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^People write this comment on Reddit a lot. The one I'm about to write, they also write this one too. You can't talk about Reddit as a hivemind, because it isn

^People write this comment on Reddit a lot. The one I'm about to write, they also write this one too. You can't talk about Reddit as a hivemind, because it isn't one person, or even a definite collective of people. The people who take things out of context, and the people who call them out, are different sets of people. If Reddit seems to have multiple personalities, it's because... well, it does.

jlgreco 13y ago
Particularly obnoxious is when the most popular comments are in the vein of "most people here are being idiots" or "'the hivemind' disagrees with this, but..." Really? Most people? Then why is your comment the most popular comment? (Hint: because the majority of people like to believe themselves superior to the majority of people. 'If everyone is being dumb but me, then that means I am unusually smart!')
bolder88 13y ago
It's a fascinating example of what happens when very bored people get together online and start swarming about as if they were one person though. Mob rule, hivemind, internet hate groups, react first, research / put into context later. Also pretty ugly to watch. I don't bother commenting on Reddit anymore, and rarely on here. There is absolutely no point.
criley2 13y ago
Also, and possibly more importantly: Each subreddit is a dramatically different place. Subreddits like /r/politics and /r/worldnews have devolved into very stereotypical circlejerks or very blind pro-snowden fervor. And, with the reach that some of these larger subreddits achieve, it's naive to assume they are not actively manipulated. There's always rumors and occasional wisps of evidence of intentional bias being enforced by moderators in secret. It's best to judge reddit by community, especially for subjects like "news" where there are several different communities with very different approaches in practice.
astrodust 13y ago
You can talk about Reddit as a hivemind because it is one. Reddit can turn into an angry mob in a nanosecond, tear someone's life apart, utterly destroyed, and then a nanosecond later flip around because of the discovery of guilt and empathy, to try and repair what just happened. It's not any one person, but the collective does have certain predictable patterns of behavior. If you're part of Reddit, you're part of that super-organism, like it or not.
potatolicious 13y ago
That's the part that makes me cynical about humanity. Reddit isn't some unique group of particularly hateful, particularly judgmental people. They are, in the grand scheme things, a pretty typical and pretty vanilla set that's probably a decent sample of "young and western". Which is to say, their ability to fly into a collective rage and stampede through the lives of innocent people isn't really unique to them, it's probably just a phenomenon inherent in all large groups of mostly-anonymous humans. Reddit just gets named and shamed constantly because they are the largest group of mostly-anonymous people on the internet. Had things gone differently it'd very well be Digg in its place.
- bolder88 13y ago
  You can make several generalisations about reddit users though. They're likely anti-government, anti-corporation, ant-advertising, anti-mainstream. They're likely left of centre politically. They're not busy - that's why they spend time commenting on Reddit. More likely unemployed / students / etc. They absolutely love to be outraged by something. By definition, they are the sort of person who would comment on Reddit, which is a certain personality. They're by no means a random sample of humanity thank god.
  - jlgreco 13y ago
    These are not special reddit features, you can make generalizations about any group of people that isn't randomly chosen. That doesn't mean that "the group of people in your office building" or "the group of people in your neighborhood / town / state / country" or "the group of people that you bowl with" or "the group of people in your extended family" are "hiveminds" though. That is like accusing this piece of granite (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Granite_Yosemite_P1160483.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Granite_Y...) of being gray. In my experience, "hivemind" is just bullshit people talk about when they want a way of saying that they are better than other people, but can't bring themselves to commit such a crime against modesty forthright. You'll notice that it is never "reddit is a hivemind, and oh yeah, I totally agree with it." It is always "reddit is a hivemind, and I disagree with it"
CJefferson 13y ago
Can we make a generalisation of reddit when something is the top story on the whole site, and the majority of highly upvoted comments make the same point?
- vacri 13y ago
  This is different to HN and most other internet forums?

jlgreco 13y ago

Particularly obnoxious is when the most popular comments are in the vein of "most people here are being idiots" or "'the hivemind' disagrees with this, but..." Really? Most people? Then why is your comment the most popular comment? (Hint: because the majority of people like to believe themselves superior to the majority of people. 'If everyone is being dumb but me, then that means I am unusually smart!')

bolder88 13y ago

It's a fascinating example of what happens when very bored people get together online and start swarming about as if they were one person though. Mob rule, hivemind, internet hate groups, react first, research / put into context later. Also pretty ugly to watch. I don't bother commenting on Reddit anymore, and rarely on here. There is absolutely no point.

criley2 13y ago

Also, and possibly more importantly: Each subreddit is a dramatically different place. Subreddits like /r/politics and /r/worldnews have devolved into very stereotypical circlejerks or very blind pro-snowden fervor. And, with the reach that some of these larger subreddits achieve, it's naive to assume they are not actively manipulated. There's always rumors and occasional wisps of evidence of intentional bias being enforced by moderators in secret. It's best to judge reddit by community, especially for subjects like "news" where there are several different communities with very different approaches in practice.

astrodust 13y ago

You can talk about Reddit as a hivemind because it is one. Reddit can turn into an angry mob in a nanosecond, tear someone's life apart, utterly destroyed, and then a nanosecond later flip around because of the discovery of guilt and empathy, to try and repair what just happened. It's not any one person, but the collective does have certain predictable patterns of behavior. If you're part of Reddit, you're part of that super-organism, like it or not.

potatolicious 13y ago

That's the part that makes me cynical about humanity. Reddit isn't some unique group of particularly hateful, particularly judgmental people. They are, in the grand scheme things, a pretty typical and pretty vanilla set that's probably a decent sample of "young and western". Which is to say, their ability to fly into a collective rage and stampede through the lives of innocent people isn't really unique to them, it's probably just a phenomenon inherent in all large groups of mostly-anonymous humans. Reddit just gets named and shamed constantly because they are the largest group of mostly-anonymous people on the internet. Had things gone differently it'd very well be Digg in its place.

bolder88 13y ago
You can make several generalisations about reddit users though. They're likely anti-government, anti-corporation, ant-advertising, anti-mainstream. They're likely left of centre politically. They're not busy - that's why they spend time commenting on Reddit. More likely unemployed / students / etc. They absolutely love to be outraged by something. By definition, they are the sort of person who would comment on Reddit, which is a certain personality. They're by no means a random sample of humanity thank god.
- jlgreco 13y ago
  These are not special reddit features, you can make generalizations about any group of people that isn't randomly chosen. That doesn't mean that "the group of people in your office building" or "the group of people in your neighborhood / town / state / country" or "the group of people that you bowl with" or "the group of people in your extended family" are "hiveminds" though. That is like accusing this piece of granite (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Granite_Yosemite_P1160483.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Granite_Y...) of being gray. In my experience, "hivemind" is just bullshit people talk about when they want a way of saying that they are better than other people, but can't bring themselves to commit such a crime against modesty forthright. You'll notice that it is never "reddit is a hivemind, and oh yeah, I totally agree with it." It is always "reddit is a hivemind, and I disagree with it"

CJefferson 13y ago

Can we make a generalisation of reddit when something is the top story on the whole site, and the majority of highly upvoted comments make the same point?

vacri 13y ago
This is different to HN and most other internet forums?