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Let's talk content. AMA. (self.announcements)

spez[A] が 投稿

We started Reddit to be—as we said back then with our tongues in our cheeks—“The front page of the Internet.” Reddit was to be a source of enough news, entertainment, and random distractions to fill an entire day of pretending to work, every day. Occasionally, someone would start spewing hate, and I would ban them. The community rarely questioned me. When they did, they accepted my reasoning: “because I don’t want that content on our site.”

As we grew, I became increasingly uncomfortable projecting my worldview on others. More practically, I didn’t have time to pass judgement on everything, so I decided to judge nothing.

So we entered a phase that can best be described as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. This worked temporarily, but once people started paying attention, few liked what they found. A handful of painful controversies usually resulted in the removal of a few communities, but with inconsistent reasoning and no real change in policy.

One thing that isn't up for debate is why Reddit exists. Reddit is a place to have open and authentic discussions. The reason we’re careful to restrict speech is because people have more open and authentic discussions when they aren't worried about the speech police knocking down their door. When our purpose comes into conflict with a policy, we make sure our purpose wins.

As Reddit has grown, we've seen additional examples of how unfettered free speech can make Reddit a less enjoyable place to visit, and can even cause people harm outside of Reddit. Earlier this year, Reddit took a stand and banned non-consensual pornography. This was largely accepted by the community, and the world is a better place as a result (Google and Twitter have followed suit). Part of the reason this went over so well was because there was a very clear line of what was unacceptable.

Therefore, today we're announcing that we're considering a set of additional restrictions on what people can say on Reddit—or at least say on our public pages—in the spirit of our mission.

These types of content are prohibited [1]:

  • Spam
  • Anything illegal (i.e. things that are actually illegal, such as copyrighted material. Discussing illegal activities, such as drug use, is not illegal)
  • Publication of someone’s private and confidential information
  • Anything that incites harm or violence against an individual or group of people
  • Anything that harasses, bullies, or abuses an individual or group of people (these behaviors intimidate others into silence)
  • Sexually suggestive content featuring minors

There are other types of content that are specifically classified:

  • Adult content must be flagged as NSFW (Not Safe For Work). Users must opt into seeing NSFW communities. This includes pornography, which is difficult to define, but you know it when you see it.
  • Similar to NSFW, another type of content that is difficult to define, but you know it when you see it, is the content that violates a common sense of decency. This classification will require a login, must be opted into, will not appear in search results or public listings, and will generate no revenue for Reddit.

We've had the NSFW classification since nearly the beginning, and it's worked well to separate the pornography from the rest of Reddit. We believe there is value in letting all views exist, even if we find some of them abhorrent, as long as they don’t pollute people’s enjoyment of the site. Separation and opt-in techniques have worked well for keeping adult content out of the common Redditor’s listings, and we think it’ll work for this other type of content as well.

No company is perfect at addressing these hard issues. We’ve spent the last few days here discussing and agree that an approach like this allows us as a company to repudiate content we don’t want to associate with the business, but gives individuals freedom to consume it if they choose. This is what we will try, and if the hateful users continue to spill out into mainstream reddit, we will try more aggressive approaches. Freedom of expression is important to us, but it’s more important to us that we at reddit be true to our mission.

[1] This is basically what we have right now. I’d appreciate your thoughts. A very clear line is important and our language should be precise.

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[–]justcool393 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Hi everyone answering these questions. I have a "few" questions that I, like probably most of reddit would like answers to. Like a recent AMA I asked questions in, the bold will be the meat of the question, and the non-bolded will be context. If you don't know an answer to a question, say so, and do so directly! Honesty is very much appreciated. With that said, here goes.

Content Policy

  1. What is the policy regarding content that has distasteful speech, but not harassing? Some subreddits have been known to harbor ideologies such as Nazism or racist ones. Are users, and by extension subreddits, allowed to behave in this way, or will this be banned or censored?

    1. What is the policy regarding, well, these subreddits? These subreddits are infamous on reddit as a whole. These usually come up during AskReddit threads of "where would you not go" or whenever distasteful subreddits are mentioned.
    2. What actually is the harassment policy? Yes, I know the definition that's practically copypasta from the announcement, but could we have examples? You don't have to define a hard rule, in fact, it'd probably be best if there was a little subjectivity to avoid lawyering, but it'd be helpful to have an example.
    3. What are your thoughts on some people's interpretation of the rules as becoming a safe-space? A vocal group of redditors interpreted the new harassment rules as this, and as such are not happy about it. I personally didn't read the rules that way, but I can see how it may be interpreted that way.

  2. Do you have any plans to update the rules page? It, at the moment, has 6 rules, and the only one that seems to even address the harassment policy is rule 5, which is at best reaching in regards to it.

  3. What is the best way to report harassment? For example, should we use /r/reddit.com's modmail or the contact@reddit.com email? How long should we wait before bumping a modmail, for example? 6. Who is allowed to report harassment? Say I'm a moderator, and decide to check a user's history and see they've followed around another user to 20 different subreddits posting the same thing or whatnot. Should I report it to the admins?

Brigading

  1. In regards to subreddits for mocking another group, what is the policy on them? Subreddits that highlight other places being stupid or whatever, such as /r/ShitRedditSays, /r/SRSsucks, the "Badpire", /r/Buttcoin or pretty much any sub dedicated to mocking people frequently brigade each other and other places on reddit. SRS has gone out of it's way to harass in the past, and while bans may not be applied retroactively, some have recently said they've gotten death threats after being linked to from there.

  2. What are the current plans to address brigading? Will reddit ever support NP (and maybe implement it) or implement another way to curb brigading? This would solve very many problems in regards to meta subreddits.

    1. Is this a good definition of brigading, and if not, what is it? Many mods and users can't give a good explanation of it at the moment of what constitutes it. This forces them to resort to in SubredditDrama's case, banning voting or commenting altogether in linked threads, or in ShitRedditSays' case, not do anything at all.

Related

  1. What is spam? Like yes, we know what obvious spam is, but there have been a number of instances in the past where good content creators have been banned for submitting their content.
    1. Regarding the ["Neither Alexis or I created reddit to be a bastion of free speech" comment][1], how do you feel about [this][2], this, this or this? I do get that opinions change and that I could shit turds that could search reddit better than it does right now, but it's not hard to see that you said on multiple occasions, especially during the /r/creepshots debacle, even with the literal words "bastion of free speech".
    2. How do you plan to implement the new policy? If the policy is substantially more restrictive, such as combating racism or whatnot, I think you'll have a problem in the long run, because there is just way too much content on reddit, and it will inevitably be applied very inconsistently. Many subreddits have popped back up under different names after being banned.
    3. Did you already set the policy before you started the AMA, and if so, what was the point of it? It seems like from the announcement, you had already made up your mind about the policy regarding content on reddit, and this has made some people understandably upset.
  2. Do you have anything else to say regarding the recent events? I know this has been stressful, but reddit is a cool place and a lot of people use it to share neat (sometimes untrue, but whatever) experiences and whatnot. I don't think the vast majority of people want reddit to implode on itself, but some of the recent decisions and remarks made by the admin team (and former team to be quite honest) are quite concerning. [1]: http://np.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/3dautm/ [2]: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/02/reddit-co-founder-alexis-ohanians-rosy-outlook-on-the-future-of-politics/3/

[–]MovkeyB 12ポイント13ポイント  (1子コメント)

As a black man, I came to Reddit because it was a bastion of free speech. It was a place where I could come and be judged on the quality of what I had to say - not the person who said it. It was a place where new ideas could be born, because nobody was afraid of expressing their honest thoughts, opinions, and theories. From what I've seen, SJWs want to destroy that. They care more about who you are than what you say, and if you're not a trans-woman genderqueer attack helicoptor feminist, your ideas don't count.

As a black man, I hate /r/coontown , but I would defend to my death their right to speak freely. /u/spez, What will you do to ensure that reddit remains a free and open platform for everyone?

[–]Aaragon 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Hey /u/spez and all.

A brief background on myself, I really don't like getting into site politics. Whether it be what's not allowed, or what is allowed. So long as I can find entertaining links and great conversation there's not a whole lot out of reddit I really want.

So when I saw the announcement post where it looked like the reddit admin team flat out lied to everyone. A lot of people hav said that they think it's because of ad revenue, and frankly I don't care if it is. I'm sure you all work really hard, and would like to actually get paid for it. Given all the fun and great conversations I've had on this site, you all deserve it for goodness sakes.

My question is if we're ever going to trust each other, or do you all beleive throwing wool over our eyes is the only way to run this business?

