Reddit changing its default boards, atheism and politics removed.

Lord Garnaat

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I'm not personally a Reddit user, but many of my friends and relations are. As such, I've been hearing quite a bit about how the site has been changed in the past few days. Apparently the default subreddits have been changed, adding new ones like books or "explain like I'm five", and removing the /r/atheism and /r/politics boards.

From what I understand (based off of what my friends have told me), those two boards were generally considered the festering dungholes of the entire site, so the basic reaction from most has been a great deal of rejoicing. I wouldn't mind, however, learning a bit more about how everyone is taking the changes: do people approve of the new additions, or are made about the removals? And what do you think of the changes, Reddit users and non-users alike?

Here's a source for the information, in case you want to know more:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2421996,00.asp
 

Foolery

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Jun 5, 2013
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No big deal really. It's not like those boards are gone. Just not displayed on the front page. I dunno, how would you feel if the R&P section here was set as the main page?

From the article.

"The new list is based on key factors like traffic to the subreddits, rate of subscriber increase, average number of online users, and number of submissions/comments being posted. Most recently, the site added the /r/news subreddit to fill a hole in content. But these additions, Angel said, are fairly "general," and a few are meant to cover topics that have never had a home on the Reddit front page."

Makes sense to me.
 

BiscuitTrouser

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May 19, 2008
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Well I was once addicted to r/atheism. I never posted, i just lurked. It didnt make me a happy or productive person so I just decided to never go there again. It just made me angry at religion irrationally and i realised if i was going to a site thats MEANT to be exploring the meaning of a rational world view and i feel irrational its failed miserably. It was just a billion pictures of horrible religious people posting such hateful things. Eugh.

However fairly recently they outright banned people posting that stuff. The page was limited to topics that involved:

Discussing problems atheists have with their families and friends and giving advice to them to feel happy and better about themselves.
News on prominent atheists.
News on religious laws in the country.
News on discussions of atheism in the news and by politicians on tv and discussing the tone of said discussion.

I actually felt better reading it now. It actually seemed nicer and less aggressive. No more "LOL I OWNED A CHRISTIAN" facebook links or "FUCK RELIGION" memes or things like that. Naturally most were furious at the change but I, despite still not particularly feeling i was going to start reading it again, felt it was exactly what it needed to not be a hideous circle jerk scum pile.

Cant comment on politics though, all i know is that atheism USED to be a pretty horrible rage inducing circle jerk and then quite recently it wasnt and it became a lot more mature and that caused a pretty big hoohah.

Frankly i think the reputation for r atheism, despite being VERY VERY VERY deserved in the past, should start wearing off now its changed for the better. Its what it always should have been. Im a little sad its been taken off so soon after they started discarding all the crap, but only if said crap was WHY it was removed otherwise "meh". I hope it doesnt mean they bring BACK the crap.
 

Sehnsucht Engel

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Apr 18, 2009
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Atheists doesn't seem to have much else to talk about than bashing various religions, so that's probably for the best. I wish they'd remove the politics and religion subboard here too, but I've never been to reddit's politics.
 

mad825

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Wenseph said:
Atheists doesn't seem to have much else to talk about than bashing various religions.
They could talk about the point of living then...But I suppose taking away their trump card would get them whinging like babies.
 

Casual Shinji

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Wenseph said:
I wish they'd remove the politics and religion subboard here too, but I've never been to reddit's politics.
That'll just make all that shit flood into Off Topic. There's a reason they call it "the basement"... It's cuz that's where you put all the stuff you don't want cluttering up your living room. [small]And because nasty stuff lives there.[/small] It's why they made the R&P subboard here.
 

repeating integers

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Mar 17, 2010
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Yeah, I hope you'll excuse me if I don't feel particularly sorry for r/atheism.

<youtube=slKULc8W7lM>

Still, at least the end of the video is inaccurate now!
 

xmbts

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Well it's proven fact that boards relating to religion and politics more often than not lead to massive flame wars and petty arguments, I can't blame a site for not displaying that aspect of the community front and center.

