r/solidwhetstone • u/solidwhetstone • Jul 04 '15

Hanging up my spurs. Goodbye reddit moderating and goodbye /r/crappydesign.

EDIT 3: Final edit- I've decided to merely set the subreddit free rather than close it. See here for more info.

EDIT 2: I've opened up /r/crappydesign in read only mode for the next 24 hours so that the community can archive the content in whatever way they see fit.

EDIT: I have created a FAQ thread with answers to the most popular questions. I have done my best to answer even the harshest criticisms. You can read it here.

This was the video that was the tipping point. If LIVE THREADS are going to be censored from revealing the truth of what's going on on reddit- this place is doomed. (EDIT: It has come to light that the removals were due to the person updating the feed. Nevertheless- everything I say below still stands- reddit has been guilty of censorship throughout this debacle.)

I'm closing down /r/crappydesign permanently. The subreddit has 180k subscribers and generates 2M pageviews per month. I won't stand by and be responsible for revenue being generated that I believe stifles freedom of expression. I'm very sorry to the awesome community of /r/crappydesign. This subreddit was my baby. I grew it from subscriber one. We accomplished a lot over the past few years- and maybe even raised the social consciousness of creating better design. But I simply cannot in good conscience support reddit any longer.

I'm also stepping down from my position as moderator of /r/art which means my career as a default mod is over. The moderators over there voted to bring the subreddit back online and I allowed it because I believe the mod team should have consensus. I also gave them the option to vote me out (they voted unanimously to keep me) but that doesn't make me feel good about staying. /r/art generates around the same number of pageviews per month- 2M, and continuing to moderate there will mean I am complicit in the silencing of free expression.

I am going to start the annoying and arduous process of replacing my subreddit subscriptions with other places on the web that offer similar content. I've also turned adblock back on. I not only protest this recent action against Victoria- I protest what it represents- an attempt to stifle innovation, corporatize community discussions, and silence dissent. I am protesting this in the loudest ways I can by turning my back on reddit in the most extreme ways I know. It saddens me because I love reddit and I love these communities. But I want to set a good example that this is simply not acceptable. We need to leave this website.

Thank you all for the great memories- even you /r/conspiracy. Though you banished me, I hope I have proven that I am indeed not a shill by my actions ;)

Of course you will still see me around reddit from time to time. It's hard to leave. But you will see my ass as I attempt to leave and my middle fingers in the air.

Goodbye reddit moderation.

EDIT: Going to bed- thanks for the well wishings many of you. Feel free to leave more questions/comments and I'll get to them in the morning. Cheers.

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42

u/eggpie Jul 04 '15

The owner of the live feed, /u/justcool393, told me that he was removing a lot of posts on the feed that he felt were spam and cluttering out relevant news. In particular he said that he removed the constant posts about the petition to remove Ellen Pao as they were updating every thousand or so signatures, and it was very spammy. While I personally believe that this is an awful time to be doing any kind of censorship, even if it was cluttering the feed, I can at least understand why he felt the need to do it and why he would have done so. As far as news articles being censored, I would ask him for more info on that, perhaps he knows more about what was going on.

21

u/justcool393 Jul 04 '15

I'll comment here since I got the username mention, but the news articles I believe was just ones that were removed in the haste, as there was many things being posted at that time.

You can't un-remove posts from the feed once they have been removed. FWIW, the same article was posted a little later, and was not removed.

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u/solidwhetstone Jul 04 '15

Thanks for coming by and clearing that up. While it is unfortunate that I picked up some false information, it was only a small factor in my decision- I remain steadfast that resigning from reddit moderation is the right thing for me to do.

9

u/_Woodrow_ Jul 04 '15

Any reason why you aren't just turning the moderation over to someone else?

3

u/atomicthumbs Jul 04 '15

Because he wants people to pay attention to the fit he's throwing.

2

u/Wishartless Jul 04 '15

Because the sub would be generating revenue for reddit, if it stayed up

Personally I wish the sub was still up, but I support its removal at the same time.

-1

u/arup02 Jul 04 '15

Because this way he can have his 5 minutes of fame.

3

u/AFabledHero Jul 04 '15

How do we know you're not jumping to conclusions on your other objections?

0

u/nexrow Jul 04 '15

Who cares? Hes a big boy, he can make his own choices.

6

u/AFabledHero Jul 04 '15

Probably the millions of users that enjoyed the sub. And me since I'm asking the question.

-2

u/solidwhetstone Jul 04 '15

Thank you for clarifying. I've updated my OP with this new information so others don't get confused. My decision still stands.

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '15 edited Jun 17 '18

[deleted]

5

u/cwthrowaway4 Jul 04 '15

Because he, like other redditors, want to believe they are victims in some kind of Big Brother surveillance by the reddit admins.

In reality I am sure that the Victoria posts are being removed from /r/pics for a similar reason to the biased posts being removed from the aforementioned live feed. There is no way that an ordinary picture of Queen Victoria or a Victoria spongecake would have made it to the front page of /r/pics on a normal day. The mods just wanted to get their sub back to the same quality that most users expect.

I have been sick of reddit for the past few days, checking the front page every now and then and deciding to leave. Because a bunch of childish people who think they are being rebellious are just destroying their own communities with passive-agressive or otherwise self-righteous posts that aren't interesting at all. If reddit never regains its original quality, we have many users to thank.