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Just adding onto this argument. Reddit moderators just don't know how to take criticism. The lately famous /r/antiwork just had a moment. I tried to find the

Just adding onto this argument. Reddit moderators just don't know how to take criticism. The lately famous /r/antiwork just had a moment. I tried to find the post where they were banning every dissenting opinion, but the thread got locked. Now the entire subreddit is locked. For reference here's a link to another subreddit locking a thread because the /r/antiwork mod got offended: https://www.reddit.com/r/Cringetopia/comments/sd5cvd/banned_for_calling_out_the_mod_who_went_on_fox/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Cringetopia/comments/sd5cvd/banned_... This was all because the mod couldn't handle the criticisms he took for being interviewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yUMIFYBMnc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yUMIFYBMnc

Gareth321 5y ago
I've been using the site for ~14 years and watching its decline has been quite difficult. I really like the premise, but it clearly hit the limits of its system many years ago. I recall reading some commentary from one of the founders near the beginning. They were working on research to exploit crowd-funded effort. Effectively incentivising users just enough to encourage them to work for free. They came up with the distributed moderation system. Give egoists just a little bit of power and they'll spend 12 hours a day moderating Reddit for free. This worked fine with smaller communities and the ability for competition when moderators overstep their mandate and make their communities a bad place. Unfortunately, for many reasons, this is all failing. 1. Reddit management has made their political leanings clear: if you are conservative, you are unwelcome. When I say "conservative" I'm not referring to the far-right. I'm referring to mainstream conservatism about family values, hard work, religion, etc. No example could better encapsulate their position than their "Anti-Evil Operations" team, which bans people for any and all reasons, including unpalatable political positions. Admins/staff on this team have been quite candid about their desire to ban conservative views. This aligns well with Reddit's announced IPO. Sanitising discussion to be advertiser friendly will help their bottom line. 2. The user base leans heavily left. It seems certain large websites have a theme now. When one considers the kinds of discussion which happen on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, we all know which way those sites lean. Reddit is pretty hard left now. For example, the /r/Science subreddit is 24/7 "Study finds Trump voters have low IQ." The Joe Rogan fun subreddit is 24/7 "Does anyone else think Joe Rogan is Hitler?" There is zero space for nuanced discussion except in some very niche subreddits, and they are all inevitably taken over by a power mod who purges nuanced discussion. 3. The anonymous mod system is just not equipped to deal with tens of millions of users in a single subreddit. The top mod is the dictator, and they always end up enforcing their biases on the sub; overtly and subtly. This is exacerbated because of... 4. Subreddit squatting. A perfect example of this are the country name subreddits. Everyone from said country new to Reddit subscribes to these subs. They are all cheerleaders for a particular political party within each country. If you don't like that political party, you're marginalised and usually banned. It's not as simple as creating a competing country subreddit because few people will ever find it. No one thinks to search for "TrueCanada" if they're looking for "Canada." Of course, the the original subreddit automatically removes any mention of the competing sub, and bans anyone discussing it. There are just too many issues to discuss them all, or in much detail. IMHO, Reddit is ready for a Digg-style exodus. People are just waiting for a clear alternative.
- RedBeetDeadpool 5y ago
  > Give egoists just a little bit of power and they'll spend 12 hours a day moderating Reddit for free That really blew up in their face didn't it? 12 hours by the way is probably a low ballpark by the way. In my mind the power mods compulsively play Reddit like World of Warcraft addicts gearing up on a 7-day no shower session, going around silencing and ban-hammering users they dont like. I don't have the link but someone posted statistics of the top "players" in these communities, and it approaches something like making a post/comment/edit about every 6 minutes of being awake, or something equally ridiculous. > There are just too many issues to discuss them all, or in much detail. Couldn't agree more. Someone could probably write a thesis on the devolution of social media companies. I might be crazy but I see a pattern here. If it didn't have so much political implications I wouldn't care what a website here or there does, but it clearly has implications on real life.

Gareth321 5y ago

I've been using the site for ~14 years and watching its decline has been quite difficult. I really like the premise, but it clearly hit the limits of its system many years ago. I recall reading some commentary from one of the founders near the beginning. They were working on research to exploit crowd-funded effort. Effectively incentivising users just enough to encourage them to work for free. They came up with the distributed moderation system. Give egoists just a little bit of power and they'll spend 12 hours a day moderating Reddit for free. This worked fine with smaller communities and the ability for competition when moderators overstep their mandate and make their communities a bad place. Unfortunately, for many reasons, this is all failing. 1. Reddit management has made their political leanings clear: if you are conservative, you are unwelcome. When I say "conservative" I'm not referring to the far-right. I'm referring to mainstream conservatism about family values, hard work, religion, etc. No example could better encapsulate their position than their "Anti-Evil Operations" team, which bans people for any and all reasons, including unpalatable political positions. Admins/staff on this team have been quite candid about their desire to ban conservative views. This aligns well with Reddit's announced IPO. Sanitising discussion to be advertiser friendly will help their bottom line. 2. The user base leans heavily left. It seems certain large websites have a theme now. When one considers the kinds of discussion which happen on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, we all know which way those sites lean. Reddit is pretty hard left now. For example, the /r/Science subreddit is 24/7 "Study finds Trump voters have low IQ." The Joe Rogan fun subreddit is 24/7 "Does anyone else think Joe Rogan is Hitler?" There is zero space for nuanced discussion except in some very niche subreddits, and they are all inevitably taken over by a power mod who purges nuanced discussion. 3. The anonymous mod system is just not equipped to deal with tens of millions of users in a single subreddit. The top mod is the dictator, and they always end up enforcing their biases on the sub; overtly and subtly. This is exacerbated because of... 4. Subreddit squatting. A perfect example of this are the country name subreddits. Everyone from said country new to Reddit subscribes to these subs. They are all cheerleaders for a particular political party within each country. If you don't like that political party, you're marginalised and usually banned. It's not as simple as creating a competing country subreddit because few people will ever find it. No one thinks to search for "TrueCanada" if they're looking for "Canada." Of course, the the original subreddit automatically removes any mention of the competing sub, and bans anyone discussing it. There are just too many issues to discuss them all, or in much detail. IMHO, Reddit is ready for a Digg-style exodus. People are just waiting for a clear alternative.

RedBeetDeadpool 5y ago
> Give egoists just a little bit of power and they'll spend 12 hours a day moderating Reddit for free That really blew up in their face didn't it? 12 hours by the way is probably a low ballpark by the way. In my mind the power mods compulsively play Reddit like World of Warcraft addicts gearing up on a 7-day no shower session, going around silencing and ban-hammering users they dont like. I don't have the link but someone posted statistics of the top "players" in these communities, and it approaches something like making a post/comment/edit about every 6 minutes of being awake, or something equally ridiculous. > There are just too many issues to discuss them all, or in much detail. Couldn't agree more. Someone could probably write a thesis on the devolution of social media companies. I might be crazy but I see a pattern here. If it didn't have so much political implications I wouldn't care what a website here or there does, but it clearly has implications on real life.