I'm not sure this is good HN material, except maybe as another case study in the mismanagement of a social network. Right around the time Yishan posted this, t

I'm not sure this is good HN material, except maybe as another case study in the mismanagement of a social network. Right around the time Yishan posted this, the subreddit they're alluding to and all related subreddits were banned without further explanation. Reddit's had something of an existential crisis for years. Should it be free, or not? They're not sure. The administration tries to plot a careful course between being a free-wheeling no-holds-barred network, and presenting itself as a more normal community. The result is this really peculiar, slightly nauseating situation where the very same site that collects some of the web's most alarming content (pics of dead babies, for example...) also has an administration that writes blog posts focusing on things like community service and donations for teachers. Before it was banned, the subreddit they're talking about was becoming the most popular subreddit on the site. Even more popular than the defaults. Even though it wasn't being linked elsewhere on the site. Exactly what audience do they think they're lecturing to? There's this undercurrent of moral authority in Yishan's post that shouldn't be there at all, because the administration's actual policy seems to be, "anything is fine with us, until it gets too much bad press, and then we'll ban it." Maybe the post should have said instead, "look, we want to support free speech, but we also can't afford to deal with DMCA complaints and lawsuits and advertiser boycotts all day long, so we had to ban the following subreddits because they were causing a problem for the rest of the site." That, at least, would be honest. It would still be a slightly vile policy, but at least it wouldn't also come dressed in mealy-mouthed messages about morals. That seems a bit strongly worded. But, contrast Reddit's handling of this with 4chan. They both have a huge overlap in their userbase at this point, which means they share a lot of similar content, although Reddit does a better job of cultivating some of the worst stuff. They both have had to take action following the celeb leak situation; 4chan now has filters in place blocking the uploading of certain pictures for DMCA reasons. But 4chan's actions don't come with a finger-waggling message from moot. Moot, in interviews, readily acknowledges the uglier bits of 4chan, but also stridently defends it as a successful experiment in anonymity and free speech. Reddit, on the other hand, tries to be a little bit like 4chan, but then becomes horrified at the result -- but only after there's a sufficient amount of negative publicity -- and then claims a defense of free speech while banning the associated sections of the site and giving a moral lecture to its users. Oh, well. Where would we be without our soap operas?