4 ms·

Sorry, I am not familiar with reddit’s model. What is “ownership” in this case? Total private tyranny, with delegation of authority? Does it transition to coll

by EGreg 4y ago

Sorry, I am not familiar with reddit’s model. What is “ownership” in this case? Total private tyranny, with delegation of authority? Does it transition to collectively and more democratically managing the channel, as stackexchsnge does?

cyborgx7 4y ago
There is no collective or democratic management, unless the tyrannical overlords choose to allow it. "Total private tyranny, with delegation of authority" is correct. What it leaves out is that anybody else can make a competing subreddit, dedicated to the same issue, where they have control. The only thing getting there first does is prime realestate in the namespace and network effects of having an existing community.
- EGreg 4y ago
  Ah, so like Valve Software then. On a related note, the only reason the United States' citizens directly vote for the President is at the pleasure of the State Legislatures. The Constitution allows them to choose the manner in which electors are elected, and they in theory could elect them directly (by specifying this before election day), usurping the power from the public. https://www.justsecurity.org/73274/no-state-legislatures-cannot-overrule-the-popular-vote/ https://www.justsecurity.org/73274/no-state-legislatures-can...
  - Turing_Machine 4y ago
    Almost no countries have a directly-elected chief executive. Certainly that's not the case in the bulk of countries with parliamentary systems. For instance, outside of his own district ("riding", I think they call it there), no Canadian even saw Justin Trudeau on the ballot, and the few who did only saw him as a candidate for Member of Parliament, not Prime Minister. What typically happens in those countries is that the party hacks of whichever party (or coalition of parties) has a majority get together and decide who's going to be the Big Cheese. The average voter has little or nothing to say about it. Voters who are registered members of the majority party or parties may have a (small) degree of influence, but the ones who belong to other parties don't get a say. Worse, most Canadian parties actually charge you dues to belong to them (to its credit, Trudeau's party is not one of these). No pay, no say.
jaywalk 4y ago
Yes, it's total private tyranny if the person who started the subreddit chooses to keep it that way. But if Reddit (the company) doesn't like the way you're running your sub, they can and will replace the people in charge.
- seanw444 4y ago
  That's kind of bizarre to me. They act like they're firing employees, and replacing someone for that role, when they're just random volunteers to a community set up by a person unaffiliated with Reddit.
  - watwut 4y ago
    The issue here is stuff like brigading and stuff against the terms of service like straigh out nazism etc. And even those subs stay long often. Brigading is when members of sub coordinate and go to harass people on different sub or mass downvote their posts etc. The subs that have been closed or taken over were notorious for that.
    - EGreg 4y ago
      Sounds like the perfect activity for botswarms controlled by a couple guys
root_axis 4y ago
It's a web forum for shitposting, not a government for a country. Using hyperbolic language like "private tyranny" to talk about unpaid moderators curating a stream of news articles and posts typifies the terminally online madness of the current zeitgeist.
- EGreg 4y ago
  It's true, there is no violence involved. Private tyranny is a technical description.
  - root_axis 4y ago
    I don't agree that it's a technical description, I'd say it's a political description meant to inflate the perceived harmfulness of what is a completely typical and mundane event on the internet.

by EGreg 4y ago

cyborgx7 4y ago

There is no collective or democratic management, unless the tyrannical overlords choose to allow it. "Total private tyranny, with delegation of authority" is correct. What it leaves out is that anybody else can make a competing subreddit, dedicated to the same issue, where they have control. The only thing getting there first does is prime realestate in the namespace and network effects of having an existing community.

EGreg 4y ago
Ah, so like Valve Software then. On a related note, the only reason the United States' citizens directly vote for the President is at the pleasure of the State Legislatures. The Constitution allows them to choose the manner in which electors are elected, and they in theory could elect them directly (by specifying this before election day), usurping the power from the public. https://www.justsecurity.org/73274/no-state-legislatures-cannot-overrule-the-popular-vote/ https://www.justsecurity.org/73274/no-state-legislatures-can...
- Turing_Machine 4y ago
  Almost no countries have a directly-elected chief executive. Certainly that's not the case in the bulk of countries with parliamentary systems. For instance, outside of his own district ("riding", I think they call it there), no Canadian even saw Justin Trudeau on the ballot, and the few who did only saw him as a candidate for Member of Parliament, not Prime Minister. What typically happens in those countries is that the party hacks of whichever party (or coalition of parties) has a majority get together and decide who's going to be the Big Cheese. The average voter has little or nothing to say about it. Voters who are registered members of the majority party or parties may have a (small) degree of influence, but the ones who belong to other parties don't get a say. Worse, most Canadian parties actually charge you dues to belong to them (to its credit, Trudeau's party is not one of these). No pay, no say.

jaywalk 4y ago

Yes, it's total private tyranny if the person who started the subreddit chooses to keep it that way. But if Reddit (the company) doesn't like the way you're running your sub, they can and will replace the people in charge.

seanw444 4y ago
That's kind of bizarre to me. They act like they're firing employees, and replacing someone for that role, when they're just random volunteers to a community set up by a person unaffiliated with Reddit.
- watwut 4y ago
  The issue here is stuff like brigading and stuff against the terms of service like straigh out nazism etc. And even those subs stay long often. Brigading is when members of sub coordinate and go to harass people on different sub or mass downvote their posts etc. The subs that have been closed or taken over were notorious for that.
  - EGreg 4y ago
    Sounds like the perfect activity for botswarms controlled by a couple guys

root_axis 4y ago

It's a web forum for shitposting, not a government for a country. Using hyperbolic language like "private tyranny" to talk about unpaid moderators curating a stream of news articles and posts typifies the terminally online madness of the current zeitgeist.

EGreg 4y ago
It's true, there is no violence involved. Private tyranny is a technical description.
- root_axis 4y ago
  I don't agree that it's a technical description, I'd say it's a political description meant to inflate the perceived harmfulness of what is a completely typical and mundane event on the internet.