Is reddit reasonably safe to use ( surveillance and ML bots etc) anymore? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Adrian_Taylor333
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 22, 2025, 01:00:49 pm
content: Same thing every time.Open new acoount and fight all of the post firewalls around the new user.After one finally gets around that and starts participating, it seems that "guardians" gets active and mark the account.Most of them seem to be at least partially AI.At least some responses seem to be AI-generated to illicit discussion chain and milk it for ML.On top of that, it seems that the account gets marked for human swarm ( military ops?) for further tracking.After that, everything changes.Suddenly server starts "failing" and it looks like all posts are marked and under limited visibility.Looks like reddit has became just a honeypot for ML extraction, military ops, marking for various "death lists" etc.How many such sites are like this ?Is EEVblog also on that list ? 🙄

author: AndyC_772
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 22, 2025, 01:05:35 pm
content: I use Reddit and I don't recognise any of the issues you mention. The platform appears to just work.I play drums in a band, and for the most part I use Reddit to chat about drumming with other musicians. If that content is used to train an AI model with the equivalent of experience in that particular area, I'm all for it.

author: Adrian_Taylor333
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 22, 2025, 01:54:54 pm
content: Quote from: AndyC_772 on August 22, 2025, 01:05:35 pmYou are right. I forgot about that - steganography.Plenty of posts, especially those with photos with hidden messages, either machine or manually encoded.You've mentioned drums, but there are TONS of others, from simple equipment photos, scenery, people with various stuff in hands at chosen locations etc etc.WRT your drumming - you wouldn't happen to be an avid tam-tam drummer per chance ?Indians used it along with smoke signalling as a omnidirectional message transmission source.FAR before reddit... 🙄

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 22, 2025, 01:56:16 pm
content: You probably need a mental check. It is just a forum with a lot of people.It is also a public forum, so what surveillance we are talking about?

author: Adrian_Taylor333
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 22, 2025, 01:58:41 pm
content: Quote from: ataradov on August 22, 2025, 01:56:16 pmI know I'm corious asshole. I don't need a second opinion for that.

author: Adrian_Taylor333
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 22, 2025, 02:02:43 pm
content: Quote from: ataradov on August 22, 2025, 01:56:16 pmThere is literally no one better to alleviate one's fears than an Ukrainian/(Russian?) living in USA.On an Australian forum.What are the rules of swarm warfare - if "Deep State" backed swarm track and kill the target though, for example, Dave's forum, does that makes him and people around him a legitimate target ?🙄

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 22, 2025, 02:07:29 pm
content: Personal attacks is the last resort when you have noting else to say. Sure, I'm personally spying on you, be afraid.Describe the proposed spying mechanism through a public forum.

author: Adrian_Taylor333
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 22, 2025, 02:08:50 pm
content: Quote from: ataradov on August 22, 2025, 02:07:29 pmWhere is an "attack" part in a mere reasonable assumption?🙄

author: Adrian_Taylor333
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 22, 2025, 02:12:07 pm
content: Quote from: ataradov on August 22, 2025, 02:07:29 pmThat seems to be rubberstamped collective response - "show us a concrete example X".Which never leads nowhere - except into exposing some random part. often through with "friendly fire" for swarm attacks.BTW, these used to be much more aggressive - up to a point of pressing in to mods/admins to track the account and "help" the target with "psychiatric help".But after so many swarm murders this seems to have gotten old...Or maybe human intervention is not needed anymore since AI tracks everything?

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 22, 2025, 02:22:53 pm
content: Quote from: ataradov on August 22, 2025, 01:56:16 pmHave a look at the OP's other threads; theymightbe quite reasonable.This is a possible starting point...https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/other-battery-chemistries-what-happened-to-them/msg6016097/#msg6016097https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/other-battery-chemistries-what-happened-to-them/msg6016697/#msg6016697Snippets from the post deleted by the moderators can be found by searching the page for "08:25:13"

author: Adrian_Taylor333
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 22, 2025, 02:25:33 pm
content: Quote from: tggzzz on August 22, 2025, 02:22:53 pmHave a look at usual responders. Swarm warfare 101.🤣Is there an insurance cover for this sport ?I suppose it comes with family package ?🙄

author: gnif
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 22, 2025, 02:33:22 pm
content: @Adrian_Taylor333has been banned for repeated breaches of forum rules.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 22, 2025, 02:58:18 pm
content: That most public forums have become honeypots for LLMs, there's no doubt about it.The rest of the rant is a bit incoherent and the outcome was to be expected.

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 22, 2025, 04:49:37 pm
content: (apologies to ataradov, for the stupid and inappropriate personal comments, OP issues; embarrassing !)OP, (I can't be bothered to spell your name), you issue bizarre and paranoid reactions to everything, making MY whining just irritating.(I've been surveilling your bedroom window, for the past year and a half, and you didn't even mention !)Try dropping that blonde, and get some other dates, huh ?

