[2015-06-15] TheGuardian: Reddit users flee to Swiss copy Voat

[pawel7777]

Small bitcoin mentioning in an article re Reddit alternative.

Reddit users flee to Swiss copy Voat after harassment clampdown

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jun/15/reddit-users-flee-to-voat-after-harassment-clampdown

Disgruntled Redditors have decamped en masse to a Swiss-based clone of Reddit called Voat after the site’s administrators banned five subreddits for harassing behaviour.

In response to the deluge, Voat, which mimics Reddit’s design and layout (albeit using “subverses” rather than “subreddits”) was forced to ask for bitcoin donations to keep the site live.
...
Among the subreddits banned from Reddit were “hamplanethatred” and “fatpeoplehate”, both of which were focussed on harassing and abusing overweight people, and racist forum “shitniggerssay”. Reddit’s admin staff emphasised in a statement that “we’re banning behaviour, not ideas.”
...

[smiletyson]

So, it's time for a decentralized reddit?
No one can delete something. (Only private key owner sends a signal to network to delete a post). It might be nice. But how to organize such massive posts?

[Kprawn]

I have been using Voat for some time now, and it's much slower than Reddit. {I have heard rumours of DOss attacks being done against them}

It's still the Wild West there, but they are still trying to find their niche.

Any dominant force needs competition... It just serve as a motivation to improve both services.

Reddit should have some rules, but in some cases they go a bit over board with it. There should be a balance between protection of users and freedom of speech.

[Lethn]

So, it's time for a decentralized reddit?
No one can delete something. (Only private key owner sends a signal to network to delete a post). It might be nice. But how to organize such massive posts?

There's this program called Twister that's in alpha, but it's still in alpha, it's certainly possible to create something like this but it requires skilled programmers.

[Kakmakr]

So what is the fuzz all about? A small group of people who hate fat/black people left? Why would we want to care about that? It's not acceptable anywhere else, why do reddit need to tolerate it?
You have the freedom to choose. VoAt has already started to moderate some OTHER stuff too, so it's just a question of time before they ban racism content.
A “a censorship-free community platform” is a myth. If it was possible things like child porn and snuff content would be posted everywhere. Illegal stuff gets moderated, just deal with it.

[pawel7777]

So what is the fuzz all about? A small group of people who hate fat/black people left? Why would we want to care about that? It's not acceptable anywhere else, why do reddit need to tolerate it?
You have the freedom to choose. VoAt has already started to moderate some OTHER stuff too, so it's just a question of time before they ban racism content.
A “a censorship-free community platform” is a myth. If it was possible things like child porn and snuff content would be posted everywhere. Illegal stuff gets moderated, just deal with it.

I generally agree. Afaik Reddit never claimed to be a free-speech platform, so they can ban whoever they want and I don't see a problem here. I'm guessing Voat just tries to play on that fact to attract more users, and that's all good too.

That being said, I'm all in favour of exploring the ideas of decentralised platforms/forums resistant to censorship, although I can't imagine them operating without any form of moderation.

[Lethn]

I'm doing more poking around on this subject but it seems there's more to this as usual than what the media is letting on, other users ( nothing to do with these hate groups ) are claiming that if threads and such are downvoted enough they get moved to certain categories where they can't be viewed easily. If that's the case that's an incredibly biased and flawed system which will benefit the organised mob mentality as if you got 100 or so people depending on the limit they'll just keep breaking it and downvoting anything they don't like out of existence.

Don't have anything against voting systems in general on these sites but when they actually affect what can and can't be seen that's something I do have a serious issue with, should be more like youtube where it's just a recorded statistic.

[Stifler]

“hamplanethatred” pmsl.

So, it's time for a decentralized reddit?
No one can delete something. (Only private key owner sends a signal to network to delete a post). It might be nice. But how to organize such massive posts?

Yeah. I think for any censorship free discussion decentralized forums or social networks may be the best option, though being censor free can always run into problems.

[jdebunt]

The Bitcoin Reddit is run by - for the most part - the same people who run BitcoinTalk. Talk about censorship and centralization.....Maybe Voat isn't such a bad idea; )