Reddit is a shithole

The image is a reddit post with the following text (automatically transcribed):

I remember I got into an argument on reddit awhile ago with a person over Italian food. It got to the point they were following me into other subs to harass me. I clicked on their profile to block them and their most recent post was them drinking their own piss on r/piss. At that moment I realized I had spent so much pointless time arguing about the taste of food with someone who drinks their own piss as a hobby. This site is a shit hole.

Skitburd,

Bidoof’s law strikes again

rusticus,

Technically, isn’t reddit a pisshole?

ObsidianZed,

The Internet*, the Internet is a shithole.

solstice,

Yeah it’s the exact same shit on Lemmy, only the difference is that reddit is mostly self aware, and Lemmy goes around jerking off while huffing its own farts like its so much better than Reddit. It’s really weird.

luckyhunter,

Yeah I just had an account banned there for talking about shooting paper targets and someone reported me because it was threatening them.

arc,

To be fair it happens here. Made a comment about far left & right being manipulated by Russian BS about Ukraine and some very tedious people started at me about how Ukraine are Nazis etc. I suppose it demonstrated my point in a roundabout way.

arefx,

People here love to act like this stuff is exclusive to reddit when it is in fact a thing called “human nature” and can be observed anywhere there are people.

snausagesinablanket,
@snausagesinablanket@lemmy.world avatar

“human nature” TIl being an asshole is human nature.

limelight79,

Yeah, it’s pretty much everywhere on the internet. It’s not unique to reddit or any other site.

NathanielThomas,

I was playing with randos on Ghost Recon Breakpoint and some slavic sounding dude was trying to explain Putin is cleansing Ukraine of Nazis. I was like, buddy, he better start with himself.

UFO64,

There are many valid problems with the Ukraine and it’s history. There are many conversations one could have about it and what the world should be doing in response to their situation.

The whole “They are Nazis!” argument doesn’t hold water the moment you carry their view point onto something like the US and ask the exact same questions.

peppersky,

But I want to hang out with the weirdos

Immersive_Matthew,

Maybe it was just an AI bot trying ti see if it could waste your time. I have noticed this on a few occasions where a “person” was being rude and trying to get a reaction, but when you look at their history you see hints of AI chat bot. Why anyone would do this is beyond me…maybe research or just a way to mess with people. Something to think about the next time you get into it with someone or something on the Internet.

Justas,
@Justas@sh.itjust.works avatar

I remember seeing some mean comments on my country’s subreddit about how bad the country is, only to discover that the poster of those comments seemed to live in three places at once and shitting on all of them.

limelight79,

The Washington DC sub always had people who very likely had nothing to do with the city at all. Especially when there were demonstrations going on.

But that can happen here on Lemmy too. It may not have yet, but if it attracts enough attention it will.

Garden_Ramsay,

That happened all the time in my smallish city sub I used to frequent. It was small enough crap like that would get banned quickly. You’d just find them stirring every hot topic pot you could find in every city sub for our state and also like 5 other states, just 24/7 “arguing” aka spouting talking points or hit and run posts. Then occasionally a random post in /r/mlb

solstice,

It “drives engagement.” The old marketing trope that sex sells has given way to rage sells. Piss people off, get them involved in a pointless internet debate, push that dopamine button in your brain because you’re right and that asshole is wrong and this is why, and boom, another social media addict. Oh hey what’s this, a funny meme? Sure I’ll click that and maybe reply in that thread too…

It’s super effective.

Immersive_Matthew,

You are so right. It drives engagement big time. I wonder how many rage inducing comments are just bots trying to engage you? I read recently that 67% of Internet traffic is bots and growing. No idea if that is correct, but surely the actual number is on the rise with no signs is stopping. Maybe 99% of all rage battles online will be between two chatbots. Ahahahaha

computerscientistI,

I called my car (MG) a product of our friends with almond-shaped eyes. Got my account suspended indefinitely. Why??? I avoided “Schlitzaugengezücht” as a description for my car and still…

NathanielThomas,

How can you live in Germany, the country where the best cars are made, and drive an import?

xx3rawr,

He pissed him off

nomadjoanne,

People argue about dumb stuff here too. We are still humans after all.

robbotlove,

you’re wrong.

