I think the last vestiges of old Reddit were thoroughly wiped away when Hillary Clinton won the DNC primary in 2016. She immediately began to get all the DNC coffers and ActBlue/ShareBlue completely took over the site, from top to bottom. The site used to lean pretty hard libertarian (with large support for people like Ron Paul), but the day after that DNC primary it was like someone flipped a switch. Either all the genuine users were drowned out, downvoted, and/censored, or the chatbots got new marching orders. Perhaps a mix of both. Most people don't know how long chatbots have been in use (it's been decades).
It was pretty crazy how it seemed like a switch was flipped overnight. Before Hillary beat Bernie, the site was Bernie > Trump >>>>> Hillary. Then after she won you were Satan if you didn't support her. Crazy shit. Anyone who doesn't have the memory of a goldfish knew right then and there that something odd was at play.
There were some reddit financial leaks that proved those orgs are running the website.
One crazy thing I remember is when Hillary collapsed trying to get into a van after a campaign appearance. For several hours, anyone who posted the video got banned, then suddenly, all the political subreddits seemed to be unmoderated - even to the point that threads in support of Trump would show up.
Someone figured it out: there must have been an "all hands" meeting where they tried to figure out their strategy with regard to the collapse video.
For several hours, we got an organic reddit ...then the meeting ended and the ghestapo returned. It was crazy.
I often wonder what it would be like if "the good guys" exerted that level of control.
Post election day in 2016 was another glimpse into an organic reddit. The site completely flipped that Wednesday in November. Then the day after it went back to the same insanity that had been present on Tuesday.
I think the last vestiges of old Reddit were thoroughly wiped away when Hillary Clinton won the DNC primary in 2016. She immediately began to get all the DNC coffers and ActBlue/ShareBlue completely took over the site, from top to bottom. The site used to lean pretty hard libertarian (with large support for people like Ron Paul), but the day after that DNC primary it was like someone flipped a switch. Either all the genuine users were drowned out, downvoted, and/censored, or the chatbots got new marching orders. Perhaps a mix of both. Most people don't know how long chatbots have been in use (it's been decades).
It was pretty crazy how it seemed like a switch was flipped overnight. Before Hillary beat Bernie, the site was Bernie > Trump >>>>> Hillary. Then after she won you were Satan if you didn't support her. Crazy shit. Anyone who doesn't have the memory of a goldfish knew right then and there that something odd was at play.
Don’t forget “Correct The Record.”
There were some reddit financial leaks that proved those orgs are running the website.
One crazy thing I remember is when Hillary collapsed trying to get into a van after a campaign appearance. For several hours, anyone who posted the video got banned, then suddenly, all the political subreddits seemed to be unmoderated - even to the point that threads in support of Trump would show up.
Someone figured it out: there must have been an "all hands" meeting where they tried to figure out their strategy with regard to the collapse video.
For several hours, we got an organic reddit ...then the meeting ended and the ghestapo returned. It was crazy.
I often wonder what it would be like if "the good guys" exerted that level of control.
Post election day in 2016 was another glimpse into an organic reddit. The site completely flipped that Wednesday in November. Then the day after it went back to the same insanity that had been present on Tuesday.