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I started engaging with Reddit about 3 years ago, right on the verge of things going downhill. So I’m not sure how much of this is normal over Reddit’s whole.

I started engaging with Reddit about 3 years ago, right on the verge of things going downhill. So I’m not sure how much of this is normal over Reddit’s whole. But I did notice a shift in the political boards to a mean-spirited alt-left attitude. Whatever, politics are needlessly divisive right now. But as I got more into other subreddits, the same attitude seems to be there too. Make an objective statement even remotely pro-Apple in r/gaming (which I would reasonably assume to be platform-neutral)? Instant dozens of downvotes, with no replies, or if lucky, a reply calling me an Apple sheep. Wander into a cutesy dog subreddit and someone posts a picture of a dog eating a hot dog? Too bad, that post will be downvoted to hell along with a lengthy post about the nitrate content of most hot dogs. There’s just a weird pack mentality sweeping across boards that I would expect to be somewhat forgiving and neutral.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
ink404 5y ago
These examples sound like the reddit hive mind, which has been there since the early days
Traster 5y ago
I think it’s missing the point to say it’s alt-left. In the Uk side of things it was always true r uk was left and r ukpolitics was right, and then there was a fascinating shift in various ways during election times. But either way the core of the issue was just that whatever the prevailing view is drives out disagreements. Twitter is bad because bubbles form and then they collide causing fights. Reddit solves this by making the bubbles much stronger and ensuring they never collide.
- beervirus 5y ago
  And then banning the bubbles that engage in wrongthink.
  - mcherm 5y ago
    Honestly, I think there has been very little banning of bubbles for "wrongthink", it's mostly been banning of bubbles for "wrongbehavior".
    - prepend 5y ago
      I think it’s wrongthink or potential wrongbehavior. An example is there was a exhibitionist nsfw subreddit, and it was shut down because people kept flagging non-offending posts as nonconsensual. Even though the literal subjects would post stuff like “that’s me, it’s cool.” The sub was removed. Tons of examples like this. It’s not that big of a deal and no major harm. Just part of the reason I think Reddit sucks and I don’t go there. The little serendipitous fun of the internet was all over Reddit. Now it feels like a totally lame person lames over everything.
    - dude187 5y ago
      That's not really a fair depiction though. They ban based on "wrongthink", because active disagreement of many things is considered "wrongbehavior". The end result is a reinforcement loop of the echo chamber, with a widening of what is considered "wrong"
- bb123 5y ago
  I'm interested in your personal experience with r/uk vs r/ukpolitics. I've stopped reading either as to me it seemed that they both had a pretty strong auth-left bias. I felt this was more pronounced in r/uk - to the point that it was/is a continuous stream of Twitter style hot takes. Although I suspect most of the readership/commenters are edgy 16 year olds so it's probably an unfair expectation that any of the discussion would be particularly nuanced. UK based threads on HN seem far more level headed.
volkl48 5y ago
r/gaming has always been the meme/low-quality gaming board and it's not really expected to have any serious discussion there. r/games is the one that's actually for somewhat coherent discussion. Not suggesting it's perfect, but it's probably the one you're looking for.
prepend 5y ago
I think this is a case of the “monkey ladder” type situation where people just bandwagon on and don’t know why. They just see the behavior, don’t know the cause, and emulate behavior. I think this happens in fake internet point situations because people are more apt to get upvotes and avoid downvotes. Since thoughtful content is hard, dog piling is easy. I can get more votes by grammar nazi-equivalent for wrongthink.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

ink404 5y ago

These examples sound like the reddit hive mind, which has been there since the early days

Traster 5y ago

I think it’s missing the point to say it’s alt-left. In the Uk side of things it was always true r uk was left and r ukpolitics was right, and then there was a fascinating shift in various ways during election times. But either way the core of the issue was just that whatever the prevailing view is drives out disagreements. Twitter is bad because bubbles form and then they collide causing fights. Reddit solves this by making the bubbles much stronger and ensuring they never collide.

beervirus 5y ago
And then banning the bubbles that engage in wrongthink.
- mcherm 5y ago
  Honestly, I think there has been very little banning of bubbles for "wrongthink", it's mostly been banning of bubbles for "wrongbehavior".
  - prepend 5y ago
    I think it’s wrongthink or potential wrongbehavior. An example is there was a exhibitionist nsfw subreddit, and it was shut down because people kept flagging non-offending posts as nonconsensual. Even though the literal subjects would post stuff like “that’s me, it’s cool.” The sub was removed. Tons of examples like this. It’s not that big of a deal and no major harm. Just part of the reason I think Reddit sucks and I don’t go there. The little serendipitous fun of the internet was all over Reddit. Now it feels like a totally lame person lames over everything.
  - dude187 5y ago
    That's not really a fair depiction though. They ban based on "wrongthink", because active disagreement of many things is considered "wrongbehavior". The end result is a reinforcement loop of the echo chamber, with a widening of what is considered "wrong"
bb123 5y ago
I'm interested in your personal experience with r/uk vs r/ukpolitics. I've stopped reading either as to me it seemed that they both had a pretty strong auth-left bias. I felt this was more pronounced in r/uk - to the point that it was/is a continuous stream of Twitter style hot takes. Although I suspect most of the readership/commenters are edgy 16 year olds so it's probably an unfair expectation that any of the discussion would be particularly nuanced. UK based threads on HN seem far more level headed.

volkl48 5y ago

r/gaming has always been the meme/low-quality gaming board and it's not really expected to have any serious discussion there. r/games is the one that's actually for somewhat coherent discussion. Not suggesting it's perfect, but it's probably the one you're looking for.

prepend 5y ago

I think this is a case of the “monkey ladder” type situation where people just bandwagon on and don’t know why. They just see the behavior, don’t know the cause, and emulate behavior. I think this happens in fake internet point situations because people are more apt to get upvotes and avoid downvotes. Since thoughtful content is hard, dog piling is easy. I can get more votes by grammar nazi-equivalent for wrongthink.