https://www.reddit.com/r/undelete/comments/36l830/saying_goodbye_to_an_old_friend/
created by go1dfish on 20/05/2015 at 05:16 UTC
212 upvotes, 62 top-level comments (showing 25)
As of today I am retiring from reddit and will not be making any more submissions.
My participation here is an artifact of an earlier better time that has long since run its course. We've still been able to pretend like reddit was here and it was still the best way to spend time online, but I grow tired of this delusion.
When reddit was first started there were no subreddits. As subreddits were added (first by the admins and then later by the community), the original "front page" remained as /r/reddit.com.
The defaults didn't exist for the first 2 years. There was only /r/all and /u/jedberg saw that it was good. Politics, technology and police abuse ruled the day. (Don't taze me bro!)
Then reddit decided that democracy wasn't good enough.
And things went considerably downhill from there. I had no idea of this change at the time, and I blissfully ignored usernames for the first few years of my reddit experience.
Until Occupy Wall Street, and the beginnings of the mod crackdown that would define the progression of the site over the coming years.
This post was successful on /r/reddit.com on Oct 6
The banning of /u/cheney_healthcare and the self posts vote is what made me sit up and pay attention to the fact that some users had absolute veto power in secret.
This was the last post to /r/reddit.com on Oct 18
I was banned from /r/politics around the same time frame.
In recent times this has led to the cultural death, and division of reddit. If reddit was a collection of city states[1] then /r/reddit.com was our internet, and it was forced into darkness. Any free-speech subreddit on reddit ends up getting suppressed after it grows in a bait and switch of moderation.
1: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/sk1ut/iam_yishan_wong_the_reddit_ceo/c4en44e
Subs like /r/fatpeoplehate and /r/gasthekikes are essentially red herrings.
By allowing them to exist while the defaults are as they have been for years it allows reddit to have it's ideological cake and eat it to.
People can point to those troll dens and commiserate about how unsafe reddit is because of freeze peaches.
While reddit curates a PC to the max[2] front for their advertisers satisfaction.
2: https://www.reddit.com/r/thebutton/comments/31b6sx/can_we_start_calling_pressers_colored_folk/
I don't think it's right for me to support this site any more, no matter how fun it is to develop for and I will truly miss the wonderful API developed by the developer admins who still seem to know what made this site great. The politics have just gone berserk. Power always corrupts, and reddit is no exception.
Reddit makes no claim to free speech.
And now the very top of reddit is acting like just as much authoritarian censor as BEP.
"It's not our site's goal to be a completely free-speech platform"
I've fought moderators for almost 5 years now. I don't want to spend the next 5 fighting the admins.
If transparency changes anything here they will make it illegal.
I added some folks as a developer for /r/modlog so hopefully they won't shut it down when I am shadow banned. If they do it's really easy to fork it on github and change the OAUTH token. Please do.
It's time to find or build something better. I'm not convinced VOAT is it either. I don't know what is.
I hope that those of you who still have fight left in you will continue what I can no longer continue in good conscience.
I will miss you all, and this is an incredibly difficult thing for me to do; but it's the only step I have left.
I'm off to wander in search of a new home. A real safe space.
Unlike the communities traditionally associated with the word "anarchy", in a crypto-anarchy the government is not temporarily destroyed but permanently forbidden and permanently unnecessary. It's a community where the threat of violence is impotent because violence is impossible, and violence is impossible because its participants cannot be linked to their true names or physical locations.
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.
Freedom metastasizes the cancer of the state. The government that starts off the smallest, will always end up the largest. This is why there can be no viable and sustainable alternative to a truly free and peaceful society.
/r/BringBackReddit/ I'm not coming back till it does.
The systematic changes of this site over the past 5 years have led be to believe that reddit is not a platform to express my ideas or participate in the conversation.
I'll be leaving some specific goodbyes on this thread as comments before I log out indefinitely.
Comment by [deleted] at 20/05/2015 at 18:48 UTC
9 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Hey man, you posted this in /r/SuicideWatch too[1]. Leaving reddit is ok, just don't leave the real world too. I have been in dark places too, but I am making progress on coming out of them. Feel free to PM me.
Comment by go1dfish at 20/05/2015 at 05:20 UTC
62 upvotes, 2 direct replies
/u/-moose- this is for you.
