Mass tagging reddit users - What are your thoughts?

[Attacker3]

It's the same amount of pedos though. Same amount of neo-nazi fuckwads too. They aren't gaining support by being driven off of Reddit. If anything they lose some support because of the transition to a shittier platform.

According to The Gild, a brand consultancy agency:
"A survey of almost 2,000 UK adults finds that on issues such as same-sex marriage, transgender rights and marijuana legalization, 59% of Gen Z respondents describe their attitudes as being between ‘conservative’ and ‘moderate’. By contrast, 83% of millennials and 85% of Gen X respondents state that they are ‘quite’ or ‘very liberal’ on such issues.
14% classified themselves as quite conservative on such issues. You figure out what that means. And you need to remember countries that don't speak English. Poland could very well be the next setting of an ethnostate, and perhaps something resembling a 4th Reich. It's on the rise my friend, and one little subreddit being banned won't change that, but it will strengthen their resolve.

The only way you can stop them is by engaging in fair, honest, and open debate. Just remember if they beat you, that you just contributed to their cause. Good luck.

(I'm not worried at all, since once people actually get debating, I know that economical theories such as Austrian economics are correct in their assumptions)

 

[Xzi]

14% classified themselves as quite conservative on such issues. You figure out what that means.

It means nothing. 14% is very low, at least 30% of American voters identified with the "alt-right" before there was any talk of supposed "censorship."

The only way you can stop them is by engaging in fair, honest, and open debate.

They've never been the least bit interested in that. They just want an echo chamber/safe space to post lynching memes and child pornography. Any attempt at good faith discussion or debate gets you insta-banned from alt-right subs.

 

[FAST6191]

It's purpose is to tag posters to far-right reactionary subreddits (the_donald 'n co.) as well as "manosphere subs" (subreddits like incels or MGTOW), Nazi subs (honestly, take your pick) and the more "gateway"-esque communities to these kinds of spheres (TumblrInAction, SJW-hate subs, furry hating subs).

That is a curious collection of things to be grouping there. Not sure what value there would be to grouping them to people in general.

Anyway the internet is more than what your browser presents back to you*. If people want to take data from other sources, collate it and display it alongside it then more power to them. Not sure why people are crying potential abuse, and closed source type developments like this usually get abandoned thus I would instead look for a more freeform solution which anybody can code their own regex type thing for (adblock has lists you subscribe to, simple concept there). I would discourage dismissing people, much less purely on the basis of joining what appear to be wide ranging discussion groups (even leaving aside my issues with such a grouping the potential for "false positives", and always attempt to engage them** but if you don't care to play then enjoy your echo chamber.

*a favourite video


**the entire time I have been doing this internet lark I have never blocked anybody that was not asleep on the keyboard nor just going for volume spam. To block people, much less people you or yours have not vetted individually, seems counterproductive.

 

[Ev1l0rd]

That is a curious collection of things to be grouping there. Not sure what value there would be to grouping them to people in general.

They tend to often argue in bad faith or concern troll in other subreddits.

Anyway the internet is more than what your browser presents back to you*. If people want to take data from other sources, collate it and display it alongside it then more power to them. Not sure why people are crying potential abuse, and closed source type developments like this usually get abandoned thus I would instead look for a more freeform solution which anybody can code their own regex type thing for (adblock has lists you subscribe to, simple concept there). I would discourage dismissing people, much less purely on the basis of joining what appear to be wide ranging discussion groups (even leaving aside my issues with such a grouping the potential for "false positives", and always attempt to engage them** but if you don't care to play then enjoy your echo chamber.

I'm not saying someone should be dismissed for a non-political comment (ie. on a comment of a cute cat picture, I'm not gonna give a shit if you have a posting history in CringeAnarchy or KotakuInAction or wherever), but if you see a response I made earlier in the threat, not everyone argues in good faith.

The problem is that a lot of posters to these types of subs (and in general with these beliefs) tend to echo-chamber themselves heavily, and when you bring in stuff like facts you end up getting called (and this is me paraphrasing something of which I can show you proof in PMs if you want me to that has been actually said to me when I noted how a lot of a persons arguments about gamergate were either weak or false): "an ideological SJW with a gender studies degree" and either banned (if youre on their turf) or blocked. This goes for by far the majority of people with posting histories in extreme reactionary subs, so why bother spending the mental brainpower and effort into arguing with them if all it earns you is some jackass besmirching your name with stupid statements or harassment from his buddies (didn't happen to me, but i've seen enough people who did have this happen to them).

