Reddit censorship?

[aroberso]

I get a little windy below, so let me put forward my hypothesis and then you can decide whether or not to read on:

Reddit.com is censoring its members that have low karma and are attempting to submit articles regarding Dr. Paul and/or comment on other people's submissions. I've tested this several times today.

OK. I'm a long-time Reddit reader/viewer. As my enthusiasm for Dr. Paul grew, I found myself religiously reading any article, watching any video, etc. that had anything to do with Dr. Paul.

Naturally, I eventually became an activist for Dr. Paul (my first time to ever be so inspried) and submitted an article or two to Reddit.

Here's where it gets interesting:

Any article that I submit to Reddit that has "Ron Pau" in the title NEVER SHOWS UP ON THE NEW LIST.

I submitted an article yesterday that showed up just fine.

I submitted an article this morning that never showed up on NEW.

I tested my theory by submitting a comment that only referenced "Presidential Candidate RP", and it showed up on the NEW report just fine.

Then, I added a "comment to my comment" that had the words "Ron Paul" in it, and it disappeared from the new list.

Some other Redditor saw my theory and tested it himself before it disappeared. He submitted a comment with "Ron Paul 24/7" and it showed up just fine.

Then I commented on his comment, and AGAIN IT DISAPPEARED FROM THE NEW REPORT.

[TechnoGuyRob]

First Digg, now Reddit! G'damn it, I learned about Ron Paul from Digg! This is real bad, we're losing a lot of potential people who could be informed! :(

[aroberso]

It is very subtle. I think they are limiting it to people with low karma.

[speciallyblend]

ok lost me on the low karma,can they predict the actions of people and their karma levels ? please explain the low karma part,do they have a psychic that knows karma levels???

[Brian Bailey]

I've done searches on Reddit for "ron paul" and gotten absolutely no search results.

[Lord Xar]

well, why doesn't someone run a story and then diggit... to the top so that Reddits obvious and blatant censorship can be known by all?

[aroberso]

"karma" is your Reddit score. You build up karma by submitting articles and having other people read them and give them a thumbs up.

So, as you submit articles that lots of people read, you build up karma.

When you submit your very first article, as I did yesterday, you earn your innaugural karma score of "1".

Digg is already censoring Ron Paul articles from what I understand.

[Lord Xar]

Digg is censoring Ron Paul? I thought they werne't anymore.. Now they are again? Why? and who owns Digg?

[PredatorOC]

I've done searches on Reddit for "ron paul" and gotten absolutely no search results.

They were doing updates to the site just recently and I suspect this messed with the search function. I had the same problem, but I didn't think to search for something else to see if it worked or not.

[Tdcci]

Many members are using scripts to automatically downmod any article with "Ron" or "Paul" in it, without even reading the articles! Combat this by using his initials, use a quote without mentioning him by name, use the event names, and so on. Same thing is going on with digg.

[cicatrice]

I actually found out about Dr. Paul via Reddit and Digg, but I will admit, flooding both sites with more than one article/site/etc. about very similar topics turns people off more than drawing them to it.

I think keeping submissions of quality, not quantity, is the best approach. But I don't think the intention is true censorship of topics pertaining to Dr. Paul. (I'm not sure what you attempted to submit; I thought this was just appropriate to mention as a lurking Reddit and Digg person.)

[Energy]

One reddit post about an anti-RP script, notice how they spelled "Ron Paul" to submit to reddit:

"Ignore the R.on and P.aul show tlrobinson's amazing greasmonkey script (reddit.com)"
http://reddit.com/info/636m5/comments

http://reddit.com/info/622iw/comments/


I actually found out about Dr. Paul via Reddit and Digg, but I will admit, flooding both sites with more than one article/site/etc. about very similar topics turns people off more than drawing them to it.

I think keeping submissions of quality, not quantity, is the best approach. But I don't think the intention is true censorship of topics pertaining to Dr. Paul. (I'm not sure what you attempted to submit; I thought this was just appropriate to mention as a lurking Reddit and Digg person.)

+1

[Tdcci]

Most of it is because of reddit's broken recommendation system, which users use to find stories relevant to their interests. People don't like politics in general, so when they continually see RP stories in their recommended page they, instead of just hiding it for themselves downvote it and ruin the experience for others who want to see this content. RP gets multiple submissions just like any other story does, if the title is not enticing enough, or a new source comes with more information, it is resubmitted, but there is this unnatural hate for Ron Paul in particular, they are not automatically downvoting Huckabee stories!