I apologize if any of this comes off as rude or harsh. Some things can't be said on reddit as it is a public forum, I get that. I just would like an answer to if there is going to be more transparency with the decisions made on this site.

[–]GodOfAtheism 3ポイント4ポイント  (1子コメント)

What about SRS?

[–]davidreiss666 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

The best run subreddit communities are the ones that have mod-teams that enforce the rules and don't allow any hate-speech and other bullshit.

For example, /r/Science does not allow bullshit opinions that aren't scientifically valid. Either as submissions or comments. So, they will ban you for creationism, anti-vaccine BS and climate change denial as these are all views that are backed by all the world scientific community. In short, they want everyone to know that /r/Science is scientifically accurate. The same goes for other science based communties on Reddit such as /r/AskScience and /r/Biology.

Likewise, /r/History and other history-based subredits like /r/HistoryPorn, /r/AskHistorians and /r/BadHistory don't allow history-denial. So, things like Holocaust denial, Lost Cause of the Confederacy propaganda, Ancient Aliens crap, Neo Nazis, White Supremacy and other total bullshit views will get you banned.

There is a large problem with hate-based groups that are trying to colonize (their word) Reddit in their attempt to spread their views. Hate based groups like: White Supremacists, Neo Nazis, Skinheads, Holocaust Deniers, Extreme Misogynists, Homophobes, Racists who view all Muslims as terrorists, Extreme Racists, etc. It's a large number of groups, and there is a massive amount of overlap between these subgroups.

These radical nuts run subreddits like: /r/CoonTown, r/GreatApes, /r/European, /r/Holocaust (holocaust deniers), /r/TheRedPill, /r/KotakuInAction, etc.

Right now, /r/CoonTown almost gets as much traffic as stormfront.org. And that's not including the traffic from all the other racist shithole subreddits. That spike in traffic is the Dylan Roof shooting, and the extra traffic seems to have staying power considering they picked up 4,000 subscribers in two days and another 1k at least since.

If they don't take care of it, reddit will soon have the dubious honor of being the most active white supremacist forum on the the Internet.

Hate Speech should not be a profit center for Reddit, or any other corporation. If the admins don't want to take the lead on this, then hopefully one or more media outlets will start pick up on it and force the Admins to deal with it.

Another point that largely gets ignored in this debate: Non-racists generally don't want to hang out with racists. Racist and hate-group users generally strive to drive out the non-racist users.

Everybody has a story about the racist family member that they only see once a year at some family gathering, and we all dread running into that family member. We really don't want to hang out, even for a short amount of time, with that person. Well, when it comes to family we make sacrifices, so we (1) try and only talk about the weather or sports with them and (2) are very thankful it's for only one-hour a year. But when it comes to non-family, you don't make the same allowances. We just cut those people out of our lives.

Bad users will drive out good users. And then more bad users will be attracted to this site. And it will become a bad-user reinforcement-cycle with more and more bad users driving out, they hope, all the good users. These groups even know this, and count on the non-racists leaving. It's why they use terms like Colonizing, as they are actively attempted to take the entire site over. That is their goal. They are not interested in undirected discussion with anyone. They want to control the narrative and how any discussion happens. They are actively trying to turn young people who aren't already racist bigots into more racist bigots. If you allow them to run wild, 90% of the good users will leave. And what's left will simply be a Storm Front members wet dream.

Paul Graham mentions this issue with bad users in this essay.

Other web sites like Twitter, Facebook and Google+ have taken to dealing with racist hate groups. It's high time that Reddit did the same.

I also want to address the BS that some limits on free speech are inherently bad. Because the only country that really thinks free speech means "Anything Goes, including extreme bigotry" is the United States. But other nations, such as Germany, France, the UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Italy, etc. place some limits on "Free Speech" via bans on things like Holocaust denial. Now..... I'm sorry, but you can't tell me Germany or Canada is any less free than the United States. The reason the Germans don't allow open-Nazis into the political debate in their country is that they tried it once. It ended badly.

In short, you don't allow these people a foot hold because their goal is to make Reddit into a hate-propaganda site. Hopefully the admins are finally going to do something about these groups. It's high time the admins took action.

[–]AdamColligan 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

  1. Different rules for behavior, popular behavior, or organized behavior?: A fundamental fact about reddit is that it encourages visibility and participation from large numbers of people in otherwise obscure situations. When you make rules to limit your behavior, will your philosophy be: (a) each user's actions are either against the rules or not? ... (b) a user's allowed actions can become against the rules if enough other users are also acting the same way? ... or (c) a user's allowed actions can become against the rules if they are part of a large enough group, but only if the user is actively organizing or being organized by others in the group? If (b), will there be some warning to the 500th user that she cannot pile on to what the first 499 have done spontaneously? If (c), how do you practically distinguish between linking to some outrageous reddit post or news story (core to the site's purpose) and "organizing" a downvote brigade or harrassment campaign?

  2. Public vs. private people, or just public vs. private information ?: Will the rules for how reddit is used to encourage or organize people to contact, lobby, protest, etc. depend on the identity of the person or people on the receiving end, with some "on limits" and some "off limits"? Or does the site simply ban certain types of behavior or the posting of certain types of contact information, regardless of the subject?

  3. Collaborative platform: Will you post site rules and other relevant documents on GitHub? Let pull request submissions be an ongoing opportunity rather than something for special consultation moments.

  4. Consistent format: Will you consider a more standardized scheme for moderators to use to indicate what is allowed or not in a given subreddit? Rules should always appear in the same place. Each sub's tolerance or ban on a few behaviors should be listed on every sub. And there should be more tags for subs and/or posts along the lines of the successful "NSFW" and "SERIOUS" tags, which have become terms everyone understands.

  5. Admins and sub policies: Can you clarify the role, if any, of admins in creating or enforcing subreddit-specific rules that are not site-wide? For example: (a) Will admins directly help mods enforce sub-specific rules when standard tools can't handle a situation? (b) Will admins impose rules from above on some subs but not others, such as a ban on some subs being taken private or deleted by their mods? (c) Will admins be an avenue of appeal for users who object to moderator action/inaction on sub-specific rules? (d) Do any of the above depend on admins' judgment about whether moderators' rules or decisions are good ones?

  6. Site-wide rules interpretation: local or unified?: Since mods are required to enforce site-wide rules, do you intend to have admins intervene or settle disputes/appeals in order to standardize this enforcement? Or will different subs be places that not only have different custom rules but also different interpretations of the site-wide rules?

  7. Appeal/support panels?: If admin resources are stretched too thin, would you consider Wikipedia-style panels of mods to handle complaints or appeals on certain issues? Mod-mod and mod-admin interaction is already becoming more orgnaized and formalized.

  8. History visibility: Are you prioritizing the development of site functionality that allows users to view their entire post history as well as any data being kept about their site use? This is crucial to helping users understand what can be known or inferred about them, especially if they intend to be anonymous but are eventually at risk of being "outed".

  9. Rule precision: Would you consider choosing more precise terms or descriptions rather than ambiguous or contested ones in the harrassment policy (like "safe"), even if it makes a policy statement longer or less conversational in tone?

  10. Six degrees of personal information: reddit clearly tolerates user accounts that identify the user himself/herself. And because The Internet, it is increasingly difficult to tell any story using any account without some breadcrumb trail that, now or in three years, could unmask the subjects. Do you think that the time has come to articulate more precisely what the ban on personal information means in this environment? There is a huge gray space between -- on the one hand -- publishing an organized doxxing and -- on the other hand -- telling every interesting or unique story with a new throwaway account while also changing not only the names but most or all of the important facts in a Quixotic attempt to make it impossible to recognize through careful research or another user's personal connection. Will your rule revisions give some better idea of what lengths the site wants users to go to here?

[–]MrCaboose96[🍰] 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

Mr Huffman,

First off, thank you for doing this AMA. On Tuesday, you said:

Neither Alexis nor I created reddit to be a bastion of free speech, but rather as a place where open and honest discussion can happen[...]

In this Forbes article from 2012, Alexis responds to a question about what the founding fathers would have thought of Reddit by saying, "A bastion of free speech on the World Wide Web? I bet they would like it."

Can you please explain the disparity between these two comments?

Thank you.

[–]EhsAreEhs -1ポイント0ポイント  (0子コメント)

How does it feel to know that the website you co-founded is being used by some of the largest hate-groups on the internet? How do the other ~100 employees of Reddit feel about profiting off hate? Is this ever discussed at company meetings?

