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How to defend yourself when your photo is ridiculed on Reddit

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Re: How to defend yourself when your photo is ridiculed on Reddit

#51

Post by krapp »

rfnslyr wrote: post #48
jmduke wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To add to your point, I literally never go to "www.reddit.com" at this point (for reasons you outlined), but there's a lot of niche subreddits that I love on Reddit itself (/r/hiphopheads, /r/nba, /r/nfl, /r/mfa). The key seems to be heavy moderation and relatively small community size.

The key seems to be heavy moderation and relatively small community size. I wish there was a site like Reddit/HN but on an invite/application basis only to consistently provide good content.

The site you're looking for is lobste.rs

Re: How to defend yourself when your photo is ridiculed on Reddit

#52

Post by rfnslyr »

bendmorris wrote: post #41
rfnslyr wrote: post #3

Just COMPLETELY ignore it. I truly believe after spending so much time on Reddit I became a worse person by being exposed to the same regurgitated/top voted opinions on things nobody should be talking about unless qualified (which you can't verify). I realized after a few years after taking an objective look at my life how much I had changed. If you dwell in a medium, you tend to absorb it, and that's the only medium…

>You don't stand to gain anything from Reddit ever. Oh come on, really? I'm a hobbyist game developer. I frequent a few subreddits including /r/gamedev. It's a fantastic community and I've learned a lot there, and I've been able to use it for free promotion. It's been very valuable to me and I've enjoyed using it. If your statement was "you don't stand to gain anything from /r/funny ever" I might agree with you, but…

You're better off going to a website entirely dedicated for that topic than sub section of a link aggregator. Why not just frequent http://www.gamedev.net/page/index.html or conceptart.org or something?

Re: How to defend yourself when your photo is ridiculed on Reddit

#53

Post by Kequc »

rfnslyr wrote: post #3

Just COMPLETELY ignore it. I truly believe after spending so much time on Reddit I became a worse person by being exposed to the same regurgitated/top voted opinions on things nobody should be talking about unless qualified (which you can't verify). I realized after a few years after taking an objective look at my life how much I had changed. If you dwell in a medium, you tend to absorb it, and that's the only medium…

Thing about Reddit is that it is the lowest common denominator. The number of people on the internet that have an account on reddit is dizzying. There is no opinion originating in real life that doesn't make it there, so you see the same bottom feeding shit that you see all over the place. It may be heightened because real life is easier to moderate. You see people who have all the terrible opinions real people do and the same unwillingness to learn.

The number of people who browse and contribute to Reddit while on the toilet I would wager is quite high, it is a toilet magazine.

Re: How to defend yourself when your photo is ridiculed on Reddit

#54

Post by bluecalm »

rfnslyr wrote: post #16
dmunoz wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Pretend like it doesn't even exist, because it shouldn't. Why not? I get a ton of useful content from reddit, and find that the discussions in the comments are often enlightening. The biggest problem with reddit is that you have to spend some time up front customizing your subreddit subscriptions. Once you've done that, the (custom) front page still has issues, and there is still bad discussion in the comments, but…

That's not the point. > Why not? I get a ton of useful content from reddit, and find that the discussions in the comments are often enlightening. How are you going to determine whether a comment is bullshit or not, especially on something super niche like some very specific question in r/Askhistorians? You can't for the most part. I do agree you can find good content, but by design Reddit is flawed. The upvote system…

I don't follow r/Askhistorians but is it really the case that factually incorrect comments are heavily upvoted with no dissenting one in sight ? I am not suggesting it's rare but I would like to see some examples as in subreddits I follow it's rarely the case (at least on things I am able judge myself).

Re: How to defend yourself when your photo is ridiculed on Reddit

#55

Post by dmunoz »

This isn't the first time something like this has happened. See this post [0], to which the person from the picture responds [1].

Reddit does seem to have a problem with people who want to make fun of others posting, and unfortunately the content does get upvoted. I can't stand the people on reddit that take secret photos of others and post them. But don't write reddit off because of this juvenile behaviour. Read my responses to rfnslyr to see why I feel reddit has a lot to offer. As an example, from the post I shared links to, I learnt something about the Sikh faith that I would not have otherwise, although I do wish that the post was never initially made.

[0] http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/109cnf/im_not_sure_wh...

[1] http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/109cnf/im_not_sure_wh...

