
Where Trolls Reigned Free: A New History of Reddit - smacktoward
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/30/books/review/christine-lagorio-chafkin-we-are-the-nerds.html
======
ng12
> Maybe the site is no longer so toxic, or maybe the toxic internet has made
> me numb.

Or, maybe the site was never anywhere close to as "toxic" as you're describing
and you're making mountains out of mole hills.

~~~
cannonedhamster
I left the site not because the whole site was toxic, but because it had
gotten out of Reddit's control and they had no way to fix it. I got temp-
banned for trying to be a freaking adult and make friends with someone who was
harassing me. There is no oversight of the mods and it nowhere near a place
for intelligent conversation in anything remotely political.

This article still seems unnecessarily harsh. Reddit didn't set out to be bad.
Most of the moderators try to do a good job. The bad elements on the site are
pervasive and can destroy a positive subreddit with a sideways glance. Let's
not forget this is the place where a conspiracy theory was born that caused a
pizza place to get labeled a pedophile ring causing a man to shoot up the
place.

~~~
ng12
> but because it had gotten out of Reddit's control

For a long time Reddit's stance was to let subreddits be subreddits. If you
wanted to heavily moderate your sub's content, fine. If you wanted near
anarchy, also fine. Anything within the bounds of the site-wide rules (no
doxxing, nothing illegal) was fair game, and if users didn't like it they
didn't have to read the sub. If you found it to be a poor venue for political
discourse you were probably posting on the wrong subs.

There's a worrying trend towards authoritarianism on the web. I wish we could
get more popular momentum behind truly federated platforms.

------
dumbfoundded
People in general, don't like free speech. They just want to be able to say
whatever they'd like.

Clearly, some things cross the line but who do you let draw the line?

~~~
nickthegreek
The company whos resources are being used.

~~~
ng12
What happens when a small number of companies control all meaningful online
discourse?

~~~
nickthegreek
Either the free market provides or regulation talk begins.

------
dionidium
_> Even then, at a moment of techno-optimism we are unlikely to see again in
our lifetimes, Reddit was a toxic swamp. It was the place you went, shrouded
in anonymity, for pornography, hard-core racism, revenge porn, Nazi
cheerleading, Jew-baiting, creepshots, fat-shaming, mindless anarchy and
pictures of dead kids or of women who had been beaten._

What in the world is the author talking about? I went there to discuss local
issues (r/stlouis), look at cool maps (r/MapPorn), find credit card deals
(r/churning), and shit-talk sports (r/baseball and r/hockey).

I've been on reddit for almost 13 years. I keep seeing hot takes about what it
supposedly is (or was), but they never match my experience.

You can find porn and nazis on the internet, yes, but it would be a profound
mistake to describe the internet as a tool for finding porn and nazis. So it
is with reddit, too.

~~~
maldusiecle
On one hand, none of this kind of stuff was ever on the front page, and many
users never went far beyond the front page. On the other hand, there was a
substantial minority of users for whom that kind of content was the draw. And
there was an uproar whenever any of this content was banned (which happened
slowly, piece by piece, and continues into the present).

If you aren't aware of any of it, the Gawker story on violentacrez (still
available online) is good picture of the nastiest side of the site. Its
publication was (and remains) hugely controversial.

~~~
dumbfoundded
FatPeopleHate was on the front page all of the time. It got banned though.

~~~
cannonedhamster
I was going to say that as well. A lot of these groups had large followings
and brigaded unsuspecting other subreddits for no other reasons than giggles.