Just to be clear I'm not talking about shitty subs like /r/RapingWomen /r/BeatingCripples, /r/PhilosophyOfRape or even /r/CandidFashionPolice (which is a blatantly re-branded /r/CreepShots).

There are actual organized hate groups operating on Reddit. The worst being /r/CoonTown, part of "The Chimpire" which have been extensively written up by the SPLC. The total traffic to this network of hate subs dwarfs more old-fashioned hate websites like Stormfront. Legacy white power websites like The Daily Stormer are taking notice and their members are flocking to Reddit to expand their movements: "Reddit is Fertile Ground for Recruitment".

Racism isn't the only issue, Reddit has a problem with groups targeting women. /r/MensRights have been identified by the SPLC as a misogynist group. Their sidebar links to the notorious A Voice For Men website run by Paul "Bash a Violent Bitch Month" Elam. Reddit also hosts the main hub of the Gamer Gate campaign at /r/KotakuInaction, which has been described by the New York Times as "a campaign to discredit or intimidate outspoken critics of the male-dominated gaming industry". Not to mention /r/TheRedPill, a sub dedicated to sharing strategies for date-rape and spousal abuse (Salon article).

[–]FlopFaceFred 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

First they came for r/jailbait, and I did not speak out—

Because child porn is illegal and I didn't want to go to jail.

Then they came for r/fatpeoplehate, and I did not speak out—

Because I didn't want to bare the wrath of r/SRS.

Then they came for u/chooter and I didn't speak out— Because I was not u/chooter.

Then they came for r/cutedeadgirls AND WE DECLARED WAR!

I mean, if I can't hate fat/black/gay people while fantasizing about cute dead girls and looking at child porn why do I even come ot reddit?

We need to r/firespez!

Sincerely,

the r/firespez mod team

[–]mach-2 -2ポイント-1ポイント  (0子コメント)

/u/spez, /u/kn0thing

Are you going to push the button?

Reddit is on its way to being one of if not the most trafficked forum in the world. It is considered the front page of the internet both literally and metaphorically. I love reddit . I have met awesome people on here. I cannot deny that fact. I have learned so much from here. I have wasted more time here than I should have yet strangely, I would not be the current man I am without Reddit. You've stated time and time again that your intent was not for a completely free speech website. Alexis has stated otherwise in the past. In your absence, the previous C.E.O(/u/yishan) upheld the "free speech" mantra.

Unfortunately, in order for freedom of speech to be in effect, there had to be interaction. That is the very essence of speech. To interact. To elucidate. To that end, it also involves the freedom of hate. There is no way to soften the reality of the situation. There's a plethora of infections on the various arms of this website. And it's spread so much so that there has to be an amputation. This is not a fix. This is the first step to recovery. There is a seriously broken and dangerous attitude being fostered under the banner of free speech. The common argument has always been about "quarantining" the hate groups to their subs. But that has failed woefully. A cross pollination of bigotry was the inevitable outcome. The inmates run the asylum. There is a festering undertow of white supremacist/anti-woman/homophobic culture ever present on this website.

The venn diagram of those clamoring for completely unmitigated "free speech" and those looking for an audience to proselytize about their hate groups is a circle. One oscillating circle that has swarmed the "front page" of your website. That is not to say every proponent of free speech is a racist/sexist bigot. That is to say that every racist/sexist bigot ON REDDIT is a proponent of unmoderated thunderdome style free speech. There is a common belief that Redditors make accounts in order to unsubscribe from the default subreddits. What does that say about the state of your website when the default communities are brimming with toxicity and hatred? What does that say about the "front page of the internet' where the toxic miasma of hatred is the very essence for which it is known for?

Day in day out, your website gets featured on media outlets for being the epicenter of some misogynistic, racist and utterly pigheaded scandal. From Anderson Cooper and the jailbait fiasco to the fappening to Ellen Pao's(/u/ekjp) most recent online lynching. This website is in a lot of trouble, packed tight in a hate fueled propellant heading at light speed towards a brick wall of an irreparable shit tier reputation. If left unchecked, your website will become a radioactive wasteland to the very celebs and advertisers you are trying to attract. But it's not too late. Only you can stop it. This is your watershed moment.

Diplomacy has failed. There is no compromise. That ship has sailed and found natives. From fatpeoplehate to coontown to the ever present talisman of "chan culture" reactionary bollocks. These groups have shown time and time again that they are willing to lash out, disrupt and poison any community they set their sights on. The pictures comparing Ellen Pao to Chairman mao or the racist rhetoric against her ethnicity did not come from outside. They came from and were propelled by the very loud crowd of bigots hiding behind the free speech proponents on this private website.

The basement of hate subs is no longer a containment. It's a lounge with a beacon. There is no "exchange of ideas/honest discussion" going on. There is only a podium for whatever crank pundit can present the warm milk to the default redditor about the encroachment of the omniscient millennial "social justice warriors/bleeding heart liberals". That's why subs like /r/shitredditsays draw more ire than literal white supremacist hubs like /r/coontown and /r/beatingniggers.

That's why this website was basically unusable when fatpeoplehate got banned. And that scab peels and bleeds over the front page anytime a person with any combination of...( Arab , Roma, Asian, Brown, Black, Female, Feminist, Gay, Indian, Muslim, Native or Progressive in some form or the other.) You say there is a very loud minority doing all this. Then it seems like it's time to take out the fucking trash. You want free flow of ideas, there's a couple of ways to go about this... Firstly

MODERATION, MODERATORS, THE FAULTS & THE DEFAULTS: The impending moderator tools are supposed to help moderators I presume? What about squatting inactive top moderators who let these default communities become the festering piles of toxicity that they are? Shouldn't the default moderators be held accountable? If you are going to tacitly advertise subreddits as the "default face of Reddit", you might want to make sure that face is acne free and not hidden behind a klan hood. If someone is going to moderate a place called /r/videos, is such a generalized community not supposed to be publicly inviting and not some springboard for the latest stormfront and anti-feminist bait video?

What happens if you create a check and balance to rejuvenate the idle mods whose sole purposes are to squat on places like /r/pics and /r/funny and /r/videos and claim to be "moderators" while doing nothing whatsoever? They demand tools from you. It's high time you demand right back. Places like /r/science are top quality precisely because they are moderated. Places like /r/pics and /r/videos become klan rallies precisely because they are not. You have to deal with those responsible for leaving the flood gates open. Why wouldnt 150,000 people feel perfectly fine to create a sub called fatpeopplehate and basically flood the "front page of the internet"?

The current defaults are over run with this toxic reactionary internet based hate groups. Places like /r/videos, /r/news, /r/pics , /r/funny and even /r/dataisbeautiful and /r/todayilearned are completely unrecognizable hubs of antebellum style 17th century phrenological debates about the degeneracy of women, gays and minorities. The recent Ellen Pao lynch mob is a perfect example of that. She was called a cunt and then Chairman Pao and then things like "ching chong" got tossed around. It's high time you drag them kicking and screaming to the 21st century or you decide to not have them as the defaults.

I'm a moderator of /r/offmychest. We banned outright bigotry and hatred against any group of protected classes. People revolted when they could no longer make threads about how much they hated blacks or muslims or women. The sub is still thriving and growing. We banned users of Fatpeoplehate and yet we are still around after a mere two days of their supposed revolt.

SHADOWBANNING , IP BANNING & CENSORSHIP A.K.A Captain Ahab and the slippery slope: Regardless of what you do today, people are going to accuse you of some form of censorship or the other. This is your house. This is your creation. They are squatters here. If they don't abide by the rules, it is your prerogative to grab them by the scuff and deport them. You have a hate based network called the "chimpire" which is a coagulation of the various hate subs on this website.

This is the Chimpire: /r/Apefrica /r/apewrangling /r/BlackCrime /r/BlackFathers /r/BlackHusbands /r/chicongo /r/ChimpireMETA /r/ChimpireOfftopic /r/chimpmusic /r/Chimpout /r/Detoilet /r/didntdonuffins /r/funnyniggers /r/gibsmedat /r/GreatApes /r/JustBlackGirlThings /r/muhdick /r/N1GGERS /r/NegroFree /r/NiggerCartoons /r/NiggerDocumentaries /r/NiggerDrama /r/NiggerFacts /r/niggerhistorymonth /r/NiggerMythology /r/NiggersGIFs /r/NiggersNews /r/niggerspics /r/niggersstories /r/NiggersTIL /r/niggervideos /r/niglets /r/RacistNiggers /r/ShitNiggersSay /r/teenapers /r/TheRacistRedPill /r/TNB /r/TrayvonMartin /r/USBlackCulture /r/WatchNiggersDie /r/WorldStarHP /r/WTFniggers

Reddit has been called a fertile ground for recruitment by literal nazi's. Coontown currently has activity rivalling stromfront which since its founding in 1995 by a former Alabama Klan leader. The Southern Poverty Law Center calls reddit “a worse black hole of violent racism than Stormfront,” documenting at least 46 active subreddits devoted to white supremacy like /r/CoonTown.