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 22, 2025, 05:04:33 pm
content: Quote from: SiliconWizard on August 22, 2025, 02:58:18 pmI kind of get it. There was a lot of conspiracy theories that recently turned out to be true.So people, who actually looked into it got either further down the conspiracy theory totem pole, way outside the Overton window.Or they get paranoid.Quote from: AndyC_772 on August 22, 2025, 01:05:35 pmAnd if you look at reddit, like OP specifically said, it's absolutely terrible.https://www.reddit.com/r/singularity/comments/1au0uz9/reddit_has_reportedly_signed_over_its_content_tohttps://www.reddit.com/r/ModSupport/comments/sm2z6u/the_someone_is_considering_self_harm_report_isThen there are stories where admins to certain subreddits will flood another one with illegal images to get the other subreddit deleted. Because they don't like what's discussed there.So yes, I kinda get it. But OP needs to take a chill pill and learn how to communicate properly.

author: Simmed
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 22, 2025, 05:12:00 pm
content: Quote from: tszaboo on August 22, 2025, 05:04:33 pmi know about this 1it seems like some discussions are pre-polarized

author: u666sa
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 22, 2025, 10:53:17 pm
content: I can't post on reddit, I don't have enough reddit carma. So it's a limited forum, think other posters also unable to provide information.Reddit is what usually pops up on a google search. But if you want something deeper and better you have to append 4pda at the end of your search.topic 4pdaThat way you get 4pda hit, hopefully, and a ton of useful information and ability to post and ask questions.Look closely at reddit, it's a dead place.

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 22, 2025, 11:09:36 pm
content: I think of both Reddit and Quora as places where people can post stupid questions and get stupid answers in reply.

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 22, 2025, 11:18:22 pm
content: Reddit has 400 million active weekly users. Some are bound to post stupid questions and get stupid answers. But if you actually pick good subreddits, there is a lot of good information and discussion.If it was a choice between this forum and Reddit, I'm picking Reddit any time. You would need to string together dozens of standalone forums to get the value Reddit provides. Do I also type "4pda" if I need to identify a snake or figure out how to fix a toilet?

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 22, 2025, 11:57:55 pm
content: Quote from: u666sa on August 22, 2025, 10:53:17 pmI find it a little tiresome when people make generalisations about "Reddit" as if it was a single thing, just as I do when people make generalisations about Aliexpress or Amazon.In all three cases, the name is that of someone providing infrastructure within which many thousands of individuals and companies run their own store or discussion group.Anyone can create a "subreddit" and run it as they see fit, within bounds set by law. There are I'm sure some parts of Reddit which are dead or unusable. I don't go there! But there are other parts with I think are quite useful.Some subreddits require you to have a certain amount of karma or age of account or length of sub membership to post or comment.The ones of which I am a moderator (/r/riscv, /r/asm, /r/assembly_language , possibly /r/spacemit_riscv soon ) don't have any such limits. But they are also relatively small subs, with 10k - 30k members and a handful of posts a day. That's quite different to /r/funny and /r/AskReddit with around 60m members each or even /r/Science or /r/Space with around 30m each. no, I don't know why there are two asm subs. They are now both under substantially the same management (FUZxxl and I) the company has asked me, I'm thinking about it.

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2025, 01:44:13 am
content: I'm a little confused, about Forum protocol, as the OP here got BANNED yesterday!Is it that this thread still stays up, (as I'm obviously posting) ?

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2025, 01:54:49 am
content: Ban of a participant does not close the thread. Even if it was started by the banned person.

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2025, 02:22:48 am
content: Quote from: ataradov on August 23, 2025, 01:54:49 amYet another indicator that the moderation on this forum is very judicious and reasonable. Better than any other forum I've seen.

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2025, 02:27:38 am
content: Reddit is exactly the same. It lets you continue conversation even when the post is deleted. The only time conversation stops is when mods lock the thread, which absolutely happens on this forum.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 23, 2025, 03:38:16 am
content: Quote from: Analog Kid on August 23, 2025, 02:22:48 amDeleting a thread started by a banned member also deletes all the posts in that thread made by legit members. So this is almost never done because that's a sucky thing to do to otherwise good contributors. Plus of course the thread often takes on a life of its own with potentially valuable content and discussion.

author: Simmed
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2025, 03:59:36 am
content: Quote from: u666sa on August 22, 2025, 10:53:17 pmits not deadbut very "hyped" because they need ad revenueand i guess they can roll certain discussions a certain way by having the right modsQuoteQuoteas it goes on, its like pied piper effectmost people will blindly followlike "wow this product is sooo good!"and *ahem* 'bystanders' say : "yes its true ! its good !"like google reviews flooded with fake 5stars*ahem* local guide ? BSok while not all are BSthere is enough BS reviews to make them look like stinkersyou dont know who is real