Re: How to defend yourself when your photo is ridiculed on Reddit

#56

Post by danudey »

corresation wrote: post #25
rfnslyr wrote: post #3

Just COMPLETELY ignore it. I truly believe after spending so much time on Reddit I became a worse person by being exposed to the same regurgitated/top voted opinions on things nobody should be talking about unless qualified (which you can't verify). I realized after a few years after taking an objective look at my life how much I had changed. If you dwell in a medium, you tend to absorb it, and that's the only medium…

"The comments are always terrible. You can argue that some smaller subreddits have really good content, but do they really?" Yes, they really do. And no, the comments aren't always terrible. You can't simply make absurdly absolute statements and contrived caricatures and expect them to fly. You seem to have a deep emotional investment in Reddit, as if you put unrealistic expectations in it and now you strike out like…

I'll second this.

The general rule I recommend for people new to reddit: When you sign up, you'll be automatically subscribed to a few default subreddits. Never, ever, ever read the comments on any of those posts. Unfollow the ones that might not be relevant to you (e.g. /r/gaming, /r/funny, /r/news, whatever), and then look for alternatives to the rest.

If you find the concept of Ask Reddit interesting, look at /r/TrueAskReddit for a moderated community of people answering real questions with real answers.

If you're a gamer, look for a more narrow community. Try /r/ps4, /r/wow, /r/steam, and so on. Instead of a reckless free-for-all of foul-mouthed teenagers, you end up with thoughtful, relevant, and moderated communities. For example, this post where top-level comments are restricted to mentions of the current Steam Sale games, with threads descending from those for discussions on each game:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/1t9f6n/rsteam_should_...

There are local subreddits, like /r/Vancouver, but they're hit or miss; Vancouver's is generally a circle jerk of transit-hating, car-hating twits complaining about Asians buying up all the condos, so your mileage may vary.

If you get suckered into the 'hive mind' behaviour of 'what do we hate today?' then Reddit is going to make you a worse person, and I feel as though this is the general case for a lot of people on Reddit: it's where people go to let loose about things which they only hate because everyone else hates them too and it gives them something to feel a part of.

Reddit is a microcosm of the internet as a whole: your experience with it will depend on which communities and topics you're exposed to.

Re: How to defend yourself when your photo is ridiculed on Reddit

#57

Post by news_to_me »

rfnslyr wrote: post #3

Just COMPLETELY ignore it. I truly believe after spending so much time on Reddit I became a worse person by being exposed to the same regurgitated/top voted opinions on things nobody should be talking about unless qualified (which you can't verify). I realized after a few years after taking an objective look at my life how much I had changed. If you dwell in a medium, you tend to absorb it, and that's the only medium…

This is more or less the sentiment I have of HN, too. Basically it boils down to an echo chamber; the community selects what it wants to hear, and silences other voices.

Granted, HN seems to have a more pretentious selection criteria - less-mature-sounding comments are discouraged. But it seems to me that HN has much less tolerance for diversity of opinion.

But I read both HN and Reddit, as well as the comments and articles in many other places, because even though I may not agree with the attitudes or opinions, they are different perspectives all the same, and I think it's a fallacy to think that some perspectives can be of lower quality than others.

Re: How to defend yourself when your photo is ridiculed on Reddit

#58

Post by elleferrer »

The internet can be a harsh place at times, but there are equally good people who will have your back, I'm glad she was able to embrace that.

"I am resilient. I've got thick skin. These are just words on a screen. I am safe and loved, strong and intelligent, and can fight back with awesome."

Re: How to defend yourself when your photo is ridiculed on Reddit

#59

Post by lostlogin »

rfnslyr wrote: post #52
bendmorris wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>You don't stand to gain anything from Reddit ever. Oh come on, really? I'm a hobbyist game developer. I frequent a few subreddits including /r/gamedev. It's a fantastic community and I've learned a lot there, and I've been able to use it for free promotion. It's been very valuable to me and I've enjoyed using it. If your statement was "you don't stand to gain anything from /r/funny ever" I might agree with you, but…

You're better off going to a website entirely dedicated for that topic than sub section of a link aggregator. Why not just frequent http://www.gamedev.net/page/index.html or conceptart.org or something?

But isn't HN just an aggregator too? Just lacking the subsections? When you get down to it, how much specialization do you want? Surely a dedicated objective C site would suit me better, or a dedicated Python site. This generalized site called HN is no good at all. I find, unsurprisingly, that reddit isn't something that is any one thing. There is some good, some bad (well, lots) and some excellent stuff (not enough though). For the record, HN provides lots of what I want, and heaps of what I don't, but with a signal to noise magnitudes higher than reddits.

Re: How to defend yourself when your photo is ridiculed on Reddit

#60

Post by stefantalpalaru »

It's interesting how the (out of character) resentment undermines an otherwise high road response:

"I fought back"

"I felt a bit sick"

"I was content (...) and these posters were making fun of a stranger on the Internet"

"Think about how that impacts a stranger. Their parents, their partner, their children. Stop being a coward behind a screen."

"the Internet is full of pretty awful people"

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