The Swamp

I've been meaning to start this thread for years. Like everyone else, I love a good Internet fight. And some Internet fights are more important than others.

Reddit fascinates me. It's a huge site, with millions of users all over the world, and it drives a lot of conversation elsewhere on-line. I used to say that if you want to know how the Internet works, follow how Reddit and Gawker handle controversy. Then Gawker went and took itself out of the picture.

The past couple of years have been tough for Reddit. I won't rehash everything now, but their current problem bears watching. Gizmodo just did this write-up about how r/The_Donald and its users are making the rest of the site uneasy. It's not a new problem, and it's not going to go away. It's hard to ban a home for supporters of the President-Elect for being a hate site. (I've spent a lot of time on r/T_D over the past year, and it's about 90% memes, 8% hate speech, and 2% useful information.) Last year, Reddit banned a handful of smaller sites for hate speech, and the uproar was glorious. The fallout lasted for weeks. The reaction will be so much worse if they try the same thing with r/T_D.

Related, the alt-right subReddit looks like it's on the verge of getting banned. It's a smaller community that can more easily be called a hate site, but it's going to be a big deal if it goes away. (Last week, Reddit shut down the site about the Hillary child-sex ring.) Wew lad!

A handful of you guys posted in the Hogan/Gawker thread, so I know that you at least followed that case. But do you guys follow stuff like what's going on at Reddit? Am I the only one here who feels like it's an important story?

bapo! wrote: It's hard to ban a home for supporters of the President-Elect for being a hate site.

Well....

I avoid this corner of the Internet for the same reason that I avoid punching myself in the face every morning. Unfortunately, it's about to stop being a corner of the Internet.

Rex wrote:Unfortunately, it's about to stop being a corner of the Internet.

Sorry if my thread title triggered you.

The Swamp is no longer my safe space?

I think the "worst" part about it is the visibility. The subreddits banned in the past were pretty vulgar, but hidden away in their little corner of Reddit. T_D is continually on the front page of r/all has given rise to a large number of anti-T_D subreddits that also are reaching the front page. You can log in and see 15+ threads concerning some aspect of the "god-emperor."

I'm on Reddit daily. I was introduced a long, long while back by my buddy who just knows too much about the internet and internet culture. The concept of a website like Reddit has a bunch of positives. There's a subreddit for everything and things like r/randomactsofpizza and their yearly secret Santa stuff restores your faith in humanity a bit.

But when you have an unchecked, unregulated website it allows for the scum of humanity to band together and upend everything. It'll eventually dissolve the whole and the altruism that a positive open mind would want becomes moot. You can't ban it, because that's the point of Reddit. But if you let it continue, you destroy the website's purpose. (And this subreddit has 308+ thousand subscribers. They will continue to fuck everything up.)

It reminds me of the 'Teen Girl' bot AI that Microsoft introduced to Twitter that had to be removed within 24 hours. It became this fever dream of the worst things ever combined.

I just have my profile with the subreddits that I care to look at (NSFW or otherwise) and disregard the rest. Unfortunately, for those without a profile or just want to browse and the first thing they see is some Trump God Emperor Is My Daddy And Fuck You SJW Cucks because a damn algorithm allows it, then I get it. It has been hijacked and destroying the subreddit to save the others goes against the main tenet of the site.

But if I ran the thing...Subreddit, bye. And I'd deal with the fallout thereafter. If people came after me irl, I have guns. If you want to die for the ability to post bullshit on the internet, I'll help you along in meeting your responsibilities.

Whoa. Bad ass.

Yeah, that took a turn there at the end...

Johnnie wrote:I just have my profile with the subreddits that I care to look at (NSFW or otherwise) and disregard the rest. Unfortunately, for those without a profile or just want to browse and the first thing they see is some Trump God Emperor Is My Daddy And Fuck You SJW Cucks because a damn algorithm allows it, then I get it. It has been hijacked and destroying the subreddit to save the others goes against the main tenet of the site.

Most of the subReddits that I browse aren't affected by this stuff, but some have become unreadable. And that's from both sides, not just the T_D folks. I really wish that there were a Reddit for adults.

Johnnie wrote:It reminds me of the 'Teen Girl' bot AI that Microsoft introduced to Twitter that had to be removed within 24 hours. It became this fever dream of the worst things ever combined.

