7 ms·

Voat.co – open source Reddit-type website with free speech as it's #1 priority

21 points by sergiotapia 12y ago

sergiotapia 12y ago
Yesterday a pretty big thread was made about how Reddit's upper management was infiltrated, see here: http://www.np.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/2v7kx3/guy_exposed_a_cabal_of_users_taking_over_reddit/ http://www.np.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/2v7kx3/guy_ex... A lot of Reddit users (including myself) have migrated to Voat. The main benefits of this website is that it's: 1. Hosted in switzerland. 2. Not owned by a major corporation. 3. Has protections in place to avoid scumbag losers trying to moderate more than 10 'subreddits' (called subverses) at a time. It's built using C# and MVC 5. Source code: https://github.com/voat/voat https://github.com/voat/voat - If you can spare some time, contribute what you can. Voat is in it's early stages and you can massively improve it.
- adn 12y ago
  Do you think that people are actively trying to 'infiltrate' subreddits, or is it possible that reddit's audience is simply changing and the new users / admins are changing the rules?
  - adnzzzzZ 12y ago
    There are moderators that moderate over 200 subreddits. I'm not willing to call that infiltration (moderation is a hard job to do and it happens that few people are interested in it, which means finding someone reliable is hard, which means users tend to accumulate moderation positions), but they can't be doing a good job at it at least. This is a particularly charged thread with an example: https://np.reddit.com/r/redditrequest/comments/2v717g/requesting_rmetaredditcancer_all_mods_are/ https://np.reddit.com/r/redditrequest/comments/2v717g/reques... I'm not sure how voat intends to solve this since users can just create new accounts to bypass the 10 subreddit limit.
  - sergiotapia 12y ago
    I absolutely think they are infiltrating subreddits, it's been proven without a doubt. Just one example, how can one person actively moderate more than 5 subreddits? I used to be a mod for /r/smite but quit after 2 weeks because it was just too much work. And /r/smite isn't even that big! :)
- gtt 12y ago
  >2. Not owned by a major corporation Back in the days the same was true for reddit as well. Honestly, I would like a permanent solution, some kind of reddit based on p2p architecture.
  - sergiotapia 12y ago
    I hear ya, but until that day comes the best we can hope for is to island hop and learn from our previous mistakes.
  - falcolas 12y ago
    Not being sarcastic, but this sounds a bit like usenet. Would love to see that come back.
    - GFK_of_xmaspast 12y ago
      I left usenet in the early 2000s when alt.* was basically wrecked because of people like weev and the GNAA, not to mention all the spam. There are communities I miss, but lots about it I don't.
  - rvschuilenburg 12y ago
    This was posted on hacker news a while back that fits your description; http://getaether.net/ http://getaether.net/
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
- pervycreeper 12y ago
  This does not appear to be a solution to the problem of manipulation by a dedicated group of confederates. In fact, "voat" seems to be a bit worse off, as users with no history are being granted ownership over its version of subreddits. Doing much better at a large scale (i.e. beyond what a few known high quality moderators can tackle) is a Hard Problem™. An important and timely one, to boot, considering governments' efforts to erode privacy and enforce real-name identity.
- GFK_of_xmaspast 12y ago
  From that post: """A # of users involved in this cabal are depressed, aren't "cool", are LGBT (more difficult to be included socially if you are a member of this group in real life), are social outcasts,""" And it's basically 100% a cishet presumably-white dude pretending to be a victim in the same way that you see people talking about Mexicans moving in to the US and "taking over" or ISIS being an "existential threat".
jbrooksuk 12y ago
Nice! I've setup /v/laravel and /v/selfhosted if you're interested.
sergiotapia 12y ago
Wow, and now this submission was taken off the front page. tin-foil hat
- EarthLaunch 12y ago
  HN has always been much worse than Reddit in regards to admin censorship, moderator bias, and non-transparency. It's not a conspiracy, it's principles. HN doesn't deserve to have any new social site on its front page. (Flagged? Moderated? You'll never know.)
- jerf 12y ago
  Why should HN be all that interested in discussing an internet shit-fit happening on another site? There's always an internet shit-fit somewhere. I could get a bit of mileage out of discussing how this will completely fail because internet communities are generally driven by the shape of their moderation technologies, so copying the same technologies generally guarantees the same result, but other than that and the obligatory angry disagreements, that's about all the conversation there is here. Anyways, despite the fact I commented here, I've flagged it too.
  - vdaniuk 12y ago
    HN may be interested for the following reasons. 1. The linked website is a fork of a popular link aggregation website that has numerous tech subcommunities. 2. There were lots of previous submissions and discussions on HN about reddit controversies, including controversies related to the subject of free speech. 3. Sam Altman is a leading investor in the latest Reddit round. I offer no opinion on the subject of the submission as my knowledge about that is basically zero.
    - jarcane 12y ago
      Maybe such 'controversies' would hold a lot more credibility if they were actual controversies instead of the paranoid conspiracy theories of fedora-hatted misogynists? Just a thought.
moomin 12y ago
This is "free speech" as in "I can silence/harrass whatever marginalised group I want" right? Just checking.
- jarcane 12y ago
  Probably potential regular subscribers to this: http://imgur.com/gallery/Vb7tu http://imgur.com/gallery/Vb7tu
- tomtoise 12y ago
  I'd imagine it was more "I can silence and harass whomever I like, and expect to be silenced and harassed in return". Kinda the basic principle behind FOS as I understand it.
- iterationx 12y ago
  The choice is moderation or no moderation. No moderation means you can harass and be harassed, moderation means you can be silenced. Pick one.
  - moomin 12y ago
    You're aware that harassment is silencing, right? That's its purpose: to make the other person go away. In short, I'll pick the one that isn't a cesspit. If you feel differently, try moving to a country like Somalia with no functioning moderation system of any kind and see if you prefer it.
    - iterationx 12y ago
      When a moderator deletes your post that's silencing, and it strikes me as a more powerful form of harassment than anything that would cause me to self censor.
rend30 12y ago
It seems they still have a voting system in place, that prohibits any thoughtful discussion. Usually works on HN since most topics are not controversial. How is the moderation on that site different from Reddit where mods are proclaimed Gods and picks who gets to say what?
GFK_of_xmaspast 12y ago
Looks like most of the top stories at the moment are meta-discussions about reddit vs voat, as well as a thread about how much they hate Islam. New boss same as the old, I guess.
kidlogic 12y ago
It would be interesting to see a social graph of the moderators of reddit (who are mods, what subreddits do they mod, how many subreddits do they mod, which users moderate multiple subreddits together, etc.)

