If you've ever had to google some issue, typing reddit into the query will land you some posts with discussion in them. Good luck finding that on 4chan.

It is a cesspit but for broadening perspectives it is much much better than reddit, even with less structure of discussions and worse discoverability.

"free speech absolutism" wasn't ever a huge problem, on the contrary, the suggested alternatives always seem to end up worse.

You have to suffer through idiotic opinions if you expose yourself to new ideas. There is never any alternative to that and there is no magic moderator that can make this decision in your stead. It isn't any more complicated than that really.

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

#442

Post by Rebelgecko »

tyg13 wrote: post #230
rcarr wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say this, but it’s only a matter of time until we get AI moderation.

I can't wait to make a seemingly-innocuous post on some subreddit, only to have that post removed for "failing to meet community guidelines" and receive absolutely zero intelligible response from the AI moderators. To be fair, that's still possible (and sometimes the case) with human moderators, though I find that experience to be exceptionally rare, and the remedy (just don't use that subreddit) easier to perform. A…

FWIW, I've played around with Palm a bit and if you feed it some rules it's pretty good at explaining which rule a "bad" post violates. It could be a good initial triage

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

#443

Post by switch007 »

tyg13 wrote: post #230
rcarr wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say this, but it’s only a matter of time until we get AI moderation.

I can't wait to make a seemingly-innocuous post on some subreddit, only to have that post removed for "failing to meet community guidelines" and receive absolutely zero intelligible response from the AI moderators. To be fair, that's still possible (and sometimes the case) with human moderators, though I find that experience to be exceptionally rare, and the remedy (just don't use that subreddit) easier to perform. A…

Kind of happens already with auto moderator.

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

#444

Post by Corrado »

thefourthchime wrote: post #391
function_seven wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Man, I haven't been on Slashdot in like 15 years. My username has four characters. To give you an idea how long ago that was. You're right, it was a pretty good way to do moderation. As in everything with software, what old is new, right?

I only have a 5 digit Slashdot ID, but I remember the early days. I really, really liked /. back in the day. I don't remember what happened to drive me away but going back now the content seems to be very similar to what's on the HN front page now. However, there's something about the look and feel that is off-putting to me. Maybe its the fonts or the stuck in the 00's design.

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

#445

Post by neuronic »

dijit wrote: post #225

I bit the bullet yesterday and just called it quits. I was there for a very long time (before it was even “launched” officially). So I do it with a heavy heart, but I don't think there’s any way of going back for them now. Its been a downward trend for literally years at this point. https://imgur.com/gallery/JhsPQnI

I went through multiple accounts since 2009, first one I closed was due to harassment as a result of posting about the Xbox One (which wasn't released back then)...

reddit always had extremely cringy but popular sides to it (Unidan, Boston Marathon witch hunt) and since the very beginning the decisions of the leadership have felt immature, off and wrong.

Reddit's leadership has always prevented reddit from being a thriving, productive community and their ineptitude has simply reached a boiling point now. For most of the time it felt like sifting through liquid poop to find a gold nugget once a week.

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

#446

Post by [deleted] »

bastijn wrote: post #124
wvenable wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been actively avoiding Reddit during this protest and I just signed up to a Lemmy instance. The UI isn't great but the communities are already pretty hopping. I need to subscribe to a few more things but it seems to handle the fix for now. I'm never using Reddit's awful app -- it's just not how I like to use Reddit. I'm an old.reddit.com kind of person.

The point is for any that is like you my guess is there are 2 more like me. Or 20, or 200. Never checked how much people use 3rd party apps vs. total users. Honest question, what is so bad about the Reddit app that you would give up browsing the content you like? I experience little ads, and if I would be annoyed by it I would probably find ways to get rid of it (pi-hole style). I'm OK with how the app displays comme…

[deleted]

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

#447

Post by _cenw »

raxxorraxor wrote: post #441
basq wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But 4chan is also a complete cesspit. Like any place that adopts "free speech absolutist" attitudes. Reddit's heyday is long passed, but at least it is still very useful for grassroots information amalgamation. If you've ever had to google some issue, typing reddit into the query will land you some posts with discussion in them. Good luck finding that on 4chan.

