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

(www.reddit.com)
668 points wildmusings | 3 comments | 24 Nov 16 00:50 UTC | HN request time: 0.769s | source
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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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gottam ◴[24 Nov 16 02:12 UTC] No.13027474[source]▶
That's the kind of site they're running though. Make your own community with relatively lax rules and freedom of speech, even if the speech is low brow. Kind of like some of the *chans.

If that's not what they want to have (as its clearly making the CEO on edge), why not enforce some strict rules? The people they don't like will simply flock to other communities that will allow it and it becomes their problem.

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ehnto ◴[24 Nov 16 03:24 UTC] No.13027767[source]▶
I agree. I get that free speech is important, but humans on the internet are vile. That is a fact and it hasn't changed in the decades of online communities we have trialed.

Only communities small enough, or moderated enough, to not be interesting to a troll or nefarious person are spared.

The idea of a completely self governed haven of mass free speech is a wondeful one, but no community large enough stays uncorrupted. It has never worked.

It is the ideals and application of those ideals through moderation that make any community bearable, just like in real life.

If I am to be part of a community I would rather it moderated, otherwise the people of the internet ruin all things in time.

I just want to have useful conversations, not circlejerk over freedom of speech while being interrupted by adolescent screaming.

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1. ehnto ◴[24 Nov 16 03:43 UTC] No.13027850[source]▶
Just to clarify, I believe free speech communities should exist and I am glad they do. I just find that the trolls inevitably take over, and that's no fun. I feel like reddit is currently battling this, and their decision seems to be to hold course, moderate more, and appeal to advertisers.
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2. tomp ◴[24 Nov 16 07:17 UTC] No.13028790[source]▶
I disagree. The beauty of reddit is that it has subcommunities. That way, like-minded prople can flock together and even enforce strict censorship rules that make their community better, and reddit as a whole can still be a bastion of free speech (because they allow such diverse communities). Too bad that's not how it actually is...
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3. ehnto ◴[24 Nov 16 07:32 UTC] No.13028851[source]▶
That is the idea definitely. It mostly works too, just like you said it's a diverse group of subcommunities all with their own rules. But they found that free speech platform wide meant some truly nefarious subcommunities could exist on their infrastructure, these subcommunities didn't self regulate enough. Quite reasonably they have decided they don't want that to happen and have stepped up the platform wide censorship.

The contention seems to be where they draw the line, and just how free their version of free is.