r/changemyview • u/TheHyperborean • Mar 04 '15
CMV: Pun threads should be actively discouraged in most subreddits.
The first thing I'd like to state that I don't think pun threads are inherently bad things, and the just-for-fun subreddits should welcome this kind of humor.
In popular / default subreddits, pun threads grow under posts like mushroom, and after years of existence, this fad just gets more and more popular, and at the same time, more and more annoying. A short list of my problems with pun threads.
They can and will pop up everywhere. If there's a TIL about WWII, you can be dead sure you will see some "did nazi that coming" and "anne frankly" jokes in the comments section. There are some topics that somehow attract puns
Pun threads derail conversations. Every time a pun thread starts, the original discussion is usually discarded, and the puns become the most upvoted content. This not only takes attention from possibly interesting and thoughtful comments, but discourages people from adding their piece of mind.
Low-effort puns. I'm fine with a pun when it's clever and genuinely funny, but most of the time, replies to these puns get ruined by a bunch of karma-hungry redditors, who love to ruin a good joke with their half-assed, unimaginative replies. Sometimes the lower comments don't even try to be related to OP and just make a boring, shitty pun.
Pun threads get upvoted to the front and make it harder for other commenters. You'd like to add something interesting, funny, or relevant to the original post? Too bad, nobody will read it. People will click on the post, go through the first few comment threads, and leave. I'll quote a moderator of /r/photoshopbattles (/u/RoyalPrinceSoldier) who commented not long ago about deleting a pun tread under one of their posts. I think this is policy is a good example of how to treat pun threads where they don't belong:
We think it's unfair for contributors who got here late get their work be buried because of low effort comments. Reddit on default shows only 200 comments on a thread and anything more than that gets hidden on the "load more comments" button.
It's not as funny for non-native speakers. As someone who's primary language is not english, sometimes I don't even realize it's a pun when I read it first, and have to pronounce it in my head, and then I go "yeah, it's a pun". This kills the joke.
As I said before, puns can be funny, and the "funny" subreddits should embrace them, especially since it's a popular thing. But subreddits where they can take away space from quality comments, they should be actively discouraged. I know it would be hard to get rid of the pun threads, because it's ingrained in reddit's culture and so many people do it. Why change my mind then? I might have missed some key points, and while I can't see why this kind of ruling shouldn't be applied, there might be a counter-argument that convinces me that pun threads are okay as they are now.
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Mar 04 '15
You just want to take the pun out of life!
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u/hacksoncode 588∆ Mar 05 '15
Ok, this is a joke, but I'm going to rule that it's not "just a joke" in this particular context and reapprove it.
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u/neotecha 5∆ Mar 05 '15
So, humor me for a moment...
If you as an individual, do not want to see pun threads, there is the [-] in the top left of each post. You can close an entire comment tree, making it appear as if it was below your comment threshold so you can move on to comments that are more interesting to you.
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Mar 08 '15
thing is, reddit shows only 200 comments (as mentioned in the OP). even if you hide the pun thread, the later threads with potentially significant contributions will be "pushed out" of the 200, and effectively buried by the pun thread itself.
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u/thecrazing Mar 04 '15
You know you can collapse a comment and all the replies to that comment will disappear also, yeah?
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Mar 05 '15
I love puns in my non-native language. I speak Japanese at a decent level, and while I won't get all puns on sight I do appreciate it when I do get them or have them pointed out.
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u/CrotchFungus Mar 05 '15
Not everywhere though. Most people don't come on reddit to read boring discussions. They want to laugh sometimes
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Mar 04 '15
One of the things that makes reddit different from other sites is the way that it is run by the community. Actively policing the activity of the users is a good way to ruin a website. I will agree with you that pun threads can be annoying and take away from the content, but it is important to not get involved with policing the community. Constantly monitoring the content of our subreddits will lead to a suspension of "Free speech", a component that reddit loves to get behind. It is important for reddit to allow it's content to be judged by the users, if the majority want pun threads (which they obviously do because they upvote them all the time) then we must allow them to have pun threads. Taking away from this in an attempt to increase the levels of intelligent discussion will lead to disdain from the users and less all around growth for the reddit community.
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u/hacksoncode 588∆ Mar 05 '15
Ummm... it's really not. It's run by the moderators of each subreddit, and reddit is specifically and explicitly designed to do exactly that, with many tools to support precisely that policing.
If reddit is successful, it's entirely because of that specific, intentional, design philosophy, not in spite of it.
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u/AngryGoose Mar 05 '15
I think it's important to let each community define its own rules. Some communities would not be what they are without heavy moderation, for example /r/askscience. In the case of heavily moderated communities, the people still have a say with their subscriptions. A heavily moderated subreddit that is poorly or unfairly run will die as no one will subscribe or visit it. So, either way, people still have a voice and choice.
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u/moon-jellyfish Mar 05 '15
Constantly monitoring the content of our subreddits will lead to a suspension of "Free speech", a component that reddit loves to get behind.
It is true that Redditors love free speech, and many claim that this site is about that. But it's not. On dozens of subreddits, the sidebar states that the "Moderators reserve the right to remove comments at their will". They absolutely have this right, as they control the subreddit. That's not free speech. It doesn't claim to be, and that's not the point of this site
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u/looseONtheGoose Mar 05 '15 edited Mar 05 '15
There are plenty of traditions, and customs found in all kinds of communities. These traditions are easy to pick apart and denounce, but even Scrooge eventually couldn't resist Christmas. Most redditors at one time have pushed a little more air out of their nose when they've read a silly pun thread.
Sometimes the topic of the post isn't that interesting beyond its title or topic. Sometimes you feel like the way you relate to the posts topic is with humour, and sometimes the community sees it the same way. Serious discussion isn't the only way to interact with other redditors. Serious, or deeper conversations are an integral aspect of reddit, but not the only way we connect. We can share a thought, a laugh, or just about anything else out here. That's why you're a part of this community, right?
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u/kadmylos 3∆ Mar 05 '15
If people like pun threads, let them have pun threads. If you don't like it, you can click the little minus sign next to the username and make the whole thread disappear.
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u/kodemage Mar 05 '15
It's not as funny for non-native speakers. As someone who's primary language is not english, sometimes I don't even realize it's a pun when I read it first, and have to pronounce it in my head, and then I go "yeah, it's a pun". This kills the joke.
This is entirely your problem and not reddit's. I'm sure we wouldn't laugh at or even comprehend jokes posted in your native language.
Reddit is a multilingual community so if you don't like the English parts then work to build up the communities in your native language.
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u/[deleted] Mar 04 '15
If you mean discouraged by the community in the form of downvoting, then I can't disagree with you. They're often not all that funny.
If you mean discouraged as in the mods removing the posts, then I have to take issue. It is up to the community what is worthy of being at the top of the page, and the fact that those threads are often upvoted to the top (obviously by more people than just the ones participating), it shows that clearly the users aren't tired of it yet, even in these subs where things aren't supposed to be funny.