It is a cesspit but for broadening perspectives it is much much better than reddit, even with less structure of discussions and worse discoverability. "free speech absolutism" wasn't ever a huge problem, on the contrary, the suggested alternatives always seem to end up worse. You have to suffer through idiotic opinions if you expose yourself to new ideas. There is never any alternative to that and there is no magic m…

> You have to suffer through idiotic opinions if you expose yourself to new ideas. There is never any alternative to that and there is no magic moderator that can make this decision in your stead. It isn't any more complicated than that really.

The main issue with that is that it assumes anyone on the internet is arguing anything in good faith. Boosting checkmarks has turned twitter to nearly unusable to actually unusable, because the signal to noise ratio on the replies from checkmarks tend to be somewhere on the factually provable incorrect to outright slurs spectrum. Expecting any better on 4chan of all places will be a a fruitless endeavor more akin to self-harm. If you don't want to wade through shit, maybe don't have your discussions in a sewer.

HN, while not perfect, will often be a place that cultivates some rare insight.

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

#448

Post by az226 »

xyst wrote: post #50

Good. This works out for everybody except the brain dead C-level executives that tried to bully indie app developers. - regular people get a break from their echo chambers - VOLUNTEER mods get a break - journalists get their news article The only loser here is the corporation side. Significant loss of value from decreased user activity. Subsequent loss of revenue. Inability to extract as much value from the users dat…

Reddit is seriously underestimating the impact of users waning in muscle memory launching their app or going on their site. This is going to cost them way more than the $1M per year or so in missed ad revenue from users who wouldn’t user their app without Apollo. The reputational damage alone is huge. Add the angered mods and users. Investors who were considering buying into the IPO see how much power the community has, and can topple the platform, which means they will value the company less.

A prime example of cutting your nose to spite your face.

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

#449

Post by mr_gibbins »

trinsic2 wrote: post #394
mr_gibbins wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always felt the downvote option was a colossal mistake and just allowed controversial or unpopular points of view to disappear, strengthening the filter effect for everything else. I mean even 4chan doesn't have downvote functionality, if people disagree with you they'll just call you a f* or n* which, while nasty, doesn't actually change visibility of your post, plus only the admins can ban you or delete a post…

I agree, downvoting is a bad idea across the board for silencing people that are not in the majority group-think. You don't even have to have a reason to down vote someone.

What I find interesting is that on HN, downvoting doesn't seem to have a negative impact, not as much as Reddit anyway. And I wonder if that's because folks who use HN really care about HN - I do - and make a good-faith, concerted effort to contribute in a positive way, with moderators who will enforce rules, but will not remove posts they disagree with (Reddit), or mandate arbitrary and inconsistent standards (Reddit).

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

#450

Post by raxxorraxor »

_cenw wrote: post #447
raxxorraxor wrote: post #441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a cesspit but for broadening perspectives it is much much better than reddit, even with less structure of discussions and worse discoverability. "free speech absolutism" wasn't ever a huge problem, on the contrary, the suggested alternatives always seem to end up worse. You have to suffer through idiotic opinions if you expose yourself to new ideas. There is never any alternative to that and there is no magic m…

> You have to suffer through idiotic opinions if you expose yourself to new ideas. There is never any alternative to that and there is no magic moderator that can make this decision in your stead. It isn't any more complicated than that really. The main issue with that is that it assumes anyone on the internet is arguing anything in good faith. Boosting checkmarks has turned twitter to nearly unusable to actually unu…

There is no trivial way to detect motivation, on the contrary leveraging the accusation of someone arguing in bad faith is usually seen as ending an intellectual exchange.

To be realistic, this can be that case, especially on the net, and there are ways you can make an educated guess. But it stays a guess and in the end I want to do the guessing myself. It cannot be outsourced aside from the most trivial cases like spam, advertising, etc.

That aside people with a foul mouth might use words differently while others people might receive it as a slur. We now have words that have much more might than they had before with the better approach to such issues.

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