Let's talk content. AMA.

Georgy_K_Zhukov · 49分前

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?

DEATH-BY-CIRCLEJERK · 49分前

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.

Vmoney1337 · 50分前

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?

verdatum · 48分前

ITT: People who have been waiting to hit ctrl+v "save" for at least a day now.

-Massachoosite · 45分前

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

This needs to be removed.

There is no other way around it. It's too broad. Is /r/atheism bullying /r/christianity? Is /r/conservative bullying /r/politics?

We need opposing views. We need people whose stupidity clashes against our values. Most importantly, we need to learn how to deal with this people with our words. We need to foster an environment where those people are silenced not with rules, but with the logic and support of the community.

Darr_Syn · 43分前

Thanks for doing this AMA.

I'm a moderator of more than a few NSFW subreddits, including /r/BDSMcommunity and /r/BDSM, and as I stated in the teaser announcement earlier this week: this decision, and the specific wording, is worrying.

I want to specifically address this:

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

As well as your earlier comment about things being seen as "offensive" and "obscene".

There are sections of the world, and even the United States, where consensual BDSM and kink are illegal.

You can see where this is the type of announcement that raises more than a few eyebrows in our little corner of the world.

At what point do the minority opinion and positions be accepted as obscene, offensive, and unwanted?

BDSM between two consenting adults has been seen and labeled as both offensive and obscene for decades now.

hansjens47 · 48分前

www.Reddit.com/rules outlines the 5 rules of reddit. They're really vague, and the rest of the Reddit wiki has tonnes of extra details on what the rules actually imply.

What's the plan for centralizing the rules so they make up a "Content Policy" ?

ItsMeCaptainMurphy · 47分前

You really need to clarify

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

because that's rather vague and is very much open to interpretation (one person's definition of harassment is not necessarily another's - is it harassment just because one person says so?). To be honest, I see nothing here that's really new to the existing content policy outside of "the common decency opt in", which I'm probably ok with - that will depend on how it's implemented and what is classified as abhorrent.

Warlizard · 50分前

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?

EDIT: "Anything that harasses, bullies, or abuses an individual or group of people (these behaviors intimidate others into silence)" -- This is troubling because although it seems reasonable on the surface, in practice, there are people who scream harassment when any criticism is levied against them. How will you determine what constitutes harassment?

MrCaboose96 · 50分前

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.

EDIT: spez's answer is here.

The_Antigamer · 37分前

    you know it when you see it.

That is exactly the kind of ambiguity that will cause further controversy.

justcool393 · 48分前

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

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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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

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.
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.

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.
Regarding the "Neither Alexis or I created reddit to be a bastion of free speech" comment, how do you feel about this, 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".
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.
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.
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.

SirYodah · 49分前

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.

SUSAN_IS_A_BITCH · 48分前

TLDR: How is the Reddit administration planning to improve their communication with users about your policies?

Over the last year there have been a number of moments where top employees have dropped the ball when it came to talking with users about Reddit's direction:

Yishan's blog post "Every Man is Responsible For His Own Soul" in response to banning /r/thefappening. This post caused more confusion than it resolved until alienth (who no longer works at Reddit) made a different post explaining the situation in much clearer terms.
Alexis fired Victoria and did not alert the AMA team, causing the moderators and AMA users (including people who were giving AMAs that day) stress and confusion. Those mods shut down the subreddit. (Note: I'm not asking for an explanation of Victoria's firing.)
Ellen Pao gave an interview (off of Reddit) saying the Reddit administration was not concerned about the shutdown because it was just a vocal minority that was upset with the whole Victoria/AMA debacle. She later clarified she was talking about the people insulting her, but the mixup could have been avoided if she had talked with us directly. This was shortly followed by the "We Apologize" post, which probably should have come before the off-Reddit interview, regardless of how much she would have been downvoted.
The new stated plan for improved mod tools was deliberately broad - and krispykrackers admitted this new time plan was made hastily and without much research, so we should not reasonably expect it to be fulfilled. One of your head engineers resigned two days ago, stating she did not think she "could deliver on promises being made to the community."
Your own post announcing this AMA stated that neither you nor Alexis ever envisioned Reddit as a bastion of free speech, but it was then directly and instantly called out as being false as Alexis specifically likened Reddit to a bastion of free speech.
I'll also include the infamous popcorn comment made by Alexis and a response from krispykrackers about a user shadowban. In both cases kn0thing and krispykrackers apologized and admitted it was a moment of not-thinking, but an impulsive comment can spread across the community like wildfire.

I'm sure other users have other examples, but these are the ones that have stuck with me. I intentionally left out the announcement of the /r/fatpeoplehate ban because I thought it was clear why those subreddits were being banned, though admittedly many users were confused about the new policy and it quickly became another mess.

I think this AMA is a good first step toward better communication with the user base, but only if your responses are as direct and clear as they once were.

I wish I didn't have to fear the Announcements' comments section like Jabba the Hutt's janitor fears the bathroom.

almightybob1 · 44分前

Hello Steve.

You said the other day that "Neither Alexis nor I created reddit to be a bastion of free speech". As you probably are aware by now, reddit remembers differently. Here are just a few of my favourite quotes, articles and comments which demonstrate that reddit has in fact long trumpeted itself as just that - a bastion of free speech.

