8 ms·
Who wants to open a free-speech based forum site?
by jayess 9y ago
Who wants to open a free-speech based forum site?
- peterwwillis 9y agoIsn't that 4chan?
- platinumrad 9y agoVoat already exists and already has a reputation for being both terrible and a ghost town.
- benmmurphy 9y agoThe problem with voat is it basically the dregs of reddit so no-one respectable wants to be associated with it. But if reddit bans enough stuff that is semi-respectable and those people are able to hold their nose to migrate to voat they might end up making voat respectable enough to overcome their current poor reputation.
- platinumrad 9y agoMaybe that will happen but I don't think the site will be Voat. Its reputation is far too toxic at this point.
- superkuh 9y agoIt has reached that point. I'm moving to voat.
- kadenshep 9y agoLet us know what kind of riveting discussions you have with racists, sexists, and conspiracy theorists.
- krapp 9y agoUnfortunately, racists, sexists and conspiracy theorists appear to be the only people who still believe in freedom of speech, and are willing to fight to keep it. Even many of the "hackers" around here seem to support regulation and censorship.
- kadenshep 9y agoNo I'm pretty sure the majority of people support true and blue free speech.
- jetpks 9y agoThis isn’t a free speech issue. The government isn’t stopping anyone from speaking or thinking anything they want. Freedom of speech != freedom to publish whatever wherever you want
- krapp 9y agoI've seen a number of comments and articles suggesting that, somehow, social media and the freedom of communication permitted by the internet are incompatible with democracy and social order. There seems to be a fear of freedom of speech as a dangerous principle which could lead to a demand for government control, or at the very least, a general mistrust of non centralized and proprietary communications platforms. >Freedom of speech != freedom to publish whatever wherever you want. Wherever you want, no... but whatever you want, yes, more or less. The only rights protecting you and I are the rights that protect the scum that many people currently (and understandably) want to see driven off of social media and out of public discourse. They act as the canaries in the coal mine of personal liberty, and democracy depends on the capacity for the free exchange of ideas, communication and debate.
- function_seven 9y agoSure it is. It's not a 1st Amendment issue, true. But—generically—it is a free speech issue. Reddit is adding more rules about what you can and can't post, which affects how free the speech is on their platform. They are entirely within their rights to do this. No doubt. Voat does not have as many (any?) restrictions on the content users can post. The speech is freer on their platform. I may sound pedantic on this, but I think it's important to fight for freedoms even when they're not enshrined in law. So to grandparent's point, the bigots are often the ones who do so, as a matter of necessity. Now the gun, beer, and cigar aficionados are finding themselves in the same category as Nazis and Klansmen.
- superkuh 9y agoYou have to be the change you want to see. I have no problem with other people holding views which I think are disgusting. The only thing I have a problem with is censorship. H. L. Mencken quote is applicable here, "The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all." edit, The one thing I'm finding I really don't like about Voat is that it requires whitelisting Javascript from google domains in order to be able to post.
- kadenshep 9y agoI think we need more censorship quite frankly.
- dingo_bat 9y agoI can think of no reasonable justification for that comment.
- kadenshep 9y agoIt's a satirical comment pointing out how ridiculous OP's platitude filled comment is.
- HyperTalk2 9y agoMaybe you do. If you dislike the first amendment, there are plenty of countries you can move to that don't have it.
- kadenshep 9y agoDefinitely love censorship. The only people who don't love censorship are those fighting for the free speech rights of racists and conspiracy theorists. And no, I live in this country so I think I'll be the change I want to see in the world.
- jboggan 9y ago
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- factsareright 9y agoYou are definitely prepared for voat, but for the others reading this, make note that voat is like 4chan; part of their defense mechanism is to get people who use words like "racist" upset and make them leave (and then go tell their friends how bad voat is). The crowd of people who just care about freedom of speech, transparency, and corruption, have been chased from platform to platform. users like go1dfish are a good example, he is known on reddit and voat, but he is an example of someone who was forced off reddit for having the wrong thoughts. We were chased off of digg way before digg4 came out and we went to reddit where people like swartz cared about transparency and no censorship. Then we were chased off the main subs of reddit, then our subs got subverted, then shit started disappearing, and now we are on voat. Remember that many prominent progressives and socialists are also blacklisted by the bulk of NPR/reddit types. Kucinich is a prime example, Ed Shultz is another; their crime is to tell their followers to think rationally about the situation. This is where people like me, and I guess you, find themselves.
