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I've always thought that the day they crossed the line was when they arbitrarily changed which subreddits were default, removing some (such as /r/atheism) with
by ppod 8y ago
I've always thought that the day they crossed the line was when they arbitrarily changed which subreddits were default, removing some (such as /r/atheism) with no real reason. At the very early days of reddit, discussing atheism positively was still kind of unusual in the news. Then, over time, it became a very popular position and advocacy case especially among developers, and new users found the stridency and repetition of the subreddit annoying. I think they ultimately took the decision to remove a default subreddit that supported a community that is in general still one of the most hated in the US and in the world, just in order to appeal to new users outside of the hacker culture demographic that reddit started in.
- gfwhuuku 8y agoI welcomed that change. They had handpicked a few left-leaning subs like that one. I also remember there was one about feminism. I believe that was a bad idea, to position themselves like that. Maybe it was a good idea when reddit was a niche website. Now, as far as I know, they simply have an algorithm that shows the most popular posts of all subs, except a few ones that are banned (like the popular the_donald, a sub for supporters of Donald Trump). I'm not saying that I like the idea of a blacklist or that it is the best solution, but it's better than a whitelist.
- vvillena 8y ago/r/the_donald should have been closed a long time ago, due to their users and their mods breaking the rules (hate speech encouragement, mainly) that the rest of subreddits have to respect. Reddit has a dark incentive to keep it open, because it's a very popular community that helps Reddit make money, via ads and Reddit Gold.
- Zecar 8y agoGo read r/politics comments for 5 minutes and then go read r/the_donald comments for 5 minutes, then come back and tell me which subreddit has the most hate speech. Also let's not forget that r/politics mods sold the subreddit to Shareblue for $2 million.
- skinnymuch 8y agoDo you have a citation for the $2M figure? I tried searching a bit. All I found were random sites saying roughly the same stuff conspiracy subreddits or sites were saying. I’m not saying something didn’t go on, but if something did happen, where did that number come from besides “anonymous source[s]”
- ddingus 8y agoCite?
- slg 8y agoChallenge accepted. The current top comment on the current top post on /r/politics [1]: >David Frum said it best this morning on NPR, his call for unity isn't actually a call for unity, he's demanding that everyone to support him and his policies. The current top comment on the current top post on /r/The_Donald [2]: >Schumer looked disgusting. Glasses at the end of his nose. Very disrespectful. The politics comment might be biased but it is a least a political opinion worth discussing. The comment on The Donald is at best a childish insult and while I personally wouldn't call it "hate speech" I wouldn't be shocked if it was some form of antisemitic dog whistle. I think you are showing your own biases if you think those two subs have a similar level of discourse. [1] - https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/anf6vn/trump_will_call_for_unity_tonight_its_a_scam_and/efstte7/?st=jrs54iho&sh=f146d31b https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/anf6vn/trump_will... [2] - https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/anf6ov/i_see_schumer_is_already_criticizing_my_state_of/efsu8h5/?st=jrs54ypd&sh=8846f845 https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/anf6ov/i_see_sc...
- dangerlibrary 8y agoIt seems pretty clear that the only reason it's still open is because of a court order or an FBI surveillance letter.
- Zecar 8y agoThis is hilarious. Yes the reason the subreddit for the President of the USA is allowed to exist is so the FBI can gather evidence.
- dangerlibrary 8y agoon Russians, yes.
- Zecar 8y agoWe're at such a weird area in American politics that I literally cannot tell if you're joking or serious.
- darkpuma 8y agoYou didn't need to be religious to find /r/atheism obnoxious. Anybody remember that "faces of atheism" meme years back? Possibly the most obnoxious, pretentious and self-congradulatory thing I've ever seen become popular on reddit. At first it was funny, but reddit is pretty good at pushing jokes long after they've become stale.
- fxfan 8y agoIt was a place meant as a consolation/safe-space for people being hated on for not believing in stuff without proof. It became a place to hate on everyone who didn't believe in atheism.
- SketchySeaBeast 8y agoIsn't that how every online community devolves? It starts as a place for a group to feel accepted, and then evolves to demonizing the other?
- SlowRobotAhead 8y agoEvangelical Atheism
- pitaj 8y agor/atheism was made no longer a default because it became notoriously toxic
- mfoy_ 8y agoThere was a actually a meta-game of where you'd (1) take a horrible quote, (2) mis-attribute it to Carl Sagan or Neil deGrasse Tyson or Stephen Hawking, (3) put it on an image of space and (4) post it to r/atheism to see how many up-votes it got. It was a very easy game.