A reddit ad, uploaded March 2007:

Save freedom of speech - use reddit.com.

You, Steve Huffman, on why reddit hasn't degenerated into Digg, 2008:

I suspect that it's because we respect our users (at least the ones who return the favor), are honest, and don't censor content.

You, Steve Huffman, 2009:

We've been accused of censoring since day one, and we have a long track record of not doing so.

Then-General Manager Erik Martin, 2012:

We're a free speech site with very few exceptions (mostly personal info) and having to stomach occasional troll reddit like picsofdeadkids or morally quesitonable reddits like jailbait are part of the price of free speech on a site like this.

reddit blogpost, 2012 (this one is my favourite):

At reddit we care deeply about not imposing ours or anyone elses’ opinions on how people use the reddit platform. We are adamant about not limiting the ability to use the reddit platform even when we do not ourselves agree with or condone a specific use.

[...]

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.

Then-CEO Yishan Wong, October 2012:

We stand for free speech. This means we are not going to ban distasteful subreddits. We will not ban legal content even if we find it odious or if we personally condemn it.

reddit's core values, May 2015:

Allow freedom of expression.

Be stewards, not dictators. The community owns itself.

And of course (do I even need to add it?) Alexis Ohanian literally calling reddit a bastion of free speech, February 2012. Now with bonus Google+ post saying how proud he is of that quote!

There are many more examples, from yourself and other key figures at reddit (including Alexis), confirming that reddit has promoted itself as a centre of free speech, and that this belief was and is widespread amongst the corporate culture of reddit. If you want to read more, check out the new subreddit /r/BoFS (Bastion of Free Speech), which gathered all these examples and more in less than two days.

So now that you've had time to plan your response to these inevitable accusations of hypocrisy, my question is this: who do you think you are fooling Steve?

TheCid · 36分前

Publication of someone’s private and confidential information

Can we get a clarification on what is classified under this? Gawker wrote an article outing a reddit user's real name a few years ago and they suffered no punishment from the reddit admins. Some subreddits banned all Gawker content, but this policy should have been handed down from the top.

Is a reddit user's real name considered private and confidential information? What if they've already validated that user name against their real identity somehow (admins, people who've done verified AMAs, etc)?
Is a pseudonymous user of another site's real name considered private and confidential information? What if they're an e-celebrity and this real name is already widely known (TotalBiscuit, PewDiePie, anyone with a verified Twitter account, etc.)?
Is the reverse of this considered private and confidential information? (Going from real name to username on reddit or another site, such as Twitter.) What if this has been validated?
Is "giving credit" to a cosplayer or an artist, given just a image hosted off-site (such as on imgur), considered releasing personal information?

That should be sufficient to clear up most of the gray area on personal information.

I have concerns about the "harassment/bullying" rule, as certain political groups on the internet like to claim that any and all disagreement with them is harassment, but this is a rule whose quality can only be measured in its enforcement, rather than its phrasing.

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.

Will it be evident when this classification has been applied to a subreddit? Will subreddit creators be allowed to label themselves under this classification? Will other subreddits be able to apply this label to comments or posts rather than deleting them outright?

koproller · 39分前

Hi, First of all. Thanks for doing this AMA. On your previous AMA you said that "Ellen was not used as a scapegoat"(source).
Yet, it seems that /u/kn0thing that he was responsible for the mess in AMA (including Victoria being fired) (source).
And /u/yishan added some light on the case here and even Reddits former chief engineer Bethanye Blount (source) thought that Ellen Pao was put on a glass cliff. And when she fell, because Reddit became blind with rage for a course she didn’t pick and the firing she didn’t decided, nobody of any authority came to her aid. It felt incredibly planned.
Do you still hold the opinion that she wasn’t used as scapegoat?

SaidTheCanadian · 20分前

i.e. things that are actually illegal, such as copyrighted material

This is a poorly-worded idea. "Copyrighted material" is not illegal, nor should linking to "copyrighted material" be considered illegal. E.g. if I were to link to a New York Times article discussing these proposed changes, I am linking to copyrighted material. Often it's impossible to know the copyright status of something, hence the approach on this should be limited to a takedown-based approach (i.e. if someone receives a legitimate notice, then the offending content should be suspended or removed... but should the subreddit or user be banned??), however it should be up to whichever site is hosting the material. What perhaps would be the most clear-cut example of doing something illegal to violate another person's copyright is posting the full text of a copyright book as a series of comments -- that would be inappropriate.

PROFESSIONAL_FART · 48分前

Copy/pasted because this question was not answered during your last AMA:

Do you have any plans to remove all the subreddit squatters?

I find it very unsettling that I've put 2 years of volunteer work into building my community and yet it can all be undone on a whim because there are squatters who outrank me in the mod list. These people are still active on reddit, just not in my specific community. The problem exists all across reddit.

At the very least, making it easier to get admins to remove these people would do a world of good.

mach-2 · 50分前

/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?

316nuts · 29分前

How long ago do you wish reddit leadership would have dealt with this?

