13 upvotes, 4 direct replies (showing 4)
Thank you for writing this. I want to stress that, in recent months, I've gotten the impression that, as other communities start enforcing some basic guidelines, the scummier people dissappear there and reappear on reddit.
IMO this is something that should give the powers that be at reddit sleepless nights. Because some day, in the not too distant future, somebody (most likely a 3-letter agency) will shut down 4chan. And if that happens, their entire zoo of asshats will look for another place to go.
I'm certain reddit will be the most likely "recipient". And once they are here, they'll start marauding through the subreddits.
If you, dear reader, doubt my reasoning, please be aware that there is actual *experimental* evidence of this: In Germany, there is a very controversial and extremely popular IT/conspiracy blog called "fefe's blog". That blog did not, at any point in time, have a comment function because fefe (Felix von Leitner, the guy running it) knew that the "community" there would just be one toxic cesspool.
As a sort of joke, Linus Neumann implemented a separate homepage called "re:fefe", which automatically generated an open comment page for each post of said blog. After some time, other bloggers started thanking Linus Neumann, because the number of trolls active on their blogs had decreased noticeably. re:fefe turned out to be an effective troll-sink, binding the energy of many of the people that made other communities toxic[1].
If 4chan were to go away some day, reddit would very likely become the new troll-sink.
[1] http://alternativlos.org/31/[1] All of this was mentioned in this episode of the Alternativlos podcast. Unfortunately, it is in German.
1: http://alternativlos.org/31/
Comment by scoops22 at 07/09/2014 at 14:57 UTC
3 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Wrong. Most 4chaners deplore reddit for the exact reason of how this whole situation was handled. They'd simply move to one of the other Chans.
Also 4chan will not be taken down by a 3 letter agency. They've done worse than this... Believe it or not the moderation there is very good and they perfectly comply with U.S. take down laws.
Comment by Doomwaffle at 07/09/2014 at 14:20 UTC
4 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Perhaps. The fervor for reddit on 4chan makes me disbelieve the speed at which 4chan refugees would show up here, and many other chan alternatives are available, albeit orders of magnitude less popular. The draw to posting on 4chan is constant anonymity and no need to tie down to a user acc.
That being said, allegiances online are about as fickle as anything else so I think there's a chance of users showing up here.
That is a fantastic case study however, very interesting!
Comment by lazydictionary at 07/09/2014 at 14:55 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
You would be surprised at his much overlap there is on 4chan and Reddit. Many they sure the same community.
They share many of the same interests, from video games to porn.
Comment by 4698458973 at 07/09/2014 at 18:41 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I bet Reddit and 4chan already have a huge overlap in their userbase.