After signing into this place several times a day for almost every single day since 2016, I decided a while back to check out for a bit, and moseyed over to reddit, which I never really looked at, despite my surprise at seeing me registered back in 2009.
So as a kind of sleeper account, I guess, I got used to its interface and the commenters who for the most part weren’t too unhinged.
When I first started I got a warning for suggesting that a crazy MIL needs to have 18-inch-long needles plunged through her eyes. The mods didn’t seem to like exaggeration, apparently.
Then today I got a second warning for getting into it with some fashy incel dickwad over an upcoming local speaking event featuring three toxic-in-their-own-way speakers, which garnered me a three-day posting suspension for “harrassment and bullying”, and I’m like fuck this and figured why not head back in this neck of the woods again.
Especially with this November coming up sooner than we know it, with too much on the line.
Really like how this place is really up on things, with the latest breaking (usually awfulness) going on.
I mean, even if exaggerated, the comment about 18-inch long nails needing to be plunged into someone’s eyes would get some mod action from most message boards in the world, not just Reddit.
Every sub Reddit has their own level of tolerance. Some won’t even allow capital letters in the title. Others are wide open.
Including a credible likelihood of a mod note here.
We really don’t do violence here, not even over-the-top exaggerated “ha ha only kidding” personalized violence.
Likely a reference to this.
[SNL Transcripts: Buck Henry: 05/21/77: Michael O’Donoghue - SNL Transcripts Tonight]
(SNL Transcripts: Buck Henry: 05/21/77: Michael O'Donoghue - SNL Transcripts Tonight)
Very much this. I am banned from the CostCo sub because apparently complaining about the lack of any spice in this year’s pumpkin pies was against their rules. You just never know, and there’s no recourse. I’m pretty sure that’s the only mod complaint I’ve ever received anywhere on Reddit; nothing else comes to mind.
Yeah, I was just gonna come in here say it’s from Micheal O’Donahue, which, sure, is an obscure reference. I debated whether to use that or the “…Holy Grail” Black Kight shenanigans.
EDIT: But yeah I’ll keep to a minimum any suggestions for someone’s face to go melt away like in the end of “The Terror”.
I feel like reddit changed quite a bit (for the worse) after the failed protests a few years back, where thousands of users and dozens or hundreds of major subreddits went dark in protest of a new policy that forbade third party apps: Reddit API controversy - Wikipedia
I think the expectation was that reddit would cave to user demands. Instead, they simply forcibly reenabled all the subs, removed all the moderators, and installed new ones who aligned with their corporate priorities. A lot of good mods never went back, many users left, and many also deleted their previous posts.
I left shortly after that era after the quality of remaining posts went way, way down. askscience, askhistory, etc. used to be incredibly vibrant and informative places rivaling the Dope before that happened. Not sure how they are these days…
And then of course, there were always the general purpose default subs. Those were always either funny cat pics or rampant toxicity and attention grabbing vitriol. I’d be surprised if it wasn’t also just a lot of astroturfed propaganda and trolling, even before LLMs. Now it’s gotta be even worse…
Chefit and KitchenConfidential are both very informative and supportive. AskChemistry usually has good answers too. The crochet and aquarium communities are all very supportive and welcoming IME.
I have seen toxic males try to crush conversation in some of the women’s subs, but they always get shut down. That’s nice to see.
I wonder how long Michael O’Donoghue would last here before getting banned, or at least mod-noted.
< clicks stopwatch >
I’ve noticed that for most more specific topic subs that they are noob central, for the most part. r/driving for example has about half of the OP’s from new drivers anxious about passing their driving tests, or agonizing if they’ll get a ticket for passing a stopped schoolbus (yes the latter is apparently a thing). I never see any posts about picturesque routes or how to downshift with a manual transmission. The more philosophical ones are just endless reinventions of the wheel (same topics over and over, by noobs who haven’t done their homework and aren’t aware of the baseline knowledge essential to the topic they are broaching).
My peak Reddit use was when I was pregnant/a new mother and full of questions and anxieties. I dabbled with the PTSD and ADHD subs, and I posted a lot when my son was first diagnosed as autistic. In general I have found subs organized around a specific mental condition to be very disempowering. You’re constantly hearing from people at their lowest point.
But the main issue I have always had with Reddit is that the material gets very repetitive. The same posts and types of posts come up over and over. There’s very little that’s fresh.
Outside of specific support subs, the population skews male, sexist, and fat phobic. So you can very easily stumble across casual expressions of hatred.
Then there’s a thread across many subs of uncritical acceptance of all kinds of dumb things. When I was exploring the idea that I might be autistic I encountered a community of people who were so very tied to that identity that if someone posted, “my doctor says I’m not autistic” the comments would just be flooded with commentary about why the doctor was obviously wrong. People were using invalidated tools, or validated tools inappropriately, to diagnose themselves and spreading misinformation like it was gospel.
Which, if that’s what they want to do, fine, but it’s not my jam.
I have found the most interesting Reddit stuff is usually found after I Google something. There’s good content in there.
Oh and I also hate that unpopular opinions are displayed last. It was a decent idea to try to silence trolls but the upshot in many threads is relentless groupthink with no opportunity to hear dissenting viewpoints.
I don’t post there anymore.
Yeah, some of the subs could be a bit of a circle jerk. Reddit was very much a groupthink echo chamber… but I guess so is the SDMB, really, or any other voluntarily online community of this sort. People just self-select into their in-groups.
In the old days, you used to be able to sort by “controversial” to see the comments which were both highly upvoted AND highly downvoted. I think they stopped doing that on the main reddit site, but maybe it’s still available on the alternative interface old.reddit.com: most controversial links : reddit.com
Not really in the same way. The Straight Dope used to have a lot more diversity of thought until half the country went insane. Then the behavior of long-time conservatives got them booted. The result is a softer, more progressive Dope. But it wasn’t really self-selection. (And we still have some conservative posters.)
That’s a good point. The moderators do help set and maintain the overall tone of the place.
Still, though, the change is pretty drastic, like over in the “why is MAGA upset” thread, it’s mostly people on the left describing how they see people on the right. There are a few centrists, but I think we chased all the true fanatics out.
Not that I’m complaining, being on the left myself. It’s nice to catch a break from the insanity. But I just wouldn’t trust the SDMB to be a fair or accurate representation of the actual views of people with other ideologies.
Trouble is, there’s probably not really a place to get that sort of discussion anymore, anywhere. Between wokeism and anti-wokeism and foreign influences and domestic propaganda and paid trolls and AI chatbots and ideologue teachers and censored colleges… it’s just one big shouting match now.
It’s true, and that communication breakdown is part of the problem. I tend to value diverse perspectives for their own sake, but I also don’t want to be constantly exposed to ugliness. I can’t have these conversations with the MAGA people I know because I’m too emotional about it.
There used to be subs full of creepy pictures of teen aged women and girls, techniques on how to burgle and shoplift, over the top transphobic and misogynistic memes… I could go on. The early days weren’t perfect either. There are lots of subs where you can still get great information. There are private subs that are very similar to here (not as good but in the ballpark) that are for general interest discussions. It’s still a great resourse.
Still can.
I was banned a couple times site wide from Reddit for making what I thought were benign comments. Guess not.
I have been perma banned from at least 3 subreddits.
I rarely comment anymore but do read specific sites most days.