That vision makes sense to me. Famous redditors like Arnold Schwarzenegger really add to reddit's overall prestige, but they're still pretty rare. Celebrities just don't use reddit the way they use, say, Twitter. They come in, do an AMA, and get out forever after 15 minutes on the phone with Chooter.
Now, there are a number of reasons this is the case. For starters, reddit is traditionally hostile to women. It's no wonder female celebrities come through for AMAs and never stay behind. It's also why William Shatner, who was happy to be a redditor, eventually left.
But most importantly, being a redditor means sharing content in an uncontrolled environment. Twitter, for all its wilderness, can be a "safe" environment if you ignore the stuff addressed to you, which a PR person can easily do for you. But reddit is much more perilous. Ask Woody Harrelson or Morgan Freeman.
Chooter was that "safe space" for celebrities. Apparently, reddit admins saw this as a detriment to celebrities "going full reddit." I have a feeling that's the opposite of what they should have done... Time will tell.
That seems very ... "just because I can, doesn't mean I should". Yeah, it's the internet, and you can post, type, create all the vitriol you want ... but that doesn't mean it will be tolerated, wanted, or encouraged. Each site has the right (and some would argue the duty) to remove the worst of the worst. I don't believe Shatner was speaking of the day-to-day a-hole-ish behavior of goading people into arguments or even the obvious trolls, but more the absolute trash that can be spewed by extremely hateful people. And that should certainly be moderated, in my opinion.
I need to talk about Shatner. I was all excited when he came on reddit, but after less then 24 hours he had petitioned reddit to make huge changes and he didn't understand things. It was like a grumpy old man using the Internet and complaining about "kids these days". He had press releases and stuff soon after. He had just joined. Agree or not, it's like coming into someone's house and re arranging the furniture. (By the way I got the down vote memo for snapzu -since I'm new here. Lol)
More like walking into someone's house party, then becoming upset when you realize that a large portion of that party is ritual child sacrifice to antediluvian gods. I'd be pretty pissed off if that happened at a party I was invited to. I'd probably tell them to cut that shit out. But I guess, since they were there first, I've got no right to call them on it.
The problem is that you can't talk about "the" Reddit community. Reddit is millions of people. There are many communities. Making gross generalizations about Reddit is like saying all Americans do this or that.
Are there horrible subs on Reddit? Yeah, sure, there's horrible places in the US, too. There's also well-run subs on Reddit, too. (Despite the admins...)
People say "the reddit community" to designate the net effects of reddit's users as a whole. When reddit admins banned FPH, "the reddit community" flooded the main subs with toxic content. Nobody means that to say everyone did, just that this was the net effect of the behavior of a part of the user base.
The same way we can say "Americans" have this or that behavior. Nobody means that to say all Americans do. That's what a generalization is: trying to discern patterns that apply to a majority of members of a given group. The danger is to fall into stereotyping, and certainly there's a stereotype of what reddit users do... But you can still draw some generalizations about reddit users which, while they will never apply to everyone, are still valid in a general sense.
For instance, if I say "reddit as a community is pro-freedom of speech," we both know not everyone is like this. But there's a large enough, vocal enough group of users that voice this, and the statement, as a generalization, is true enough to stand scrutiny.
That vision makes sense to me. Famous redditors like Arnold Schwarzenegger really add to reddit's overall prestige, but they're still pretty rare. Celebrities just don't use reddit the way they use, say, Twitter. They come in, do an AMA, and get out forever after 15 minutes on the phone with Chooter.
Now, there are a number of reasons this is the case. For starters, reddit is traditionally hostile to women. It's no wonder female celebrities come through for AMAs and never stay behind. It's also why William Shatner, who was happy to be a redditor, eventually left.
But most importantly, being a redditor means sharing content in an uncontrolled environment. Twitter, for all its wilderness, can be a "safe" environment if you ignore the stuff addressed to you, which a PR person can easily do for you. But reddit is much more perilous. Ask Woody Harrelson or Morgan Freeman.
Chooter was that "safe space" for celebrities. Apparently, reddit admins saw this as a detriment to celebrities "going full reddit." I have a feeling that's the opposite of what they should have done... Time will tell.
Wow, I wasn't aware of that situation with Shatner. Good for him for speaking out! He's absolutely right.
he's not wrong, but he's not right..
Yeah the hate speech/racist stuff is unwanted, but you know the only possibility of removing it from the internet?
removing the internet.
He simply didn't understand reddit, or the internet in general.
That seems very ... "just because I can, doesn't mean I should". Yeah, it's the internet, and you can post, type, create all the vitriol you want ... but that doesn't mean it will be tolerated, wanted, or encouraged. Each site has the right (and some would argue the duty) to remove the worst of the worst. I don't believe Shatner was speaking of the day-to-day a-hole-ish behavior of goading people into arguments or even the obvious trolls, but more the absolute trash that can be spewed by extremely hateful people. And that should certainly be moderated, in my opinion.
I need to talk about Shatner. I was all excited when he came on reddit, but after less then 24 hours he had petitioned reddit to make huge changes and he didn't understand things. It was like a grumpy old man using the Internet and complaining about "kids these days". He had press releases and stuff soon after. He had just joined. Agree or not, it's like coming into someone's house and re arranging the furniture. (By the way I got the down vote memo for snapzu -since I'm new here. Lol)
More like walking into someone's house party, then becoming upset when you realize that a large portion of that party is ritual child sacrifice to antediluvian gods. I'd be pretty pissed off if that happened at a party I was invited to. I'd probably tell them to cut that shit out. But I guess, since they were there first, I've got no right to call them on it.
The problem is that you can't talk about "the" Reddit community. Reddit is millions of people. There are many communities. Making gross generalizations about Reddit is like saying all Americans do this or that.
Are there horrible subs on Reddit? Yeah, sure, there's horrible places in the US, too. There's also well-run subs on Reddit, too. (Despite the admins...)
People say "the reddit community" to designate the net effects of reddit's users as a whole. When reddit admins banned FPH, "the reddit community" flooded the main subs with toxic content. Nobody means that to say everyone did, just that this was the net effect of the behavior of a part of the user base.
The same way we can say "Americans" have this or that behavior. Nobody means that to say all Americans do. That's what a generalization is: trying to discern patterns that apply to a majority of members of a given group. The danger is to fall into stereotyping, and certainly there's a stereotype of what reddit users do... But you can still draw some generalizations about reddit users which, while they will never apply to everyone, are still valid in a general sense.
For instance, if I say "reddit as a community is pro-freedom of speech," we both know not everyone is like this. But there's a large enough, vocal enough group of users that voice this, and the statement, as a generalization, is true enough to stand scrutiny.
Arnold and Snoopdog still sometimes post on reddit, so they didn't really get out forever.
Didn't say they left... Just that Shatner did.