Reddit (soon to be) Dead

[madhair60]

I've not posted much on Reddit, and when I have it's been short questions or answers.

I've been downvoted every single time. Is that like the "first blood" people used to do with newbies' Karma on here, or is posting short questions and answers rather than talking about the size of Gamergate's tits just incredibly gauche on there?

Is there a way to see who downvoted you so you can ask them what you've done wrong? Half of the comments on there seem to be people saying "I got downvoted for this? OK...?"

it is my opinion that you do come off as a "figure of hate"

[popcorn]

I've not posted much on Reddit, and when I have it's been short questions or answers.

I've been downvoted every single time. Is that like the "first blood" people used to do with newbies' Karma on here, or is posting short questions and answers rather than talking about the size of Gamergate's tits just incredibly gauche on there?

Is there a way to see who downvoted you so you can ask them what you've done wrong? Half of the comments on there seem to be people saying "I got downvoted for this? OK...?"

The upvoting/downvoting system is absolutely fucking demented. I also constantly see the same thing.
Whenever I see an unjust downvote I always upvote it.

It sounds hyperbolic but it actually slightly wears at my faith in human beings. Because it's like... there's this mechanism we've built that allows people to instantly, anonymously express a positive or negative reaction to a statement or comment, in a public way, in such a way that will reward or punish the person who made it, and what this reveals is that human beings are apparently going around thinking "I HATE WHAT THAT PERSON JUST SAID AND CHOOSE TO PUNISH THEM" all the fucking time, even when it's a statement like "You could also get a railcard for an extra discount if you don't have one already".

The "Ask Trump supporters" subreddit is an extreme example of this. The entire premise is for non-Trump supporters to ask questions to Trump supporters — about their opinions, politics, expectations, etc. Whenever Trump supporters answer questions they end up with like -50 downvotes because surprise surprise their opinions aren't to the tastes of the non-supporters. But it's like, jesus fucking christ, would you have preferred them not to answer the question? Didn't you want to know what they were thinking? Do you realise this means that only the most aggressive and pigheaded Trump supporters, and the trolls and the timewasters, are going to end up sticking around to answer your questions? It does my head in.

[Kankurette]

I've been downvoted on Mumsnet Trolls for the most random of comments just because certain people don't like me. I could post 'it's raining today' and some twat would downvote me. I know the GC contingent on there downvote anyone who disagrees with them.

[touchingcloth]

The upvoting/downvoting system is absolutely fucking demented. I also constantly see the same thing.
Whenever I see an unjust downvote I always upvote it.

It sounds hyperbolic but it actually slightly wears at my faith in human beings. Because it's like... there's this mechanism we've built that allows people to instantly, anonymously express a positive or negative reaction to a statement or comment, in a public way, in such a way that will reward or punish the person who made it, and what this reveals is that human beings are apparently going around thinking "I HATE WHAT THAT PERSON JUST SAID AND CHOOSE TO PUNISH THEM" all the fucking time, even when it's a statement like "You could also get a railcard for an extra discount if you don't have one already".

The "Ask Trump supporters" subreddit is an extreme example of this. The entire premise is for non-Trump supporters to ask questions to Trump supporters — about their opinions, politics, expectations, etc. Whenever Trump supporters answer questions they end up with like -50 downvotes because surprise surprise their opinions aren't to the tastes of the non-supporters. But it's like, jesus fucking christ, would you have preferred them not to answer the question? Didn't you want to know what they were thinking? Do you realise this means that only the most aggressive and pigheaded Trump supporters, and the trolls and the timewasters, are going to end up sticking around to answer your questions? It does my head in.

For all its ills, the Karma system on here at least let you know the specifics of why someone thought you were a cunt due to the ability to leave comments, and you could choose to ignore their reason, take it on board and change your style of posting, or reject the criticism.

What are you supposed to do with something that is just essentially just a stream of "well, I hate that."

I've never taken a Reddit vote personally, I just don't know what I'm supposed to do with them, either on my own posts or those of others.

[Kankurette]

I'm glad we don't have karma because Kittyradio had reps and oh fuck me the DRAMA. I got some horrific comments on Narutofan as well. Reps are shit.

[touchingcloth]

it is my opinion that you do come off as a "figure of hate"

We've had a conflab and updated our opinion of you.

[madhair60]

oh boy! i hope it's good!

[Noakes]

i used to live on reddit, it's been interesting to watch how the uk subs have drifted. uk pol used to be hard nose right, unitedkingdom used to be generally nice lefties, then ukpol drifted left (or really more central) and for a while i was cozy in my bubble.
both subs have taken a hard turn right very suddenly, in a not very organic way.
a post on jess philips reading out murdered woman's names, went bad fast.
i just hide in ukcasual and the cat reddits now

[touchingcloth]

It's almost like putting everyone on the internet anonymously in touch with each other is a terrible idea.