Will banning hate subs solve the problem? No. But it's a goddamn good place to start. These hateful hives have lost the privilege accorded to them by your complacence and an atlas shrugged musical version of free speech. They do not deserve to have a platform of hate in the form of Reddit. The whole world is watching you at this moment. So where do we go from here? What question do you think you will be asked other than this? The man is here and that man is you.

It used to be folk wisdom to cut the head off a snake and burn the wound to prevent it from growing back. The days of the wild west have come and gone. It was funny. The frenzy. The fiends. The fire and brimstone. You're the new sheriff. As the media would have it, the default reddit face is someone in a klan hood who hates women and supports pedophilia in some form or the other. It is an unfortunate stereotype that seems to be passed around as some sort of penance for "free speech".

It is unfair to the straight white males who have no hand in promoting such an outlook. It is unfair to the women and minorities looking for a place to have enriching discussions. It is unfair to you and your team of admins to be denigrated relentlessly. So I put it to you once more...

Steve, Alexis, are you going to push the button?

[–]urdle 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Hello /u/spez, I though about posting a long question about reddit's change of heart when it comes to free speech rather I have decided against it.

In your previous post, you claimed we as a community need to decide what our values are. I propose this: Honesty.

So my questions are this:

is reddit still in the red?

If so, who is paying the bills?

And are these changes prompted by them?

Thank you.

[–]KaliYugaz -1ポイント0ポイント  (0子コメント)

Thanks for doing this AMA, Mr. Huffman. I'm going to go ahead and ask a primarily theoretical question here: What exactly is your comprehensive, coherent vision for what you want this site to be?

The admins seem to be finally aware now, at least, that Rousseau was Wrong, people are not inherently good when allowed to be absolutely free, and it is not possible for Reddit to exist as a lawless scoundrel infested free-for-all and still be useable for any constructive purpose. So far that's a great start, you've told us what you don't want Reddit to be like. But more importantly, you haven't told us what you do want Reddit to be, and how that theoretical vision will determine your content policy moving forwards.

What, in your opinion, is the basic principle or point of Reddit? The basic point of Western governments is to ensure individual liberty, equality, and self governance for their citizens. The basic point of free markets is to distribute and allocate resources efficiently. Similarly what is the point of this site?

Do you just want something that can be easily monetized? If so, then you would have to ban not just the hate but also all the politics and the controversial stuff and the metasphere and the less tasteful porn, place the site under highly centralized control, emphasize the defaults and large subs, and thereby convert Reddit into a fluff click bait and cat picture factory like Buzzfeed. It's a tried and true business model by now.

Or would you rather Reddit be known primarily as a place for high-level, sophisticated discussion, expression, and learning about science, academics, art, media, and politics? If that's what you want, then you absolutely must foster the proper site wide environment to encourage quality expression and discussion. Stuff like hate speech, disruption, incivility, and bullying certainly cannot be allowed, since they have a chilling effect on artistic expression and on open and rational discourse. Furthermore, mods will need strong tools to remove content that is deemed by experts to be factually incorrect beyond reasonable doubt. Experts themselves will have to be encouraged to join the site in order to enrich it.

Or do you want Reddit to be a libertarian "place for communities" where anyone can make a sub and do whatever they want with it? If that's the case, then you will have to put stringent rules in place to protect the fundamental principle of the absolute sovereignty of a subreddit's mods and subscribers over their subreddit, which would entail strictly enforcing brigading control, strengthening mod tools for subreddit management, and playing an active role in negotiating peace between sub communities that hate each other. The admins also can't violate the basic principle of sovereignty by banning or regulating communities if they're just sharing offensive content amongst themselves, which means that a certain level of nastiness (though not the blatant hate group evangelism that we have now) would have to be tolerated and strictly contained to its own space.

I've just given you 3 distinct visions for the site that I came up with myself (personally, I hate the 1st, favor the 2nd, and don't mind the 3rd). Now I want to hear what ideas you have, in similar form and in as much detail as possible.

[–]flossdaily 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Forgive this long post. I promise it will end in a question. But I want to make my position very clear:

I, for one, think we ought to embrace censorship.

Let’s get rid of all the clearly hateful subreddits.

/r/coontown has to go, obviously. And of course /r/Israel too, because of how they talk about Palestinians. Then /r/Palestine would have to go, because of how they talk about the Jews.

And since we’re protecting the Jews, it’s only fair to protect the Christians. So obviously, /r/atheism has to be banned. But, let’s be reasonable about this… atheists deserve protection too, so we’ve got to shut down /r/Christianity as well. In fact, we should probably forbid all the religious subreddits, just to be safe.

You know, now that I’m thinking about it, it really wasn’t fair to get rid of the white supremacy subreddit while allowing r/blackpower to stay. And for that matter, we should get rid of /r/blackpeopletwitter because it is just overflowing with racial stereotypes.

We’ve got to deal with the chronic misogyny on reddit as well, so /r/mensrights has to go. If those people want to spread their propaganda about male rape victims, or inequality in the family court system, let them take it to some other site.

Let’s not be naïve, though. Getting rid to these subreddits isn’t enough to keep the site clean. We need a policy to get to the heart of the problem: censoring the submissions and comments themselves. We could have language filters to get rid of unpleasant words, and must, must, must silence hateful people.

I’m not sure what we should do about Donald Trump and other politicians who say hateful things. Banning their supporters’ subreddits right out seems a bit heavy handed. Maybe we should just lock those subreddits down by making them private. In fact, let’s make all political speech opt-in only.

On to sex and pornography: Wow, this is a difficult topic. I mean… the sexy subreddits where people are wearing skimpy clothes are okay. Even exposed breasts shouldn't be a problem… unless the woman is breastfeeding, of course. That’s clearly indecent. And it goes without saying that full frontal nudity is way too offensive for our delicate sensibilities.

We are still left with the question of naked asses. They show naked behinds on network TV sometimes, so I guess they’re okay here. But when we’ve banned everything else, won’t the frontpage just be flooded with naked butts?

So, my question is this: Do you think that people will continue to use a censored reddit when it is clearly dominated by asses?

[–]man_and_machine 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

I think it’s clear to most everyone that reddit is interested in making money. It’s what companies do. Now, the obvious ways of monetizing something like reddit are placing advertising on the website and offering a premium membership. But there are a number of problems with those methods of gaining revenue, the worst being: they’re just so boring. I mean, that’s what everyone does. Why can’t we do something actually original here? So I’ve taken the liberty of making a list of a few far more interesting ways reddit could increase their revenue:

  • Add an autocorrect feature for commenting for users with Reddit Gold

  • Add an autocorrect feature for everyone, and the ability to disable autocorrect for users with Reddit Gold

  • Bring back Reddit Mold

  • Bring back The Button. Let users pay for extra clicks. Promise an actual award for when The Button reaches zero, that grows the longer it hasn’t gone clicked.

  • Add the ability to transfer karma between accounts (not points on individual posts or comments, just overall karma). Thus, karma becomes the next digital currency!

  • Allow users to pay a fee to change their username, while keeping their account

  • Reddit Trading Cards! Akin to Steam Trading Cards, allow subreddits to create a set of trading cards. When users reach a certain amount of activity in a particular subreddit (i.e. posting, commenting, or even just voting on posts), a random trading card will drop for that subreddit, until that user has reached the drop limit for that sub. After that, users will have to either buy or trade for the other trading cards to complete the set! And then I don’t know, give them a trophy or something. Or don’t – just let them have some trading cards.

  • Let users pay to make posts more visible. I don’t mean letting people buy extra upvotes – that would work against the ranking system that helps make reddit so good. Instead, I mean literally make posts more visible, with things like larger text, bolded font, bigger thumbnails, and so on.

  • Start selling Reddit SuperGold. I don’t know what you could do with it to make it better than Reddit Gold, but I’m sure someone could think of something.

So, uhh, I was hoping that this list of interesting ideas for monetization would inspire someone else to come up with some good interesting monetization methods for reddit. Because these are terrible.

[–]bilde2910 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Hi, /u/spez, and thank you for doing this AMA regarding the upcoming content policy update. I've got a few questions that I would appreciate being answered.