There have been numerous opportunities to make a positive impact on the soul and character of the reddit community. Yet at every step along the way, there have been executive decisions specifically allowing these communities to exist. Had you just stopped this nonsense years ago, reddit's growth may not be fueled with quite as much hate and anger. This could have been done back in the days of /r/jailbait when reddit was a fraction of the size and possibly a fraction of the problem.

I also take exception at a very specific point that /u/yishan made in this comment: "We tried to let you govern yourselves and you failed". While I agree in spirit of what yishan is getting at (that the community brought this upon itself), the statement is actually a fundamental mischaracterization/misunderstanding of reddit as a whole. There is no "govern yourselves". Each mod can create and do whatever they want with their subreddit. As long as they don't break the very few rules for the website, mods have absolute authority to run and manage their community as they please. There is no higher governing authority. There is no counter balance. It only takes one person to start all of this. The growth from there is also ungoverned.

You've long played into the "mods are gods" mantra, so I can't even fathom where the "We tried to let you govern yourselves and you failed" statement comes from. I have no authority over /r/funny. The userbase has no authority over /r/funny. If everyone suddenly rallies against /r/funny, nothing can be by our voices alone. /u/illuminatedwax is under direct and total control of that subreddit and can pull the plug or kick out every mod and dedicate it to himself at any time at all No one can stop that. They are the top moderator and you have given them that authority. What balance exists to check this? None. Who is to blame? Reddit? The community? Why do you include me in the blame for something I have no control over? Why do you categorically blame all reddit users for being unable to "govern themselves" when everything is operating under constructs and systems that are fundamental to how reddit exists?

Now due to years of questionable decisions your company is losing valuable employees, probably still not operating at a profit, and from the outside appears to be totally lost at sea.

With ever crisis there is the gnashing of teeth saying how wrong it was to have ignored x, y and z for many years. What else have you ignored for many years? What else is fundamentally broken? What else can't be fixed?

What is your plan? What is your five year plan? Who will be CEO in the next six months? Do you see reddit existing 10 years from now?

zaikanekochan · 50分前

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?

EDIT: To everyone asking why I put "offensive" in quotation marks - from the previous announcement:

There has been a lot of discussion lately —on reddit, in the news, and here internally— about reddit’s policy on the more offensive and obscene content on our platform. Our top priority at reddit is to develop a comprehensive Content Policy and the tools to enforce it.

AlphaWolf101 · 44分前

When will something be done about subreddit squatters? The existing system is not working. Qgyh2 is able to retain top mod of many defaults and large subreddits just because he posts a comment every two months. This is harming reddit as a community when lower mods are veto'd and removed by someone who is only a mod for the power trip. Will something be done about this?

MarshalConsensus · 21分前

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

How, precisely do you intend to make this determination? Different people have different tolerances to asshattery, and some wield their "victim hood" as weapons very insincerely. I would never go to fatpeoplehate or srs or the like and imagine I would feel welcomed, but neither would I feel "intimidated into silence" because of their hate. Their echo chambers may be filled with despicable people, but I don't feel threatened by their existence.

Yet other people feel differently, to the point they feel they must silence others. And maybe they legitimately do feel threatened. But personally I feel like being offended by what anonymous people say online is beyond ridiculous. A comment carries as much weight as the effort taken to make it, and around here that effort is as close to zero as possible.

So who gets to make the determination of harassment or threatening behaviour? You? All the admins by vote? Is one person feeling like they are offended enough? 10? 100? What if equally many people think the people claiming intimidation are wrong? Having a content policy is all well and good, but unless you can describe EXACTLY how it will be applied, it's just empty sentiment.

urdle · 50分前

Hello /u/spez, I thought 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.

mobiusstripsearch · 35分前

What standard decides what is bullying, harassment, abuse, or violent? Surely "since you're fat you need to commit suicide" is all four and undesirable. What about an individual saying in private "I think fat people need to commit suicide" -- not actively bullying others but stating an honest opinion. What about "I think being fat is gross but you shouldn't kill yourself" or "I don't like fat people"?

I ask because all those behaviors and more were wrapped in the fatpeoplehate drama. Surely there were unacceptable behaviors. But as a consequence a forum for acceptable behavior on the issue is gone. Couldn't that happen to other forums -- couldn't someone take offense to anti-gay marriage advocates and throw the baby out with the bath water? Who decides what is and isn't bullying? Is there an appeal process? Will there be public records?

In short, what is the reasonable standard that prevents anti-bullying to become bullying itself?

Theta_Zero · 12分前

Anything illegal (i.e. things that are actually illegal, such as copyrighted material. Discussing illegal activities, such as drug use, is not illegal)

Many rule-abiding subreddits, like /r/Gaming, /r/Videos, /r/Movies, and /r/Music, thrive on copyrighted multimedia content for sharing, such as movie trailers or gameplay footage. Each of these subreddits are 7 million members strong, and are some of Reddit's most popular communities. While this is not malicious use of copyrighted material for profit, this is a very blurry line; one that services such as YouTube constantly deletes content for, even on non-monetized videos.

