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I also appreciate the open nature of Reddit. No account is required if you just want to read, and you don't need to be first "approved" to most subreddits to be

I also appreciate the open nature of Reddit. No account is required if you just want to read, and you don't need to be first "approved" to most subreddits to be able to contribute. No "real-name" policies that often do more harm than good either. While Facebook by default erects walls around content, Reddit by default promotes the free sharing and equal access to information, which resonates much more with the original promise and mission of the internet. It's encouraging to see Reddit overtaking Facebook in popularity at a time when the freedoms of the internet are often under attack. Yes, Reddit has its flaws, but in the end, it is one of the best defenses that we have.

cryptonector 8y ago
Pseudonymity makes this possible. Users don't post selfies on Reddit, nor their names, nor do they friend people (though you can follow users). On FB users fear for their privacy, and users fear moralizers.
- mistermann 8y ago
  I wonder if Facebook happens to know people's Reddit ids through some nefarious data collection scheme.
  - bfuller 8y ago
    I'm not sure about that but 100% what you post on reddit will get you targeted for specific ads that appear on facebook
    - mistermann 8y ago
      Corresponding to the subreddit you post in (worrisome but understandable), or the content of your comment (scary)?
- coldseattle 8y ago
  But there is a lot of groupthink on Reddit, too. Some popular forms you just have to stay out of if you have a different opinion.
  - andrei_says_ 8y ago
    There are also spaces which are extremely tolerant to difference of opinion. You can choose those. r/changemyview is one favorite example for excellent rational discourse on often very controversial topics.
    - systematical 8y ago
      I'll add r/NeutralPolitics to this list.
      - collyw 8y ago
        r/poltics is awful. Its a Trump hate thread with very little objectivity.
        systematical 8y ago
        r/politics is MSNBC off the rails, but r/the_donald is completely bonkers. Those are some of the worst circle-jerking echo chamber subs on reddit. It's really sad.
    - genghizkhan 8y ago
      And then there are those which require objectivity which can be cited and followed up upon. /r/AskHistorians is perhaps the best example of this.
  - megablast 8y ago
    Why? The worst that will happen is you get downvoted.
    - codexon 8y ago
- codeismylife 8y ago
  > Pseudonymity makes this possible. It makes me think that privacy is highly underestimated by Facebook. While it was once their key value proposition that real identity was desirable on a social site, with increasing political polarization and increased threats of government surveillance, the roles are now reversed and we'll continue to see privacy being treasured. I have a Facebook account I NEVER post to and only check twice a week for about 30 seconds each instance. I do however spend an inordinate amount of time on Reddit. So much so that I deliberately have to wean myself off Reddit otherwise I'll waste too much time on it.
joe_the_user 8y ago
I go to Reddit and HN for technical topics I have an interest in. Mostly Machine Learning on Reddit. For more political and personal topics, Facebook is far better. Mostly because there are far more Facebook groups than there are subreddits, so in a controversial topic you tend to get vicious, abusive individuals taking control of a given category on Reddit. Because there are a lot of these folks out there and there's no objective way to remove them. On Facebook, you can create a group on topic X, run it sanely and gradually get credibility and get people migrating from the less-sane groups. If there's a way to do this on reddit once some dubious character has claimed a given topic, I'd like to known. And for really small groups, Dischord seems best.
- brandonjm 8y ago
  > If there's a way to do this on reddit once some dubious character has claimed a given topic, I'd like to known. There is nothing preventing multiple subreddits dedicated to similar or identical things. If you feel abusive people are taking control, chances are others do too. So the best course of action would be to start another subreddit dedicated to the same thing. You and others who feel this way can build a better, less abusive, less controlled environment and people who prefer that environment will move over in time. Edit: Also if you install the right moderators for the environment you want to create it can ensure the abusive individuals can't take control of your subreddit.
- systematical 8y ago
  I had to stop going to any thing political related on reddit, between russian trolls and hyper-liberals downvoting reasonable opinions it got to be to much. I installed the Reddit Enhancement Suite plugin to hide /r/politics and /r/the_donald from my home page. If I do read something political on there its from /r/NeutralPolitics which requires anything you post to be cited with evidence. For everything else reddit is great. I don't even use Facebook anymore because it became too political on there. If I want politics I'll watch PBS News Hour or go to a news site.
  - chasontherobot 8y ago
    Why are they showing up on your home page at all? Are you subbed to them?
kgwxd 8y ago
They still allow anonymous sign-up without an email address, but I've noticed a few dark UI patterns hiding that feature with recent redesigns. I delete and create accounts all the time to improve anonymity and prevent karma-lust. A few months ago I almost swore off Reddit because it seemed not providing an email was no longer an option during sign up. Now you just have to hit "Next" with an empty email field, it used to be a discrete option. This leads me to believe they don't like it, and it might not stand forever. Sure, I could always just use a fake email but, because I didn't have to, and the fact they specifically told me I didn't have to, I knew they respected my choice to be responsible for remembering/protecting my own password and didn't want to scare me into giving up my email address using "account recovery" FUD. That respect seems to be slipping away.
- jfoutz 8y ago
  Isn’t the flip side to that Cambridge analytica? A bunch of anon accounts devoted to pushing an agenda? Maybe not. It sure seems like a knife edge to balance on. I agree with you, I like the ability to create random one shot accounts to comment on something, but that’s exploitable in weird ways.
  - brownbat 8y ago
    It's funny that was a Facebook scandal, while Reddit has movements like hail corporate trying to self-police dishonesty and manipulative behavior. It seems like anonymity should be more of a driving force, but seeing both good and bad social media sites with each model, I'm no longer sure anonymity either preserves or inhibits culture... it might just be orthogonal.
    - vanderZwan 8y ago
      > Reddit has movements like hail corporate trying to self-police dishonesty and manipulative behavior. Self-policing can also be manipulated. You cannot rely on user-intent alone, you need some structural protection against these kinds of things. Although I don't know what the best kind is.
rangibaby 8y ago
> No account is required if you just want to read, It nags you SO hard to sign up. On this front it's no better than using Facebook to look at public posts.
- xjwm 8y ago
  Visiting old.reddit.com/r/all seems to work around the signup popup nag.
  - rangibaby 8y ago
    When that was "the" Reddit it would only show a few comments before replacing comments with a nag link. I see that behavior is gone now. Thanks
conductr 8y ago
> No "real-name" policies What I enjoy most about Reddit is the quirky, people just being stupid (in a fun way), jokes and humor around many subreddits and prominent on most that appear on /r/popular. I don't think people would post as openly if real names were attached. So I really think this fosters/allows for that to happen. It's odd that that was something I loved the most about the early internet too and it seems to be rare now.