As far as more freeform solutions go, a github version that lets you select your own subs also exists, but that deals with the limitation that API-wise you can only retrieve a subreddits first 1000 posts, which this extension manages to bypass by storing it centrally (and the extension itself is relatively easy to reproduce if one were to be so inclined).

 

[FAST6191]

They tend to often argue in bad faith or concern troll in other subreddits.


I'm not saying someone should be dismissed for a non-political comment (ie. on a comment of a cute cat picture, I'm not gonna give a shit if you have a posting history in CringeAnarchy or KotakuInAction or wherever), but if you see a response I made earlier in the threat, not everyone argues in good faith.

The problem is that a lot of posters to these types of subs (and in general with these beliefs) tend to echo-chamber themselves heavily, and when you bring in stuff like facts you end up getting called (and this is me paraphrasing something of which I can show you proof in PMs if you want me to that has been actually said to me when I noted how a lot of a persons arguments about gamergate were either weak or false): "an ideological SJW with a gender studies degree" and either banned (if youre on their turf) or blocked. This goes for by far the majority of people with posting histories in extreme reactionary subs, so why bother spending the mental brainpower and effort into arguing with them if all it earns you is some jackass besmirching your name with stupid statements or harassment from his buddies (didn't happen to me, but i've seen enough people who did have this happen to them).

As far as more freeform solutions go, a github version that lets you select your own subs also exists, but that deals with the limitation that API-wise you can only retrieve a subreddits first 1000 posts, which this extension manages to bypass by storing it centrally (and the extension itself is relatively easy to reproduce if one were to be so inclined).

It seems rational and properly reasoned arguments and good faith is in short supply wherever I go these days. Personally I am still hung up on the stupidity of the "black people can't be racist" stuff that some tried to float a while back (and that was not any of the people in the groups mentioned in the OP, indeed they were probably laughing at it). That said for myself I would still rather not block or dismiss unknowns to me. Not to mention the flames keep me warm and a smile on my face, not that I get any around here.

 

[DinohScene]

A tool used by tools to cancer up discussions with their political bullshit.
What could possibly go wrong!?

 

[linuxares]

Wow... that tool shouldn't exist.

 

[Ev1l0rd]

A tool used by tools to cancer up discussions with their political bullshit.
What could possibly go wrong!?

Wow... that tool shouldn't exist.

I suppose it depends on what subs you frequent. I frequent subreddits that tend to contain thought pieces on video games, so figuring out who are the gators (and therefore are arguing in bad faith, because someone who nowadays still posts on KiA can't use any defense for themselves anymore, given how shit Gamergates behavior is) in a discussion can be incredibly helpful.

Not to say there isn't a risk of abuse, there certainly is, but personally I find it to be a utility that at the very least makes me aware of who I'm arguing with. (for example, if the subject is gay marriage/relationships in games and I see that someone posted in /r/againstgaymarriage and I see someone disagreeing on it, I can at least be aware of that I probably either should engage differently with that person (namely more to convince their opinion to mine instead of trying to defend my own opinion).)

Of course there will be people that misuse it and an argument about brigading/inciting hate could be made, but I also think there is a positive usage to such a tool.

 

[Ericthegreat]

So this thread is half me shilling (what I think) is a very useful extension, and half me wanting to be curious as to what people think of this type of concept. Given how the extension is by it's nature political, I think the best place to post it would be here, but apologies if I'm wrong about that.

So basically, there is this reddit extension called masstagger, made by /u/morpen. It's purpose is to tag posters to far-right reactionary subreddits (the_donald 'n co.) as well as "manosphere subs" (subreddits like incels or MGTOW), Nazi subs (honestly, take your pick) and the more "gateway"-esque communities to these kinds of spheres (TumblrInAction, SJW-hate subs, furry hating subs).

If you want to see if you've been included in this tagging database, go to https://masstagger.com/user/<reddit_username> . In addition, if you have the extension installed, you can whitelist people at that page.

The extension is very configurable and let's you select colors for each individual sub (it defaults to red for all subs) and a minimum posting threshold or disable specific subreddits.