21 points by sergiotapia 12y ago

Yesterday a pretty big thread was made about how Reddit's upper management was infiltrated, see here: http://www.np.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/2v7kx3/guy_exposed_a_cabal_of_users_taking_over_reddit/ http://www.np.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/2v7kx3/guy_ex... A lot of Reddit users (including myself) have migrated to Voat. The main benefits of this website is that it's: 1. Hosted in switzerland. 2. Not owned by a major corporation. 3. Has protections in place to avoid scumbag losers trying to moderate more than 10 'subreddits' (called subverses) at a time. It's built using C# and MVC 5. Source code: https://github.com/voat/voat https://github.com/voat/voat - If you can spare some time, contribute what you can. Voat is in it's early stages and you can massively improve it.

adn 12y ago
Do you think that people are actively trying to 'infiltrate' subreddits, or is it possible that reddit's audience is simply changing and the new users / admins are changing the rules?
- adnzzzzZ 12y ago
  There are moderators that moderate over 200 subreddits. I'm not willing to call that infiltration (moderation is a hard job to do and it happens that few people are interested in it, which means finding someone reliable is hard, which means users tend to accumulate moderation positions), but they can't be doing a good job at it at least. This is a particularly charged thread with an example: https://np.reddit.com/r/redditrequest/comments/2v717g/requesting_rmetaredditcancer_all_mods_are/ https://np.reddit.com/r/redditrequest/comments/2v717g/reques... I'm not sure how voat intends to solve this since users can just create new accounts to bypass the 10 subreddit limit.
- sergiotapia 12y ago
  I absolutely think they are infiltrating subreddits, it's been proven without a doubt. Just one example, how can one person actively moderate more than 5 subreddits? I used to be a mod for /r/smite but quit after 2 weeks because it was just too much work. And /r/smite isn't even that big! :)
gtt 12y ago
>2. Not owned by a major corporation Back in the days the same was true for reddit as well. Honestly, I would like a permanent solution, some kind of reddit based on p2p architecture.
- sergiotapia 12y ago
  I hear ya, but until that day comes the best we can hope for is to island hop and learn from our previous mistakes.
- falcolas 12y ago
  Not being sarcastic, but this sounds a bit like usenet. Would love to see that come back.
  - GFK_of_xmaspast 12y ago
    I left usenet in the early 2000s when alt.* was basically wrecked because of people like weev and the GNAA, not to mention all the spam. There are communities I miss, but lots about it I don't.
- rvschuilenburg 12y ago
  This was posted on hacker news a while back that fits your description; http://getaether.net/ http://getaether.net/
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
pervycreeper 12y ago
This does not appear to be a solution to the problem of manipulation by a dedicated group of confederates. In fact, "voat" seems to be a bit worse off, as users with no history are being granted ownership over its version of subreddits. Doing much better at a large scale (i.e. beyond what a few known high quality moderators can tackle) is a Hard Problem™. An important and timely one, to boot, considering governments' efforts to erode privacy and enforce real-name identity.
GFK_of_xmaspast 12y ago
From that post: """A # of users involved in this cabal are depressed, aren't "cool", are LGBT (more difficult to be included socially if you are a member of this group in real life), are social outcasts,""" And it's basically 100% a cishet presumably-white dude pretending to be a victim in the same way that you see people talking about Mexicans moving in to the US and "taking over" or ISIS being an "existential threat".

