SnydenBitchy

“Witty” isn’t the first thing that comes to mind to describe reddit. I do look forward to hearing Siri telling me to get raped every time I summon it.

What? Why is a person struggling to grasp the difference between The New York Times and The New Yorker trying to make some point about… something?

Given the hair-raising misogyny, racism, and general terribleness for which reddit’s core users are known, you’d think the company might worry less about alienating them.

I seem to recall reading that the city of SF (or another municipality?) had conducted a study that found, perhaps counterintuitively, that improving taxi service would actually end up increasing transit ridership and decreasing overall vehicle miles traveled. Improved cab service, it was claimed, would let people get rid of their own cars and begin using more convenient, more sustainable modes of transit for most things, resorting to a now more reliable taxi service as a crutch when necessary.

Taxi industry bullshit? I don’t know, because unfortunately I can’t find reference to this study at the moment—does this ring a bell with anyone?

You could also just pay, if you find yourself on nytimes often enough to hit the paywall. Crazy, I know.

Just out of curiosity (not interested in joining the debate)—do you mind if I ask whereabouts do you live? Bay area, east coast, somewhere else?

Wow, the “discussion” here validates every negative stereotype about the tech community, you troglodytes who I’m embarrassed to call my peers. I wonder if it’s it too late, at 31, for me to change careers?

I suspect it’s more that image macros and memes appeal to a wider audience than does the kind of carefully curated news, analysis, and longform content that the NYT produces. I guess I’m not really sure where to begin comparing audience metrics between reddit and NYT as if their offerings were similar at all? Is this a real comparison that real people are making?

“Distinct” would do, I suppose, as surrender to the language prescriptivists.

Well, this is a bit tangential, but I wonder if it’s true that reddit’s intolerant culture (extending far beyond “insensitive humor”) really doesn’t matter. A community like reddit, I think, would be so much more useful as a resource for activism and knowledge-sharing if only the culture of its mainstream were inclusive rather than hostile towards marginalized voices, including women and minorities.

For example, the issues you mention of open internet, NSA spying, etc. affect everyone, not just the redditor in-crowd, and presumably would be of interest to a wider audience. And there are plenty more cases of injustice that don’t stand a chance of exciting passion among the redditor demographic—I’m thinking feminism or issues of racial justice (to name another example from recent memory, the voting majority of redditors are convinced George Zimmerman is a hero).

I don’t know how different reddit’s culture would be without the anonymity, but I agree it’s an interesting question.

It’s interesting that you would hold up reddit as an example of the “positive sociological impact” of anonymity on the internet, when OP specifically describes her desire to avoid “sexist, racist, homophobic, sophomoric, monosyllabic jerks”—precisely the sort of creature that reddit breeds. Though to be fair, the anonymity may not be to blame for reddit’s culture, seeing as other internet forums with similar traditions of anonymity have managed to avoid attracting such unpleasant crowds.

Yes, I’ve met some relatively decent neo-Nazis too.

This comment is pretty hilarious (though not for the reason you apparently intend).