You are making the problem seem worse than it actually is. Account age and inability to delete comments make an anonymous reputation pretty realistic on HN at least. Just in this thread we see examples of toxic comments being downvoted into invisibility (oblivion).
Or is the problem that /r/the_donald exists? Just don't go there if you don't like it. And don't go to /r/trees if you don't like marijuana.
The problem is that reddit is one site. You can live in other "neighborhoods" on reddit that are not /r/the_donald, but you are still forced to live in the same city. That means people from there will show up in all of the other sub-reddits, voting and commenting away and twisting every single part of the site to be what they want. It's exhausting to put up with, and if you don't notice it then count yourself lucky. There are many regional city/state/province sub-reddits that have come under concerted "attacks" by /r/the_donald posters. Folks from there will re-post links (or share via chat) to "controversial" posts in other sub-reddits to coordinate brigading, for example.
The sub in question has had polls and surveys posted to it, popular ones which have remained on the front page of it, and they've received paltry engagement (~10,000 engagements).
You're making it out as though that one entity has corrupted the site, which is a plainly hysterical claim based on the evidence.
>Folks from there will re-post links (or share via chat) to "controversial" posts in other sub-reddits to coordinate brigading, for example.
Do you have any evidence for this? Because discord groups to disrupt Reddit aren't unique to T_D and the hyper-leftist ones far outnumber those on the right, as with their meta-subreddit parents.
It's disappointing to see Reddit drama appearing on this site as often as it is. I remember a time when HN wasn't really on the Redditor's radar. What good times they were.
It would be more exhausting to put up with a system of censorship.
There will always be people around you that say or do things that you do not appreciate. Getting offended at them is something you do to them, not the other way around.
The more we act like people have power over us, the more power we give them.
This theory has long since met with reality and lost.
I mod - and it turns out that trolls target groups of people.
So for example seeing a bunch of posts targetting women, or minorities, is going to go ahead and affect people who have been abused for being parts of those groups.
Indiscriminate massed assaults are extremely hard for people to deal with - and even if I am not the target I would expect myself to step in, or some authority to step in.
So yes, in a very real way they have power over a large number of people, just the same way you have power over someone weaker or more vulnerable than you.
The old chan philosophy worked on a smaller net, if it even worked then.
>>Or is the problem that /r/the_donald exists? Just don't go there if you don't like it.
I think the issue with r/the_donald, and other extremist subreddits (and online communities in general) is that they generate lies, whip each other into a rage-induced frenzy over those lies and then spread that hatred elsewhere on the Internet, and some of that even spills onto real life via certain conservative news outlets. In addition, anyone who even slightly disagrees is banned with prejudice.
Then why not remove r/politics for your same reason? Or r/latestagecapitalism. Crazies from that subteddit have the nerve to post in other parts of Reddit.
The biggest problem, imho is that there is an attempt to 'deplatform' dissenting views. (That term was coined by people on the left actually doing it)
Quite simply it boils down to vilifying your opponents, classifying dissenting views as 'toxic' or 'hatespeech', and screeching loudly and as often as you can to get the opposition removed. If they move, do the same to them on the next site.
This is big money apparently pushing for this as an 'online strategy' to remove opposition. Heck I can buy as many reddit accounts and votes as I like.
We need to push back and see it what it is - to try and remove any wrong think and get people thinking as a controllable single mass.
Or is the problem that /r/the_donald exists? Just don't go there if you don't like it. And don't go to /r/trees if you don't like marijuana.