Content policies are a highly controversial topic among redditors, and no matter which position you choose to take, there is bound to be a lot of drama and hate over the decision. First question, how do you intend to deal with the reaction of such a policy change? The last time this happened (banning of FPH), harassment and threats to Ellen Pao were floating around on the front page for days. Are you afraid that too many people will leave reddit to join alternative sites in order to voice their opinions without being censored?

Several subreddits are worried about whether or not their subreddit is going to be banned following the content policy update. So the next question is, where are you going to draw the line as to what content is considered acceptable, and what is considered reprehensible? How serious does the harassment have to be to call for a sub deletion? What if it is confined to a single or a few subreddits, and does not spread into other parts of the community? What if it does spread, but still remains within the boundaries of reddit? Will brigading subreddits be banned?

Next, I'm wondering about the reasoning and purpose behind the policy change. So, why do you change the policy that has been in place for over a decade? Is it for financial reasons? Is it to protect the individuals being harassed? Is it to protect reddit's reputation in the media? All of them?

Harassment subreddits have been around for a while, and some even for several years. Why have you waited until now to implement the policy changes? This surely has been a problem for you for a while, so is there any specific reason as to why this happens now, as opposed to maybe a year or two ago?

And finally: The [/r/announcements/comments/3dautm/](announcement post) has sparked a lot of controversy regarding reddit's goals as a free speech platform. You said in your announcement that:

Neither Alexis nor I created reddit to be a bastion of free speech

Yet, initially, free speech was exactly what your goal was for reddit. Why do you now say that free speech never was the intention?

Thank you in advance for answering my questions. I hope the changes turn out to be good for reddit.

[–]PhantomandaRose 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Hi u/ spez. Thank you for taking the time to answer questions. As a user who was drawn to reddit by AMAs, this feature of the site is one of my biggest concerns. u/kn0thing went on record before you were appointed CEO that admins have no intention of monetizing r/iama. Now that you're CEO, I would appreciate if that pledge were renewed by you.

Can you please clearly answer the follow questions regarding r/iama policies/content with direct answers? I anticipate a response like "we're not monetizing, but I can't give details about board discussion" or something to that effect. I understand that is normally how things are done, but reddit leadership right now is at odds with a large chunk of its userbase, and I think more transparency is warranted here.

  1. Is reddit, inc. currently under pressure from the board of directors to monetize on r/iama? If so, how demanding is the board regarding this?

  2. Has the reddit admin team ever considered capitalizing financially on r/iama? I'm talking official plans that were scrapped all the way down to batting around informal ideas that never came to fruition. If so, how recent have discussions regarding this been? If you can't answer this because of your departure from reddit, please encourage u/kn0thing or other people who would have information to weigh in.

  3. Can you, as newly appointed CEO, pledge that reddit, inc. will not implement a monetization scheme with r/iama? I asked here and here, but got no response.

  4. In a semi-related question, u/kn0thing has explained his goal of getting celebrities to participate regularly in reddit rather than just isolated AMAs. Is the push to ban offensive content part of reddit's plan to lure celebrities to reddit? I.e., make reddit noncontroversial so celebrities can avoid potential scandal? 4a. Why don't you think it would be better to poll the userbase to see if they want to make this sacrifice for a celebrity presence? 4b. Wouldn't this give celebrities a power of ultimatum over reddit, inc. E.g., Tom Cruise wants all jokes about his sexuality deleted or else he leaves forever.

Thank you for your time.

[–]ponoka 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Howdy Steve,

Just popping in to ask if you have any comments on or clarification about /u/yishan’s comment here.

While I’m here, this is my two cents on the matter: I feel like a lot of folks are assuming (and reacting accordingly, misattributed Voltaire quotes and all) that by backing down on your free speech policy, you’ll only let certain voices with particular stances occupy discussions. I strongly doubt that this is true (feel free to confirm/deny!). After all, colliding opinions and the sweet, sweet internet points that accompany them are really what make reddit worth reading! The best thing about Reddit is that it has arguably the most diverse userbase of any discussion site on the whole World Wide Web.

I’m really hoping that you do go through with kicking out all the exclusively racist, homophobic and misogynistic subreddits, and it has little to do with my ideological beliefs and a lot to do with my desire to kill time reading interesting discussions. At the end of the day, folks only here to propagate hateful content make up a small percentage of users and do lots more harm than good to reddit’s community, cluttering up comment sections on defaults and smaller subs alike with vitriolic comments chock full of ignorance that add little to actual discussion (Putting a ton of stress on mods! Remember who we’re fighting for here!) and making other users feel reasonably unwelcome, and in some situations, unsafe. Saying that keeping the darker subs around contains prejudice to that corner of the site is kinda naïve; each time a hateful comment soars to the top in a larger subreddit (which happens a lot, especially when users use the upvote button as an “agree” button), those places gain a few more subscribers that wind up contributing less and less quality content. In my opinion, getting rid of communities bound by mutual hatred will hopefully encourage bigots and trolls to leave or at least think twice before spouting B.S., ultimately improving content site-wide.

[–]Honestly_ 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Thanks for doing this AMA. A couple of concerns:

Have the admins/ex-CEOs collectively decided that the best way to move forward is to introduce WWE-style drama with these public spats between Yishan, Ellen Pao, kn0thing, etc?

It's starting to harken back to when Vince McMahon stopped pretending to be a neutral announcer and became his own character/villain. Throw in the power mods who thrive in creating drama and we now have what's starting to feel like the SuperStars of Redditing.

But seriously: with all the focus on admin drama, the relatively few terrible subs, the issues held by some mods, and those associated distractions it's becoming a headache for those of us who run and those who simply enjoy the normal, uncontroversial, successfully operating communities hosted on reddit. Is the focus of the site on producing varied, interesting content for the 160m monthly visitors or arguing with the less than 1% who participate in these silly drama-fests?

Do those in charge of reddit HQ even know what reddit is good at doing anymore?

How would you define what reddit is good at doing?

For example: In all of this, the major sports subs (/r/NFL, /r/NBA, /r/hockey, /r/CFB, et al) are some of the best communities hosted on the site. They have all done their best to stay out of the outside drama (none went private) while thriving because they manage to make vast amounts of rival fans come together without degrading into the cesspits seen on comment sections sports websites elsewhere. They all continue to host their own AMAs without problem, heck /r/CFB has just managed to get credentialed as a media organization by several athletic conferences. They're all doing it based on the reddit platform you helped create, as independent communities hosted on reddit. Is that still the emphasis? Will reddit HQ push harder to control that aspect of the narrative? Some of us are tired of being dragged along by these spats and the terrible PR they generate for all of us whether our subs are involved or not.

[–]Stink_Snake 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

First off why is the first priority about content policy and not all the other MASSIVE problems with Reddit? There is 50 MILLION in the bank. SPEND IT. I don’t like having to hit F5 to pay my respects to Reddit’s 503 error.

How are all your promises given to the mods going? Your lead engineer just quit because she did not believe she “could deliver on promises being made to the community.” Ayyy lmao, that doesn’t bode well. Can you be certain that you will hit your target dates?

More importantly why is this not a power grab? You are asking the users how Reddit should wield more power.

Remember when the US government said, “The vast majority of Americans are law abiding good people we need some new tools though for those few folks that wish due harm to our communities and bring terrorism to our soil. Don’t worry folks ‘cus if you are not doing anything wrong you have nothing to worry about.”

We gave our government more power and look how well that worked. This feels the same.

While I find the oft-mentioned subreddits that would be banned under new content rules vile; I disagree with Reddit wielding any more power. Why? Reddit tends to fuck things up. Rules are have been applied arbitrarily in the past; if we even know what the rules are in the first place. Could we clear that up first?

From what I see, Reddit is embarking on a journey of sanitize and monetize. First step is to sanitize the subreddits but how far will it go in order to get ad revenue Reddit needs to make its stockholders happy?

Usernames? Never fun when a news story goes something like, “ According to reddit user, cum_on_her_titties.” What is to stop future rules on comments? Soon we could have a content team removing comments.

I fear our community has set us in its haste down a dark rode. A rode in which our up vote buttons will become Doritos and Downvote Mountain Dew. A rode where we can all enjoy the site being wrapped in Suicide Squad banners. We did it Reddit!

[–]TheBigDvoter 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Thank you for giving us the chance to be heard.

I am glad that reddit has decided to censor hateful bigots and the like. I encourage you to remove subs like /r/CoonTown and /r/MensRights since they contribute nothing but vitriol and hate to reddit.

