A decade or so ago Reddit used to be a great place with some very high quality communities that I'd visit often.
But as time went on a one or two of the communities I liked got banned and others were forced to tone down discussions. Although I have an interest in controversial communities though so this may not be a universal experience.
But what finally made me leave was that the quality of every community I like just kept dropping and at the same time I was receiving an increasing (and significant) number of hateful messages.
I guess I don't play the Reddit game very well. I generally aim to be controversial since I believe the most productive type of speech is speech that is both highly controversial and well reasoned. Agreeing may earn upvotes and social goodwill, but if all you ever do is agree with those around you using new words you may as well not contribute anything.
I think Reddit's incentivisation of agreeableness, it's clamp down on controversial subreddits and its popularity basically guarantees conversations on Reddit today are maximally unproductive. If someone has a new opinion they are downvoted, and if that opinion is also hard to refute downing is often paired with abuse.
I know this isn't really on topic – I have nothing interesting to say about their childish CEO or narrow-sighted push for monetisation. I guess I'm kinda just sad about what Reddit as become. I like HN because discussion here are rich – there's generally a wide and interesting range of views for any given topic. But HN is fundamentally limited since topics are generally tech / business related. And this is the gap I wish Reddit could have filled.
Can't quite find the link right now but there was a well upvoted post there that was simply, "god I hate men."
They're not even interested in discussion at all. It's such a toxic misandristic subreddit, under a paper-thin pretense of being about female empowerment.
I'm really not a person who clutches pearls often, I think what gets me is the silencing of any dissent.
Posters shouldn't be getting banned for simply expressing an alternative opinion with no rudeness.
Rule 3 on there is "no tactless posts generalizing gender". But every third post is about how all men do x...
Subreddit rules mean nothing when interpreted by rabidly terrible mods, so coming into any new subreddit I don't feel comfortable to post anymore, lest another such mod should ban me for having an opinion.
I definitely think it has gotten much worse overall in the last couple of years.
That's why HN is so great... I often see opposing worldviews expressed here without animosity between posters.
But as time went on a one or two of the communities I liked got banned and others were forced to tone down discussions. Although I have an interest in controversial communities though so this may not be a universal experience.
But what finally made me leave was that the quality of every community I like just kept dropping and at the same time I was receiving an increasing (and significant) number of hateful messages.
I guess I don't play the Reddit game very well. I generally aim to be controversial since I believe the most productive type of speech is speech that is both highly controversial and well reasoned. Agreeing may earn upvotes and social goodwill, but if all you ever do is agree with those around you using new words you may as well not contribute anything.
I think Reddit's incentivisation of agreeableness, it's clamp down on controversial subreddits and its popularity basically guarantees conversations on Reddit today are maximally unproductive. If someone has a new opinion they are downvoted, and if that opinion is also hard to refute downing is often paired with abuse.
I know this isn't really on topic – I have nothing interesting to say about their childish CEO or narrow-sighted push for monetisation. I guess I'm kinda just sad about what Reddit as become. I like HN because discussion here are rich – there's generally a wide and interesting range of views for any given topic. But HN is fundamentally limited since topics are generally tech / business related. And this is the gap I wish Reddit could have filled.