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> Reddit has been a very good source of information in this crisis. Got to be joking right? Reddit is pretty much the battleground of misinformation. It's run

> Reddit has been a very good source of information in this crisis. Got to be joking right? Reddit is pretty much the battleground of misinformation. It's run by think tanks, ngos, intel, media, etc. Most of the threads and most comments are pretty much anti-china propaganda along with some pro-china nonsense. That's it. Every gilded and boosted thread and comment are of a particular propaganda bent. > That's not as big of a problem in Reddit because of moderation and voting, compared to Facebook and the likes. The problem with reddit is precisely the moderation. It's why you have garbage echo chambers like r/politics, r/the_donald, r/worldnews, r/news, r/china, r/atheism, [do I need to continue]. Even the coronavirus related subs are heavily politically driven. Because of the rise of moderation, reddit has turned into hives of extreme echo chambers. Whereas in the past, most major subs allowed all viewpoints, now each sub moderates toward a particular worldview and you get the worst echo chambers. You get the worst echo chambers due to moderation and censorship. Moderation and censorship doesn't prevent echo chambers and extremism. It promotes it. It's why nazi germany, soviet union, north korea, saudi arabia, silicon valley, etc love moderation and censorship.

raxxorrax 7y ago
I think you are correct and overambitious moderators are indeed a problem that fragment communities. t_d, politics and to a degree worldnews are ridiculous instances of this, although there is probably even worse stuff in the underbellies. I just look at the result and while efforts to manipulate content increases (malicious and manipulative, not moderation), the situation is far, far worse than 5 years ago. Additionally the content has become much more stale. reddit probably has accurate date, but as a user the impression is pretty obvious.
- belltaco 7y ago
  Having been on Reddit since before it had comments or subreddits, I can assure you that the bias i r/politics is the because of the userbase rather than the moderation.
  - raxxorrax 7y ago
    I have been there too and I think the content massively changed in the last years. I don't even disagree politically on the points they make, but it has got to levels beyond what I call reasonably sane. Not that this wouldn't be true for their most prominent detractors too, perhaps they just adapted. Perhaps it is due to a change in userbase, but the morosity certainly changed.
    - belltaco 7y ago
      The mods there don't do much except remove personal attacks and calls for violence, they even have a couple of Trump supporters on the team. You can even submit Breitbart. If it gets dowvoted, how is that the mod's fault? They can't control voting.
jfkebwjsbx 7y ago
No, I am not kidding. Several subreddits kept track of all reputable worldwide news sources of all kinds: news agencies, governments, health organizations... Deciding who you trust or not is your call, but those news subreddits are invaluable to get updates from all over the world. I have not claimed all are to be trusted or anything like that, so please do not make strawmen.
- dntbnmpls 7y ago
  > No, I am not kidding. Several subreddits kept track of all reputable worldwide news sources of all kinds: news agencies, governments, health organizations... The easiest tell that you being deceptive is that you didn't list these subreddits. List them or should I say, go frantically search for them and list them here in a desperate attempt to maintain any sort of credibility. Or are you a major contributor to those subs and are embarrassed to list them because it would be obvious that the subs are part of the disinformation campaign to spread fear? > I have not claimed all are to be trusted or anything like that, so please do not make strawmen. You wrote "Reddit has been a very good source of information in this crisis." You are the one building a straw man argument, not me. Also "so please do not make strawmen" is such interesting phrasing. Can I ask what nationality you are?

raxxorrax 7y ago

I think you are correct and overambitious moderators are indeed a problem that fragment communities. t_d, politics and to a degree worldnews are ridiculous instances of this, although there is probably even worse stuff in the underbellies. I just look at the result and while efforts to manipulate content increases (malicious and manipulative, not moderation), the situation is far, far worse than 5 years ago. Additionally the content has become much more stale. reddit probably has accurate date, but as a user the impression is pretty obvious.

belltaco 7y ago
Having been on Reddit since before it had comments or subreddits, I can assure you that the bias i r/politics is the because of the userbase rather than the moderation.
- raxxorrax 7y ago
  I have been there too and I think the content massively changed in the last years. I don't even disagree politically on the points they make, but it has got to levels beyond what I call reasonably sane. Not that this wouldn't be true for their most prominent detractors too, perhaps they just adapted. Perhaps it is due to a change in userbase, but the morosity certainly changed.
  - belltaco 7y ago
    The mods there don't do much except remove personal attacks and calls for violence, they even have a couple of Trump supporters on the team. You can even submit Breitbart. If it gets dowvoted, how is that the mod's fault? They can't control voting.

jfkebwjsbx 7y ago

No, I am not kidding. Several subreddits kept track of all reputable worldwide news sources of all kinds: news agencies, governments, health organizations... Deciding who you trust or not is your call, but those news subreddits are invaluable to get updates from all over the world. I have not claimed all are to be trusted or anything like that, so please do not make strawmen.

dntbnmpls 7y ago
> No, I am not kidding. Several subreddits kept track of all reputable worldwide news sources of all kinds: news agencies, governments, health organizations... The easiest tell that you being deceptive is that you didn't list these subreddits. List them or should I say, go frantically search for them and list them here in a desperate attempt to maintain any sort of credibility. Or are you a major contributor to those subs and are embarrassed to list them because it would be obvious that the subs are part of the disinformation campaign to spread fear? > I have not claimed all are to be trusted or anything like that, so please do not make strawmen. You wrote "Reddit has been a very good source of information in this crisis." You are the one building a straw man argument, not me. Also "so please do not make strawmen" is such interesting phrasing. Can I ask what nationality you are?