If you need proof just poke around the escapists R&P sections. >.>
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Wenseph said:
Atheists doesn't seem to have much else to talk about than bashing various religions, so that's probably for the best. I wish they'd remove the politics and religion subboard here too, but I've never been to reddit's politics.
So you want politics and religion stuff to come back to the 'offtopic' board? Keep in mind, getting rid of things like that doesn't make them go away, they just migrate to other areas. Really giving them a dedicated board is the best idea since it keeps topics that will hot buttons, from clogging up the other boards.
 

llafnwod

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Father Time said:
The politics board is insanely biased towards liberals. I know this site's R&P board is too because most of us are liberal but there were allegations of the mods having a hand in it.

It's all opinionated, agenda pushing stuff meant to get people worked up into a righteous outrage.
I don't think it's agenda pushing so much as just masturbatory. Those sorts of positive feedback loops are pretty common in popular boards with some specific draw.
 

Tanis

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Aug 30, 2010
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Wenseph said:
Atheists doesn't seem to have much else to talk about than bashing various religions, so that's probably for the best. I wish they'd remove the politics and religion subboard here too, but I've never been to reddit's politics.
Hey, it's not our fault it's the religious people that seem to try and shove their shit on everyone else and claim it's for their own good.

If you look at the USA it's always the religious folks that are trying to turn our secular democracy into a Christian theocracy.
 

Phrozenflame500

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Father Time said:
Phrozenflame500 said:
r/atheism has finally been removed? Jesus, maybe now finally I'll actually start visiting Reddit.
Not removed just taken off the default sub list.
Grah, well no Reddit for me I guess. Still, anything that helps reduce that cesspool is probably a good thing for the world.
 

Compatriot Block

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Tanis said:
Wenseph said:
Atheists doesn't seem to have much else to talk about than bashing various religions, so that's probably for the best. I wish they'd remove the politics and religion subboard here too, but I've never been to reddit's politics.
Hey, it's not our fault it's the religious people that seem to try and shove their shit on everyone else and claim it's for their own good.

If you look at the USA it's always the religious folks that are trying to turn our secular democracy into a Christian theocracy.
You're right! It's all the religious people. Just like all atheists have online profiles full of fedoras, neck-beards, bragging and friend-zone/nice-guy complaints. So nobody should get to complain when religious people are all lumped in to the same shame-pile.
 

BX3

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Tanis said:
Wenseph said:
Atheists doesn't seem to have much else to talk about than bashing various religions, so that's probably for the best. I wish they'd remove the politics and religion subboard here too, but I've never been to reddit's politics.
Hey, it's not our fault it's the religious people that seem to try and shove their shit on everyone else and claim it's for their own good.

If you look at the USA it's always the religious folks that are trying to turn our secular democracy into a Christian theocracy.
Herein lies the problem and why I'm actually kinda jealous of atheists in some regard. Representation. You're only as good as your worst/loudest member, unfortunately. Just ask the bronies.

The asshole division of atheism is only represented by dipsticks on internet message boards (and Comedy Central). Nobody takes them seriously, and there isn't as seemingly large number of them. If they aren't trolling they're joking and it can be brushed over.

Turn the camera onto the asshole division of Christians (or religion in general) and you'll see that all of the dipsticks representing them are constantly in the public eye, or worse, have actual power.

Now which one's easier to notice, the crazy guy waving his penis at traffic or the crazy guy waving his penis at traffic and happens to own a talk show or news station?
 

Roxas1359

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Aug 8, 2009
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xmbts said:
Well it's proven fact that boards relating to religion and politics more often than not lead to massive flame wars and petty arguments, I can't blame a site for not displaying that aspect of the community front and center.

If you need proof just poke around the escapists R&P sections. >.>
I remember Kuliani had that added because people were tired of seeing the religious and political arguments in the Off-Topic section. I remember how bad those used to get. >.>

OT: As xmbts said all it ever does is cause massive flame wars.