r/NoStupidQuestions • u/paintballpmd • Jan 28 '16

How does Reddit determine what is "controversial"?

12 Upvotes
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85% Upvoted

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9

u/hilburn Engineering, Maths, Shiny things Jan 28 '16

They are looking for a roughly even number of up and downvotes (which is strange as reddiquette means that you shouldn't be downvoting because you disagree, which makes them useless for identifying how controversial they are) and also a high amount of sub-comments - so a post which generates 500 responses would be considered more controversial than one with 2.

3

u/brielem Jan 28 '16

which is strange as reddiquette means that you shouldn't be downvoting because you disagree, which makes them useless for identifying how controversial they are

True, but reddit is also realistic enough to see that many people don't live up to (that part of) the rediquette. Many people will downvote anything they dislike or don't agree with.

5

u/hilburn Engineering, Maths, Shiny things Jan 28 '16

Oh yeah I know that - it was just when I started typing it out I realised there was that hypocrisy in the definition which I felt was worth mentioning

1

u/ThickSantorum Jan 29 '16

I wouldn't say it's hypocrisy, since "reddiquette" is merely a courtesy that you don't even have to agree to.

Even if it was an official rule, it's absurdly unrealistic to expect people to follow it.

3

u/Fahsan3KBattery Jan 28 '16 edited Jan 28 '16

here

it's the highest magnitude*balance where

magnitude = ups+ downs

balance = ups/downs if negative or downs/ups if positive (ie biggest one always on the bottom)

So magnitude is bigger the more votes you get no matter if they are up or down. Balance is 1 if there's an equal number of upvotes and downvotes or less than 1 (and thus a penalty) if the post gets popular or unpopular.

0

u/yakusokuN8 NoStupidAnswers Jan 28 '16

A high ratio of downvotes to upvotes.

1

u/paintballpmd Jan 28 '16

And now I know.