You remind me of the times when links were all reddit was.
Learn from the masses, and then teach them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.thrivenotes.com/your-vote-doesnt-matter/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-silver/taxation-without-represen_1_b_7069384.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzS068SL-rQ#t=705
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_of_Tears
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Tonkin_incident
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKUltra
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_syphilis_experiment
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterboarding#Contemporary_use_and_the_United_States
Contractors cost+ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhpfNqeZzUE
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/gangster-bankers-too-big-to-jail-20130214
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/secret-and-lies-of-the-bailout-20130104
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2013/09/10/some-95-of-2009-2012-income-gains-went-to-wealthiest-1/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-b-fishbein/9-striking-similarities-b_b_5062840.html
https://www.nsfwcorp.com/dispatch/nsa-whistleblowers-for-dummies/
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/17459-att-tech-blew-the-whistle-on-nsa-spying-in-2006
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-story-of-joseph-nacchio-and-the-nsa-2013-6
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_published_by_WikiLeaks#9.2F11_pager_messages
http://www.wired.com/2013/06/nsa-whistleblower-klein/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorist_Surveillance_Program
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narus_(company[1])
1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narus_(company
http://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/story?id=95836
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/04/police-killed-people-fbi-data-justifiable-homicides
Only cops kill pigs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAwr-9ceDlc
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commission_on_Presidential_Debates
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2008/jul/14/obamas-wiretapping-flip-flop-yes/
Total Recall https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IBvZlRqOTw
http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2006/Friedmantranscript.html
Predicts bitcoin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYD17h6hlCs
http://mises.org/library/pretense-knowledge
Predicts bitcoin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYhEDxFwFRU#t=19m23s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset_price_inflation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggregate_demand
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking
Humans need not apply https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU
The American Dream https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGk5ioEXlIM
/r/BasicIncome/comments/2upn9x/the_sidebar_states_no_advocating_violence_how_do/coar2vp?context=3 /r/Anarcho_Capitalism/comments/2vcoq3/would_taxation_be_theft_if_done_by_an_autonomous/coghp3p /r/Anarcho_Capitalism/comments/2v2i0l/today_i_found_rcryptoubi_for_discussion_of/ /r/CryptoUBI/comments/2v2gi6/proof_of_identityproof_of_person_the_elephant_in/ /r/Anarchism/comments/2v3mno/cryptoubi_my_suggestion_of_how_anarchists_and/
Taxation is Obsolete https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhvoInEsCI0
George ought to help https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGMQZEIXBMs
http://taxfoundation.org/article/tax-freedom-day-2014-april-21-three-days-later-last-year
https://mises.ca/posts/blog/but-who-will-build-the-roads/
Crypto vs Political Power https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joITmEr4SjY&feature=youtu.be&t=110
/r/ideasfortheadmins/comments/8h8sy/subscribe_new_users_to_rall_18_reddits_instead_of/c09c9gy
/r/TheoryOfReddit/comments/1m336u/will_we_ever_see_another_rmarijuanatype_emigration/
/r/thebutton/comments/31b6sx/can_we_start_calling_pressers_colored_folk/
/r/modnews/comments/ov7rt/moderators_feedback_requested_on_enabling_public/
/r/PoliticalModeration/comments/12otmi/reddits_admins_at_the_request_of_mods_from/
/r/undelete/comments/22yewf/i_have_identified_a_list_of_keywords_that_are/
/r/PoliticalModeration/comments/nrsde/rpolitics_moderators_ban_my_account_for/
/r/politics/comments/ibr9r/new_subreddit_moderation/
/r/PoliticalModeration/comments/1s8wo4/banned_from_rpolitics_finally/cdv90ko?context=3
/r/TopMindsOfReddit/comments/32v7p1/i_am_go1dfish_reddit_transparency_advocate/
/r/blog/comments/1sndxe/weve_rewritten_our_user_agreement_come_check_it/cdzha7p
Gender Equality Paradox https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5LRdW8xw70
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kirsten-west-savali/fathers-financial-abortion_b_1015286.html
Comment by [deleted] at 20/05/2015 at 16:26 UTC
7 upvotes, 0 direct replies
are you going to keep politicbot running? hate to see /r/politic die
Comment by gameratron at 20/05/2015 at 19:37 UTC
6 upvotes, 1 direct replies
For what it's worth, I always appreciated having you in /r/BasicIncome, I didn't know about your history of fighting poor moderation, but I felt a lot of sympathy because you were on the wrong side of the circlejerk and I always defended you when other mods wanted to delete your posts. I actually thought about offering you a mod post, but that would have required an actual team of mods rather than a bunch of individuals ranging from inactive to semi-active. I would also love to make public our modmail and do other transparency things but getting consensus is difficult when nobody states an opinion, then when consensus finally IS established, suddenly every mod comes out to oppose it. From the mods' perspective, it can be hard being the only mod who wants to actually enforce the rules as they exist, rather than just deleting anything they don't like and banning anyone who gets a report. And it can be hard trying to stand up against several longer-established mods.