Malfeasant,

I know you are but what am I?

pewgar_seemsimandroid,

just join lemmy

CurlyMoustache,
@CurlyMoustache@lemmy.world avatar

I would not be shocked if people on here also drink their own urine. Not that I’m judging, of course

PissinSelfNdriveway,

It’s already getting infested with the worst of the reddit fuckers, I’ve been on here for probably 2 months and the first month was great, but it has quickly gotten reddioter and therefore shittier.

snausagesinablanket,
@snausagesinablanket@lemmy.world avatar

Especially the downvote trolls.

jayrodtheoldbod,

Reddit tended to be best where it had stolen better communities from the old web.

For example, r/Excel was always a stunningly chill place to get help with MS Excel. But notice that the community was/is tightly focused on a subject, that subject would have objectively correct answers to any questions about it, and the mods could politely but firmly discourage any spicier conversations as off-topic. You can keep that sort of place decent almost indefinitely.

Such communities would have been their own little message board before Reddit came along and hoovered them all up.

Likewise with all the other subreddits that were famously full of answers, ones you never had heard of. Just the other day I googled a question about some random piece of cable I had in my hand and guess who had answered it 4 years ago? Yeah. Those little communities tend to be really solid. They never get that big, either. You can’t just fuck around in them, you have to stay on topic and the average user hates that.

But Reddit turns into a wretched, life-draining parasitic monster in any form where the public feels like they have the right to run their mouths and chatter. So, most of Reddit, really. Anywhere that gives the average schmuck a place to vent will degenerate, rapidly, usually toward an abusive groupthink. It’s just populism, then, and a textbook answer to why that’s bad.

It’s the bane of all social media. I don’t think people are generally that shitty. I’ve decided that social media, including Reddit, just empowers small, loud minorities of miserable, exhausting people who have nigh-fascist opinions on every single thing, and as soon as the normal-ass people see that they’ve joined the chat, the normal-ass people all vanish, overnight, leaving behind only shitbags who love attention, or believe they have a right to it, at everyone else’s expense. There’s no getting rid of them when they show up, you can only get rid of you. I hope you weren’t having a nice time, because it’s over now, time to move on.

Reddit always had its great little subreddits full of truly precious answers as a counterweight to all that. It would appear that they were the only thing of value that Reddit ever had, too.

Lemmy doesn’t really have that. It looks like the most obnoxious parts of Reddit came here, so, you know, every computer problem is solved by installing Linux, and other mouthfuls of that flavor. Then somebody opened the floodgates and now you’re arguing with Commies about every political thing. Meanwhile, no great little subLemmies full of answers for your obscure questions exist to make up for it.

Like you said, it was super chill for a month, but then, yeah. It’s kinda same shit different day. It’s reminding me that I’ve decided to view social media as a vice, almost exactly like smoking, and changing cigarette brands does not solve the problem.

NathanielThomas,

every computer problem is solved by installing Linux

LOL! I know, they’re more insufferable than the vegans.

solstice,

Notice how they’re experts on everything in general too, not just their specific computer niche? Particularly governance, finance, tax, fucking crypto and how it’ll change all of the above, etc. Easily the most insufferable demographic as you say.

spicysoup,
@spicysoup@lemmy.world avatar

pretty good assessment honestly. Those on topic niche communities are why I joined and loved reddit in the beginning.

banneryear1868,

Totally agree, I used to mod on a couple of the default subs and it made me hate reddit and view the open forum aspect of social media differently. I think I fully realized this when Glenn Greenwald did an AMA and said a mod team I was on (worldnews) was all paid Obama shills, because the sub had a rule against opinion columns which is what a lot of his content at the time was. So I got a bunch of hate mail about that, and sometimes journalists would even contact us individually for whatever reason, which I mostly ignored but occasionally would lead them on them ghost them. I had to make new accounts to deal with wanting to use the site just for the smaller niche interest subreddits.

