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There's a thing that happened with the Canada subreddit. It used to be kind of an interesting sub where youd get neat Canada-wide local stories (mostly Ontario)

There's a thing that happened with the Canada subreddit. It used to be kind of an interesting sub where youd get neat Canada-wide local stories (mostly Ontario) that were genrally pleasant. It was a nice place to visit after being inundated with American politics. Then, sometime in the early 10s and it gradually became very partisan and political. Which, to clarify, means it got substantially worse. It, like the comment sections on Canadian news websites, leaned heavily to the right. So a group got together and made alt Canada subreddit that leaned heavily left called OnGuardForThee. Originally, I thought it would be helpful to compare the two subs to get something closer to the middle but instead all that happened was I got twice as much screaming hot garbage. I unsubbed from both and now individually sub to all the Canadian town I can find. It's better now. There's so much less anger.

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multiplegeorges 5y ago
It's interesting to see how you've characterized what happened in r/canada. I think it is itself an example of polarization. r/canada used to be great, as you said, but it didn't become polarized in a right vs. left manner. The moderators were self-admitted alt/far-right people who were pushing a particular agenda. When the country as a whole votes left at a consistent 65-70%, then r/canada simply no longer represents the Canadian viewpoint. r/canada used to give center-right viewpoints attention at about the same rate as the support they got in elections. The push from right-wing mods to move to an even or greater split doesn't reflect the political reality of Canada. r/OnGuardForThee is now a far more accurate representation of the political landscape of Canada where 70% of people vote center-left to left.
- gruez 5y ago
  > Then, sometime in the early 10s and it gradually became very partisan and political. Which, to clarify, means it got substantially worse. I just checked the top posts for last week and it looks pretty... non-partisan? Certainly better than something /r/all. https://old.reddit.com/r/canada/top/?t=week https://old.reddit.com/r/canada/top/?t=week
  - bobsmooth 5y ago
    A handful of jerks that don't have their comments removed immediately means a subreddit is infested with alt-right racists.
- fartcannon 5y ago
  It would be interesting to see how the country would vote without having to vote strategically.
buzzert 5y ago
This sounds like a Reddit-wide problem. I stopped going to Reddit years ago because of this.
- fighterpilot 5y ago
  That slippery slope is a byproduct of their subreddit social mechanic combined with a polarized political climate. If the sub leans 60/40 one way, the minority group will see all their posts being downvoted, and gradually leave. As more leave, the downvote pressure on the remaining few gets more intense, and they leave too, until you're left with a veritable echo chamber.
spamizbad 5y ago
A lot of "local" subreddits started declining around 2015. It's like all the local news website commenters discovered their local subreddits and started posting there.
- ABCLAW 5y ago
  A lot of investor-relations style astroturfing began in the lead-up to the 2016 election. We did some threat tracking for certain organizations as a result of the growing extreme rhetoric in some of these communities and with social media aggregation tools it became very clear that there are a lot of paid political shill accounts. Facebook's toxic communities are far more grass-roots in comparison. They're also, at least in the cases of the files I was on, a lot more violent, and a lot more volatile. Surveiled Facebook groups looked a lot more like Parler than brigaded reddit subs.
  - heavyset_go 5y ago
    I'd like to hear more about this if you could share the details.
- asdff 5y ago
  I almost think it was these local news sites trying themselves to post on these subreddits. Looking at the histories of the people who actually post articles on a local subreddit, all they do pretty much is post articles. Who even does that? Either someone with some sort of complex to share every article they read on reddit, or an intern who is paid to post the article on social media and reddit is on that list. Even the LA Fire Department is active on reddit now. It's mainstream, and commercialized.

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multiplegeorges 5y ago

It's interesting to see how you've characterized what happened in r/canada. I think it is itself an example of polarization. r/canada used to be great, as you said, but it didn't become polarized in a right vs. left manner. The moderators were self-admitted alt/far-right people who were pushing a particular agenda. When the country as a whole votes left at a consistent 65-70%, then r/canada simply no longer represents the Canadian viewpoint. r/canada used to give center-right viewpoints attention at about the same rate as the support they got in elections. The push from right-wing mods to move to an even or greater split doesn't reflect the political reality of Canada. r/OnGuardForThee is now a far more accurate representation of the political landscape of Canada where 70% of people vote center-left to left.

gruez 5y ago
> Then, sometime in the early 10s and it gradually became very partisan and political. Which, to clarify, means it got substantially worse. I just checked the top posts for last week and it looks pretty... non-partisan? Certainly better than something /r/all. https://old.reddit.com/r/canada/top/?t=week https://old.reddit.com/r/canada/top/?t=week
- bobsmooth 5y ago
  A handful of jerks that don't have their comments removed immediately means a subreddit is infested with alt-right racists.
fartcannon 5y ago
It would be interesting to see how the country would vote without having to vote strategically.

buzzert 5y ago

This sounds like a Reddit-wide problem. I stopped going to Reddit years ago because of this.

fighterpilot 5y ago
That slippery slope is a byproduct of their subreddit social mechanic combined with a polarized political climate. If the sub leans 60/40 one way, the minority group will see all their posts being downvoted, and gradually leave. As more leave, the downvote pressure on the remaining few gets more intense, and they leave too, until you're left with a veritable echo chamber.

spamizbad 5y ago

A lot of "local" subreddits started declining around 2015. It's like all the local news website commenters discovered their local subreddits and started posting there.

ABCLAW 5y ago
A lot of investor-relations style astroturfing began in the lead-up to the 2016 election. We did some threat tracking for certain organizations as a result of the growing extreme rhetoric in some of these communities and with social media aggregation tools it became very clear that there are a lot of paid political shill accounts. Facebook's toxic communities are far more grass-roots in comparison. They're also, at least in the cases of the files I was on, a lot more violent, and a lot more volatile. Surveiled Facebook groups looked a lot more like Parler than brigaded reddit subs.
- heavyset_go 5y ago
  I'd like to hear more about this if you could share the details.
asdff 5y ago
I almost think it was these local news sites trying themselves to post on these subreddits. Looking at the histories of the people who actually post articles on a local subreddit, all they do pretty much is post articles. Who even does that? Either someone with some sort of complex to share every article they read on reddit, or an intern who is paid to post the article on social media and reddit is on that list. Even the LA Fire Department is active on reddit now. It's mainstream, and commercialized.