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>You know what? Humans, especially during times of crisis and confusion, speculate. They do it offline and, in 2013, they increasingly do it online. The fact of

by zalzane 13y ago

>You know what? Humans, especially during times of crisis and confusion, speculate. They do it offline and, in 2013, they increasingly do it online. The fact of the matter is that one of the Boston suspects (later revealed to be Dzhokhar Tsarnaev) seen in the early grainy surveillance-video stills released by the FBI did resemble Tripathi. I dont really understand this section. Is the author trying to defend reddit's holier art thou attitude towards the world and their tendency to stick their nose in matters they shouldnt in the name of internet justice? >And Reddit actually has much better checks and balances in place -- thanks to a combination of the upvote system and moderator intervention. This is just plain false. Subreddits are not moderated by reddit employees, only by the people who founded the subreddit and whoever they choose to moderate the subreddit with them. This is why hate groups like /r/atheism and fox-news-tier biased news subreddits like /r/poltics can exist. Hell, the only visible admin-intervention I've ever heard of on reddit was when they took down the child porn reddits, and even that required -two- pieces by major news outlets on how reddit was hosting child porn. The upvote/downvote system is literally only useful for propagating viral/interesting content. Far too many people are relying on reddit as a news source nowadays, and thanks to the upvote/downvote system, all it takes is 51% disapproval for an article to virtually disappear. Since everyone uses the downvote button to say "i dont like this content" rather than "this content isnt good/isnt relevant", you get lots of wonderful skews. This is why /r/poltics has such a intense liberal bias - all it takes is a 51% of the users to disapprove of an article that supports republicans in order for the submission to disappear from view of everyone else. Imagine how horrible the news would be if an entire political viewpoint is censored just because the majority believes differently. That's news on reddit.

lowboy 13y ago
> Subreddits are not moderated by reddit employees, only by the people who founded the subreddit and whoever they choose to moderate the subreddit with them That's still moderation - the article didn't say that the moderation was from admins or reddit staff. Also, there are reddit-wide rules[0] that apply regardless of sub. Also, r/atheism isn't a hate group. There's plenty of asshats and the occasional hateful post, but it's not a hate group in general. Take a look at the sub[1] on any given day, and most of it isn't hateful [0]: http://www.reddit.com/rules/ http://www.reddit.com/rules/ [1]: http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/ http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/
- DanHulton 13y ago
  There are days where it comes pretty close, and it's pretty embarrassing to share any kind identity with them. As a kind of olive branch though, let's just say "hate groups like r/mensrights".
  - lowboy 13y ago
    Yeah, I would never identify as an "r/atheist".
- zalzane 13y ago
  As far as I'm concerned, letting a bunch of people you don't know moderate the pages that constitute the face of your website is as bad as no moderation at all. Just because there's an implicit agreement that subreddit moderators need to obey reddit's rules doesn't mean they have to. If someone does something like posting someone's personal information, the little report button on their post goes to the moderators, who the site admins have trust to actually delete infringing posts. If someone posts something bad and the moderator is half assed or doesn't care, there's no way to get that post removed unless one of the admins stumble upon it or if you were to send the admins a message (I dunno if this would even be reliable).
  - ISL 13y ago
    What does it mean to know someone?
  - lowboy 13y ago
    Well, that's as far as you're concerned and you're entitled to your unsubstantiated opinion. From what I've seen, the mods do an excellent job of upholding the rules. The mods for the major subs (ie. the "face" of reddit) all get rid of personal info very quickly to the point that I've never seen it. Mods put in a lot of work, without which reddit would be worse off.
  - mtowle 13y ago
    I just can't see how anyone can possibly take that perspective. Do you mostly frequent the mega subreddits? I mean, r/politics is probably unmoderate-able by literally any method. But the small subs are often very well-run. People who take a niche interest have an inherent respect for others of the same persuasion and desire their respect in return, which leads to very even-handed moderating in most places. Examples to the contrary (like the whole r/starcraft vs r/starcraft2 thing are few and far between). I say all this as a guy who doesn't even visit the site anymore. Haven't logged in in months.
wvenable 13y ago
> Is the author trying to defend reddit's holier art thou attitude towards the world Reddit is not a person. What are you trying to say? That all of reddit's 400 million users have the same thoughts and attitude? The author is trying to say that 400 million people is such a large sample of humanity that classing them as "redditors" instead of just "humans" doesn't add anything.
- ceol 13y ago
  > Reddit is not a person. What are you trying to say? That all of reddit's 400 million users have the same thoughts and attitude? Let's cut this crap right here. No one is saying they all have the same thoughts and attitudes. However, the entire site is built around users voting on what they like, and what they like is incredibly consistent to the point of clever users[0] gaining massive karma by using a bot to repost the top comments of old threads. So no, reddit is not a person. It is, however, a collection of people who— for the most part, most of the time— are consistent in what they upvote. [0]: http://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/vefen/recap_trapped_in_reddits_witch_hunt/ http://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/vefen/recap_... It was discovered that Trapped_in_Reddit was using Karmadecay to search for old content as it was reposted to Reddit. TiR would then copy the top comment of the old thread, and re-use it in the new repost thread, as his own comment - guaranteeing many upvotes for the re-used comment.
  - wvenable 13y ago
    The point is that humans in general are consistent in what they upvote and reddit at 400 million users is a reflection of humanity rather than of a small subgroup. People have been looking at pictures of cats with sayings on them since the 1970's[1] [1]: https://tytempletonart.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/hang-in-there.jpg https://tytempletonart.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/hang-in-t...
    - ceol 13y ago
      So you're saying reddit has consistency in what it upvotes? That doesn't refute my point; it actually helps to refute yours.
jbooth 13y ago
Yes, the politics there are biased, but the voting system still ultimately rewards facts -- the top comment for some BS liberal-bias-confirming story is often a debunking. So at least the vote system has that going for it.
mwerd 13y ago
hate group? I don't think you know what that term means. Maybe you should go check out the southern poverty law center that defines hate groups in the u.s. and meditate on your comment.
- hachiya 13y ago
  You plainly don't know what "defines" means.
michaelwww 13y ago
Do you even use Reddit? You show an astonishing lack of understanding how it works for someone speaking in an authoritative voice. You're doing it wrong. Reddit is both worse in some regards and better in others than you understand it to be.
epo 13y ago
Lots of unsubstantiated assertions including the paranoid belief that r/atheism is hate speech. Why not go back to Fox and Disney, the real world must be an uncomfortable place for you.