How do you plan to tread this line without diminishing what makes these subs so popular?

throwawaytiffany · 50分前

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

amaperson1234 · 48分前

It's been said that you are going to remove the more cancerous subreddits. I'm curious as to whether ShitRedditSays will be included among this category. On the face of it, a place where reprehensible comments are pointed out, right?

It must have been two years ago now when shit hit the fan and I found a link to a thread where one redditor, clearly in a distressed state, had made a post alluding to their future suicide. Now, of course, the vast majority of responses were what you would expect from most humans. Compassionate and sincere posts offering this person help and support. Who on earth would tell a person in this condition to kill themselves? Or worse, tell them the world would be better off without them? Enter ShitRedditSays.

The comments made towards this person by a significant portion of people are among the most disturbing things I have ever seen on this site. It was the sort of thing I would expect to see on SRS, as a showcase of how awful Reddit is. So, I went to the sub to see if they were talking about it. They were, but not in the way I had expected. They were bragging. They were laughing. They were celebrating. The suicidal person in question was affiliated with the MRA sub, something that SRS greatly opposes. So much so, they brigaded the thread the person had posted in, and told them to kill themselves. Repeatedly told them. And when the person did, they were happy. Because, to them, this was a war. And anything was acceptable. Telling a suicidal person to kill themselves was perfectly fine. That is how lacking in perspective many of these people are.

Much of what was said was deleted shortly afterwards so it would not be visible anymore. Well, almost all of it. The below is only a tiny fraction of what was said. There was a lot worse.

http://i.imgur.com/ehQNU.png

http://i.imgur.com/4qMV8.png

http://i.imgur.com/nSCSV.png

I had always thought SRS was merely a sub dedicated to showcasing the darker side of this site. A way of promoting change, but nothing malicious. I messaged one of the mods about what had happened expecting them to condemn the behavior, but instead they bragged about it like some sort of psychopath. It was one of the most fucked up conversations I have ever had. Further examination of the sub and their mods clearly showed that this is a group of people who are in fact quite hateful. Many of the mods displayed blatant prejudices against various groups.

And the media doesn't show this side of SRS, for whatever reason. Possibly out of laziness or perhaps because SRS deletes the vast majority of their more shameful history. We hear about how they got rid of the disgusting Jailbait sub, something that I (and I'm sure many others) was very happy about. But we never hear about the racism, sexism or harassment that they so frequently partake in. So, on the face of it. SRS is this progressive humanitarian group that Reddit can showcase as an example of how the site is not just a cesspit of evil. Am I right?

And that's how it appears to many users of the sub too. Young teenagers in many cases. Progressive, well meaning individuals who want to highlight the unsavory things that are said throughout this site. Except we know now, that those controlling SRS and many of their more active members have much more sinister intentions than that. Clearly, they have a dangerous influence over young and impressionable people, who are unaware of these true intentions.

There is also a dark side, communities whose purpose is reprehensible, and we don’t have any obligation to support them. And we also believe that some communities currently on the platform should not be here at all.

My questions - Is the above statement genuine? Will ShitRedditSays be removed like the rest of the cancerous subreddits?

Yes or No? The answer to both questions is the same.

Miserable_Wrongdoer · 48分前

If you're thinking of banning places like /r/coontown and other racist subreddits I have the following questions for you:

Will /r/atheism be banned for encouraging it's members to disrespect Islam by drawing the Prophet Muhammad and making offensive statements towards people of Faith?

Will /r/childfree be banned for being linked with the murder of a child and offensive statements towards children?

Will /r/anarchism be banned for calling for the violent overthrow of government and violence against the wealthy?

Will porn subreddits be banned for continuing the objectification of women?

Will subreddits like /r/killingwomen be banned?

These questions, /u/spez are entirely rhetorical.

The ultimate question is: If you're willing to ban some communities because their content is offensive to some people where do you draw the line?

Edit: Okay, based on your response it is subreddits that are "abusive" to "groups". What exactly constitutes said abuse to a group? Is /r/Atheism drawing the Prophet Muhammad to provoke Muslims abusive?

mcctaggart · 48分前

Spez, there has been accusations for years that a cabal of mods have sought to control a number of subreddits to suit their own political agenda. They censor posts and comments. This censorship has been documented on subreddits like r/politicalmoderation, r/subredditcancer r/moderationlog and r/undelete. You can search these subs for individual subreddit names to see the content they have removed.

r/worldnews, r/politics, r/europe, r/unitedkingdom, r/ukpolitics have all been guilty.

To give a couple of examples, r/europe bans people just for saying ISIS are inspired by the Qu'ran.

When the Tunisian terror attacks happened, the removed the thread about it saying it wasn't relevant as it happened in Africa despite the shooter targeting Europeans on holiday. This was one of those rare ocasions when it was such a big story, there was uproar on the sub so they had to relent. Many deleted stories go un-noticed by the community though.

Another exuse they will use to remove content they don't want people to see is to claim something is "low quality". Recently for example When someone posted amateur footage of African immigrants shouting that they had a right to live in Germany, they removed it and said the footage wasn't professional.

They also removed a thread about African migrants attacking tourist in Mallorca for the same reason.

Here is a thread about the time they removed all threads about Muslim migrants throwing Christians out a boat in the Med because "racists are using the story to post racism". This was another time they had to relent after so much uproar.