I have also taken large steps back from reddit and moderation, every so often something so terrible happens I have to try take a stand or if someone shows signs of moving in the right direction, I try to move with them, but generally it's preety thankless and not worth it. That's why I set up a Basic Income blog, so I could promote what I believe in without being held back by others' inaction, or have my work thrown back in my face.
But anyway, all the best, /r/BasicIncome will be worse off without you.
Comment by go1dfish at 20/05/2015 at 05:36 UTC
36 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Thank you to the mods of /r/anarchism
Though in more recent times you have decided to join the company of /r/ProtectAndServe /r/politics and /r/pyongyang by banning me you were an instrumental inspiration in my reddit development.
You were what gave me the idea that public mod logs might be an answer.
But banning me for my participation in /r/subredditcancer is a reminder that transparency is not a panacea.
You are still the only sub with the balls to make your mail public and you earn my respect for that, even if you are otherwise no better authoritarian statists.
Seriously why so much obsession with identity politics?
Keep fighting the power! Except when suits you.
Comment by go1dfish at 20/05/2015 at 09:35 UTC
19 upvotes, 1 direct replies
/u/kn0thing
Where to begin? How about where it all started.
https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/87/the_downing_street_memo/
Let's assume we live in a strange parallel universe where everything is the same in our timeframe except the iraq war is happening now.
Where do you post the downing street memo today such that it gets attention and sparks the largest protests in history (which end up accomplishing nothing but that's beside the point).
You don't even get that far.
Reddit is no longer a viable soapbox. All you can do is circle jerk and counter circle jerk.
There is no community, only splintering.
There is no information market for subreddits, only opacity.
A catch all default cleanly solves so many of the perceptual and procedural problems that plague this community that it baffles my mind why the admins are so opposed to exploring this option.
What are you afraid of?
You have this to say on subreddit competition
The way we designed reddit was to be a platform for millions of communities (500K so far) and if a particular community's mod team jumps the shark, redditors can quickly leave to another community that enforces rules they approve. We've seen this happen time and time again (the first was /r/marijuana to /r/trees exodus).
But you and I are both adults, we both pay attention to reddit.
The /r/trees example is so old as to be prehistoric, and if it happened time and time again you would site a much less controversial example.
It's never happened with any community of any significant size since the fall of /r/reddit.com
Those breaks that do happen are always trigger by some relatively cataclysmic event, it's never a matter of 'hey this sub kinda sucks maybe we could do it better' it's always some mod drama.
As a result of this, drama and witch hunts are the most effective promotional tool on reddit that doesn't require admin ordination, default approval, or stacks of cash.
Is it any wonder that it happens so often?
This has been a known problem for years. Plenty of times the admins tell us of some 'fix' or improvement to the defaults just on the horizon. But nothing ever changes but your subjective shuffling of the topics.
It was near impossible to offset an existing sub even WITH /r/reddit.com and you suggest that it's the easiest thing in the world today.
Maybe if a sub was moderated by Hitler or Pao that would be one thing, but the world isn't black and white; and neither is the character of a subreddit's quality.
But none of this matters. You don't give a damn about me or the existing subscriber base any more.
You've done the math, and you know that growth is the hit you need.
Well the approach you have taken has made me and plenty of other redditors want to burn this site to the ground rather than let you profit off its ruin.
How can we fix this?