This is amazing. 'The AI with zero chill.' Reminds me of how Erin Esurance was phased out because the Internet turned her into a sex type thing.

I'm not surprised, but I didn't know that about Erin Esurance.

Also, hahahahahaahaha:

Well, at least she beat the Pep Boys where it counts.

Rass and Mister D...I know you both love to troll and act special, but did you read the Gizmodo article? This is in bold:

“We have had multiple moderators doxxed and sent death threats, we had one moderator who had his truck broken into and vandalized. That is a toxic subreddit.”

And the current CEO was relentlessly called a pedophile which led him to be childish and edit user's posts.

The shit that is going down is serious.

Johnnie wrote:Rass and Mister D...I know you both love to troll and act special...

bite me

Johnnie wrote:...but did you read the Gizmodo article?

Still open in a tab. I think if you had quoted it in the first place and then responded to it, I don't know that I would have found it so remarkable.

Who finds the Gorton Fisherman sexy? In an attempt to rival Howard, I went to law school with an heiress to the Gorton's empire. Sidenote trivia, she was first alternate to the US Women's Olympic Hockey team for the Nagano games.

You guys aren't kidding about there being a subreddit for everything. There are some shockingly specific and bizarre porn fetishes out there. I get the Esurance girl, she is hot and all, but there are so many porn subreddits for the least sexualized cartoons imaginable. I highly suggest a trip down the rabbit hole of bizarre porn subreddits. Not necessarily looking, but just seeing what is out there.

The Sybian wrote:Who finds the Gorton Fisherman sexy?

Islanders fans.

The Sybian wrote:Who finds the Gorton Fisherman sexy?

UMMM, EVERYONE FROM 1996?

Sweet.

My misanthropy levels are just fine without going anywhere near reddit.

you don't think Clippy was sexy?

Rex wrote:you don't think Clippy was sexy?

I wasn't asked!

It's only a matter of time before I buy one of those Islanders jerseys on eBay. I'm surprised it hasn't happened already. I need to buy one of those cubist hellscape Coyotes jerseys, too.

Ryan wrote:More like Macrohard

I just...

If there's Geico Gecko fanfic out there, please don't tell me.

bapo! wrote:If there's Geico Gecko fanfic out there, please don't tell me.

Tossed Salads and Scrambled Eggs - when the Geico Gecko met Frasier

P.D.X. wrote:My misanthropy levels are just fine without going anywhere near reddit.

This.

rass wrote:

Johnnie wrote:Rass and Mister D...I know you both love to troll and act special...

bite me

Johnnie wrote:...but did you read the Gizmodo article?

Still open in a tab. I think if you had quoted it in the first place and then responded to it, I don't know that I would have found it so remarkable.

If I'm being honest, I probably still make the "Whoa. Bad ass." comment in response to that sort of online threat.

Ryan wrote:More like Macrohard

I can't stop thinking about this. So, that model on the eBook cover -- she probably thought that she could make a few bucks doing bikini modeling. How did she find out that her image was used for that book? Is she comfortable with a giant paper clip leering at her? Did it change her life at all? Is she now the Fabio of office-supply erotica? These are the thing I wonder about.

bapo! wrote:

Ryan wrote:More like Macrohard

I can't stop thinking about this. So, that model on the eBook cover -- she probably thought that she could make a few bucks doing bikini modeling. How did she find out that her image was used for that book? Is she comfortable with a giant paper clip leering at her? Did it change her life at all? Is she now the Fabio of office-supply erotica? These are the thing I wonder about.

If you check out the "Books in this series" at Amazon all the covers have the same model.

Including this one. So meta!

The internet is so fuckin' weird.

rass wrote:

bapo! wrote:

Ryan wrote:More like Macrohard

I can't stop thinking about this. So, that model on the eBook cover -- she probably thought that she could make a few bucks doing bikini modeling. How did she find out that her image was used for that book? Is she comfortable with a giant paper clip leering at her? Did it change her life at all? Is she now the Fabio of office-supply erotica? These are the thing I wonder about.

If you check out the "Books in this series" at Amazon all the covers have the same model.

Including this one. So meta!

