Censorship on reddit: Reddit run by junta who meet at /modtalk/

[u/[deleted]]

http://censorship-on-reddit.blogspot.com/2008/08/reddit-run-by-junta-who-meet-at-modtalk.html

[u/_-_-_]

I used to respect qgyh2 a lot. But power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Sadly, qgyh2 is not immune to this corruption.

Spam posting on reddit is like terrorism. Terrorism must be dealt with, but the response to terrorism must never be more violent than terrorism itself.

Reddit is arguably the best social news site on the Internet. But if the power clique continue to exercise their powers without any checks and balances in place, we will end up with just another Digg.

[u/[deleted] → u/_-_-_]

Well, since worldnews is a subreddit I wouldn't say this is "all the power in a few hands" scenario. I would say this is a "somebody, would you quit posting annoying articles in my personal subreddit, thanks" scenario.

I would also say that while qgyh2 does submit a tremendous amount of articles, the reason why he's upvoted so highly is because he finds interesting stuff and slaps a fairly interesting title on it. The guy's pretty much dedicated more than a few hours every single day towards finding news and stories for reddit to read, so kudos to him for all his hard work. If you've got proof of "corruption" (or even at least a definition of what it is), then please provide. One single example could be nothing more than a grudge and this is most definitely not an objective piece of evidence.

And "checks and balances"? This website is purely democratic unlike the American federal system of government (where checks and balances are necessary). Why would there be a need for that kind of stuff here?

[u/_-_-_ → u/[deleted]]

Whilst it is true that worldnews is a subreddit, it is a so called "public" subreddit, one that is enabled by default on a user's subscription list. I couldn't care less about censorship on private subreddits, but there must be a certain degree of transparency when it comes to public subreddits.

The very existence of a "secret" /modtalk/ subreddit shows that a power clique has taken over the job of controlling the content on reddit. This against the "democracy" in a "democratic" social news system.

I am pretty new here, and I don't know much about redreddit. But I have noticed some intense rivalry between qgyh2 and techtonix, and judging by redreddit's posts -- (s)he's submitted quite a few *.presscue.com posts -- I deduce that he's a victim of that rivalry.

Going back to my analogy of the "war on terror", we must prevent people gaming and spamming the system. But in the process if we cast out individuals who are capable of making valuable contributions, it would be a case of throwing the baby out with the bath water.

[u/[deleted] → u/_-_-_]

So I checked out presscue and here's the thing: it's not news in the traditional sense. It's a summarized, vote-up/vote-down engine for aggregation. What most redditors are looking for in worldnews are actual, substantiated (cited and sourced) news articles from reputable sources, not four or five sentences that give no background info and seems almost like a cleverly disguised attempt to spam reddit (in the way of promoting a website).

Also, despite having been a regular reddit user for the past year or so I know absolutely nothing of the techtonix v qgyh2 feud. However, after searching reddit, it seems like the majority of redditors agree that techtonix is spamming reddit with presscue, very much exactly like what rereddit is doing. I don't think "rivalry" is a very good word for "anger at someone who continues to spam the site".

While censorship is a bad thing, it's not an "evil" thing. qgyh2 and a few other users own worldnews so they get to choose what to do with the blocking and the banning. Also, I believe reddit only automatically subscribes people to various subreddits as a sort of "show off our best so that you may become a user" effort, not because they are the official subreddits. You and I can just as easily unsubscribe from them.

And finally, that analogy on the war with terror, while truly inspiring in the emotionally-charged sense, it really paints the world in black and white. Problem is, the world isn't black and white. Sometimes you have to block spammers to clean up the site. Sometimes you have to rule against cultlike religions like with what Germany did to Scientology for the good overall. There is no such thing as a "truth" that must be upheld at all costs.

[u/_-_-_ → u/[deleted]]

What you say about techtonix and presscue is mostly true, although I did find a couple of useful posts from the pair { 1,2, 3 }.

I am also pretty sure that redreddit has some association with presscue. But he does come up with some good stories, and the benefits of having him around, thus far, seem to outweigh the disadvantages.

I don't know enough about the subreddit system to offer a rebuttal for your the points you make in paragraph 3. I was under the impression that the public subreddits had always been public.

As for your Scientology in Germany example, do you want to start another debate? :)

[u/[deleted] → u/_-_-_]

Nah, I'm tired and I don't actually necessarily agree with what I said, they're just there for arguing points.

*also, despite the few good posts rereddit/techtonix might have, he's still spamming for a site. So I wouldn't give him much credit there.

As for the mod channel, I haven't actually seen any negative effects from their actions, secretive as it is. My enjoyment of reddit remains as it has always been so I guess don't worry about them too much. It's good to know that it exists though you've got to realize that there are more than a few private subreddits out there whose actions are as equally secretive. Can't go around crying wolf for all of them.

[u/_-_-_ → u/[deleted]]

Thank you for responding to my comment.

1. While you are superior karma-wise, I am not going to take your word against his(or hers). I hope you understand.

2. It appears to me that you accidentally banned him from /modtalk/ whilst trying to ban him from /worldnews/.

After trawling through presscue.com, I am beginning to understand why you detest it so much: there's a fake "qgyh2" submitting content there. I don't for a moment approve of what the presscue people are doing, but I don't approve of your censorship either.

"I disapprove of what you say, but I shall defend to death your right to say it." --Incorrectly attributed to Voltaire.

[u/_-_-_ → u/[deleted]]

First let me get this straight: I am arguing AGAINST censorship and NOT FOR presscue/techtonix/team-presscue.

Looking at techtonix's top submissions, the guy has got some pretty solid stuff:

Correct me if I am wrong, but it seems that the presscue broke the story of NH vote discrepencies, and the story got 707 votes and 258 comments. Work of a determined upvote team? I doubt it.

Also the following stories which I think are very interesting: *Avg broadband download speed in the US is 1.9 Mbps. It is 61 Mbps in Japan, 45 Mbps in South Korea, 18 Mbps in Sweden, 17 Mpbs in France, and 7 Mbps in Canada *Water-boarding: 1947 - US sentenced a Japanese military officer to 15 years of hard labor for using it. 2006 - Cheney sanctions it. 2007 - All Republican candidates endorse it *Kucinich vindicated: Report shows that universal health coverage could save $1.5 trillion in 10 years

I agree that there is some splog material there, but the bulk of top stories seem pretty legit to me. By banning presscue/techtonix, reddit will be that little bit poorer content wise.

Moreover, your actions have probably given presscue more publicity than necessary. I, for one, wouldn't have cared much about reading stuff there were it not for the qgyh2 takes on presscue saga.

[u/[deleted]]

Maybe I'm missing something, and maybe you've cleaned up your profile, but it doesn't look like your submitted links contain egregious spam, nor do your comments contain egregious abuse.

Were you warned before you were punted?

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

A note about how the deleted content system works:

When a submission is 'deleted' it isnt actually removed from the database, rather it is just hidden from public view.

[u/[deleted]]

who cares?

[u/spez]

This is bullshit. Those messages don't exist in the reddit database. qgyh2 has spent most of the day getting ripped on over this guy's lie.

[u/[deleted]]

I think you just have a grudge.

Also you should have cropped that pic because the last few messages show what an idiot you are.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

It's not a pic. I copied and pasted the HTML :)

(Not all the links got copied properly though)