by zalzane 13y ago

lowboy 13y ago

> Subreddits are not moderated by reddit employees, only by the people who founded the subreddit and whoever they choose to moderate the subreddit with them That's still moderation - the article didn't say that the moderation was from admins or reddit staff. Also, there are reddit-wide rules[0] that apply regardless of sub. Also, r/atheism isn't a hate group. There's plenty of asshats and the occasional hateful post, but it's not a hate group in general. Take a look at the sub[1] on any given day, and most of it isn't hateful [0]: http://www.reddit.com/rules/ http://www.reddit.com/rules/ [1]: http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/ http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/

DanHulton 13y ago
There are days where it comes pretty close, and it's pretty embarrassing to share any kind identity with them. As a kind of olive branch though, let's just say "hate groups like r/mensrights".
- lowboy 13y ago
  Yeah, I would never identify as an "r/atheist".
zalzane 13y ago
As far as I'm concerned, letting a bunch of people you don't know moderate the pages that constitute the face of your website is as bad as no moderation at all. Just because there's an implicit agreement that subreddit moderators need to obey reddit's rules doesn't mean they have to. If someone does something like posting someone's personal information, the little report button on their post goes to the moderators, who the site admins have trust to actually delete infringing posts. If someone posts something bad and the moderator is half assed or doesn't care, there's no way to get that post removed unless one of the admins stumble upon it or if you were to send the admins a message (I dunno if this would even be reliable).
- ISL 13y ago
  What does it mean to know someone?
- lowboy 13y ago
  Well, that's as far as you're concerned and you're entitled to your unsubstantiated opinion. From what I've seen, the mods do an excellent job of upholding the rules. The mods for the major subs (ie. the "face" of reddit) all get rid of personal info very quickly to the point that I've never seen it. Mods put in a lot of work, without which reddit would be worse off.
- mtowle 13y ago
  I just can't see how anyone can possibly take that perspective. Do you mostly frequent the mega subreddits? I mean, r/politics is probably unmoderate-able by literally any method. But the small subs are often very well-run. People who take a niche interest have an inherent respect for others of the same persuasion and desire their respect in return, which leads to very even-handed moderating in most places. Examples to the contrary (like the whole r/starcraft vs r/starcraft2 thing are few and far between). I say all this as a guy who doesn't even visit the site anymore. Haven't logged in in months.

wvenable 13y ago

> Is the author trying to defend reddit's holier art thou attitude towards the world Reddit is not a person. What are you trying to say? That all of reddit's 400 million users have the same thoughts and attitude? The author is trying to say that 400 million people is such a large sample of humanity that classing them as "redditors" instead of just "humans" doesn't add anything.

ceol 13y ago
> Reddit is not a person. What are you trying to say? That all of reddit's 400 million users have the same thoughts and attitude? Let's cut this crap right here. No one is saying they all have the same thoughts and attitudes. However, the entire site is built around users voting on what they like, and what they like is incredibly consistent to the point of clever users[0] gaining massive karma by using a bot to repost the top comments of old threads. So no, reddit is not a person. It is, however, a collection of people who— for the most part, most of the time— are consistent in what they upvote. [0]: http://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/vefen/recap_trapped_in_reddits_witch_hunt/ http://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/vefen/recap_... It was discovered that Trapped_in_Reddit was using Karmadecay to search for old content as it was reposted to Reddit. TiR would then copy the top comment of the old thread, and re-use it in the new repost thread, as his own comment - guaranteeing many upvotes for the re-used comment.
- wvenable 13y ago
  The point is that humans in general are consistent in what they upvote and reddit at 400 million users is a reflection of humanity rather than of a small subgroup. People have been looking at pictures of cats with sayings on them since the 1970's[1] [1]: https://tytempletonart.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/hang-in-there.jpg https://tytempletonart.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/hang-in-t...
  - ceol 13y ago
    So you're saying reddit has consistency in what it upvotes? That doesn't refute my point; it actually helps to refute yours.

jbooth 13y ago

Yes, the politics there are biased, but the voting system still ultimately rewards facts -- the top comment for some BS liberal-bias-confirming story is often a debunking. So at least the vote system has that going for it.

mwerd 13y ago

hate group? I don't think you know what that term means. Maybe you should go check out the southern poverty law center that defines hate groups in the u.s. and meditate on your comment.

hachiya 13y ago
You plainly don't know what "defines" means.

michaelwww 13y ago

Do you even use Reddit? You show an astonishing lack of understanding how it works for someone speaking in an authoritative voice. You're doing it wrong. Reddit is both worse in some regards and better in others than you understand it to be.

epo 13y ago

Lots of unsubstantiated assertions including the paranoid belief that r/atheism is hate speech. Why not go back to Fox and Disney, the real world must be an uncomfortable place for you.