this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2024
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Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

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598
Reddit: 'We Are in the Early Stages of Monetizing Our User Base' (www.404media.co)
submitted 9 months ago by rinze@infosec.pub to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
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Reddit said in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission that its users’ posts are “a valuable source of conversation data and knowledge” that has been and will continue to be an important mechanism for training AI and large language models. The filing also states that the company believes “we are in the early stages of monetizing our user base,” and proceeds to say that it will continue to sell users’ content to companies that want to train LLMs and that it will also begin “increased use of artificial intelligence in our advertising solutions.”

The long-awaited S-1 filing reveals much of what Reddit users knew and feared: That many of the changes the company has made over the last year in the leadup to an IPO are focused on exerting control over the site, sanitizing parts of the platform, and monetizing user data.

Posting here because of the privacy implications of all this, but I wonder if at some point there should be an "Enshittification" community :-)

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[–] itsprobablyfine@sh.itjust.works 65 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Yeah all of my most down voted reddit comments were the ones where I replied about something I'm an actual expert in. Scary stuff

[–] const_void@lemmy.ml 57 points 9 months ago (2 children)

The voting system let's people push comments to the top that they want to be true, not necessarily things that are true.

[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 46 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

There's also the issue of reddit comment sorting being entirely dominated by time. In something like 90% of posts, the top comment is one of the first five. Literally all you have to do is just comment first, and it'll likely be the top.

[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 23 points 9 months ago

I noticed from the beginning that Lemmy's default comment sorting improves visibility of a variety of comments including newer ones. Gee, I wonder who could have helped make it that way ;)

Over the years I ended up getting a Reddit habit of replying to one of the top comments so that it could attain some visibility. I still do sometimes but less often on Lemmy.

[–] Chriswild@lemmy.world 16 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Because it's like old forums where the first person to comment gets engagement

[–] Uglyhead@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Some of the better subreddits tried to mix it up and change how this affected upvotes. There was Muxing,..etc etc.. But then,.. Spez came in (back) and didn’t give af about anything at all except money.

[–] Omniraptor@lemm.ee 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

First time I'm hearing about this, can you give any links? Maybe we could use something similar in lemmy

[–] Uglyhead@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Muxing upvotes , “balances”, etc.

Even hiding all upvotes of every comment thread until ~12 hrs after posting.

[–] Omniraptor@lemm.ee 1 points 9 months ago

I'm still not sure what those first two mean.

Hiding vote counts is a good idea imo however, having the info visible can influence people's judgement of the comment and cause people to also vote based on the existing score rather than just the comment itself.

[–] federico3@lemmy.ml 3 points 9 months ago

This tends to give more influence to people who spend more time on it and write more. And they are less likely to be subject matter experts.

[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 5 points 9 months ago

I strongly agree with this comment. To show my appreciation, you have my upvote. Had I only agreed a little bit, I might have not voted at all. If that comment had made me angry, I might have downvoted.

Actually calling these things votes instead of likes makes a lot of sense. I might not like a comment, but I might want it to be higher. I might not hate another comment, but I might want it to be lower because of other reasons.

[–] fsxylo@sh.itjust.works 8 points 9 months ago

Downvoting was always just fast food validation that you're better than someone else without having to actually back it up.

[–] Krudler@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I spent 20 years as a producer, developer, and project manager in the lottery and games industry.

Trying to explain how lottery and games work to people and have them hear me makes me want to cry.

[–] Chiro@lemm.ee 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Fascinating! I’d love to hear a little about it, if you don’t mind.

[–] Krudler@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Certainly, I'm always happy to share with inquisitive minds.

Is there any particular question you'd like me to address?

[–] Chiro@lemm.ee 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Not really, I never paid much mind to it. I’m curious about the whole industry I guess, or anything you’d like to share or set the record straight about.

[–] Krudler@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

Oh there's lots I have to set the record straight about and there's lots I could talk about, but without being asked a specific question that would just leave me to write an open-ended essay and I'm not up for it right now