I am a long time poster to /r/TwoXChromosomes. Every day, some TRPer or MRA comes over and posts mean content. Content that triggers me or invalidates me. Content that is rude, condescending, and has no place in a femminist society. This content is cleaned up by the wonderful mods. The point?? Censorship WORKS. twox is a wonderful and supportive community because the bigots and hate filled anti-feminists don't get a voice.

Reddit is not a "safe space" and this needs fixing. Missogyinistic assholes post because reddit lets them. If you take away their ones, /r/TheRedPill and /r/MensRights, the homes where they discuss raping women, the homes where they invalidate and trigger women, the homes where they discuss ways to be an abusive partner, the homes where they talk about controlling women, then they will leave reddit and we can progress to Reddit becoming a safe space and a more femminist space.

Why is this important? Simply put, society flourishes when women flourish. If we give women a hand up rather than a push down, everyone wins.

I implore you to remove the missogynistic subs like Red Pill and Men's Rights and ban the users that post.

I live in America. I know not everyone does, but women here are the most discriminated group. And rather then being protected, politicians cut benifits, deny us rights, ect ect ect. And politicans I mean Republicans... of course. Did you know women in the US actually have to pay for there own birth control? IT IS INSANE but together we can move toward a femminist society and reddit can be a big part of the reason why. We can do this together we are at the cusp of something amazing and dishing out social justice will go a long way to creating a supportive, safe femminist society.

[–]-Massachoosite 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Hey Steve, thanks for doing this AMA. I think you lay out some interesting and thoughtful ideas.

That being said, I'd like to get your response to the following comment made by u/kojak488:

Neither Alexis nor I created reddit to be a bastion of free speech

Aside from the Forbes quote Alexis' own Reddit account has some exerts that imply otherwise:

We're working to spread empathy + understanding to as many people as possible -- people aren't just coming here because it sets the media agenda for the rest of the internet, it's because of the connection that happen when diverse people from across the world can speak freely about things they care about.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/2vfh78/im_planning_on_doing_a_project_on_steve_huffman/cp13bul

We designed reddit to allow users to create the experience they want -- subscribing to communities they're interested in and creating distinct spaces with their own cultures, languages, and values. Any decision we make is always tested by: "Is this moving the reddit platform toward a place where it can be the best way for as many people as possible to find great communities to share freely and openly discuss the things they care about."

https://www.reddit.com/r/DiscussingDTOL/comments/2urgiv/lets_write_our_own_letter/colokor

We made reddit so that as many people as possible could speak as freely as possible

https://www.reddit.com/r/blog/comments/35ym8t/promote_ideas_protect_people/cr91bpm

reddit should be a place where anyone can pull up their soapbox and speak their mind, or have a discussion and maybe learn something new and even challenging or uncomfortable

https://www.reddit.com/r/blog/comments/35ym8t/promote_ideas_protect_people/cr92h5j

And many more. I mean fuck, kn0thing says in plain English:

You know what inspired reddit? Speakers Corner's in London

It's okay if you've changed your mind, but I think many people would like an honest statement to that point if you have.

[–]freekill 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Hi /u/spez,

Concerning the free speech vs. "better overall community" argument, why are there no discussions from the admins regarding solutions that are democratic and involve the entire community? Instead, it seems the only option being proposed involves only bans handed down by admin decision making? In my opinion, admin bans based on monitoring of "appropriate" subreddit content seems so counter to the Reddit spirit that it has to be the absolute worst solution for the long term survival of the community.

For instance, instead of banning communities outright that post content the majority of Reddit might find reprehensible, why not force those subreddits simply to be private subreddits? You could setup a subreddit where such communities are submitted and the Reddit community decides if it should be private by default. No shadow banning, no admin policing of content (other than existing policies on illegal content) and you get the added advantage of keeping Reddit a bastion for free speech, even though you apparently no longer believe it should be such. You don't have to worry about people stumbling upon "reprehensible" content, since you explicitly have to opt in to see it. Even search engines can't parse it while closed, so your reputation remains intact. You could even potentially mark such subreddits differently denoting that they contain content that may be offensive and require people to explicitly consent to joining.

There are many subreddits I personally find reprehensible, but that's why I don't subscribe to those subreddits. I would never want Reddit to be a place where a community could not exist simply because I don't agree with the content. The beauty of Reddit, and I believe its core strength, is that my experience on the site is tailored to my own preference and the same goes for every other member. That benefit would rapidly decline if I was unable to find communities of interest due to censorship efforts attempting to whitewash content.

[–]jstrydor 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Hey Spez, Obviously there's a lot of questions to be answered, so let's get right to the point...

  1. 3 years ago you made a comment about being extremely vigilant in having a clean desktop. Do you still hold that same stance today? If so, are you willing to provide proof?

  2. It's clear that you have some type of direct connection with the catholic church. Do you think this will hinder your ability to be a fair CEO for Reddit?

  3. You've admitted to founding Hipmunk.com What would you say to the tens of conspiracy theorists that believe your main goal is to dissolve Reddit in the hopes of driving traffic to your other site?

  4. Based on this comment It sounds like you had a "confusing childhood". Can you talk a little bit about how that's affected you today?

  5. Considering that you said this not too long ago, is it safe to assume that you still feel that way? That you're "Happy" to have moved on from Reddit!?!?

Thanks for taking the time to answer these, I know they're tough but I think it's important to be transparent on these issues.

[–]ImAKidImASquid 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

So if reddit is not a bastion of free speech then what about all this?

(Credit to /r/BoFS)

[–]JP_Rushton 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

What is wrong with race realism? Why can't we talk about interracial crime, crime statistics, IQ statistics, biological differences, etc? What's wrong about that? We are a "hate group" because we talk about what the mainstream media won't talk about and covers up? Biological differences between the races that are the reasons for the crime disparity as well as IQ differences that are the reason for low scholastic achievement between the blacks and whites?

Why is that "hateful" to talk about those differences when no one else will? A few places talk about it, but a place for like minded people to get together and talk about these shared interests at what doesn't get talked about in the mainstream media is bad? Why is that?

Why do you want to cull discussion on reality and attempt to make us out to be a bad place? Seems like people are scared of the actualities of the world around them and the actualities of racial differences in looks, cognitive ability, behavioral and genetic differences between races so you have to attempt to use these buzzwords to make us look like bad people. We aren't. We work, have families and are just regular people who want to live in a safe area, and according to statistics, African-Americans are the most dangerous people in America. These come directly from the FBI stats.

We also have many differing opinions and have rules against calls to violence,

Explain how it's hateful to talk about the truth?

[–]Georgy_K_Zhukov 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Recently you made statements that many mods have taken to imply a reduction in control that moderators have over their subreddits. Much of the concern around this is the potential inability to curate subreddits to the exacting standards that some mod teams try to enforce, especially in regards to hateful and offensive comments, which apparently would still be accessible even after a mod removes them. On the other hand, statements made here and elsewhere point to admins putting more consideration into the content that can be found on reddit, so all in all, messages seem very mixed.

Could you please clarify a) exactly what you mean/envision when you say "there should also be some mechanism to see what was removed. It doesn't have to be easy, but it shouldn't be impossible." and b) whether that is was an off the cuff statement, or a peek at upcoming changes to the reddit architecture?

[–]seamslegit 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Yesterday you said that Reddit would be creating policies and tools for removing:

more offensive and obscene content

I get that there is plenty of disturbing and reprehensible content on reddit but isn't this very subjective? I work in medicine and have no problems seeing pictures of surgeries while others might find this obscene. I find plenty of content on r/republican an d r/democrats to be disgusting. Others probably find religious( r/christianity or r/atheism), pornography (r/gonewild r/nsfw) and shock (r/wtf) subs to be offensive and obscene. The only way to find common ground values for the majority is to dumb down reddit to the point that is a whitewashed disnyesque political correct shell of its former self. Why do you think taking the censorship route of banning subs and limiting free speech is better than improving the tools to view and participate in those areas of reddit they want to be a part of?

[–]andkylrob 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Are you going to be censoring reddit even more so in the future?

You stated reddit was not a bastion of free speech, which contradicts what Alexis said previously, why is this?

[–]DEATH-BY-CIRCLEJERK 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Hi Steve,

I think this is a question I've not seen asked or addressed anywhere on reddit before, so I hope this is a good contribution to this AMA and discussion.

Do you see an issue with more and more default subreddits configuring their automoderator to automatically remove comments from users who have just joined? On numerous occasions a friend or family member has created an account after me telling them about reddit only to find that when I go to their overview page and follow the permalink to their actual comments that it is missing. I presume moderators are doing this to mitigate trolls or something but I think it might become a systemic problem if all of the defaults move in this direction. How is anyone going to be able to get enough karma to get out of the automod filter if none of their comments get seen?

