6 ms·

>The ONLY way to solve the toxic nature of Twitter is to enforce a)a real name policy, and b)fully verified[1] identities for all users/bots (opt-in, where othe

by kd913 4y ago

>The ONLY way to solve the toxic nature of Twitter is to enforce a)a real name policy, and b)fully verified[1] identities for all users/bots (opt-in, where others by default filter out non-verified accounts in their feeds) I'm gonna call nonsense on this. Practically every social media platform that forces real identities are cesspits because of the real name policy. Largely because of the soap box celebrities/influencers who shill their views and monetize their followers. I prefer reddit/HN a thousand times over the garbage of twitter/FB/etc..

causi 4y ago
Yeah, it's easier to ignore racist tirades and death threats when they come from xX_BonerLord420_Xx. Frankly I'd enjoy a platform that outright banned the use or disclosure of real names.
- mrtranscendence 4y ago
  On the other hand, if someone is giving you death threats and you're afraid they're credible, a real-name policy gives you someone to report.
  - kd913 4y ago
    Sure, but that is why you aren't supposed to use a username tied to your real world identity. In that case, why would you care about the threats exactly? The threats caused by people like Trump, Joe Rogan, Musk, Russian bot farms, Farage, Le Pen etc... and their toxic ignorant views on Vaccines, climate change are far far worse to society than some vague inactionable death threats.
    - kvetching 4y ago
      [dead]
    - geodel 4y ago
      Well, that's just your opinion. If you do not like them block and move on. But yea, it is not likely that anyone of them would be following you.
      - kd913 4y ago
        It is my opinion. The beauty of my comment is it either holds or it doesn't in absence of my identity. I don't care if anyone follows me or not because I am not a vapid shallow person. The community decides in absence of who is saying whether my words have merit. If it doesn't, I have a healthy ability to toss my entire account and walk away.
  - silvestrov 4y ago
    You assume a "real name" is a unique identifier (or almost unique). In some countries a lot of people share the same full name.
  - causi 4y ago
    Have you ever had productive results from reporting harassment and threats? I haven't. I know people who've been stalked for years with the police having full knowledge of their identity and behavior without prosecuting them.
ethbr0 4y ago
Anonymous speech works... until it doesn't. And it doesn't at scale. At that point, you require active moderation by admins and/or users to keep an semblance of usefulness. The best of reddit and HN can only exist because they're niche subcommunities. We should be under no illusions what would happen to HN if 5% of YouTube commenters showed up tomorrow.
- kd913 4y ago
  Reddit isn't a niche subcommunity. It has 430 million monthly active users. Yea you get toxic, cancerous, illegal subcommunities etc... On the whole though I am happy with the upvote, downvote curation compared with the algorithmic trash provided by FB. Even before reddit went overly filtering for advertisement purposes, I was happier on Reddit/Digg than the trash that came aftewrards. In my opinion, humanity would be significantly better off without Twitter/Facebook. I have seen death threats, anti-vaccer junk, brexit/trump/le Pen, Cambridge Analytica style election manipulation (including for Bolsonaro and Modi), the Myanmar genocide and human trafficking on a massive scale via FB/twitter. I remember being pitched specifically about several cases of groups/companies using Facebook/Twitter to subvert democratic processes via selective targeted propaganda.
  - MisterBastahrd 4y ago
    Subreddits are niche subcommunities. Nobody subscribes to all of Reddit.
    - kd913 4y ago
      Youtube are a niche collection of youtubers. Nobody subscribes to every Youtube channel. So what is your point? It's a model that work and scales to half a billion users per month.
      - MisterBastahrd 4y ago
        Youtube's moderators are youtube employees. Reddit's moderators are volunteers with iron fists who only police tiny sections of reddit. Admins get involved in TOS violations, not direct moderation. Your comparison makes no sense.
bryanlarsen 4y ago
The reason why reddit/HN are a thousand times better than twitter/FB is because they are heavily moderated, not because they don't have a real names policy.
- kd913 4y ago
  The lack of real names enables people to give honest opinions. The lack of real names, and shitty games prevents influences and garbage celebrity monetizations. I haven't seen a Cambridge Analytica style event happen on reddit. That happened brazenly in the open, and still happens today on Facebook/Twitter to subvert democratic processes (e.g. Brazil, India, US, UK).

