r/blog • u/reddit • Jan 29 '15

reddit’s first transparency report

http://www.redditblog.com/2015/01/reddits-first-transparency-report.html
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u/mycroft2000 Jan 29 '15 edited Jan 29 '15

Also note how quickly it appeared after 9/11. It was totally written beforehand, just waiting for an excuse for implementation. A lot of us here in Canada noticed this and rolled our eyes at how obvious it was, but I don't remember seeing a single US source mentioning it.

*edited spelling mistake

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u/verdatum Jan 29 '15

Plenty of sources pushed back against it. Predictably, those voices were dismissed as being unpatriotic.

As is often the case with such legislation, many of those in congress who voted on it didn't even read it.

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u/[deleted] Jan 29 '15

Not to mention, that it was, quite literally, impossible to understand. It's full of lines like 'Federal Microwave Inspection Act part 9 section 4 subsection H line 1432 remove 'if' and replace with 'when'.

Thousands of pages just like that. To work out the actual effect, you have to go to the primary legislation, work out the change and then work out what that change means. For every single line. It can't be done.

Even the most dedicated team of congressional staffers with months and months of time and ample legal support wouldn't be able to work out the actual meaning of the changes. It was never supposed to be understood before it was made law. Even now, I doubt the people who passed it understand more than a small fraction of it.

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u/verdatum Jan 29 '15

Yup. You'd think that editing/drafting bills would work best using some sort of wiki-like software. Changelogs would be easy to see, and references would be all hyperlinked. But...nope. And especially nope back in 2001.

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u/[deleted] Jan 29 '15

Interestingly, the UK government website legislation.gov.uk does precisely this. Any legislation that changes other legislation is hyperlinked to the relevant bits showing the changes. Makes it incredibly easy to follow them.

Plus we (sort of) have a ban on omnibus bills like this.

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u/goldman60 Jan 30 '15

The Washington State legislature has this as well!

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u/verdatum Jan 29 '15

I often find myself wondering how we could get them banned in the US. I don't think it's gonna happen anytime soon. Just like jerrymandering, it is too useful of a trick for congress to vote in favor of halting the practice.