It’s the same everywhere, including here. Why are downvoted posts greyed out and made harder to read? Why not just display the net vote. Why must your reputation be constantly displayed?
Lobste.rs in these regards are better.
Toxicity on Social Media
71–80 of 136 posts
Re: Toxicity on Social Media
#72I liked the article and I also sympathize with a lot of the concerns around this topic because I am from the group that became silent after a while. Popular social media does not have any appetite for nuance. By design it cannot have that. Community checks are alright but I would rather spend an hour on hacker news trying to understand the nuanced perspective of 40 people than looking at very diluted opinion (4 choic…
> Tall in this context are rich and influential people
This is a double edged sword. Lots of "thought leaders" on twitter have outed themselves as lacking in both thought, and leadership.
Re: Toxicity on Social Media
#73Platform algorithms are a big part of the problem but I think this misses another important part. I don't think it is simple as a passive silent majority being drowned out by a few loud voices. For most of its history, Reddit didn't have an algorithm that promoted stories beyond upvotes and time since posting, that might even still be the case. Despite this, we have still seen a steady trend toward extreme views on t…
I personally feel Reddit is extremely polarized and toxic. It really depends on the community.
Yeah, have the same sentiment towards Twitter before it has been bought by Mr. Musk. You were always close to being banned. And the American government was colluding. I don't like the tone on X now, but hey, no one silences me, and that is awesome.
Re: Toxicity on Social Media
#74Platform algorithms are a big part of the problem but I think this misses another important part. I don't think it is simple as a passive silent majority being drowned out by a few loud voices. For most of its history, Reddit didn't have an algorithm that promoted stories beyond upvotes and time since posting, that might even still be the case. Despite this, we have still seen a steady trend toward extreme views on t…
> Despite this, we have still seen a steady trend toward extreme views on the platform.
There were 3 conditions that were working and were removed very very quickly
1) it was a web application only. Which enforces an interaction that is more contientous
2) it skewed older. Compared to other sites like IFunny or Instagram the age profile was closer to 30 than 12.
3) the upvote/downvote mechanic was used to upvote relevant content not something you agreed with. And downvote to drown overused jokes, lack of nuance posts etc.
But in 2020 reddit destroyed 3rd party apis and went full head on the app.
Age plummeted, app useage is mroe casual than laptops and length of posts went full brainrot and lastly there was no enforcement to teach people what upvotes meant. So it became thumbs up or down, and the jokes went from heavily downvoted to always the top comment.
150 million users in 6 months is the death of any conversation and reddit did it on purpose to try an IPO.
Re: Toxicity on Social Media
#75Platform algorithms are a big part of the problem but I think this misses another important part. I don't think it is simple as a passive silent majority being drowned out by a few loud voices. For most of its history, Reddit didn't have an algorithm that promoted stories beyond upvotes and time since posting, that might even still be the case. Despite this, we have still seen a steady trend toward extreme views on t…
> For most of its history, Reddit didn't have an algorithm that promoted stories beyond upvotes and time since posting, that might even still be the case.
Reddit is heavily botted, including by capital interests, and has been for a long time. This includes basic up/down vote activity.
> I think there is a significant percentage of users that do not initiate extreme content but participate in amplifying it.
Yes, it's probably initiated by bots, and then real users are easily persuaded to follow the manufactured herd.
These issues are not exclusive to reddit, either.
Re: Toxicity on Social Media
#76This article is awesome but it doesn't acknowledge that the problem has been maliciously manufactured by social media companies. they do not have incentive to curb the distortion of extremism and therefore any attempt to do so in a grassroots way will likely not be effective. then there's the bot problem but that is probably easier to address if we actually committed to doing so.
Do we need their permission to implement it? Could be a browser extension.
> Do we need their permission to implement it? Could be a browser extension.
Instead of bandaid-hack solutions leading to perpetual cat-and-mouse, why not build a citizen-owned platform from the ground up, as detailed here:
https://www.noemamag.com/the-last-days-of-social-media/
You would barely even need to advertise for it if it was obviously better than any of the existing corporate slop. It would sell itself, and the "profit" would be the end result that everybody can enjoy.
Re: Toxicity on Social Media
#77Platform algorithms are a big part of the problem but I think this misses another important part. I don't think it is simple as a passive silent majority being drowned out by a few loud voices. For most of its history, Reddit didn't have an algorithm that promoted stories beyond upvotes and time since posting, that might even still be the case. Despite this, we have still seen a steady trend toward extreme views on t…
> For most of its history, Reddit didn't have an algorithm that promoted stories beyond upvotes and time since posting, that might even still be the case. Reddit is heavily botted, including by capital interests, and has been for a long time. This includes basic up/down vote activity. > I think there is a significant percentage of users that do not initiate extreme content but participate in amplifying it. Yes, it's…
>Reddit is heavily botted, including by capital interests.
Is that why /r/all is consistently anti-capitalism and anti-business?
Re: Toxicity on Social Media
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
> For most of its history, Reddit didn't have an algorithm that promoted stories beyond upvotes and time since posting, that might even still be the case. Reddit is heavily botted, including by capital interests, and has been for a long time. This includes basic up/down vote activity. > I think there is a significant percentage of users that do not initiate extreme content but participate in amplifying it. Yes, it's…
>Reddit is heavily botted, including by capital interests. Is that why /r/all is consistently anti-capitalism and anti-business?
It's manufactured controlled opposition which is designed to look crazier than unchecked capitalism, and it's succeeding wildly at its mission.
See: wsws.org as a longstanding external example
Re: Toxicity on Social Media
#79Platform algorithms are a big part of the problem but I think this misses another important part. I don't think it is simple as a passive silent majority being drowned out by a few loud voices. For most of its history, Reddit didn't have an algorithm that promoted stories beyond upvotes and time since posting, that might even still be the case. Despite this, we have still seen a steady trend toward extreme views on t…
Honestly take me back to time ordered forums. Threads, voting, algorithms were all a mistake.
Re: Toxicity on Social Media
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do we need their permission to implement it? Could be a browser extension.
> Do we need their permission to implement it? Could be a browser extension. Instead of bandaid-hack solutions leading to perpetual cat-and-mouse, why not build a citizen-owned platform from the ground up, as detailed here: https://www.noemamag.com/the-last-days-of-social-media/ You would barely even need to advertise for it if it was obviously better than any of the existing corporate slop. It would sell itself, and…
Because I don't think the problem has to do with who owns the platform, but rather its that the platform's design relies on infrastructure that can be owned in the first place.
The people who run existing social media didn't start out evil, being in a powerful position made them that way.
I'll be rooting for this user owned thing to stay true to its goals, but if it's shaped like the other ones in all ways but its ownership structure, then I won't be expecting it to do so.