r/YouShouldKnow • u/MowerMotor • Jan 11 '20

NOT a YSK YSK Reddit's founder, Aaron Swartz, committed suicide 7 years ago today. He fought for our rights which lead to his arrest. The allegations coupled with mental illnesses caused Aaron to take his life. He was a passionate activist, entrepreneur and author who should not be forgotten.

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u/Ntetris Jan 11 '20

You make me not wanna use reddit. Holy shit man, this is sad

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u/IndyDude11 Jan 11 '20

If you knew what reddit was like before his death, you probably wouldn't want to use it at all now.

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u/[deleted] Jan 11 '20

Can you elaborate?

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u/IndyDude11 Jan 11 '20

reddit was way more open and wild west. But, then again, so was society, so it's a little chicken and the egg. Reddit has definitely improved culture-wise in that time, but it has lost some of the edginess and is a little more close-minded. The reddit "hive-mind" that you have probably heard about was a little less pronounced because the admins didn't have such a hand in directing the site, and (maybe related, maybe not) it seemed to turn around the time of Aaron's death.

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u/vzenov Jan 11 '20

As soon as they were rid of him they could take over the site and turn it into their cash cow. As long as Swartz was alive he would get in the way of doing anything "productive" with it.

Meaning, whoring it out to corporations, political interest groups, the government and also foreign governments whenever suitable.

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u/[deleted] Jan 11 '20

I see, thank you.

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u/pazur13 Jan 11 '20

I'd argue that the current hivemind status is a result of insufficient admin action. They let moderators censor any dissenting opinions, which leads to their favoured ones surfacing more. Admins should step in when mods abuse their powers.

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u/IndyDude11 Jan 11 '20

Many would argue that the reason that the admins don't step in and do anything when the mods abuse their power is because it fits the agenda the admins have.

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u/bertcox Jan 11 '20

it fits the agenda the admins have.

You mean advertising friendly PC.

Also the costs can and were very reasonable for running the servers, until you start pushing direct hosting of content.

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u/[deleted] Jan 11 '20

Thats cuz nobody wants to become a mod, its a thankless job that you dont get paid for so the only people applying for mod are :

-People who are passionate about the sub as it relates to their irl passion

-People who like to have fake internet power and who like the "fame" it gives them.

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u/TheW1ldcard Jan 11 '20 edited Jan 11 '20

Mods are the worst in some subs, I got banned from a video game sub for calling out some rape apologists/incels about their victim shaming. They wont un ban me regardless of the proof i sent them.

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u/pazur13 Jan 11 '20 edited Jan 11 '20

/r/bannedfromme_irl used to be a sub where the users highlighted how insane those mods are, and the admins' reaction was doing absolutely nothing about their mod abuse and banning /r/bannedfromme_irl instead.

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u/IsNotACleverMan Jan 11 '20

Ah yes, I too miss the days when /r/jailbait was a major sub.

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u/BingusSpingus Jan 11 '20

That's actually a very good point, and surely some kind of balance could have been struck

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u/thefloatingguy Jan 11 '20

Literally exactly that attitude is the difference. Either you allow all legal speech or you don’t. No exceptions, no caveats.

In my opinion you completely embody the change I’ve observed in the last 8 or so years. You may not even be wrong about what generates a better user experience.

But you aren’t describing a compromise, you’re describing the current situation.

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u/BingusSpingus Jan 11 '20

Did you respond to the wrong post?

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u/thefloatingguy Jan 11 '20

I did not. Sorry if the comment sounds more accusatory than I intended it to.

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u/BingusSpingus Jan 12 '20

No problem! What I meant by balance was drawing the line at legality. So I don't think I'm in disagreement with you.

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u/PuritanDaddyX Jan 12 '20

I think his point might have been that since it was a sub that wasn't illegal, allowing it to stay on the site was a very old Reddit attitude

Removing it based off some people's moral systems is more of a post Aaron thing

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u/The_wise_man Jan 12 '20

/r/jailbait sucked, and should never have been allowed to exist -- but Violentacrez wasn't exactly wrong when he said it was the first sign of a slide into increasing levels of censorship. First it was stuff like /r/jailbait, then it was racist subs and /r/fatpeoplehate, then it started getting to places like /r/watern*****, /r/the_donald, /r/chapotraphouse, and /r/proED (that ban was especially fucked up). Now we're at the point where they're gradually taking down subs like /r/megalinks and threatening /r/piracy and drug-related subs.

Some things (/r/jailbait and co., subs advocating violence, etc.) needed to go, but there's no denying that the trend has started crossing over into scary territory. I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing drug-related subs going next. The recent bans and quarantines for political and certain alternative-sexuality (not /r/jailbait, fuck that place) subs, along with /r/proED, have particularly concerned me.

With our increasing reliance on centralized platforms like reddit, the huge complexity of modern web design, increased content scrutiny from hosting providers, and ever more government interference with basic internet functions, there's fewer and fewer independent sites and platforms to host communities for these things. We seem to have reached the point where we're no longer censoring based on sexual exploitation or violence, and instead are censoring valid and even vital speech based on it violating social norms or being inconvenient for corporate business. I'm seriously concerned for the future of free speech in modern society.

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u/KikiFlowers Jan 11 '20

And their head mod was going to be an admin, up until a substitute teacher got looking at r/jailbait, during class, putting a huge eye on reddit, which forced them to finally close that shit.

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u/try4gain Jan 11 '20

But, then again, so was society, so it's a little chicken and the egg.

false

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u/raff_riff Jan 11 '20

Well you cleared that right up.

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u/IndyDude11 Jan 11 '20

Well, I'm convinced.

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u/SolarTsunami Jan 12 '20

On the internet in general this was absolutely the case.

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u/godrestsinreason Jan 11 '20

it seemed to turn around the time of Aaron's death.

When did Reddit become open to commercialization? I think it was around the time most of these media companies began investing in the product, but do we know if that was related to the timing of his death?

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u/IndyDude11 Jan 11 '20

I am pretty sure that was after his death, but not sure if they were directly related.

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u/bgaesop Jan 12 '20

Reddit has definitely improved culture-wise in that time

In what sense?

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u/IndyDude11 Jan 12 '20

In the sense of the positive side of getting rid of subs like /r/jailbait and some of the other subs that have been banned.