The solution is simple and you could do it RIGHT NOW, it's the easiest thing in the world and there would be hundreds if not thousands of willing mods.
Make the mod log public, be as transparent as you claim to be.
Actions not words.
The systematic changes of this site over the past 5 years have led be to believe that reddit is not a platform to express my ideas or participate in the conversation.
So I'm not going to anymore. Not until you /r/BringBackReddit or finally explain why /r/twoxchromosomes is and should be the only default subreddit to allow political advocacy.
Then it all crashes down
And you break your crown
And you point your finger
But there’s no one around
Just want one thing
Just to play the king
And you’re left with just a name[1]**
1: /r/IAmA/comments/1nfx00/iama_cofounder_of_reddit_alexis_ohanian_amaath/ccia9gq?context=1
Where's your crown[2]?
Comment by go1dfish at 20/05/2015 at 05:43 UTC
16 upvotes, 2 direct replies
/u/drshroom I'll never forget the day I saw my favorite crazy guitar player from reddit jamming out on tv during occupy.
Don't ever put it down. You are my absolute favorite redditor. Ignore all the meta bullshit. Don't let it drag you down while you lift people up.
I was going to link to "Afghanistan" from your youtube channel but I can't find it. It's my favorite song of yours and it reminds me that other people do care about the world the same way I do.
When did reddit become a place where you could call for a race war, but not advocate for ending the ones we are already in?
Comment by Nechaev at 20/05/2015 at 17:21 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
(Forgive me for repeating myself from the SRC thread, but I wasn't sure if you'd see it in there).
We're sorry to see you leave go1dfish.
We've all talked about leaving lately, but I didn't realize you were going so soon and I thought we had more time to learn from you.
Thanks for your help with /r/subredditcancer. I'm sorry it led to your quarrel with /r/anarchism, but at the same time if was nice of you to join the team for a short while at least.
All the best with your future.
Comment by TotesMessenger at 20/05/2015 at 06:03 UTC*
13 upvotes, 0 direct replies
This thread has been linked to from another place on reddit.
[/r/circlebroke2] IT'S HAPPENING!!
[/r/conspiracy] So long and thanks for all the upvotes. I'm done with this site.
[/r/fairshare] Saying goodbye to an old friend
[/r/oppression] /u/go1dfish: So long and thanks for all the upvotes. I'm done with this site.
[/r/redditcensorship] Saying goodbye to an old friend : /u/go1dfish in undelete
2: /message/compose/?to=/r/TotesMessenger
Comment by BuyGoldSupportSJWs at 20/05/2015 at 14:08 UTC
10 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I intend to stay until I find myself laughing as the flames consume it from within.
Comment by [deleted] at 20/05/2015 at 14:00 UTC
21 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Reddit lost a piece of its heart today.
Our paths will cross again. Go make yourself happy and do good work.
Spy versus Spy 4eva!
Comment by alllie at 20/05/2015 at 10:27 UTC*
22 upvotes, 3 direct replies
In recent times this has led to the cultural death, and division of reddit.
This is an old tactic. In the 60s when there were a lot of social movements and the plutocracy was afraid of revolution, they declawed those movements through the use of identity politics. The blacks over here, women over there, the Hispanics way over there, (and now gays way way over there). Instead of everyone unified, fighting for each other, they got them to fight against each other, each fighting for a few crumbs. On Reddit they got us divided into smaller and smaller groups, sometimes insisting we divide. It's a time tested tactic.
But without you, go1dfish, we won't even be able to track what they do. You're the most significant person on Reddit. Don't leave.
Or
Go1dfish, could you make a new Reddit? Would you?
Comment by go1dfish at 20/05/2015 at 06:50 UTC
9 upvotes, 0 direct replies
/u/Stuck_in_the_matrix thank you for being a fellow geek with a desire for change and a powerful VPS.
The world needs more like us and less people trying to keep the geeks from being able to make changes.
Gatekeepers are for cemeteries, not social networks.
I know I say I'm retiring from reddit but I do hope we can still build things together.
I'm not sure what will happen with /r/modlog development at this point. But if it stops working it will be because reddit has broken it not me.
