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The problem discussed really has two parts: ban evasion/harassment and misinformation. I'll get to both of them, but let's discuss the ban evasion and harassmen

by ronsor 5y ago

The problem discussed really has two parts: ban evasion/harassment and misinformation. I'll get to both of them, but let's discuss the ban evasion and harassment. Reddit is a site where anyone can create an account and post. The admins already IP ban repeat offenders, but IP addresses are cheap anyway. Without changing the fundamental functions of the site, the ban evasion problem is going nowhere. Same with harassment, which will be a problem as long as anyone can post. Trolls are a problem as old as online communication. Facebook is worth 100x as much as reddit and has a bigger budget, yet even they cannot solve this problem. Are we going to deploy more questionably reliable AI systems that harm legitimate users? Now on to the misinformation problem. I straight up don't think that's the administration's responsibility. Politicians, site moderators, etc. hound various social media sites from Facebook to Reddit to remove this content without realizing that they're asking for an essentially impossible problem to be solved. First of all, what is or isn't misinformation can be entirely different six months later. Some things are obviously bunk, such as 5G conspiracies, but other things are more up for debate. Even a legitimate, nuanced debate can get filed under misinformation. Second, removing such content isn't like a simple DELETE SQL query. You either have people manually review everything, which isn't necessarily realistic, or you deploy some automated system that will almost certainly screw up on the regular (Facebook, YouTube, etc.).

specialist 5y ago
Or -- and here's a crazy thought -- more infra to verify users. Just like the porn subs. r/alberta community has ~150k readers. So guessing ~150 posters and ~1,500 commenters. Cleaning up this mess is straightforward and feasible. PS- For comparison, r/gonewild has 3m readers.
winternett 5y ago
The problem is that one platform with one ideology cannot scale to effectively service such a large range of users, functionality, and individual utility needs. When reddit was smaller and more tight knit it was better because smaller groups are easier to accommodate and moderate. As reddit grew, they began to reduce features that kept users happy and in control of content. As reddit grew to encompass hackers, media attention, politics, and so many other aspects , the pressure for moderation overwhelmed them and they also needed to balance moderation with profit to fund the mass they grew into. This drives businesses to do shady things to keep the lights on, which also drives away core supporters and OC creators. Perhaps every major app/site has a shelf life, and perhaps we need to just embrace that. Also it's an opportunity to build several new local communities and to put the user community first over growth into a monopolistic machine that gets you onto TV news.

by ronsor 5y ago

specialist 5y ago

Or -- and here's a crazy thought -- more infra to verify users. Just like the porn subs. r/alberta community has ~150k readers. So guessing ~150 posters and ~1,500 commenters. Cleaning up this mess is straightforward and feasible. PS- For comparison, r/gonewild has 3m readers.

winternett 5y ago

The problem is that one platform with one ideology cannot scale to effectively service such a large range of users, functionality, and individual utility needs. When reddit was smaller and more tight knit it was better because smaller groups are easier to accommodate and moderate. As reddit grew, they began to reduce features that kept users happy and in control of content. As reddit grew to encompass hackers, media attention, politics, and so many other aspects , the pressure for moderation overwhelmed them and they also needed to balance moderation with profit to fund the mass they grew into. This drives businesses to do shady things to keep the lights on, which also drives away core supporters and OC creators. Perhaps every major app/site has a shelf life, and perhaps we need to just embrace that. Also it's an opportunity to build several new local communities and to put the user community first over growth into a monopolistic machine that gets you onto TV news.