- kadenshep 9y ago>Remember that many prominent progressives and socialists are also blacklisted by the bulk of NPR/reddit types. No they aren't.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- thinkingemote 9y agoredditors belong to many subreddits. by banning some subreddits, reddit doesn't just affect those subreddits, they affect the users who post in many other subreddits also. If they move to Voat, they will straighten out the site, they will bring good content, and then others will come for that. Just as reddit has toxic content, but hardly anyone goes there, so will Voat have the same characteristics....but at the moment, it's not like that. reddit was mainly a tech forum when it started, then people started making it more accessible, then more people arrived.
- zombieprocesses 9y agoThe problem with voat is that it is based in europe and if voat ever got traffic, the european authorities would shut it down. We need something in the US where we have free speech rights.
- fahayekwasright 9y agoIs there a Voat for people who don’t want to see racism?
- gfosco 9y agoThat's not a popular idea here on HN. Former YC'er created https://gab.ai https://gab.ai which is what you're looking for, and now they have a full video streaming / tipping system.
- hitekker 9y agoDidn’t that YC’er get expelled from the Ycombinator community for harassing other founders with alt-right slurs?
- tylersmith 9y agoWhat makes a slur specifically "alt-right"?
- oh-kumudo 9y agoCuck is invented/re-invented by alt-righters. "As linguist Mark Liberman explained on Language Log, cuck “was extended figuratively on 4chan to reference ‘relinquished manliness’ and more abstractly ‘selling out, abandoning principles.’”"
- rvcamo 9y agoLol you people can't be serious. "Alt-right slur." Hilarious stuff.
- FootballMuse 9y ago{{Citation needed}} Before edit, comment was originally: "Cuck is invented by alt-righters"
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- unfunco 9y agoIt wasn't, the word (from cuckold) is hundreds of years old. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuckold#History_of_the_term https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuckold#History_of_the_term
- bigiain 9y agoHope you've got a good lawyer on retainer, or bulletproof OPSEC and a bunch of spare identities...
- Arzh 9y agoRunning sites that large, even for something simple, cost a lot of money. Unless it is funded by a wealthy benefactor or publicly funded there is no way that it will every work. It's obviously not a technical problem but a funds problem.
- oh-kumudo 9y agoYou will have drug/gun/nazi/porno running wild in that place very quickly.
- driverdan 9y agoSo? I can see some objection to Nazis but what's your issue with the other topics?
- domevent 9y agoI used to run some irc channels back in the early 90’s, and they were true free for all’s. We had a lot of ftp’s, a lot of anonymous users, and it was a full time job keeping it clear of child pornography. Let me tell you, it takes something out of you when you see that stuff, and it’s something you don’t get back. We weren’t even aiming for a free speech utopia, but we were unregulated and that was enough. That kind of porn. The freaks and creeps are parasites on free speech, but like parasites, hard to manage. If you open a free speech haven, they’ll be first through the door. I don’t recommmend it. I don’t know what the solution is, but it isn’t too much censorship, and it isn’t too little. I’m afraid that the reality is that as people we need to do the hard work of a balancing act, so any ideology that is too unbalanced is doomed to fail. Absolute freedom is as doomed as absolute tyranny.
- jasonkostempski 9y agoWhat about a forum where only text is allowed?
- domevent 9y agoCan they post links? People will find a way, if you ban links they’ll obscure them. It’s an army of motivated people with nothing, but free time, vs, you and your mods. I’ve never figured out a lasting solution, sorry.
- rvcamo 9y agohttp://KeepTheInternetGreat.com http://KeepTheInternetGreat.com https://www.startengine.com/gab-select https://www.startengine.com/gab-select In b4 this thread gets locked lol.
- icwhatudidthere 9y agoGAB.AI >
- cuckcuckspruce 9y agoUsenet still exists
- jasonkostempski 9y agoFirst rule of Usenet...
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- dicksuckfag 9y agoAmericans. Anybody else is a dog eating commy that should die.
- depsto 9y agoIt's funny how free speech these days always dissolves into nazis. I'm thinking George Carlin would have considered his fight against the FCC for seven dirty words a battle for the freedom of ideas and not hate.
- boobun 9y agogab.ai and minds are pretty good free speech sites. but i suspect people actually want echo chambers these days where they never have to think about their enemies or political reality ... echo chambers for all
- swalsh 9y agoI'd do it, but what I really want is some kind of mechanism that ties a "real" person to a user. I think what it needs is a "post anonymously" checkbox or similar. The goal is to prevent sock puppets. Which is one of my biggest complaints on Reddit today. Any major subreddit that discusses politics has become an echo chamber that is clearly being sock puppeted by both the alt-right and the mainstream side of the democratic party.
- Jarhead 9y agoI recently joined GAB.AI because of its wide-open Freedom of Speech belief!
- Jarhead 9y agoGAB.AI replaces Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Free speech! Won't sell your data!
- Jarhead 9y agoFor free speech, join GAB.AI free today!