4 ms·

The reddit hivemind does something ferociously stupid that makes all internet users look like drooling morons -- is this news to people?

Zikes 15y ago
According to the comments, 4chan's /v/ played a part as well.
mayanksinghal 15y ago
Okay, so I have been sitting on these thoughts for quite some time now. Here are they: 1. I am no HN veteran (or tech veteran, for that matter) but I love this place and respect it much more that any other internet community I have a part of (a handful of them). 2. I have been to reddit not more than a dozen times and probably half of these referrals would have been from here, HN. 3. Whenever I read Reddit bashing in HN, my respect for this community decreases a little. Of course I consider HN to be a superior forum of intelligent interaction than reddit and hence I am on HN and not Reddit. I think that most of us would believe that to be true - but please, for the sake of keeping the sanctity of intelligent and useful discussion intact, we don't have to describe the superiority of intelligent discussion on HN every single time there is a post regarding Rededit! Probably all of us are aware of the differences and those who don't, won't care anyways. 4. You generalized the entire Reddit userbase to be drooling morons - the drooling part of which I guess refers to the male chauvinism. This was done despite the fact that the author of the article is not sure if gender had substantial contribution to the type of reaction the lady had received. In the comment, the another painful point that I see is that the entire community (and not just the people who acted like 'drooling morons') is shown in a derogatory light. Me, being less aware of how Reddit works - but aware enough to see that this is a wrong generalization, just made up my mind that I had to defend this community (even though I am not a part of it) and hence see reasons to probably even see a rationale behind the behaviour of 'drooling morons', not because I support them but because I want to strongly disagree with you. And I am wrong to do that, but that is in my nature and probably there would be others who would consciously or subconsciously feel the same. The point is, ad hominem and sweeping generalizations are illogical and harmful as they entice (or gives freedom to) people to be illogical in response.
- wdewind 15y ago
  No I think you misinterpreted his statement and overreacted, even though I am an avid redditor and agree with you entirely. He said the hivemind, which in my opinion refers to the mob mentality that comes out of the entire 4chan/btard movements and has leeched into reddit. Occasionally it is used for good (hivemind hunts down cat abuser) usually it is used for, as parent commenter said, "ferociously stupid" things. Reddit is like a bar, and I love bars but there is no denying some ferociously stupid things happen in them.
  - mayanksinghal 15y ago
    > No I think you misinterpreted his statement and overreacted That is most probably true. As I said, I have been sitting on these thoughts for quite some time now. This just gave them an out.
potatolicious 15y ago
Having been 'round these here parts of the Internet for a while now, I wouldn't say reddit is making anyone look bad. Reddit is not a bad approximation of internet users in general. I suppose this is an insult to reddit's self-perception, and non-redditors' self-perception, but meh.

Zikes 15y ago

According to the comments, 4chan's /v/ played a part as well.

mayanksinghal 15y ago

Okay, so I have been sitting on these thoughts for quite some time now. Here are they: 1. I am no HN veteran (or tech veteran, for that matter) but I love this place and respect it much more that any other internet community I have a part of (a handful of them). 2. I have been to reddit not more than a dozen times and probably half of these referrals would have been from here, HN. 3. Whenever I read Reddit bashing in HN, my respect for this community decreases a little. Of course I consider HN to be a superior forum of intelligent interaction than reddit and hence I am on HN and not Reddit. I think that most of us would believe that to be true - but please, for the sake of keeping the sanctity of intelligent and useful discussion intact, we don't have to describe the superiority of intelligent discussion on HN every single time there is a post regarding Rededit! Probably all of us are aware of the differences and those who don't, won't care anyways. 4. You generalized the entire Reddit userbase to be drooling morons - the drooling part of which I guess refers to the male chauvinism. This was done despite the fact that the author of the article is not sure if gender had substantial contribution to the type of reaction the lady had received. In the comment, the another painful point that I see is that the entire community (and not just the people who acted like 'drooling morons') is shown in a derogatory light. Me, being less aware of how Reddit works - but aware enough to see that this is a wrong generalization, just made up my mind that I had to defend this community (even though I am not a part of it) and hence see reasons to probably even see a rationale behind the behaviour of 'drooling morons', not because I support them but because I want to strongly disagree with you. And I am wrong to do that, but that is in my nature and probably there would be others who would consciously or subconsciously feel the same. The point is, ad hominem and sweeping generalizations are illogical and harmful as they entice (or gives freedom to) people to be illogical in response.

wdewind 15y ago
No I think you misinterpreted his statement and overreacted, even though I am an avid redditor and agree with you entirely. He said the hivemind, which in my opinion refers to the mob mentality that comes out of the entire 4chan/btard movements and has leeched into reddit. Occasionally it is used for good (hivemind hunts down cat abuser) usually it is used for, as parent commenter said, "ferociously stupid" things. Reddit is like a bar, and I love bars but there is no denying some ferociously stupid things happen in them.
- mayanksinghal 15y ago
  > No I think you misinterpreted his statement and overreacted That is most probably true. As I said, I have been sitting on these thoughts for quite some time now. This just gave them an out.

potatolicious 15y ago

Having been 'round these here parts of the Internet for a while now, I wouldn't say reddit is making anyone look bad. Reddit is not a bad approximation of internet users in general. I suppose this is an insult to reddit's self-perception, and non-redditors' self-perception, but meh.