cryptonector 8y ago

Pseudonymity makes this possible. Users don't post selfies on Reddit, nor their names, nor do they friend people (though you can follow users). On FB users fear for their privacy, and users fear moralizers.

mistermann 8y ago
I wonder if Facebook happens to know people's Reddit ids through some nefarious data collection scheme.
- bfuller 8y ago
  I'm not sure about that but 100% what you post on reddit will get you targeted for specific ads that appear on facebook
  - mistermann 8y ago
    Corresponding to the subreddit you post in (worrisome but understandable), or the content of your comment (scary)?
coldseattle 8y ago
But there is a lot of groupthink on Reddit, too. Some popular forms you just have to stay out of if you have a different opinion.
- andrei_says_ 8y ago
  There are also spaces which are extremely tolerant to difference of opinion. You can choose those. r/changemyview is one favorite example for excellent rational discourse on often very controversial topics.
  - systematical 8y ago
    I'll add r/NeutralPolitics to this list.
    - collyw 8y ago
      r/poltics is awful. Its a Trump hate thread with very little objectivity.
      - systematical 8y ago
        r/politics is MSNBC off the rails, but r/the_donald is completely bonkers. Those are some of the worst circle-jerking echo chamber subs on reddit. It's really sad.
  - genghizkhan 8y ago
    And then there are those which require objectivity which can be cited and followed up upon. /r/AskHistorians is perhaps the best example of this.
- megablast 8y ago
  Why? The worst that will happen is you get downvoted.
  - codexon 8y ago
codeismylife 8y ago
> Pseudonymity makes this possible. It makes me think that privacy is highly underestimated by Facebook. While it was once their key value proposition that real identity was desirable on a social site, with increasing political polarization and increased threats of government surveillance, the roles are now reversed and we'll continue to see privacy being treasured. I have a Facebook account I NEVER post to and only check twice a week for about 30 seconds each instance. I do however spend an inordinate amount of time on Reddit. So much so that I deliberately have to wean myself off Reddit otherwise I'll waste too much time on it.

