http://www.brentcsutoras.com/2009/05/13/reddits-decline-democracy/
created by carsonbiz on 13/05/2009 at 17:06 UTC
123 upvotes, 27 top-level comments (showing 25)
Comment by [deleted] at 13/05/2009 at 20:35 UTC
75 upvotes, 7 direct replies
[deleted]
Comment by ewils at 13/05/2009 at 19:53 UTC
11 upvotes, 0 direct replies
It depends on what you want out of the site. If you want a moderated news site hit up google reader, no memes run amok there.
If you want a user-run user-submitted site then, well you're basically fucked actually. I think it'd be overall better if reddit went back to an earlier strategy and at least forced the subreddits to abide by the TOS.
Comment by rmeddy at 14/05/2009 at 00:00 UTC
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Helluva a lot fairer than Digg IMO.
Comment by Rawrgor at 14/05/2009 at 02:29 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I notice that he repeats the same two points over and over again never introducing anything new. Waste of 5 minutes to read that tripe.
Comment by BoonTobias at 13/05/2009 at 21:22 UTC
7 upvotes, 0 direct replies
this explains all the downvotes i've been getting, real redditors would never do that to me
Comment by nonrate at 13/05/2009 at 19:27 UTC
11 upvotes, 3 direct replies
Democracy is not as great as it's been sold. It's mob rule. Do you want to be ruled by a majority of morons? Thank goodness the US wasn't founded on democracy. Oh... you think it was... well, it wasn't. Now that politicians, who are morons, have been falsely branding our society as a democracy, we see the result of the mob of morons running things. Think Republic.
Comment by undacted at 14/05/2009 at 03:17 UTC
5 upvotes, 2 direct replies
It's funny, because reddit is a **meritocracy**, not *democracy*.
Looks like somebody didn't read the `about` and `help` pages when they joined. *sigh*
Comment by [deleted] at 13/05/2009 at 19:43 UTC
8 upvotes, 5 direct replies
I agree with the article. I think Reddit was much more fun without the subreddits, and it seemed less then like the echo chamber than it is now. At minimum, I think that subreddit owners should really have no say over the content -- that should be left up to Reddit staff, who at least seems to be more impartial.
Comment by unchow at 13/05/2009 at 20:37 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
so essentially the same thing that happened in America.
Democracy is great, until you give people power. Or introduce people at all.
Comment by abuhosni at 13/05/2009 at 20:46 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
What's with all the deleted posts here? Did someone touch a nerve?
Comment by quasiperiodic at 14/05/2009 at 02:19 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
what a bunch of whiners.
Comment by Mulsanne at 14/05/2009 at 02:20 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I don't see how any of that stuff matters...
Comment by komal at 14/05/2009 at 05:16 UTC*
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
So the old World News/Funny/Pics/etc. are actually gone and the ones that I am seeing on my front page now are actually USER-CREATED subreddits??
I can't believe reddit would be this irresponsible and stupid...
Comment by catlebrity at 13/05/2009 at 23:21 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I got banned for a time in one subreddit for no good reason, but I still think that reddit with subreddits is much, much better than what Reddit was becoming before subreddits. Lots more quirky stuff comes to my attention this way, and people with idiosyncratic interests and views who'd normally get downvoted into oblivion in the main reddit now have subreddits where they can actually discuss what interests them. That's more democratic, not less. Do you remember when reddit's frontpage seemed like little more than duplicates of ron paul stories we'd all seen already?
Comment by CaspianX2 at 13/05/2009 at 22:01 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I really don't see this as a problem. If people *really* start getting pissed off about the moderation of a Subreddit, and enough demand is created for an alternate Subreddit with more reasonable moderation, one will be created, and float to the top. Really, the only thing I'd change would be auto-subscribing to user-moderated Subreddits.
Comment by [deleted] at 13/05/2009 at 18:49 UTC*
2 upvotes, 2 direct replies
[deleted]
Comment by [deleted] at 13/05/2009 at 23:22 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I think making moderation more visible would fix a lot of the complaining.
Perhaps /b/[subreddit] could be all the banned etc articles/commments/users from that subreddit.
Comment by [deleted] at 14/05/2009 at 00:58 UTC
1 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Why not just banish subreddits? Or, at least, take bake the admin power of all of them. Regardless of who this Brent Csutoras is or what his biases may be, I definitely agree that Reddit has gone downhill since the introduction of the subreddits.
Comment by lowrads at 14/05/2009 at 01:00 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
You can't even manage the top bar. It's totally mob-ruled.
Comment by dberis at 14/05/2009 at 08:25 UTC*
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I would pay attention. Those BrentCsutoras, although vegetarian, are BIG SOB's.
Comment by mayonesa at 14/05/2009 at 08:47 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
The problem with popularity contests is that you're counting on the lowest common denominator to recognize radically divergent ideas, by virtue of their being different from the dominant paradigm.
Comment by [deleted] at 13/05/2009 at 20:43 UTC*
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
This story should be banned I tell you!
Comment by indorock at 13/05/2009 at 20:57 UTC*
0 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Hilarious to read qgyh2's quote "Subreddit owners pull stories whenever they feel like and people are getting banned left and right with no explanation." when he's (allegedly) one of the biggest perpetrators of this practice on /r/environment.
Comment by Coloradofire at 13/05/2009 at 20:07 UTC
-4 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Subreddits were a terrible idea from the beginning, but someone with power sommewhere decided the messages here needed more controlling. They got what they wanted. Welcome to Redigg..
Comment by [deleted] at 13/05/2009 at 20:35 UTC
0 upvotes, 0 direct replies
because giving your customers options is bad.