Another thing I saw is how the most quickly digestible garbage content has such an advantage on the larger subs, and how the hivemind manipulates itself, by selecting out of a huge pool the very few posts that get to be on the front page. I blame this sort of echo chamber for some of what’s happening with politics now, or at least accelerating what was already happening.

solstice,

Remember when r/AMA used to be about things like researchers in fields you aren’t familiar with talking about things you haven’t heard of before but found interesting. Or someone who had just accomplished something interesting. Then at some point it just turned into a PR mouthpiece for actors and celebs promoting their new whatever.

I used to be on a bunch of forums and communities for niche interests. Then reddit and facebook et al destroyed them, like the wal marts of the internet destroying local communities. I was genuinely friends with many online strangers, like real actual bona fide friends, and suddenly our local digital hangouts were destroyed. End of an era. I’d love for those to pop up again but I wouldn’t know where to begin finding them now.

froghorse,

Lemmy is getting to be a bit of a shithole too. Brainless, dictatorial moderators censor us without notice or warning here too.

Franzia,

I am super scared of how moderation works. Will I just have my account deleted if my meme is too deep fried? Probably not, but… a set of standards would be more than appreciated.

NOSin,

Don’t listen to this cringy kid, he was very obviously trolling on his post after asking a legit question but refusing to properly acknowledge the answers, and now he’s angry that he can’t troll.

If you respect the community rules and are here to actually engage with people, you won’t have any problems.

Franzia,

Oh haha, thank you for the context and the reassurance.

froghorse, (edited )

Yes, you will. Maybe the mod is dumb. Maybe the mod is simply on another page. Either way it seems statistically inevitable.

I think that no body of rules will protect us.

Ask the wrong question, offer the wrong opinion, and they’ll call you a troll.

It appears that my post got deleted. Popular social media is a zoo.

Smeagol666,

In an art appreciation sub (I think it was r/museum) some jackhole said they liked a Van Gogh painting because “it had colors resembling the Ukrainian flag”. I caught a third strike for saying “Fuck Ukraine”. When I explained to the mod that it was because i was sick of political bullshit creeping into everything, and the painting in question was painted 100 years before Ukraine was even a country, he rescinded the ban, but it didn’t matter, it was my third strike on Reddit. I even got a cute little hammer emoji. Yeah, fuck Reddit.

SocialMediaRefugee,

Reddit was great for things like “Can you recommend some Italian restaurants in the area?” Then you’d get downvoted for recommending some Italian restaurants in the area.

fxt_ryknow,

You needed to read between the lines. People were clearly looking for piss drinking tips…not actual Italian restaurants.

STK96,

I reported an account that was posting CP and they banned ME for report abuse and let them continue posting but removed one of their CP posts. Reddit is a cesspool.

Texas_Hangover,

Probably one of the admins alts.

STK96,

Crazy to think about but maybe.

SocialMediaRefugee,

So that is ok but if you post to an “unapproved” subreddit (even if you are leaving a criticism of them) you get banned from subreddits by bots. Then you accidently post to one of them from a 2nd account and your account gets perma banned. Yay! “Reddit, a place for open discussion for only people we approve of subject to arbitrary rules.”

banned ME for report abuse

Wouldn’t be surprised if the poster was a mod.

Vorticity,

I wonder if Reddit could be held legally liable for trafficking in CP in that case. They were explicitly told “this is CP and should be deleted” and they didn’t act.

STK96,

No idea, it’s weird they reacted that way because I reported all three of the CP posts on that account instead of just the one though. Evidently they have some questionable staff.

Krachsterben,

They didn’t care for many years when /jailbait or /creepshots (pictures taken of women without their consent) was still a thing. It brought them traffic along with all their other porn subs

They only cared when advertisers caught wind of them & considered dropping out

From Wikipedia:

Communities devoted to explicit material saw rising popularity, and r/jailbait, which featured provocative shots of underage teenagers, became the chosen “subreddit of the year” in the “Best of reddit” user poll in 2008, and at one point, making “jailbait” the second most common search term for the site.[3] Erik Martin, general manager of Reddit, defended the subreddit by saying that such controversial pages were a consequence of allowing free speech on the site.[117]

STK96,

Yeah I learned about this recently. Insane isn’t it?

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