Leonard Delaney writes from the heart instead of wasting time with research or experience. Living a clean lifestyle has allowed him to focus on doing good in school, honing his writing, and tinkering with technology. He lives well outside of Toronto with his mother and her cat while maintaining a long-distance relationship with his girlfriend, Misty (aka Éowyn16), who no longer responds to his direct messages, but he remains hopeful for a future with. Leonard is a co-founder of provocative fiction peddling publisher Forest City Pulp.

brian wrote:The internet is so fuckin' weird.

The first time I encountered "fan fiction" was when I was writing for a series called "Totally Spies." In context, not so surprising that there are people out there writing dirty stories about the main characters in that show - good looking teenaged girl spies.

I have since seen it written for a number of shows that I have written for. But reading this thread, I did a search and it is with heavy heart that I found...

"Paw Patrol" Porno Story

You know, social media and the free internet was supposed to be such a great thing. But man, there are people out there writing smut about the characters in a show for 4 year olds.

After reading (skimming) that Gizmodo piece on The_Donald the other day, I went to check it out. It was not a comfortable visit. First of all, like any popular Internet forum, it's full of inside lingo and jokes I clearly wasn't getting. I also didn't (still don't) fully understand the intra-Reddit machinations and fights to really get why everyone is so angry. But yeah, there are a ton of angry folks in there, proudly calling everyone who isn't one of them a libtard cuck.

Shirley wrote:After reading (skimming) that Gizmodo piece on The_Donald the other day, I went to check it out. It was not a comfortable visit. First of all, like any popular Internet forum, it's full of inside lingo and jokes I clearly wasn't getting. I also didn't (still don't) fully understand the intra-Reddit machinations and fights to really get why everyone is so angry. But yeah, there are a ton of angry folks in there, proudly calling everyone who isn't one of them a libtard cuck.

Were people always so angry?

Is it just that now, everyone has a vehicle to vent their spleen? Or has the very nature of social media (especially the anonymous part) changed society this much for the worse?

Anyone can be an asshole when you're anonymous.

bapo! wrote:

Ryan wrote:More like Macrohard

I can't stop thinking about this. So, that model on the eBook cover -- she probably thought that she could make a few bucks doing bikini modeling. How did she find out that her image was used for that book? Is she comfortable with a giant paper clip leering at her? Did it change her life at all? Is she now the Fabio of office-supply erotica? These are the thing I wonder about.

She wanted it.

Dude's just writing stories to match the stock photos he found.

If it exists, there is porn of it.

That Hillary/Podesta pedo stuff, 'pizza gate' was pretty damn weird.I peeked at the subreddit a couple of times after mention of the rumors popped up in my twitter feed or elsewhere. Sounded silly except for the very real pedo history of this Jeffrey Epstein character (13 months in prison for soliciting a teenaged prostitute), and his real associations with both Bubba and Thump. I have mixed thoughts about it being shut down, but ultimately they own the printing press, they are free to allow or shut down whatever they choose.

I figured this Leonard Delaney was a meme, didn't realize he is a real guy, or am I confused? Yeah the internet is fucking weird.

A_B wrote:Anyone can be an asshole when you're anonymous.

Yep.

And I think, as we've talked about a million times here - the rise of 24-hour news bred a more sensationalist news climate. Years of that has led to greater (IMHO) polarization and antagonism in political discussions. People are just repeating (and amplifying) what they've been hearing on Fox News and elsewhere.

Shirley wrote:

A_B wrote:Anyone can be an asshole when you're anonymous.

Yep.

And I think, as we've talked about a million times here - the rise of 24-hour news bred a more sensationalist news climate. Years of that has led to greater (IMHO) polarization and antagonism in political discussions. People are just repeating (and amplifying) what they've been hearing on Fox News and elsewhere.

The reason for the polarization is we are living under separate facts. The media on both sides presents not only a bias, but quite literally different facts. Media on the Right constantly tells its consumers that all the other media outlets are lying, and those on the Left discredit most of what the Right Wing media says, solely based on the source. I've noticed an uptick in Lefty websites in inserting heavily biased opinionated terms into fact-providing sentences. Things like, "extreme racist Jeff Sessions said..." It is blatantly obvious, and takes away a lot of credibility from the author, IMO.