by kd913 4y ago

causi 4y ago

Yeah, it's easier to ignore racist tirades and death threats when they come from xX_BonerLord420_Xx. Frankly I'd enjoy a platform that outright banned the use or disclosure of real names.

mrtranscendence 4y ago
On the other hand, if someone is giving you death threats and you're afraid they're credible, a real-name policy gives you someone to report.
- kd913 4y ago
  Sure, but that is why you aren't supposed to use a username tied to your real world identity. In that case, why would you care about the threats exactly? The threats caused by people like Trump, Joe Rogan, Musk, Russian bot farms, Farage, Le Pen etc... and their toxic ignorant views on Vaccines, climate change are far far worse to society than some vague inactionable death threats.
  - kvetching 4y ago
    [dead]
  - geodel 4y ago
    Well, that's just your opinion. If you do not like them block and move on. But yea, it is not likely that anyone of them would be following you.
    - kd913 4y ago
      It is my opinion. The beauty of my comment is it either holds or it doesn't in absence of my identity. I don't care if anyone follows me or not because I am not a vapid shallow person. The community decides in absence of who is saying whether my words have merit. If it doesn't, I have a healthy ability to toss my entire account and walk away.
- silvestrov 4y ago
  You assume a "real name" is a unique identifier (or almost unique). In some countries a lot of people share the same full name.
- causi 4y ago
  Have you ever had productive results from reporting harassment and threats? I haven't. I know people who've been stalked for years with the police having full knowledge of their identity and behavior without prosecuting them.

ethbr0 4y ago

Anonymous speech works... until it doesn't. And it doesn't at scale. At that point, you require active moderation by admins and/or users to keep an semblance of usefulness. The best of reddit and HN can only exist because they're niche subcommunities. We should be under no illusions what would happen to HN if 5% of YouTube commenters showed up tomorrow.

kd913 4y ago
Reddit isn't a niche subcommunity. It has 430 million monthly active users. Yea you get toxic, cancerous, illegal subcommunities etc... On the whole though I am happy with the upvote, downvote curation compared with the algorithmic trash provided by FB. Even before reddit went overly filtering for advertisement purposes, I was happier on Reddit/Digg than the trash that came aftewrards. In my opinion, humanity would be significantly better off without Twitter/Facebook. I have seen death threats, anti-vaccer junk, brexit/trump/le Pen, Cambridge Analytica style election manipulation (including for Bolsonaro and Modi), the Myanmar genocide and human trafficking on a massive scale via FB/twitter. I remember being pitched specifically about several cases of groups/companies using Facebook/Twitter to subvert democratic processes via selective targeted propaganda.
- MisterBastahrd 4y ago
  Subreddits are niche subcommunities. Nobody subscribes to all of Reddit.
  - kd913 4y ago
    Youtube are a niche collection of youtubers. Nobody subscribes to every Youtube channel. So what is your point? It's a model that work and scales to half a billion users per month.
    - MisterBastahrd 4y ago
      Youtube's moderators are youtube employees. Reddit's moderators are volunteers with iron fists who only police tiny sections of reddit. Admins get involved in TOS violations, not direct moderation. Your comparison makes no sense.

bryanlarsen 4y ago

The reason why reddit/HN are a thousand times better than twitter/FB is because they are heavily moderated, not because they don't have a real names policy.

kd913 4y ago
The lack of real names enables people to give honest opinions. The lack of real names, and shitty games prevents influences and garbage celebrity monetizations. I haven't seen a Cambridge Analytica style event happen on reddit. That happened brazenly in the open, and still happens today on Facebook/Twitter to subvert democratic processes (e.g. Brazil, India, US, UK).