- blotter_paper 8y agoAnother clear red line was when spez started editing comments.[0] It was childish and non-consequential, but should have resulted in an immediate exodus from the platform. I'm not politically aligned with r/The_Donald, but I think this sort of petty power abuse should not be forgiven; the platform needs to die, as an example to other platforms. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/5ekdy9/the_admins_are_suffering_from_low_energy_have/dad5sf1/ https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/5ekdy9/the_admi...
- SlowRobotAhead 8y agoThat was beyond unacceptable because it didn't show the comment as have been edited with an asterisks. Which means they have and use special admin powers at will. The only issue to Reddit it seems was that he was caught doing it.
- Zecar 8y agoThere are people sitting in prison RIGHT NOW from Reddit posts. Now think about the damage admins editing posts can do. You're right, it is beyond acceptable.
- kazinator 8y ago> Now think about the damage admins editing posts can do. Why, their actions can lend plausible deniability to incriminating information in posts that have not been edited.
- qgsrw3fd 8y agoI don't think admins can edit comments using the regular website interface. The CEO edited the comments directly in the database. That's why the asterisk never appeared. (Which, by the way, means the CEO has direct access to the database. Why?)
- ForHackernews 8y agoReally? I thought it was a fantastic reminder to users: they hold all the cards, and pretending otherwise is just diluting yourself. If only other online platforms were that honest! Imagine Google sending out misleading gmails in your name, or Facebook mining your private messages for incriminating secrets and offering to "share" them with all your friends. There's nothing technical preventing any of these kinds of abuses, and the sooner average users understand that, the sooner we'll have support for strong legal protections to rein in big tech companies.
- babypuncher 8y agoI'm a proud atheist, in part thanks to early Reddit. /r/Atheism at the time it was removed from the default subs list was a toxic cesspool filled with a lot of the same kinds of hateful rhetoric and magical thinking they criticize religious groups for. Removing it as a default was the right call.
- yyyymmddhhmmss 8y ago>I’m a proud athiest Might we say you are a religious athiest?
- babypuncher 8y agoNot really. I don't claim to have proof that there is no god. I merely assert that not existing is the default state in the face of evidence-less existence claims. There could be a god, but that possibility has no bearing on how I live my life. If you want to ascribe a set of beliefs to me, the closest might be secular humanism.
- ionised 8y agoNo, because that doesn't make sense.
- nisuni 8y ago/r/atheism was absolutely obnoxious, to the point that the obnoxiousness of some of the users is still a meme: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/in-this-moment-i-am-euphoric https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/in-this-moment-i-am-euphoric > a community that is still one of the most hated As far as I can see in the USA and in most of Europe it’s way more socially acceptable to declare to be atheists, rather than observing Christians.
- telchar 8y agoIf you really think that's true I'd invite you to count the number of politicians (in the US at least) who are self-declared athiests. I think the data speaks for itself.
- chipotle_coyote 8y ago> As far as I can see in the USA and in most of Europe it’s way more socially acceptable to declare to be atheists, rather than observing Christians. I can't speak for Europe, but as of 2015, at least, about three-quarters of Americans identified as Christian. There are still large swaths of this country where being relatively outspoken about your atheism is, if not out-and-out dangerous, likely to have a negative impact on your social circles and even your career. Remember that the HN crowd -- e.g., tech workers who by and large have pretty cosmopolitan outlooks -- is not really representative of "median America."
- taurath 8y agoMy experience is that there's rarely a time that is appropriate for it to come up in polite conversation. People talk about it all the time within their social communities as the social communities are more likely to be in line with their beliefs, but not really in "public" IE work, etc. The guy running around talking about "god is dead" at work is just as much of a jerk and treated as such as someone who loudly proclaims their christian beliefs as the basis for everything they do.
- dkarl 8y agoThe two things go hand in hand. People strike a more defiant attitude when they anticipate punishment. They can seem clueless and overly confrontational when they cop that attitude in a context where it isn't warranted. Also, religion comes up routinely, though perhaps not frequently, in contexts where religious belief is assumed. In an ordinary conversation about the right way to handle a situation, people will ask you, "Do you think God wants me to ______?" It's just a manner of speaking, but it forces you to either pretend belief or out yourself and face their judgment. It's only in "mixed company" where people avoid the topic.