[gabrielconroy]

i used to live on reddit, it's been interesting to watch how the uk subs have drifted. uk pol used to be hard nose right, unitedkingdom used to be generally nice lefties, then ukpol drifted left (or really more central) and for a while i was cozy in my bubble.
both subs have taken a hard turn right very suddenly, in a not very organic way.
a post on jess philips reading out murdered woman's names, went bad fast.
i just hide in ukcasual and the cat reddits now

r/worldnews is pro Israel to a really quite blatant extent. Not to mention it (allegedly?) used to be moderated by Ghislaine Maxwell, of all people

While spending any time on r/UFOs will reveal that the most active area in the world in terms of Reddit usage is, according to Reddit's own data it released a while back...Elgin Air Base in the US

[touchingcloth]

I browse the web with a VPN turned on most of the time due to torrenting and so I can access UK sites, but Reddit seems to ban anonymous browsing from people on VPNs and I get this message until I either log in or switch the VPN off



Anyone else get this? "Woah there, pardner" is worse than those lolrandom 404 pages you sometimes see.

[Consignia]

Replace www in the URL with old, e.g. https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics becomes https://old.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics . This gives you the old version of reddit, without all the VPN checks. I use it to browse at work where we have to use VPNs all the time.

[touchingcloth]

Replace www in the URL with old, e.g. https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics becomes https://old.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics . This gives you the old version of reddit, without all the VPN checks. I use it to browse at work where we have to use VPNs all the time.

Good tip, thanks!

I've recently seen a lot of comments on Reddit about how "Reddit can do X, but they can't seem to block Onlyfans or drugs spam?!" but yet I don't think I've ever seen Onlyfans or drugs spam on there.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I don't think they tend to leak outside the subreddits dedicated to nudity or drugs, of which there are loads, so if you're not intentionally going in them you won't see them.

[touchingcloth]

I exclusively use the subs dedicated to nudity AND drugs, so maybe that's it. It's wall-to-wall viagra ads for me.

[Cloud]

The downvote thing absolutely gets on my tits. 

And if you ever bring it up you just get "ahhh ahh you care about internet points don't you, laaaame" and more downvotes. No, I just care about what I said wrong to get the equivalent of the middle finger

Thing is Reddit does say you're supposed to use it for comments that don't contribute to discussion rather than as a hate/disagree button but 99% of users use it as the latter. I think they were going for a Slashdot style karma system but the difference with Slashdot is mods have a selection of reasons they can apply to it (flamebait, insightful etc), it's only active users who briefly get moderation status and there's metamoderation.  None of which applies to Reddit

[Mister Six]

I've not posted much on Reddit, and when I have it's been short questions or answers.

I've been downvoted every single time. Is that like the "first blood" people used to do with newbies' Karma on here, or is posting short questions and answers rather than talking about the size of Gamergate's tits just incredibly gauche on there?

Is there a way to see who downvoted you so you can ask them what you've done wrong? Half of the comments on there seem to be people saying "I got downvoted for this? OK...?"

Which subreddits? Some are full of nasty weirdos, some are full of nice weirdos. Don't let it bother you or try to figure out why they downvoted. If you're worried about low karma affecting your interactions on the site, spend a bit of time on other, more friendly subs.

[touchingcloth]

Which subreddits? Some are full of nasty weirdos, some are full of nice weirdos. Don't let it bother you or try to figure out why they downvoted. If you're worried about low karma affecting your interactions on the site, spend a bit of time on other, more friendly subs.

It's random and infrequent, I might make one post a month after Google leads me there, half of them asking questions and half of them answering other people's. I don't "spend time" there in a meaningful sense. With CaB I'll login just to see what's happening, but with Reddit I only ever end up there if I'm led from elsewhere.

Like @Cloud I'm not worried by it, I just don't understand it. "Up" and "down" obviously have connotations, but they may as well be called "red votes" and "dit votes" for all the sense they make.

[Cloud]

I'm not worried as such but I think where it's incompatible with me is I really want to know what I said wrong. 

Maybe it's nothing and someone is just being a dick - but I don't like to make that assumption.  Despite sometimes coming off as one I don't actually want to be a cunt or thought of as one.  And there have been times in more constructive places when I've expressed a shitty opinion and someone has educated me on why it's shitty and changed my mind.  Downvotes don't really do that, and asking why usually gets "dunno mate but I just downvoted you for complaining about downvotes"

[Mister Six]

Like Cloud I'm not worried by it, I just don't understand it. "Up" and "down" obviously have connotations, but they may as well be called "red votes" and "dit votes" for all the sense they make.

The original idea of the upvotes and downvotes was that the stuff that the community deemed relevant/appropriate (eg. good answers to questions, informative explanations etc) would move up and be more visible, and irrelevant/inappropriate stuff (trolling, shitposts, spam, jokes) would be pushed down.

Obviously a large number of people are miserable idiots clicking buttons to make the happy chemicals appear in their monkey brains, so it doesn't actually work like that.

I find with comments I don't usually run into problems unless my opinion runs severely counter to the prevailing viewpoint (helps that I avoid the trashfire subs for the most part). With posts, it can be a crapshoot - I'll post something that seems really useful and relevant and it'll get passed over completely or downvoted, and then I'll throw up something daft because I feel like it and it'll get thousands of upvotes.

Mostly I just don't look back, but when I do, I find there's usually a period at the start where comments and posts alike have a bunch of downvotes, and then over time it levels off and ends up ultimately upvoted. Don't really understand why they do that, but I also don't let it bother me or change my style of posting.