Did Reddit get massive because of Digg users making a beeline towards them or were they already big before that?

  • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Reddit has 450 million active users.

    Yes, but how many are bots? Trolls? Bigots? Spammers? Antivaxxers? There is some content that lemmy is better without.

    I’m wondering if it’s possible to get the same level of broad esoteric discussion without also welcoming the same toxicity that made reddit the superfund site it is today. Is toxicity a function of size, or is it a function of an environment in which toxicity is encouraged?

    • Dark_Blade@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Is toxicity a function of size, or is it a function of an environment in which toxicity is encouraged?

      Both.

    • Hubi@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      I used to moderate a fairly large subreddit and I think I can answer the bots question. There are millions. We’d get hit with multiple spam campaigns with thousands of bot accounts that were seemingly prepared for months in advance to get around our account age restrictions. Most users would never see any of it because we managed to catch most of them. It also happened under almost every post that hit /r/all.

    • Pratai@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Exactly. One doesn’t happen without the other. If growth equals increase if trolls/bots- then grown equals strict moderation. Struck moderation equals power hungry mods.

      Voila! You now have Reddit.