Thanks.

[–]GamerGateFan 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

1) Are you aware that what you are doing seems to be gentrifying the site?
Last week's upvoted with kn0thing discussed that one of his goals for reddit was having the website appeal to celebrities and people of note after the AMAs.

2) Why does it seem as though the people you surrounded yourself for feedback are board members, and power mods in private subreddits who wanted more control over their user base and shun transparency and accountability?

3) Did you make your decisions after reading journalists(who call themselves bloggers when held accountable) who seem to have agendas, since they lable things sexist and misogynistic and will never be satisfied until reddit burns to the ground?

4) Why do you come finally to us, the userbase now when it seems you've already made a decision?

[–]seamslegit 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Like many in recent months, I have explored voat.co . Despite what I had heard about the supposed most obnoxious and worst offenders of reddit moving there, I found threads to be pleasant, polite and users to be friendly with ironically less hate that I see on Reddit. People act more like they're talking to other people in real life. I find myself each day spending more time there than here. My only conclusion is that the unique features such as that users’ voting powers are limited until they’ve accrued a certain amount of positive feedback; No vote fuzzing; Moderators can only run a limited number of subs; User statistics that show voting behavior and disallows blatant advertising are conducive to a more positive environment. Is Reddit looking at implementing any of these features?

[–]Brenbren25 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Spez, I have been on reddit for 6 years, I've seen Reddit change from a forum for programmers to a libertarian's paradise to what it is now. Reddit is not the source of partisan politics and political conflict, it's a symptom. By shutting down the "reprehensible" subreddits you won't be making peace. I understand you do not enjoy seeing something you helped found descend into a battleground but there's a better way to cool tensions than censorship.

Copy Voat. Disincentivize power mods, restrict downvotes, ban brigaders, stop cross-posting and punish meta-subreddits that only exist to comment on other redditors or internet users. Discourage the idea that the "Personal is Political", better to be a rudder in the water guiding conversation than a failing dam.

[–]FlyingPeacock 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

In your earlier post you said, “Neither Alexis nor I created reddit to be a bastion of free speech…” You also went on to say, “We as a community need to decide together what our values are”. Since free speech is a value that by and large is represented throughout the community, how do you plan to reconcile this? Will we only get free speech when it is convenient for the reddit admin and marketing teams? I understand that threats are not covered under free speech, but where is the line? People don’t have a right to not be offended. Is that your goal for reddit?

[–]MoobyTheGoldenCalf 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

There are lot of areas on Reddit that I don't want to visit and in my opinion are deplorable. However, I do believe in free speech and the right for these areas to exist, even if I don't agree with their content. Ever since I've been a Reddit user, my solution has been to either not visit these areas or simply unsubscribe from them. Why is that solution no longer good enough and why is Reddit moving towards a censorship policy? As a follow up, what would you say to users that are against this policy and may leave Reddit for alternative sites like Voat?

[–]AgrippaDaYounger 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

If a substantial portion of the user base has already made it clear that they don't think changes to reddits policy on subreddit content are necessary, what is the point of asking them again for input that summarily seems to be ignored?

Is there anything that can be said here that hasn't already been expressed clearly from user reactions to recent announcements? Are you looking for user input or arguing for changes you've already decided to make?

Is keeping things as they are a possibility and if not, why?

[–]zaikanekochan -1ポイント0ポイント  (0子コメント)

What will the process be for determining what is “offensive” and what is not?

Will these rules be clearly laid out for users to understand?

If something is deemed “offensive,” but is consensual (such as BDSM), will it be subject to removal?

Have any specific subs already been subject to discussion of removal, and if so, have Admins decided on which subs will be eliminated?

How do you envision “open and honest discussion” happening on controversial issues if content being deemed “offensive” is removed? If “offensive” subs are removed, do you foresee an influx of now rule-breaking users flooding otherwise rule-abiding subs?

What is your favorite Metallica album, and why is it “Master of Puppets?”

There has also been mention of allowing [deleted] messages to be seen, how would these be handled in terms of containing “offensive” content?

Will anything be done regarding inactive “squatter” mods, specifically allowing their removal on large subs?

[–]lauchs 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

given how overwhelmingly redditors have opposed censorship (in the announcement post, when sorting by top, the 42nd post is arguably the first neutral one, and in default subs, anything criticizing this move has shot to the top), how do you think banning subreddits will go? Is the vote counting mechanism flawed, or do you expect those who oppose banning subreddits to accept it? If the voters leave, is the hope that lurkers to step up and vote, comment and contribute?

[–]FourthLife 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

As the primary representative of the wonderful subreddit /r/Zombo, I am a huge advocate of free speech. I believe that on reddit, like on Zombo.com, you should be able to do anything (so long as this doesn't harm or directly harass another person of course). When you said in your last post that reddit is not a bastion of Free speech, it made me afraid that you do not represent the values of the Zombo people. Could you elaborate on what you meant?

[–]LiterallyEthics 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Hi Steve,

Gabe Newell, the CEO of Valve, stated:

“The point that I make to people of your generation is that you can't lie to reddit. It's remarkable how many people try, but they don't understand that reddit's ability to detect bullshit is insanely high.”

The video of this statement can be found HERE at 57:30.

In your personal experience do you find that statement true?

[–]Warlizard 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

In Ellen Pao's op-ed in the Washington Post today, she said "But to attract more mainstream audiences and bring in the big-budget advertisers, you must hide or remove the ugly."

How much of the push toward removing "ugly" elements of Reddit comes from the motivation to monetize Reddit?

[–]SirYodah 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Can you please speak on why real members are still being shadowbanned, even after you claimed that they never should be?

For reference: https://np.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/comments/3dd954/censorship_mod_of_rneofag_shadowbanned_for_asking/

Note: I'm not involved in any of the communities represented in the link, I found it on /r/all yesterday and want to know the reason why people are still being shadowbanned.

[–]Zultan009 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Hey Steve, thanks for doing this AMA. It’s nice to have someone answer questions instead of opening up another can of worms for once. I feel like everyone here (including you) needs this kind of transparency if reddit is to be more heavy-handed in their management of this site. What does an “open space” mean to you? Why do you want to preserve reddit’s principles about free discussion?

[–]SyndicateSamantharoo 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Anything that incites harm or violence against an individual or group of people

Anything that harasses, bullies, or abuses an individual or group of people (these behaviors intimidate others into silence

So with the new content policy, is /r/MinionHate safe? It may be a hate sub, but we hate those evil little tactics, not humans.

[–]tacomotif -2ポイント-1ポイント  (0子コメント)

"We understand that this might make some of you worried about the slippery slope from banning one specific type of content to banning other types of content. We're concerned about that too, and do not make this policy change lightly or without careful deliberation. We will tirelessly defend the right to freely share information on reddit in any way we can, even if it is offensive or discusses something that may be illegal... We remain committed to protecting reddit as an open platform." - Reddit 2012

So I'm wondering, do words simply not mean anything anymore /u/spez or is Reddit changing their minds on this issue? Is this move in the pure interest of profitability? I guess thats fine, this is a business after all, but why not at least be honest with us instead of saying that no one intended for reddit to be an open platform. That honestly sounds like revisionist history, the comment you made the other day where you completely contradicted Alexis and Yishan. I feel the biggest insult to people is pretending that the past didn't happen, and if you guys leveled with people in an open and honest way, there would be less of a backlash, but I guess reddit is going in the opposite direction of anything open and honest.

So reddit is no longer to be a free and open exchange of ideas, as is the right of The Board of Directors to dictate and yes men to implement, but honestly, where does it end, who is next? Police discussions get pretty heated and hateful, pluto planet status discussions get out of control, feminists go flying off the rails, circumcision discussions can get waaaay out of hand too; are any of these things going to be snipped in the pud?! Its easy to get rid of the unpopular people, no one will cry for them, but if its so easy for y'all to throw away these values in the face of potential profitability, where will that end? Have fun with the monetized corporate platform I guess.

I don't hate Ellen /u/ekjp Pao, if the smug shitposting of /u/yishan is to be beliebed, then she is our saviour and white knight in shining armor. Shes even kinda cute in an androgynous way! Supposedly /u/kn0thing is responsible for a lot of the bad stuff people blamed on her, like the firing of /u/chooter . I thought the vitriol was over the top and insane, but I understand how those people felt. They had only heard bad things about her past, and no one really knew where the moves were coming from, so they lashed out, and there was no communication whatsoever from anyone at reddit to explain what was going on. Not that talking to an angry mob is really all that helpful, to be fair. Its obvious now that you guys got a PR firm helping you out with all of this and coordinating people's movements. I guess the final decisions are made and everything will swing around to the green money jungle beat. It must be so easy to say all those lofty and principled things and then just sell everything out when cash is sitting on the table.

