Many of the comments on the post are disgusting. People being downvoted for supporting the removal of subreddits such as r/beatingwomen and r/beatingtrannies under the guise of supporting free speech (which isn't really a viable point on a website).
It's a viable point on a website like reddit, which built its community on a no-censorship basis. They're free to do with their business as they like, but I'm free to feel betrayed when they do.
You feel betrayed when a site like reddit says that child porn is bad, but I'd be willing to bet everything that you have a facebook account which sells you, your likeness and your personal data and you couldn't give a shit when they alter their privacy policies.
>You feel betrayed when a site like reddit says that child porn is bad
No, I feel betrayed when reddit, a community that grew because it did not limit expression that was within the law, bans "suggestive or sexual content featuring minors", which is way, way broader than child porn - an umbrella so broad that it even covers news stories about sexual abuse.
>but I'd be willing to bet everything that you have a facebook account which sells you, your likeness and your personal data and you couldn't give a shit when they alter their privacy policies.
I do have a facebook account, and the fact that I do give a shit about its privacy policies is why I basically use it when there's no other way to get in touch with someone. This is, of course, utterly irrelevant. Why are you even bringing it up?
While we have RES - we really need a meta-reddit at this point that will only show quality content.
I think of HN's post rules as == to /r/AskScience where they have strict standards.
I am a mod on a rather popular /r/ and while I am liberal in what I allow in that /r/ -- I apply standards though I am very lucky thus far that it is not abused.
I think there's serious potential for a business to build a general-purpose Reddit-like community that applies high standards across the board. And then sells targeted advertising to that desirable audience.
Hands-on moderation is a must, but I also think there's plenty of interesting possibilities for self-moderation that go beyond simple, equally weighted up/down votes that only serve to encourage low effort content and the regurgitation of memes.