joe_the_user 8y ago

I go to Reddit and HN for technical topics I have an interest in. Mostly Machine Learning on Reddit. For more political and personal topics, Facebook is far better. Mostly because there are far more Facebook groups than there are subreddits, so in a controversial topic you tend to get vicious, abusive individuals taking control of a given category on Reddit. Because there are a lot of these folks out there and there's no objective way to remove them. On Facebook, you can create a group on topic X, run it sanely and gradually get credibility and get people migrating from the less-sane groups. If there's a way to do this on reddit once some dubious character has claimed a given topic, I'd like to known. And for really small groups, Dischord seems best.

brandonjm 8y ago
> If there's a way to do this on reddit once some dubious character has claimed a given topic, I'd like to known. There is nothing preventing multiple subreddits dedicated to similar or identical things. If you feel abusive people are taking control, chances are others do too. So the best course of action would be to start another subreddit dedicated to the same thing. You and others who feel this way can build a better, less abusive, less controlled environment and people who prefer that environment will move over in time. Edit: Also if you install the right moderators for the environment you want to create it can ensure the abusive individuals can't take control of your subreddit.
systematical 8y ago
I had to stop going to any thing political related on reddit, between russian trolls and hyper-liberals downvoting reasonable opinions it got to be to much. I installed the Reddit Enhancement Suite plugin to hide /r/politics and /r/the_donald from my home page. If I do read something political on there its from /r/NeutralPolitics which requires anything you post to be cited with evidence. For everything else reddit is great. I don't even use Facebook anymore because it became too political on there. If I want politics I'll watch PBS News Hour or go to a news site.
- chasontherobot 8y ago
  Why are they showing up on your home page at all? Are you subbed to them?

kgwxd 8y ago

They still allow anonymous sign-up without an email address, but I've noticed a few dark UI patterns hiding that feature with recent redesigns. I delete and create accounts all the time to improve anonymity and prevent karma-lust. A few months ago I almost swore off Reddit because it seemed not providing an email was no longer an option during sign up. Now you just have to hit "Next" with an empty email field, it used to be a discrete option. This leads me to believe they don't like it, and it might not stand forever. Sure, I could always just use a fake email but, because I didn't have to, and the fact they specifically told me I didn't have to, I knew they respected my choice to be responsible for remembering/protecting my own password and didn't want to scare me into giving up my email address using "account recovery" FUD. That respect seems to be slipping away.

jfoutz 8y ago
Isn’t the flip side to that Cambridge analytica? A bunch of anon accounts devoted to pushing an agenda? Maybe not. It sure seems like a knife edge to balance on. I agree with you, I like the ability to create random one shot accounts to comment on something, but that’s exploitable in weird ways.
- brownbat 8y ago
  It's funny that was a Facebook scandal, while Reddit has movements like hail corporate trying to self-police dishonesty and manipulative behavior. It seems like anonymity should be more of a driving force, but seeing both good and bad social media sites with each model, I'm no longer sure anonymity either preserves or inhibits culture... it might just be orthogonal.
  - vanderZwan 8y ago
    > Reddit has movements like hail corporate trying to self-police dishonesty and manipulative behavior. Self-policing can also be manipulated. You cannot rely on user-intent alone, you need some structural protection against these kinds of things. Although I don't know what the best kind is.

rangibaby 8y ago

> No account is required if you just want to read, It nags you SO hard to sign up. On this front it's no better than using Facebook to look at public posts.

xjwm 8y ago
Visiting old.reddit.com/r/all seems to work around the signup popup nag.
- rangibaby 8y ago
  When that was "the" Reddit it would only show a few comments before replacing comments with a nag link. I see that behavior is gone now. Thanks

conductr 8y ago

> No "real-name" policies What I enjoy most about Reddit is the quirky, people just being stupid (in a fun way), jokes and humor around many subreddits and prominent on most that appear on /r/popular. I don't think people would post as openly if real names were attached. So I really think this fosters/allows for that to happen. It's odd that that was something I loved the most about the early internet too and it seems to be rare now.