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People complaining about Reddit remind me of that quote from Bjarne Stroustrup about computer languages: “There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people

People complaining about Reddit remind me of that quote from Bjarne Stroustrup about computer languages: “There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses.” A lot of people use Reddit. I've been on since nearly the beginning and seen it go through various phases. They started getting serious about moderation after Gamergate and they're still serious about it since they want to attract advertisers. The edgier content has gone to 4chan /pol/ but even that site has moderators called janitors. I really don't know where the extreme stuff has gone and I really don't care because I'm glad I don't see it anymore.

ivraatiems 4y ago
I strongly agree with your comparison, I think it's apt. There's just no way to have a tolerably pleasant public-facing community online without some kind of moderation, and people have been railing about moderators in said communities for as long as those communities have existed. That doesn't mean moderation is an easy job, or that it shouldn't be done judiciously or consistently, but it can't be abandoned.
- labrador 4y ago
  My first reaction when I heard Elon Musk was buying Twitter was "have he and his team figured out the moderation problem?" followed by "he probably hasn't given it much thought because if he did he would realize he doesn't need that headache on his way to Mars."
  - ivraatiems 4y ago
    I suspect "he probably hasn't given it much thought" sums up most of Elon Musk's recent decision-making.
  - towaway15463 4y ago
    I imagine he’s just going to introduce a simple yet “radical” solution like allowing people to pay a small fee for verified status and adding the option to filter out all non-validated accounts. That should kill off a large number of the bots and sock puppet accounts.
    - antifa 4y ago
      That'll be more effective at creating a poor people exclusion zone than stopping adtroturfing/sock puppets/spam.
      - IntelMiner 4y ago
        Sounds like something he'd want anyway https://existentialcomics.com/comic/other/17 https://existentialcomics.com/comic/other/17
      - towaway15463 4y ago
        The fee could be a dollar a month and still be effective.
coffeeblack 4y ago
My critique of Reddit isn’t so much about moderation per se, as it is about one-sided moderation. The ban of anything that opposes “the message”. It started around 2015/16 and it was very clearly visible in all subs.
- Capricorn2481 4y ago
  They have only banned extreme political ideologies with vaguely violent leanings, and have done so for both sides of the spectrum
  - thefz 4y ago
    The problem with Reddit is that they banned unilaterally the right wing.
    - Crusoe123 4y ago
      That is not true e.g.https://www.reddit.com/r/chapotraphouse https://www.reddit.com/r/chapotraphouse
      - thefz 4y ago
        One sub out of tens or hundreds on the other side won't change reality
      - coffeeblack 4y ago
        Try searching for claims the election was fraudulent “in 2020” compared to “in 2016”. One is banned, the other promoted. Not just on Reddit but on many social media.
      - _-david-_ 4y ago
        What is your point? The person you were responding to never said Reddit doesn't also ban left wing subreddits.
    - multjoy 4y ago
Eji1700 4y ago
The smartest thing reddit has done was learn from Digg. They've done a FUCKLOAD of dumb stuff. A truly phenomenal amount. Some of the issues stem from just growing and having your crowd change and EVERY marketing company out there working to control your content, but they have very impressively managed to make a baffling number of stupid decisions. But, you can opt out. It's dumb that you need to, it's dumb that they don't understand what they have, and that they're making what's currently failing (yet another facebook), and yet there's still a large variety of ways to make it not totally fucking awful. You can still just go to the subreddits you tolerate and ignore the rest, you can still browse in old mode, and you can block most of the ads and nonsense pretty trivially. It was very very smart of them to leave in that option, which while the most obvious fucking thing in the world to a person, is a near miracle for a company. Not forcing the new design (and a couple of other anti user practices) is one of the best decisions they ever made, and if you've EVER worked in a company rolling out a redesign that's supposed to up engagement and revenue, you have got to understand just how fucking rare anything like that is. I do wonder when it'll all go to shit finally, and I wonder what will take it's place (i've looked for the reddit of digg for reddit, and haven't seen much potential), but right now every day they don't force the redesign is a damn near miracle in a company of that size.
- labrador 4y ago
  the day the get rid of old.reddit.com I'll be gone looking for something more to my liking. The retro reddit is the best reddit.
  - derwiki 4y ago
    I finally switched to a 3rd party app (Apollo) and _gee_ is it nice to use reddit without an actively hostile UI.
  - permo-w 4y ago
    I first started using reddit in around 2015, so I never experienced the old reddit design when it was default. I tried old.reddit.com the other day, but I found it almost unbearable. not being used to it, I found it ugly and messy and overloaded with text. it loads twice as fast, though, and doesn't prioritise images over information, so I see the upside, but I do think a lot of the commentary here is nostalgia and just what people are used to
chx 4y ago
> I really don't know where the extreme stuff has gone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8chan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8chan and I don't visit it either because I am too old but who would want to fight qanon would probably need to. I salute them.
- richbell 4y ago
  Besides 8chan there was Voat (and other Reddit clones). Some of the larger subreddits like /r/drama,/r/the_donald, and /r/fatpeoplehate splintered off to their own websites.
  - chx 4y ago
    And are gone, thedonald.win became america.win and it no longer exists. These things do not last. /r/changemyview tried it too, their website is also gone.
    - cowtools 4y ago
      By the looks of it,the r/drama website is still pretty alive. I think I read an article on here about it a couple months ago.