jbrooksuk 12y ago

Nice! I've setup /v/laravel and /v/selfhosted if you're interested.

sergiotapia 12y ago

Wow, and now this submission was taken off the front page. tin-foil hat

EarthLaunch 12y ago
HN has always been much worse than Reddit in regards to admin censorship, moderator bias, and non-transparency. It's not a conspiracy, it's principles. HN doesn't deserve to have any new social site on its front page. (Flagged? Moderated? You'll never know.)
jerf 12y ago
Why should HN be all that interested in discussing an internet shit-fit happening on another site? There's always an internet shit-fit somewhere. I could get a bit of mileage out of discussing how this will completely fail because internet communities are generally driven by the shape of their moderation technologies, so copying the same technologies generally guarantees the same result, but other than that and the obligatory angry disagreements, that's about all the conversation there is here. Anyways, despite the fact I commented here, I've flagged it too.
- vdaniuk 12y ago
  HN may be interested for the following reasons. 1. The linked website is a fork of a popular link aggregation website that has numerous tech subcommunities. 2. There were lots of previous submissions and discussions on HN about reddit controversies, including controversies related to the subject of free speech. 3. Sam Altman is a leading investor in the latest Reddit round. I offer no opinion on the subject of the submission as my knowledge about that is basically zero.
  - jarcane 12y ago
    Maybe such 'controversies' would hold a lot more credibility if they were actual controversies instead of the paranoid conspiracy theories of fedora-hatted misogynists? Just a thought.

moomin 12y ago

This is "free speech" as in "I can silence/harrass whatever marginalised group I want" right? Just checking.

jarcane 12y ago
Probably potential regular subscribers to this: http://imgur.com/gallery/Vb7tu http://imgur.com/gallery/Vb7tu
tomtoise 12y ago
I'd imagine it was more "I can silence and harass whomever I like, and expect to be silenced and harassed in return". Kinda the basic principle behind FOS as I understand it.
iterationx 12y ago
The choice is moderation or no moderation. No moderation means you can harass and be harassed, moderation means you can be silenced. Pick one.
- moomin 12y ago
  You're aware that harassment is silencing, right? That's its purpose: to make the other person go away. In short, I'll pick the one that isn't a cesspit. If you feel differently, try moving to a country like Somalia with no functioning moderation system of any kind and see if you prefer it.
  - iterationx 12y ago
    When a moderator deletes your post that's silencing, and it strikes me as a more powerful form of harassment than anything that would cause me to self censor.

rend30 12y ago

It seems they still have a voting system in place, that prohibits any thoughtful discussion. Usually works on HN since most topics are not controversial. How is the moderation on that site different from Reddit where mods are proclaimed Gods and picks who gets to say what?

GFK_of_xmaspast 12y ago

Looks like most of the top stories at the moment are meta-discussions about reddit vs voat, as well as a thread about how much they hate Islam. New boss same as the old, I guess.

kidlogic 12y ago

It would be interesting to see a social graph of the moderators of reddit (who are mods, what subreddits do they mod, how many subreddits do they mod, which users moderate multiple subreddits together, etc.)