Now for the discussion portion:

What are your thoughts about this type of extension. The concept obviously isn't new, sites that can issue RES tags based on sub activity have existed before (this extension specifically was born out of a RES tagging list, which eventually got unwieldy, so the data was moved to a proper server). The advantage of this is that these comments are listed forever, meaning that even if a subreddit gets banned (like the recent QAnon subs or incels), a user will still be registered in the database.

---

My opinion is that I find it to be an incredibly handy extension, as it makes it easy to discover when a user is likely to be arguing in bad faith (as in: they're not arguing for the sake of argument, but they're arguing to recruit people into the alt-right or whatever other shitty ideology they frequent).

I've seen people compare it to "yellow starring the Jews" (then again, this extension gives the handy insight that this type of comment is mainly from CringeAnarchy/drama posters, so take it as you wish), but I personally believe this doesn't really apply, because unlike the starring of the Jews in WW2, the choice to post in those types of subs is voluntary, unlike the way the Nazis determined who was Jewish and who wasn't.

Mines just blank? I guess I don't care, it's a bit weird, like if ppl you know know your username, they can maybe blackmail you with this, but at the same time, if they know it they can look up post you made anyway?

 

[FAST6191]

As mentioned I don't use reddit, however seeing the passion people seem to have for this blocking lark and having encountered stellar debate tactics from many of the groups mentioned at the start I am going to have to assume it is just that reddit itself is awful. Thanks for the confirmation.

 

[Attacker3]

As mentioned I don't use reddit, however seeing the passion people seem to have for this blocking lark and having encountered stellar debate tactics from many of the groups mentioned at the start I am going to have to assume it is just that reddit itself is awful. Thanks for the confirmation.

Reddit is absolute garbage. Imageboards such as 4chan would be preferable to it, because everyone has an equal say. New threads are at the top which allow for people of any ideology to find a good debate, because if your debate is active then you'll be at the top more.

Reddit incentivizes going and preaching to the choir in order to get karma. The less karma you have, the less likely it will be seen by others. That's silly for political debate.

 

[Xzi]

Imageboards such as 4chan would be preferable to it, because everyone has an equal say.

Which gives equal weight to people spamming racial slurs or derailing conversations every chance they get. Complete lack of moderation is a double-edged sword. IMO the internet was better when it was mostly a ton of niche forum communities. All social media platforms are garbage in one way or another.

 

[Attacker3]

Which gives equal weight to people spamming racial slurs or derailing conversations every chance they get. Complete lack of moderation is a double-edged sword. IMO the internet was better when it was mostly a ton of niche forum communities. All social media platforms are garbage in one way or another.

Imageboards have rules and moderation staff too y'know.

 

[tbb043]

Arguing in "bad faith" aka not agreeing with my extreme leftist views...

 

[TotalInsanity4]

Arguing in "bad faith" aka not agreeing with my extreme leftist views...

When someone argues in bad faith it means that they're arguing for the sake of arguing, they're not debating with the intent of reaching the optimal result for the issue at hand. They're the people who aren't worth engaging because no matter what the subject is they've already decided that no matter what is said their views won't change

 

[Ev1l0rd]

Arguing in "bad faith" aka not agreeing with my extreme leftist views...

Dogwhistling and concern trolling are examples. Those are the types of people that argue in bad faith.

They don't argue to reach a cooperative result, or their stance is something where a midway result will still favor them (it's a bit of a cruddy example, but "gas the Jews" and "don't gas the Jews", if you go midway with "let's gas some Jews", the gas the Jews people will still have a more favorable result).

 

[TotalInsanity4]

Dogwhistling and concern trolling are examples. Those are the types of people that argue in bad faith.

They don't argue to reach a cooperative result, or their stance is something where a midway result will still favor them (it's a bit of a cruddy example, but "gas the Jews" and "don't gas the Jews", if you go midway with "let's gas some Jews", the gas the Jews people will still have a more favorable result).

"Instead of gassing the Jews, let's lock them up; it's more humane"

 

[Xzi]

Imageboards have rules and moderation staff too y'know.

If 4chan has moderators then they log in like once a year.

 

[Attacker3]

If 4chan has moderators then they log in like once a year.

You obviously haven't been on there. Go ahead and start spamming and see how long you last.

 

[Ev1l0rd]

If 4chan has moderators then they log in like once a year.

From what I know, they're decently active, it's just that 4chan has no rules against hate speech. The only things that usually get cleaned up is shit like CP or porn on the safe boards/furry shit outside of /trash/ and /b/.