This "low quality" excuse has been used on r/unitedkingdom too. One time a user posted a picture he took of a poster in a public school. It read that music was haram and the work of the devil and warned students not to dance. It was a top post and then the mods removed it. They eventualy had to come up with this reason that the picture was not taken by a professional. They then added this rule to the sidebar. r/unitedkingdom has become famous for purging UKIP supporters (a political party which wants to leave the EU). This is often talked about on r/ukipparty. People are banned for no reason other than this. One banned user was recently told in a modmail that "he sounded a bit ukipppy".

This happened during the last election for Ron Paul supporters on r/politics. They would use tactics like remove posts and then an hour later re-approve them when they were much further down the queue, once someone protests or make up some excuse why it was deleted.

There was a lot of uproar when r/worldnews kept delting any Snowden stories and would not consider Glen Greenwald's The Intercept a news source. Pretty sure they did this for RT News too IIRC.

That's why there has been so much anger from some of us here and support for transparent moderation. People like u/go1dfish have been banned for trying to bring transparency to reddit. He created a bot to re-post deleted posts which some mods hated and even banned people for posting on his subs.

Reddit used to be a great forum over five years ago when conent was not curated and censored by a band of particular mods who have dug their claws into this site. Are you planning anything to make it great again and bring transparency to the moderation? As you know many of the subs who are censored now grew large when there were free-er. Some became default subs and it is extremely difficult to get uncensored alternatives off the ground and make people aware of them. Maybe alternative subs could be advertised on large or default subs so people know they have options?

nixonrichard · 47分前

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

So what about what we did to Comcast?

What about what we did to George Bush?

Rick Santorum?

What is the point of banning intimidating others into silence when there are entire subreddits that explicitly ban people simply for disagreement? What value would that serve unless you're going to say you can't ban individuals from subreddits for ideological differences?

RamonaLittle · 43分前

⁽² ^of ^6. ^I ^have ^multiple ^questions, ^which ^I'm ^posting ^individually ^so ^people ^can ^{upvote/downvote} ^{individually.)}

Will the new policy clarify whether/when/how users are allowed to encourage suicide?

As far as the existing policy, I asked for clarification and didn't get a reply. Then I asked again and didn't get a reply. Then I asked a third time and got a reply which I think doesn't make much sense, and the admins didn't reply to my follow-up message. Here is the conversation in full:

me to /r/reddit.com/:

I just saw this screencap. LordVinyl says that telling other users to kill themselves isn't harassment. Whether or not it's harassment, I've been assuming that advocating suicide is against reddit's user agreement, which says "Keep Everyone Safe: You agree to not intentionally jeopardize the health and safety of others or yourself." and "Do Not Incite Harm: You agree not to encourage harm against people."

Can you please advise: is it a violation of reddit rules to tell another redditor to kill themself?

Thank you for your time.

Ocrasorm: It depends on the context. If someone tells a user to kill themselves on a subreddit dealing with suicidal users we will take action.

If a user is in an argument on a random subreddit and tells them to kill themselves we would not ban someone for that. Sure it is a stupid thing to say but not necessarily jeoprdizing health and safety.

me: Thanks. Just to be clear -- you're saying that "kill yourself" isn't "inciting harm" unless it's "on a subreddit dealing with suicidal users," correct?

If that's the policy, I'll abide by it, but I don't think it makes much sense. There's no reason to assume that people with suicidal feelings are only posting on suicide-related subreddits.

If a user routinely tells everyone to kill themselves (and follows up with "I'm serious" and "do it"), all over reddit, that's OK, as long as he doesn't say it in subreddits that are explicitly suicide-related, correct? If one of their targets wound up killing himself, and their parents sued reddit, you personally would testify under oath that no rules were broken?

[I never got a reply to this.]

UberAndrew · 12分前

I'm sure you're well aware of the Gamergate controversy.

One of the common tactics used by it's opponents is calling anyone who disagrees with them as harassers and often racists or sexists.

Despite no actual harassment, doxing, sexist or racist content there are quite a few people who have labeled the Gamergate subreddit, /r/KotakuInAction, as a harassment subreddit simply because it about Gamergate and are calling for it's banning.

If you actually visit the subreddit you'll see it's exactly what it claims to be, a subreddit for ethics in journalism and media and problems surrounding the gaming industry, but despite it not actually being a subreddit or harassment there is still worry it'll get banned simply because it's opponents have labeled it as one.

My question is whether or not you'll actually investigate subreddits to determine if they're about harassment and bullying or will simply being regarded as a problematic subreddit by certain groups be enough to ban it?

NUMBERS2357 · 45分前

I have a question about "group harassment.". Reedit defines harassment as something that would make a reasonable person think reddit isn't a safe platform for their participation, or that makes them fear for their safety. Given this, it sounds like " safe" means more than just physical. Is this the case?

If so, what else counts? Many people talk about "safe spaces," defined similarly to the definition of harassment you use, and such spaces usually ban certain ideas. If users (credibly so!) think certain ideas (even mainstream ones!) make reedit not a safe platform for them to participate, will you ban those ideas from being discussed?