ivraatiems 4y ago

I strongly agree with your comparison, I think it's apt. There's just no way to have a tolerably pleasant public-facing community online without some kind of moderation, and people have been railing about moderators in said communities for as long as those communities have existed. That doesn't mean moderation is an easy job, or that it shouldn't be done judiciously or consistently, but it can't be abandoned.

labrador 4y ago
My first reaction when I heard Elon Musk was buying Twitter was "have he and his team figured out the moderation problem?" followed by "he probably hasn't given it much thought because if he did he would realize he doesn't need that headache on his way to Mars."
- ivraatiems 4y ago
  I suspect "he probably hasn't given it much thought" sums up most of Elon Musk's recent decision-making.
- towaway15463 4y ago
  I imagine he’s just going to introduce a simple yet “radical” solution like allowing people to pay a small fee for verified status and adding the option to filter out all non-validated accounts. That should kill off a large number of the bots and sock puppet accounts.
  - antifa 4y ago
    That'll be more effective at creating a poor people exclusion zone than stopping adtroturfing/sock puppets/spam.
    - IntelMiner 4y ago
      Sounds like something he'd want anyway https://existentialcomics.com/comic/other/17 https://existentialcomics.com/comic/other/17
    - towaway15463 4y ago
      The fee could be a dollar a month and still be effective.

coffeeblack 4y ago

My critique of Reddit isn’t so much about moderation per se, as it is about one-sided moderation. The ban of anything that opposes “the message”. It started around 2015/16 and it was very clearly visible in all subs.

Capricorn2481 4y ago
They have only banned extreme political ideologies with vaguely violent leanings, and have done so for both sides of the spectrum
- thefz 4y ago
  The problem with Reddit is that they banned unilaterally the right wing.
  - Crusoe123 4y ago
    That is not true e.g.https://www.reddit.com/r/chapotraphouse https://www.reddit.com/r/chapotraphouse
    - thefz 4y ago
      One sub out of tens or hundreds on the other side won't change reality
    - coffeeblack 4y ago
      Try searching for claims the election was fraudulent “in 2020” compared to “in 2016”. One is banned, the other promoted. Not just on Reddit but on many social media.
    - _-david-_ 4y ago
      What is your point? The person you were responding to never said Reddit doesn't also ban left wing subreddits.
  - multjoy 4y ago

Eji1700 4y ago

The smartest thing reddit has done was learn from Digg. They've done a FUCKLOAD of dumb stuff. A truly phenomenal amount. Some of the issues stem from just growing and having your crowd change and EVERY marketing company out there working to control your content, but they have very impressively managed to make a baffling number of stupid decisions. But, you can opt out. It's dumb that you need to, it's dumb that they don't understand what they have, and that they're making what's currently failing (yet another facebook), and yet there's still a large variety of ways to make it not totally fucking awful. You can still just go to the subreddits you tolerate and ignore the rest, you can still browse in old mode, and you can block most of the ads and nonsense pretty trivially. It was very very smart of them to leave in that option, which while the most obvious fucking thing in the world to a person, is a near miracle for a company. Not forcing the new design (and a couple of other anti user practices) is one of the best decisions they ever made, and if you've EVER worked in a company rolling out a redesign that's supposed to up engagement and revenue, you have got to understand just how fucking rare anything like that is. I do wonder when it'll all go to shit finally, and I wonder what will take it's place (i've looked for the reddit of digg for reddit, and haven't seen much potential), but right now every day they don't force the redesign is a damn near miracle in a company of that size.

labrador 4y ago
the day the get rid of old.reddit.com I'll be gone looking for something more to my liking. The retro reddit is the best reddit.
- derwiki 4y ago
  I finally switched to a 3rd party app (Apollo) and _gee_ is it nice to use reddit without an actively hostile UI.
- permo-w 4y ago
  I first started using reddit in around 2015, so I never experienced the old reddit design when it was default. I tried old.reddit.com the other day, but I found it almost unbearable. not being used to it, I found it ugly and messy and overloaded with text. it loads twice as fast, though, and doesn't prioritise images over information, so I see the upside, but I do think a lot of the commentary here is nostalgia and just what people are used to

chx 4y ago

> I really don't know where the extreme stuff has gone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8chan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8chan and I don't visit it either because I am too old but who would want to fight qanon would probably need to. I salute them.

richbell 4y ago
Besides 8chan there was Voat (and other Reddit clones). Some of the larger subreddits like /r/drama,/r/the_donald, and /r/fatpeoplehate splintered off to their own websites.
- chx 4y ago
  And are gone, thedonald.win became america.win and it no longer exists. These things do not last. /r/changemyview tried it too, their website is also gone.
  - cowtools 4y ago
    By the looks of it,the r/drama website is still pretty alive. I think I read an article on here about it a couple months ago.