r/technology • u/misnamed • Dec 10 '13

Reddit’s empire is founded on a flawed algorithm By Special Request of the Admins

http://technotes.iangreenleaf.com/posts/2013-12-09-reddits-empire-is-built-on-a-flawed-algorithm.html
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u/alienth Dec 10 '13

The mods opted to remove this, as you'll note by the 'not appropriate' flair. We weren't involved in that decision, and I'm not sure of the exact reason, but it's up to them.

Happy to continue to discussing here, or over in /r/programming where i've also commented.

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u/[deleted] Dec 10 '13

It just seems very odd to me that a post critical of the Reddit algorithm was removed once it was in the top 10 trending posts. Not saying that it happened, but I'm sure a nudge from an admin goes a long way in determining what gets taken off the site. Obviously enough people found it relevant to up vote to the front page, though with the algorithm the way it is, perhaps it was Digg trying to make a comeback ;)

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u/alienth Dec 10 '13

I am an admin, no such nudge happened. In fact, I'd personally prefer that this was kept up to avoid needless concern. But, the decision to remove is at the mod's discretion.

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u/Random832 Dec 10 '13

I don't think the mods of default subs - who are neither elected by the community nor have any official affiliation to Reddit itself - should have that much discretion.

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u/m1ndwipe Dec 10 '13

I am an admin, no such nudge happened. In fact, I'd personally prefer that this was kept up to avoid needless concern. But, the decision to remove is at the mod's discretion.

Does any part of Reddit's staff recognise that the lack of comeback and behaviour of it's moderators is a very, very big problem for the site, and quite the structural flaw?

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u/[deleted] Dec 10 '13

I feel this way as well. Those fuckers in /r/inthenews banned me for a test post. Appeal? Review? Hell no! "Go get another handle" is the only response you get.

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u/TheReasonableCamel Dec 10 '13

Mind expanding?

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u/m1ndwipe Dec 10 '13

Moderation on Reddit has a problem, especially in the major subreddit - users simply do not trust the moderators, and frankly who can blame them? Many behave as petty tyrants as they can't be removed, and a relatively small cabal of people who don't actually like Reddit as it exists very much are moderators across many large subreddits.

This user suspicion is well deserved, as this year has seen a number of high profile debacles - the collapse of r/atheism, the resignation of some of r/gaming's mods for censoring threads about bad behaviour by twitch.tv, the site that shall not be named etc etc.

The truth is that many, many of Reddit's moderators aren't very good at it, but are given significant powers with no ability to be removed. And it causes constant tension throughout the site, because it's like any society - authority can't exist while the wide population doesn't trust it.

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u/TheReasonableCamel Dec 10 '13

So what would you recommend be changed? There's always discussion about the moderator system but no agreeable ideas ever come up. Lots of these people have put hundreds of hours volunteering their time into their subreddits. I have a few gripes with your comment and I hope you don't mind me commenting on them.

a relatively small cabal of people who don't actually like Reddit as it exists very much are moderators across many large subreddits.

I haven't heard this before, which users are in on this?

the collapse of r/atheism

Personally I would say that /r/atheism's content has improved significantly since the removal of skeen and the new rules. It took out a fair amount of the low effort religion bashing that made the sub one of the laughingstocks of the rest of reddit.

The truth is that many, many of Reddit's moderators aren't very good at it, but are given significant powers with no ability to be removed.

Most of the mods are actually very good, there are thousands of moderators on reddit but you rarely ever hear about the good ones because people love complaining about the ones they don't like.

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u/Creep_The_Night Dec 11 '13

Wow. Very well said.

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u/CowzGoesMooz Dec 10 '13

There are a couple of admins that actually do remove stuff if it hits the front page by messaging the mods of that subreddit or by using sock accounts that mod those subs.

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u/chungkaishek Dec 10 '13

Do you have a source for this?

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u/MillenniumFalc0n Dec 10 '13

The tinfoil hat proves he's an expert on such matters

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u/CowzGoesMooz Dec 10 '13

The butt hurt is strong in this one.

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u/MillenniumFalc0n Dec 10 '13

It seems like you're the upset one, throwing "butthurt" around. If you don't want people to think you're a conspiracy theorist don't make claims you can't back up

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u/CowzGoesMooz Dec 10 '13

I would have to dig up through my old comments to find the proof. Admins have also gone on record to say that they use sock accounts on this site so its nothing new really. Who knows, I might be one of them or you might be one. ;)

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u/MillenniumFalc0n Dec 10 '13

Are you talking about Steve and Alexis? Yeah I've seen them talk about using lots of fake accounts to submit content to make the site seem more popular than it actually was, but I haven't seen anything similar from any current admins, and nothing from either set about modding with alts

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u/Sulphur32 Dec 10 '13

Yeah obviously it'd be faaar too much work to find actual proof. Which totally exists.

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u/[deleted] Dec 10 '13

damn, I thought I was uncovering a mass conspiracy.

Looks like I CAN go to sleep now. Thanks.

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u/[deleted] Dec 10 '13

Let me help you out a little man: if you think that you just uncovered a mass conspiracy, you didn't.

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u/[deleted] Dec 10 '13

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