For one thing, apparently we find out that their technology section has degraded to the point where it’s no longer viable as a place to recommend.
Pretty much, this could be seen as a sign of what might be had of most websites that depend on free-for-all crowdsourcing to produce content and then run like a democracy, noting the comments to the article that notes the decline of well-intended sections and where you pretty much need to keep a tight reign on a community site if you want it to thrive without it getting overrun by the worst that humanity has to offer.
This is why content sites must have thorough moderation and restrictions on just what can and cannot be posted, I even hear that there’s X-rated content on that site which shows just how bad it can get when crowdsourced content building is left unchecked and the rules are made up as things go along.
So if you want a good quality website, then running it like a democracy will not work, this is why you need to take the role of a semi-authoritarian figure and establish a code of conduct that includes common sense censorship practices if not just to keep the social fabric developed within from fraying and setting off an explosion of hurt feelings and rancorous discussion.
In this forum for instance, I can already sense a more positive energy and more posts from longtime members since the administration decided to run a tighter ship when it comes to discussion, Reddit does not and look where that’s taking them.
That was actually one of the very things that brought down the technology subreddit according to various people, people were bringing in charged political points instead of actually talking about technology.
If you let the website run too loose as to what is allowed or don’t have strict regulation of discussion, that is one of a short list of subjects almost every thread or section will be about eventually.
I think it had more to do with the moderators censoring any article with Assange, Snowden or Bitcoin in the title. Too aggressive moderation, s*cking up to the intelligence state. Of course internet surveillance has absolutely nothing to do with technology.
CrazyChristina; That would probably be where bans come into play (either on a large scale or not), the moderation is just a part of the toolset that needs to be utilized to have a website where the users create the content, but still has a high level of integrity.
You can try to relax it, but some people will just not accept the fact that there’s moderation going on at all. It may not be so visible on this site, but Reddit falls into the class of websites that can be about anything and the internet by nature is extremely effective at attracting those who like to vent at any opportunity they have. Look at Youtube as another example and see how the commentators on some videos are unable to keep a coherent conversation (this was before Google+ was required though).
Dunno … dunno. But,[/u] the onlyway to run a “commercial” web-site is: [I]as a business."
Even if your purpose is to serve “the public,” you cannot allow your business … your business … to be run by “the public.” Unless you possess, and unless you exert, the owner’s-prerogatives (“Seniority has its privileges … sux to be the second dog …”), “the public” will very soon abandon you, with astonishing indifference.
Everybody learns that hard-lesson soon enough. It’s “merchandising 101.” For any “blog,” the moderatorsare your first line of defense in the battle for quality-control.
(P.S. … “Thanks. Yeah, we’re talkin’ about you. Thanks. We couldn’t do it without 'ya. Uh huh, we do notice. Really.”)
I don’t really see what the difference is. The mods here are volunteers too.
Besides that, I’d argue Reddit works a lot better than this forum does; by an order of magnitude. The comments are threaded for one thing so entire topics aren’t derailed into just two people sniping back and forth; never mind the upvote and downvote system which lets users deal with trolls.
All that happened there is r/technology was being lazy and using a bot to do their jobs and wound up losing their default front-page status.
In my opinion, upvote/downvote systems can and will get abused and threaded discussion strings can be confusing.
Imagine you post something relatively benign and your comment gets downvoted to oblivion simply because they did not like your political party affiliation, if you have what’s perceived as the ‘wrong view’ on certain opinions. As such, a mob mentality may eventually form and lead to intense downvoting of everything you post, even if it’s the set of instructions that will make warp drive and time travel a reality.
So you feel like you’re a part of the community, until you mess up by speaking something that is considered completely unforgivable, what happens then? This has already been happening for example in the gaming communities where certain figures are targeted for bullying until they leave the industry altogether.
I think you would be surprised at what transparency could accomplish. The autonomy of a co-op isn’t clean and neat but it’s an agile and sustainable model. Transparency is a must because people are not trustworthy. Sites that wish to have a certain UX will pay for it in other respects. Reddit is just an experiment anyway.
Reddit is really what you make of it. You sub to the various subreddits that interest you. Dragons? r/dragons. Blender? r/blender. Kansas? r/kansas. Specifically Wichita, KS? r/wichita. If you sub to just those subreddits, your front page will just have posts from those. You’re unlikely to be an outcast with people that share similar interests as you.
More to your point yes, if you post Liberal stuff in the r/conservative subreddit or Conservative stuff in the r/liberal subreddit you’ll probably get downvotes. I don’t think that is worse than BA where you’re not allowed to discuss politics and certain other topics at all. Even if you get downvoted 10,000 times on Reddit people can still read and reply to your post.