Congratulations, you guys won, and anyone who cares about open and honest dicussions has lost. I guess you all got what you wanted and the gravy train is getting ready to leave the station. Was it all a lie to just get to this point, where the inconvenient people can be brushed aside like trash? I really hope that isn't what is happening here.

When everything is said and done and we move on to voat and 8chan, I really hope you guys make an honest effort to communicate with the mods and the users of this site and maintain that effort. People deserve an open and honest conversation, even if you don't wanna give it to them.

[–]DigitalMindShadow 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Given the change in reddit’s policy regarding what content will be allowed, what assurance do we have as users that what we’re allowed to say here won’t be further restricted in the future?

[–]Arksaw 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

You dun goofed man

When asked what the Founding Fathers would have thought of reddit: "A bastion of free speech on the World Wide Web? I bet they would like it[...]" - Alexis Ohanian Forbes Alexis certainly seemed to think of reddit as a 'bastion of free speech' at one point in time.

[–]100Envelopes 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Hi, thanks for doing this. R/4chan frequently reposts inflammatory racist content from /pol/, will r/4chan be banned? How about r/conspiracy, known for extreme antisemitism as well as organizing off-site harassment campaigns of bereaved families and (really) daycare centers?

[–]NolanChancellor1488 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

How many Jews died in the holocaust?

[–]Dworkinator 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

If any place deserves to be banned, its r/SRS. They’ve been allowed to doxx and harass people for years. They even banned np links allowing their users to vote brigade every single thread they link to. Plus it’s filled with the worst sexists and racists I’ve ever seen.

[–]guccigoogle 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Simply put, what are your criteria for banning subreddits with the new content policy?

Also do you still stand by the statement that reddit wasn't created to be a "bastion of free speech" when /u/kn0thing made that exact same statement a while ago?

[–]isolatedextremophile 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Why do you suddenly feel the need to babysit us? You say that reddit was meant to be a place where open and honest discussions can take place. How does that happen without free speech? Could you please explain that to me?

[–]figureinplastic 2ポイント3ポイント  (1子コメント)

I'm just here for the popcorn.

[–]throwawaytiffany -1ポイント0ポイント  (0子コメント)

Are all DMCA takedowns posted to /r/ChillingEffects? If yes, why is this one missing? If no, why the change from the policy announced very recently? http://www.reddit.com/r/Roadcam/comments/38g72g/c/cruy2qt

[–]Guardax 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

I'd just like to say that you're going to get harassed like no other here, but I think you're doing the right thing on good on you for putting yourself out there. Good luck!

[–]Vmoney1337 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

I guess I'll ask the question that everyone else wants to hear the answer to: What subreddits are you considering banning, and what would be your basis for doing so?

[–]__Saga__ 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

So, will /r/ShitRedditSays be getting banned in this great "purge"? Of all the subreddits that have gotten banned for harrassment, that one is still here.

[–]Zentaren 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Who will be deciding what is considered offensive? Will communities of "offensive" subreddits have any warning if their sub is going to be banned?

[–]ligga4nife 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

what do you say to this?: https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/3dautm/content_policy_update_ama_thursday_july_16th_1pm/ct3eflt

[–]LacyBlackKnickers 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Hope everyone's wearing suitable protective clothing for the inevitable shitstorm that's about to commence. I've got my Wellies on.

[–]enlightened_editor 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Is this the type of subbreddit that you would even wish your wife or your servants to read?

[–]tzdk 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Anything that incites harm or violence against an individual or group of people

Will you be banning the pro-rape subreddits?

[–]OnlyWearsAscots 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

How do you determine what is "offensive" and what is not? Will this be a community effort or up to mods or admins?

[–]Mister_DK 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

What exactly will you be cutting, and how much of it, and can I watch you do it while eating pork cracklings?

[–]smarvin6689 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

I need you to answer this question with 100% absolute truth:

What is your honest opinion of popcorn?

[–]Bawkol 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Will brigading subreddits like /r/ShitRedditSays and /r/SubredditDrama get banned anytime soon?

[–]Llim 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Wow, an AMA I'm finally on time for! Steve, my question is, what's your favorite subreddit?

[–]RedxSmoke 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

/u/spez and /u/kn0thing following this AMA

http://i.imgur.com/6T7WNTW.gifv

[–]allessandro 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

I'm just here for the popcorn this will create for generations to come.

[–]stevierar 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

I've been waiting all day for this.

[–]nixonrichard 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

I support free speech, and I want Reddit to support free speech too.

[–]MMZephyr -1ポイント0ポイント  (0子コメント)

  1. If a subreddit like /r/fatpeoplehate was banned, why aren't similar ones like /r/punchablefaces banned?

  2. Now that you've decided to take on the responsibility of making speech safe on reddit, how will you keep up with the hydra-effect of online users? (Eg. How do you keep up with harassment if users can just make a new account and keep going?)

  3. Why did you say reddit isn't meant to be a bastion of free speech, when you used to say the exact opposite?

  4. What do you have against free speech? Hasn't it gotten the US pretty far, despite the lame people who abuse free speech?

  5. How do you determine if an entire subreddit should be banned for an instance of harassment, rather than the individual users involved? If a moderator is involved, why not ban them instead of the entire subreddit?

[–]Rytlockfox 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Remember, if you don't like what's said here don't buy reddit gold.

[–]simsalabimbam 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

My question is simple: does /u/kn0thing have popcorn right now?

[–]HaikuberryFin 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Is it possible

to harass via Hiaku-

since Haikus are art?

[–]vkells 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

/r/whataboutSRS ? popcorn tastes good

[–]Gandesa 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

GET THE FUCK IN

[–]AliceBones 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

CRY 'POPCORN!', AND LET SLIP THE MODS OF WAR!

[–]That70smoke 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

What are some toxic sites that should worry?

[–]lula2488 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

What subreddit has the most misleading name?

[–]jimcozad 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Is this site about money or self expression?

[–]DreamsAndSchemes 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

This AMA

[–]NetWWWWWWWWWWWorking 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

i haven't read anything and I disagree

[–]Mapleyy 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Thank you. That's all I've got to say.

[–]SRS_IS_GOD -1ポイント0ポイント  (0子コメント)

Which of the following are you going to ban?

  • Coontown

  • Mens' Rights

  • The Red Pill

  • Philosophy of Rape

  • PussyPass & PussyPassDenied

  • Tumblr In Action

  • Kotaku In Action

  • Sexy Abortions

  • Pics of Dead Kids

  • Cute Female Corpses

  • Beating Women

  • Raping Women

  • Watch People Die

  • Great Apes

  • Holocaust (overrun by deniers)

  • Conspiracy

  • 911truth

  • Or even Shit Reddit Says. A small price if all of the above are banned too.

[–]Lionstrong 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Wanted to be first. Not first. >_<

[–]AerateMark 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Happy Birthday Orville Redenbacher

[–]Allard1994 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Too. Much. Text. Make. It. Stop!

[–]gaardyn 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

How do you feel about popcorn?

[–]IM_THAT_POTATO 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

http://i.imgur.com/Z7QgC1c.gif

[–]A_A_lewis_ 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

BRING BACK MEMES TO R/ATHEISM

[–]RICK_DA_ROWDY_RAYSIS 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Why do you hate free speech?

[–]millsdmb 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

is /r/shitredditsays banned?

[–]DrugD 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Do you prefer cats, or dogs?

[–]kakakata 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

So you'll get rid of SRS?

[–]i_flip_sides 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Alright, let's get weird.

[–]cucumbinator123 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

I LIKE TURTLES DAMNIT

[–]Stop--Posting 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

race war now

[–]IIIISuperDudeIIII 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

First post!

[–]NinjaGoodra 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

ty mr modz

[–]SovietFishGun 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

ty mr modz

[–]Zephyr_the_Suave 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

ty mr modz

[–]CowWithInternet 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

ayy lmao

[–]Nicholas_Fehn 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Lame

[–]mudclog -1ポイント0ポイント  (0子コメント)

all i have to say: http://media.giphy.com/media/z4bSS0lckZ53q/giphy.gif

[–]NotEnoughCooks -2ポイント-1ポイント  (0子コメント)

First