Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Such a >:0

There's an interesting, maybe kinda icky article here on a man who is - or was and could be again soon - one of the more privileged users on Reddit. And then there's John Scalzi's intelligent response.

Only a couple of things to add:

1. A number of Redditors - some for obvious reasons - may disapprove of "doxing", enough to elevate it to a high crime in their own circle. But Chen never promised not to do it, and can't be seen as under any obligation not to.

2. One problem with the explosion of communications media is that no effective etiguette has arisen. Thus the rules that are applied are almost always self-serving by the user. A guy yaks at the top of his lungs at a cafe, and no one employee or patron wants to scold him because he'll just yell "Do you fuckin' mind? I'm on the phone." This sort of one-sided expectation of privacy, whereby kids posting Facebook pictures don't merit privacy but those who repost them as porn do, seems to be an extension of that. The rules of the road are defined by what's convenient for those who make the rules. Or at least want to.

2 comments:

susan said...

I read about that 'infamous troll' who turned out to work for reddit as well. Creepy business. What it seems to us these days insofar as Rules are concerned is that it's just fine if people are rude and nasty to each other but whatever you do, make no threats to the authorities. That will bring a personal visit right to your door.

Ben said...

That kind of proves that the resources are there to curtail abuses. Someone should be able to utilize those resources in a less drastic way.