Namrok · 37分前

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)

I have questions about these two things in particular. Namely, what counts? Outrage culture seems to have gotten wildly out of control, regardless of your specific politics. Everyone wants to "name and shame" people. But at the same time, some of the worst victims of this are also perpetrators. They live by the sword and they die by the sword.

Doxing clearly falls afoul of this policy. But on the other end of the spectrum, you get people linking to absolutely idiot things people have tweeted or blogged publicly, and then everybody piles on. Then the idiot saying idiotic things feels harassed by the sheer volume of disagreeing responses.

After the fact, all too often our interpretation of the events is colored by our politics. We think it's acceptable to dog pile the things we think are stupid, but we think it's unfair when our "side" gets dogpiled for the things other people think are stupid. And all over people are quick to claim they feel harassed, or bullied.

So my question is, is the policy going to be rooted in objective measures, or in how someone says the actions made them feel? Are we going to say "No linking to twitter, no linking to other subreddits, no linking to facebook posts", or is the rule going to revolve around whether the target cries uncle, and you sympathize with them?

redpillschool · 44分前

In the past I have contacted the admin for guidelines to keep our mildly unpopular subreddit above board. The rude and short response I got was "just follow the rules" which seems to be as ambiguous as it gets, given that I was just asking what the damn rules were.. The site rules are open ended and unenforceable by mods- Mods don't have the ability to track brigading, how could we ever be responsible for stopping it?

Let's skip the excuses and call it what it is: Are the rules a red herring? Will you be removing subs you don't like, regardless of rulebreaking?

Here are some scenarios that trouble me as a moderator:

Users can go literally anywhere on the site and troll. It's one big forum, there are no rules against participation anywhere.
If those users vote or comment their opinion and also subscribe to my subreddit, it can be seen as brigading.
Anybody can do this, especially if they want to frame the subreddit for misconduct.
There is no physical way for mods to prevent users from voting- there doesn't seem to be a reason to prevent users from voting (since that is the entire purpose of reddit).
Despite the popular rhetoric that users "belong" to certain subreddits, most users subscribe to multiple subreddits, so telling them not to participate site-wide when you're involved in discussion from certain subreddits seems antithetical to the purpose of the site, and again, totally unenforcable.

Why would any of these actions cause an entire subreddit to be banned?

Edit: Additionally, will your administrators contact and work with the moderators when offenses occur? Or are you going to use supposed offenses as a reason to ditch subs you don't like, and keep the mods in the dark when you feel there's violating content?

XIGRIMxREAPERIX · 36分前

/u/spez I am confused on the illegal portion. Are we allowed to talk about pirating, but not link it in /r/tpb Can we have a discussion in /r/trees about why we should produce marijuana, but no how to produce it?

This seems like a very large grey area in terms of everything.

bhalp1 · 36分前

I generally agree with the outline above. Do you have ideas for the name of this second classification? I feel like this kind of thing is easy to conceptualize, hard to bucket and actually classify, and will come down to semantics. The naming of things is such an important factor in how they are accepted and understood by the community. Is there a list of names you are considering?

Thanks for the transparency. My favorite thing about Reddit is that it is a platform that gives a voice to the many without garbling in down to the lowest common denominator (but that also happens sometimes.) My least favorite thing are the hateful subcultures that exist and feel entitled to never have their views even questioned or criticized. I appreciate that Reddit does not try to decide what is right or wrong but I also appreciate a clear stance against hate and harassment.

SirT6 · 45分前

I think this is the one that most people will be concerned about:

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

Prohibiting harassment, bullying and abuse sounds great in principle. Can you offer a bit more about how you will define those terms, and how you will enforce such a prohibition of content? Some examples might go a long way toward clarifying your thoughts on this issue.

The Reddit staff is rather small compared to other social/community-based websites, I can't imagine it can effectively respond on a case-by-case reporting basis. Do you have a different vision for rapidly and efficiently enforcing a prohibition on this type of content.

smeezekitty · 45分前

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

What you have right now is mostly reasonable. I applauded Reddit when it banned Child Porn. But it is important to keep in mind that people don't have the right not to be offended.

I have other questions that are important to pose:

Do you still plan to discontinue shadowbans for users other than spammers? If so, what kind of time frame would there be on that?

Will rules be applied consistantly? For example, will brigaders for a feminist cause be treated the same as a brigader for an other cause?

Why the strange mix of banning subs? Like why was neofag banned?

SF218 · 44分前

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

Obviously, this is what is pretty much on everyone's mind. What, exactly, constitutes "harassment" according to the Reddit administration as a whole. You cannot simply institute such a vague policy. You have to draw the line and it has to be black and white.

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.

This is fair.

colin_moore · 42分前

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.

Who defines this "common sense of decency"? isn't someone always going to be offended, not matter what the content?

krispykrackers · 24分前

Currently if something from say, /r/fullmoviesonyoutube gets a DMCA request, we review it. If we do not host the content, we do not remove it and refer them to the hosting site for removal. Obviously, we cannot remove content that is hosted on another site.

The tricky area is if instead of just a streaming movie, the link takes you to a download of that content that puts it onto your machine. That is closer to actually hosting, and our policy has been to remove that if requested.

