http://programmingisterrible.com/post/39438834308/distributed-social-network http://programmingisterrible.com/post/39438834308/distribute... The practical and

http://programmingisterrible.com/post/39438834308/distributed-social-network http://programmingisterrible.com/post/39438834308/distribute... The practical and social problems of distributed/decentralized social networks seems to far outweigh the gains in terms of anti-censorship/network resilience. Reddit already suffers from a thing known as 'karma whoring', where users will work hard simply to gain karma points, often to the detriment of the quality of the community they're interacting with. Karma points have absolutely no financial benefit or real worth outside of the status some internet denizens attach to them. I have struggled to imagine a single way of introducing financial incentives for Reddit participation that wouldn't ultimately fall prey to this. It's also hard to conceive how moderation/curation might work in a distributed/decentralized system. To put it simply, I've come to the conclusion that censorship is an often required tool in creating internet communities where everyone can feel welcome and safe. I'm not sure how that would work in a distributed system. Context: I had this idea a while ago and started trying to write it. I really hope something comes out of all of the different approaches people are taking to this problem.