8 years ago
36
Reddit Is Not a Free Speech Free-for-All
In today's AMA, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman says free speech is important to the community, but that the site's leaders have to draw the line somewhere.
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I still go on reddit. Of course I do, I've been a user there for 4 years. The thing that bothers me the most is that it seems like the owners are just jerking everyone around. Contradicting statements, ignoring people outright about certain subjects, or just not acting professional at all.
The reason I still visit reddit is because it is way more active then here, even the top posts here only get a very very small amount of comment or upvotes, but I very much dislike the way things are going over in reddit. But I still love coming on here because everyone is really nice and it's great to be a mod to 2 tribes, which I never would have a chance to do on reddit.
Sometimes it is discouraging though, because they are barely active. I hope this doesn't mean that Snapzu is just some fad. I very much enjoy this site and I hope it becomes something very good.
I've really enjoyed myself here, but I agree that it is less active. I am hoping the community here continues to grow, but it took years for reddit to become what it is today, so I'm just enjoying what we have right now and waiting to see what happens.
You're right that it took quite a few years for reddit to start gaining traffic, and of course after the Digg incident it increased dramatically. So far Snapzu has created a nice little pocket of good people. I definitely hopes it continues to grow.
The site will continue to grow. I finally got my invite after requesting one about a week+ ago so I'm sure there are quite a few users who are reading, but still unable to comment.
I'm a little frustrated here at the moment as there seem to be some glaring design errors regarding searching, reposting, managing your feed, algorithms of what you get shown yadda yadda, I don't think the place needs more activity as much as it needs a better way of digesting the existing content, so that those who want to participate can always be alerted to stuff they're interested in and tribes that want to specialise in something aren't crippled by the bizarrely harsh attitude to reposting.
Snapzu has a lot of potential, but finding these flaws over my couple of weeks here, plus what looks like a positive direction for reddit, has me at least back to a 33% reddit 66% here split.
Edit: and the most frustrating this is that /t/ideasforsnapzu exists, but is crippled by the very issues that are brought up there. "I can't search for posts by tribe" gets posted frequently, instead of one post getting lots of votes BECAUSE the feature doesn't exist. It drives me mad!
I agree that the design of the site definitely has it's flaws. Hopefully they will be able to change it up soon.
Yea,, I hope so too.. The only reason I care is because so much is right. It just kind of feels like fundementals have been missed.. I wish I could do more about it than just dump my thoughts and ideas in to the ideasforsnapzu.. Anyway -- admins, please don't take this as me being arsey! I love you all and I love your site :)
There are completely unrelated problems there too. I got fed up, because of the moderation and rules for my favorite sub /r/worldnews. They sort out soft paywalled sites. I kind of understand that. However: The only reliable source of news about China, the center of this century's economic activity and major conflicts, http://scmp.com/ will never be visible, while Chinese government propaganda sites is among the top posts on a daily basis. It is so bad it does look intentional, and not due to ignorance.
Brigading means posts critical of India or Israel will never be visible, and for some reason you can post praise of the F-35 fighter project, but you can not criticize it.
So far they have only said they are banning /r/rapingwomen. Can't say I disagree with that move.
I'm kinda saddened that's a thing
I left reddit for a single reason: the censoring of dissent about reddit leadership or the actions they take. There was a few days there, when the subreddits went dark, that no posts at all about Pao et al made it to the front page. When I tried to make a post asking what was going on, the automoderator deleted it.
Noped right out of there. Decided that I wasn't going to give revenue to a business that wouldn't listen to customer concerns or complaints. Now I see that the admins are being downright antagonistic in their approach to the userbase, which is really disappointing.
All that being said; how much corporations and businesses can control our basic rights is one of those major issues that isn't going away. The major ones, online, are privacy and free speech. You can opt not to use those services, but finding one that doesn't impede or infringe on one or the other is very difficult.
I can say from moderator experience that a lot of subs were so flooded with related posts that we deleted them on the subreddit level. I honestly don't think the admins were removing posts criticizing the site.
Granted, I moved over here at the same time. I didn't agree at all with their approach to the situation.
Fair enough. There's no way I could get the whole picture from the perspective I had/have. Still, the admins behavior (towards the userbase and the mods) is unacceptable, and reddit has some very real social issues that have to be addressed. I'll just keep on staying out of that whole mess, and be here in greener, non-vitriolic pastures.
I thought this was a pretty nifty summary of all the drama going down on Reddit and the many changes that will happen in the coming months.
It looks to be regularly updated so if you want to avoid checking Reddit for the top-level drama then check this page every once in a while for update.
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Thanks for the link!
i would rather have a good small community, than a huge community of jackasses
Same here. I'm sick of belligerent trolls.
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Thanks for the link! I deleted my Reddit account recently due to all of that, and I'm kinda glad I did now, in retrospect. Plus, It lead me to find Snapzu, so I'm happy about it :P
I've been skimming the AMA and honestly, I'm depressed that I haven't seen a single mention about the blatant manipulation of the userbase by yishan. Not a single question asking for spez's view on it or calling it out. To the point, I'm honestly starting to wonder if I blew thing out of proportion, because there's no way I'm the only person that viewed it that way :/
That was what I found interesting about Yishan's comments. I realized how easy the users were to manipulate. The comments were so completely over-the-top I felt embarrassed to be in the threads
Trust is a powerful thing. Once earned... it can be abused. And it looks like it was. "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain" comes to mind, honestly.
No, I see it exactly like you, that's one of the reasons for my deleting my account. And with all that happened in the past two weeks, it cannot be blown out of proportions, it's already approaching critical mass by itself, without any help.
Edit: I skimmed the AMA as well, and it's all damage control and evading the hard questions. hmmm.
Here's to principles, I suppose. If only we weren't the sacrificing minority with no guarantee of making a difference.
To principles
It's just like anything else. The bigger or more popular something gets, the more it is forced to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Shouldn't really be a surprise. I don't think it matters what it starts out as. Just like everything else, it evolves. You might not like it, that's your prerogative. You can choose to spend your time and energy fighting to preserve or change it. Or go elsewhere and/or build something new that's more to your liking.
I think it's interesting that we all seem to feel some sort of 'ownership' of 'internet' things. Ultimately though, most of these 'things' are corporately owned. So, although I do appreciate free speech, does a privately owned online forum have any obligation to ensure and enforce complete and total free speech? Should it really have no control over what it is used for? Or what is said or displayed on it? On one hand I would say hey, whomever exactly it is that actually OWNS Reddit, is free to do what they please with it. Including censoring it or completely shutting it down if they wanted. They are, in fact, a business trying to make money. So, in that respect, the simplest and easiest thing to do (just like with anything else) is, if you don't like it - don't provide them with a source of income with your presence and participation or purchase.
Everyone is entitled to free speech, but you're not exactly free to walk into my living room and start shouting what you want right? I have the option call the police and have you removed, the option to walk away from you, or not read the flyer you posted, etc. Reddit isn't a publicly owned forum - so in the end I think it is their choice. And like I said earlier, they are a business and will work to please the majority at the sake of the minority. And that's, just business right?