Copyright laws weren't really written for the internet, so the distinctions aren't always clear.

KaliYugaz · 49分前

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.

courtiebabe420 · 47分前

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

Can you provide a definition of what that means?

donkey_democrat · 39分前

One of the biggest problems with restricting speech is that the rules against speech are often vague, and open the door to further restrictions. A law against hate speech could define hate speech as whatever it wants, including anti-government speech.

Specifically, I would like you to go into more detail with these points:

• 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)

What is inciting harm defined as? Is it as simple as being against a type of person, or do they have to threaten death?

Same goes for harassing and bullying people. Would fatepeoplehate be allowed, assuming it stayed within its own bounds, or would it be banned, due to it harassing fat people?

How do subreddits protect against false flags or a few bad eggs? Was it right, in your mind, for fatpeoplehate to be banned entirely over the actions of a few users?

All of these questions need consideration. Thanks in advance.

birdguy · 48分前

Anything that harasses, bullies, or abuses an individual or group of people

Can you be more specific about what this means?

Edit: Will there be a clear distinction to prevent someone from claiming harassment in order to avoid criticism on reddit?

Bwob · 45分前

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.

This is INCREDIBLY problematic - "I know it when I see it" has already been demonstrated to be a terrible thing to try to use as a basis for rules or laws.

I know this is a hard problem, but can you PLEASE figure out a consistent policy here, that doesn't ultimately boil down to "does the admin arbitrating on it happen to like it or not"?

The_Year_of_Glad · 47分前

Anything illegal (i.e. things that are actually illegal, such as copyrighted material.

Illegal in which jurisdiction, specifically?

tacomotif · 49分前

"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.

avoidingtheshadow · 48分前

Why was /u/Dancingqueen89 shadowbanned mere DAYS after your claim that shadowbans were only for spammers and not "real users"?

I'm going to presume that /r/neofag was banned for using publicly available pictures of NeoGAF users in its banner, since there was a complete lack of transparency regarding this ban. Why then, was /r/starcraftcirclejerk let off with a slap on the wrist for including the leaked nudes of a user, and subsequently spamming his inbox with username mentions in order to post said pictures? Is this not considered harassment? Why did one warrant a complete ban, and the other simply having the offending material removed?

Also, Why was /r/neogafinaction banned despite being created months before the banning of /r/neofag?

I'm hoping you'll live up to your promise of transparency /u/spez

(Disclaimer: I think Destiny is an asshole. I didn't browse NeoFAG. I care about fairness, equal application of the rules, and transparency).

haroldtheblankth · 37分前

Well this turned out to be a good chance to have your voice heard.

We knew this was coming, though

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

Anything that hurts feelings? Anything that others don't like? Are we removing the option to simply avoid communities that you dislike, instead removing the people who say things you dislike?

If I want to reopen /r/fatpeoplehate; is that impossible now, because the very idea of hating people who are fat is harassment and bullying on its face, even if the people within the community are kind to one another? (and no, obviously someone admitting to be fat would not be "in" that community.)

Stink_Snake · 49分前

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 road. A rode in which our up vote buttons will become Doritos and Downvote Mountain Dew. A road where we can all enjoy the site being wrapped in Suicide Squad banners. We did it Reddit!

Hammerhart · 47分前

Firstly, will you comment on your backpedaling regarding Reddit being a "bastion of free speech"?

Also,

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

"Harassment" can be defined quite broadly.

PhantomandaRose · 49分前

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.

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?
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.
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.
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.

Woahtheredudex · 47分前

Why was /r/NeoFag banned when there has been no evidence that it or its users ever took part in harassment? Why was a mod of the sub then shawdowbanned for asking about it? Especially when you have recently said that shawdowbans are for spammers only?

MMZephyr · 50分前

If a subreddit like /r/fatpeoplehate was banned, why aren't similar ones like /r/punchablefaces banned?
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?)
Why did you say reddit isn't meant to be a bastion of free speech, when you used to say the exact opposite?
What do you have against free speech? Hasn't it gotten the US pretty far, despite the lame people who abuse free speech?
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?

Honestly_ · 49分前

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.

seamslegit · 50分前

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?

zk223 · 31分前

For fun, I tried my hand at writing up what I think is a fair content policy. Please steal it.

Content Policy

I. Definitions

As used in this Policy:

"Community" means a sub-reddit, acting by and through its registered moderators.

"Submission" means a reddit self post, link post, comment, private message, or other user submitted content, and includes such additional external content that a reasonable person would consider to be incorporated by link or reference.

"Submitter" means the author of a Submission.

II. Policy

No Submission may contain content where the act of submitting or publishing such content would cause a violation of applicable law, or where the content clearly encourages the violation of an applicable law protecting a person from harm, fear, or harassment.

No Submission may identify an individual, whether by context or explicit reference, and contain content of such a nature as to place that individual in reasonable fear that the Submitter will cause the individual to be subjected to a criminal act. "Reasonable fear," as used in the preceding sentence, is an objective standard assessed from the perspective of a similarly situated reasonable person.