Comment by go1dfish at 20/05/2015 at 07:22 UTC
8 upvotes, 1 direct replies
/u/DronePuppet
It's a small world, and I wouldn't want to pinpoint you in it; but PM me some dox and we'll go get a beer in my newly found free time.
Comment by avengingturnip at 20/05/2015 at 12:18 UTC
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Ave atque vale.
Comment by [deleted] at 20/05/2015 at 14:22 UTC
4 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I think some would argue the start of the decline was exposure on CNN with Anderson Cooper talking about r/jailbait and what went on in there. It became a conversation of reddit users being pervs and pedos.
My realization was the big ban of news sources for submissions in r/politics. How could you say Mother Jones is not a legit news source (at the time, as I'm not sure of their legitimacy now).
Comment by [deleted] at 20/05/2015 at 17:09 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Yes, apparently the better something is for free people, the more some dicks will come along and try to break it. Well, it's being broken right before our eyes by people with less brains than authority who seem to think that vocal minorities should be the ones who shape discourse as opposed to just being part of it all.
Comment by TheCountUncensored at 21/05/2015 at 00:22 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Dude.. You're the first user whos name I remembered 4.5 years ago. (I changed user names) WHY U NO 3 DAWG AND FITE GUD FITE?!
If you really do leave, then this[1] is for you.
1: http://i.imgur.com/nNRWwrz.gifv
Comment by go1dfish at 20/05/2015 at 06:22 UTC
8 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Thank you to /u/rightc0ast for showing the right way to moderate a political subreddit by example.
“What’s the difference between a minarchist and an anarchist? Six months”
You remind me of a time when liberty and freedom weren't dirty words on reddit.
You provided an early safe haven for the early disaffected /r/politics refugees to commiserate and showed that lax moderation doesn't have to mean a shitty sub.
Comment by go1dfish at 20/05/2015 at 05:27 UTC
5 upvotes, 2 direct replies
/u/cheney_healthcare thank you for being there at the beginning when it all turned to shit.
https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/l2y8w/would_anyone_here_care_to_explain_why_two_of_my/
I don't know what happened to you, but I hope you found an alt that you could spread your message of liberty on.
Comment by ShellOilNigeria at 20/05/2015 at 11:20 UTC
6 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Don't leave, you have some great knowledge about how things work around here and lot's of us appreciate your posts.
Comment by GuiltByAssociation at 20/05/2015 at 17:03 UTC
6 upvotes, 1 direct replies
You have inspired me to do the same. Goodbye lovely /r/conspiracy community. There is only so much I let my convictions beeing sacrificy and I have to admit that this point is reached now for sure with this very calculated move. Please do not suffer too much here, because it is not worth it. You are the community and you can build up this community wherever you want whitout this CEO restricting your freedom of speech. Love.
Comment by [deleted] at 20/05/2015 at 19:33 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Goodbye, /u/go1dfish. Although I'm just starting to learn about everything you've done, from what I gather you've already done more than anyone could ask.
Comment by OWNtheNWO at 21/05/2015 at 00:13 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Come to voat it's actually really good, any problems we've had in /v/conspiracy Atko (site founder) is very responsive and will come respond in person and try and fix any problems. I can't say it will stay like that forever, but as of right now, it's the polar opposite of this shithole.
Comment by go1dfish at 20/05/2015 at 07:30 UTC
11 upvotes, 1 direct replies
/u/2noame
Thank you for redirecting my ideological trolling into productive pursuits.
/r/BasicIncome reminded me of when I used to participate on /r/politics because the demographics are pretty much identical and it was a much freer space back then.
I used to love getting massively down voted for making calm, reasoned arguments from the perspective of liberty and freedom.
They have to at least glance at what you have to say to find the down vote button.
I'm not giving up on BasicIncome or /r/FairShare but I do have to give up on reddit right now and I wish you the best in your efforts.
Like /u/anutensil I hope you will eventually realize that government can never be an ally for change in the US.
We can't wait for them.
The most important job to automate away is that of the politician.
If more people can make that click, the connection between automation, efficiency and 'government' then there is no end to the progress we can achieve.
But even knowing that you face a hopeless task you push it every day with intelligence and kindness.
It's incredibly endearing and I am a better person for having met you.
Good ideas don't have to be spread at the barrel of a gun, and /r/BasicIncome is one of the best ideas of our time.
