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Reddit CEO admits to altering user comments that were critical of him

(www.reddit.com)
668 points wildmusings | 9 comments | 24 Nov 16 00:50 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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seanalltogether ◴[24 Nov 16 01:24 UTC] No.13027203[source]▶
The tension that The_Donald and many alt-right subreddits place on reddit in general seems to be reaching a boiling point. I get the feeling the admins are just waiting for a credible reason to present itself that lets them cleanly wipe out all of them.
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gottam ◴[24 Nov 16 01:37 UTC] No.13027290[source]▶
What is the tension about exactly? That they don't align with their own personal political views?
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bcherny ◴[24 Nov 16 01:44 UTC] No.13027327[source]▶
I think it's more about the way they express their opinions, rather than the content of those opinions.

Posting in ALL CAPS, posting fake news or insults to other members of the community, posting to incite anger, etc. does not make for good discussion, and hurts the sense of community. That, and bringing that to other subreddits via brigading, etc.

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a_bonobo ◴[24 Nov 16 01:54 UTC] No.13027390[source]▶
Plus heaps of users browse /r/all and the the_donald community is so large, and the upvotes come so quickly (some insist it's upvoting bots since it's so fast) that the top of /r/all is often the_donald. Right now the nr. 1 post and another one on all are from the_donald.
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1. 551199 ◴[24 Nov 16 02:41 UTC] No.13027592[source]▶
During election they modified their algo to avoid the_donald posts getting to front page.
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2. Melk ◴[24 Nov 16 04:15 UTC] No.13028023[source]▶
They modified the algorithm to avoid the front page getting flooded by the_donald. Their posts still make it to the front page.
3. bcherny ◴[24 Nov 16 04:16 UTC] No.13028026[source]▶
Interesting, do you have a source for that?
4. ajacksified ◴[24 Nov 16 04:24 UTC] No.13028068[source]▶
(ex-reddit employee, employed during the changes) - we'd been designing changes to the algorithm to not be just a few top subreddits, and to instead show more variety well before r/the_donald even started; in fact, it was one of the first things Steve took on when he came back. There's no anti-r/the_donald conspiracy; there's much less discussion about them internally than they'd like to believe.
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5. megamann ◴[24 Nov 16 04:42 UTC] No.13028165[source]▶
Except this thread and subsequent news articles being published on this event contradict that statement. If no one cared then why did the ceo care enough to slight of hand users posts?
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6. ajacksified ◴[24 Nov 16 05:43 UTC] No.13028441{3}[source]▶
I'm specifically referring to the algorithm, not Steve's database admin rights. If you're talking about my "there's no big conspiracy" - all I know is that Steve claims to be a lone agent, and I believe him. But, hey, I'm not there, dunno.
7. vxNsr ◴[24 Nov 16 06:47 UTC] No.13028678[source]▶
I believe there were two edits from the time /r/the_donald became popular, the first was a more general edit as you say, but the second if I recall correctly was all about keeping the /r/the_donald from the top. Though it seemed to have backfired because after the second edit I saw more of them on /r/all not less.
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8. SCdF ◴[24 Nov 16 09:17 UTC] No.13029217[source]▶
See my other comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13029201

They modified it before the election (during implied they did it and then put it back, and unfairly implies it was because they wanted to "suppress the truth" or whatever), and to be clear it was to combat the fact that the_donald readers upvote all their posts with a huge amount of fervour that doesn't align with other subreddits.

9. 551199 ◴[24 Nov 16 15:39 UTC] No.13030835{3}[source]▶
Yes, the second edit backfired massively.

The reason pretty much all posts in the_donald are upvoted by users is due to the fact Clintons Correct the record was downvoting the_donald posts in hordes.

Again if Reddit would not have aligned themselves with one candidate named Clinton they probably wouldn't have this problem now.