No Submission may contain identifying or contact information relating to a person other than the Submitter, excepting information relating to a public figure generally made available by that public figure for the purpose of receiving communication from the public. "Identifying or contact information," as used in the preceding sentence, includes any information which, by itself or in connection with other reasonably available information, would be sufficient to allow an average member of the community receiving the information to uniquely identify a person or to contact a person outside of the reddit platform.

No Submission may encourage communication with any individual, other than the Submitter, for the purpose of subjecting that individual to annoyance or disruption, excepting communication to public figures on matters of public concern.

No Submission may encourage a Community or its members to interfere with the operation of any other Community. Interference consists of voting, commenting, or making submissions in another Community, or in sending private messages to members of that Community, for the purpose of exerting influence or control over that Community or its members.

reddit has identified certain types of content as posing an undue cost for administrators and moderators to evaluate for compliance with applicable law, despite not necessarily being in violation of the law in all instances. Therefore, no Submission may contain sexually explicit or sexually suggestive images of a person under the age of eighteen, nor may a Submission contain sexually explicit images where the persons depicted in such images are identifiable and have not consented to disclosure of the images to the public.

No Community may encourage or make submissions in violation of this Content Policy, and must take prompt action to remove any Submission that violates this Content Policy. All moderators of a Community are separately capable of action creating liability for the Community.

Kyoraki · 29分前

What actions are being done about brigading, and will action only be limited to communities who's political opinions reddit admins don't agree with?

Even now, this thread is being brigaded hard by members of SRS, AMR, GamerGhazi, and SRD, calling for the heads of subreddits they don't like such as the downright innocuous KotakuInAction. Past comments by admins such as /u/kn0thing, saying the SRS isn't active enough to be worth bothering enforcing is truly unacceptable, and an outright double standard.

Drapetomania · 23分前

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.

Open and honest discussion? You spergs couldn't be possibly less open and honest. I mean, look at some of the shit you said. You said that reddit was never meant to be a bastion of free speech, and lo and behold, people dug up you saying that reddit is supposed to be a "bastion of free speech," (literally, the same wording verbatim). There's nothing open and honest about that. You expect the users to think reddit's about open and honest communication when your goddamn admins won't even clearly communicate the rules to users? Where decisions go unexplained and unexamined and whether a user gets shadowbanned for something is a roll of the dice? I mean, the FPH mods (some of them) were unbanned, and then they were rebanned with "you shouldn't have been unbanned" even though some of them weren't complicit in some of their shenanigans. You're all mostly lying fucks.

Let's look at Yishan. He says you Pao was put on a glass cliff. We all know Yishan's whiting knighting hard because he's after some of that fellow yellow pussy, and he's also your typical San Fran fuck (like the rest of you guys) so nothing he says can really be trusted. I've googled Yishan's picture, too, and I wouldn't trust that a guy that looks like that much of a creepy pedophile. Fuck, yishan looks so degenerate that photos of him look incomplete because you expect the fucking plaid fedora to be on his head, but it's not there. When reddit has a history of fucks like Yishan and Pao and intortus being on staff, how can you be trusted? You can you be about open and honest discussion when you're a cabal of disgusting, plaid-wearing hipsters that drink the social justice politics in San Fran's water supply?

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

Such vague words, "harass" or "bully." Who you going to ban first, /r/Israel or /r/Palestine? It all depends on your politics and what's near to dear with you; who you sympathize with, and who "deserves it." One could say /r/politics bullies and harasses anyone that that doesn't live and breath Marx/Engels/Sanders/Warren; when you pick loosely defined words like that, it's just to give you the illusion of impartiality while moderating your opinion. Subs like /r/GamerGhazi, /r/SubredditDrama, and /r/ShitRedditSays are all about trying to silence people, but admins have had close relations with at least some of them from the start, sympathizing with them. Yishan, ever the eternal hipster, gave some mouth support to them. When you guys are in bed with some of reddit's most vile, dishonest ("open and honest discussion!") people, it's pretty clear that you're going to favor certain ideas, particularly those held by gender warriors and whatever else is hip and cool in your corner of San Fran. Why do fuckers in San Fran always belief the same far-left weirdo bullshit, anyway? San Fran is to hipsters what Clearwater, Florida is to Scientology.

How can you claim to be for open and honest discussion when, in practice, you're just going to take out controversial views you don't like? Open and honest discussion requires thick skins and free speech, because open and honest discussion requires thick skins because one person's sincerely held belief is another's high blasphemy. I know what PR smells like, and it smells like the bullshit you're spewing. Everyone knows your game. I'd rather hotbox myself in a car with the fattest, grossest trucker in the world after Taco Tuesday then smell some of the shit leaking out from you.

Vladimir_Is_Pootin · 47分前

Alright, /u/spez, in that announcement post a few days ago, you claimed that you never referred to Reddit as a “free speech platform.” I have a few pieces of evidence that point to the contrary.

Interview where /u/spez calls Reddit a free speech platform, original video went conveniently private.

Reddit rules page Archive in case of sneaky revision

Reddit FAQ page Archive

/r/blog post Archive

“A bastion for free speech on the web…?”

How would you like to respond to the people calling you out for your blatant attempt to rewrite history?

ImAKidImASquid · 49分前

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

(Credit to /r/BoFS)

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