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2025, 05:23:33 am
content: Quote from: Simmed on August 23, 2025, 03:59:36 amWhere do you see this "hype"?QuoteReddit don't in any way control or select mods.Anyone can create a sub, and they are by definition the mod. They can invite more people to help mod -- any member they want.Nothing at all to do with Reddit's owners.

author: Simmed
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2025, 06:22:31 am
content: Quote from: brucehoult on August 23, 2025, 05:23:33 amgood lord

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2025, 08:02:19 am
content: Quote from: Simmed on August 23, 2025, 06:22:31 amClearly someone who is too young to remember the net before forums and before the WWW.Hint: the WWW started growing exponentially in 1993. I remember when, to find new sites, you looked at cern.ch. Later Altavista was useful but clearly non-scalable. Later google.eduwas obviously the right way to go.But in 1979Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis created usenet, which is still going. There is no central authority, no central control; anybody can do anything and many did, turning it into the wild west. For example, the term "spam" was coined to define some usenet behaviour. You needed to be thick-skinned, and modern "snowflakes" last about as long as snowflakes do in hell.There was an awful lot of unadulterated crap and worse, but also some extremely high quality areas, e.g. comp.risks and sci.electronics.design. The latter still has discussions by people mentioned in TAoE and by the author Win Hill himself. Such discussions are higher quality than in this forum, but it also attracts nutters like those banned here. Tools were developed so you didn't waste your time on such nutters, especially "ignore poster" and "ignore subthread"; I wish those were available here.

author: hans
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2025, 08:12:05 am
content: Quote from: RJSV on August 22, 2025, 04:49:37 pmAnd my endless waffling about autistic details which sometimes falls on deaf ears; annoying but harmless. :-)Some people seem to attract trouble. I spot a pattern here. Kicked off Reddit, kicked of EEVblog. If everyone around is wrong, maybe then shift attention inwards. IMO some people need to touch grass and recalibrate their senses.As for ontopic Reddit... I use it daily through multiple accounts for "computer hygiene" reasons (there is zero reason for people seeing me posting on /r/embedded go through the more personal oriented subreddits). No IP spoofing anything. I can even upvote my own posts. Reddit gives actual zero f**ks. I still see it as a sandbox forum, you can create a new account from a disposable email within seconds and I never got any trouble with it.Now I'm sure if you do it dozens of times, it will trigger some kind of bot protection or something.However, despite these rules, this does not mean its an universal way to get into each subreddit as an active participator. Everyone can make a subreddit, but if its not moderated it will get closed by the site admins. Since moderation is a voluntarily peer effort, most subreddits will seek ways to reduce workload. One is that you first must follow the subreddit for a certain number of days, or post a few comments first, etc. Some subreddits also have very strict rules about what can and what cannot be posted. Some subreddits have various auto-mods, for example, when posting images is not allowed or required, or posting external links is forbidden./r/formula1 is a classic example. It aggregates news reports, live videos during race sessions, historical celebrations, statistics, and social media from key people in the sport. Its great! But they require people to post with *high quality media* as a minimum. That means I can find the best statistical correlations or obscure facts ever (which is a sport in itself lol), but if I'm just posting a crap screenshot from an Excel spreadsheet it will get removed. Also.. if a story gets double posted, it gets removed. Etc.YMMV per subreddit

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2025, 08:37:27 am
content: To sum it up with one image:

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2025, 08:42:10 am
content: Quote from: tszaboo on August 23, 2025, 08:37:27 amAgain, that varies by sub and mod team.

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2025, 09:10:32 am
content: Quote from: brucehoult on August 23, 2025, 08:42:10 amRepeating yourself doesn't make you right.Just because you know a few subreddit that flied under the radar, don't think they are not coming for you.You are one github push away from getting banned. They update the automoderator, that will ban you because 4 years ago you used a verboten word in one of the posts, goodbye, no mechanism to even appeal the decision.

author: hans
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2025, 09:14:48 am
content: And thats why /r/selfhosted exists.

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2025, 02:20:03 pm
content: Quote from: tszaboo on August 23, 2025, 09:10:32 amI don't see why I would care. Reddit as it is now is perfectly fine for me. If they decide they don't want me for whatever reason, I'll go some place else. I want moderation. 4chan is not moderated, and it is not the place I want to be.Simply moderating for certain content does not indicate that the platform is dead. It might be dead to some people, and that is fine. I still have plenty of people among those 400M that I like to talk to.

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2025, 02:43:08 pm
content: Quote from: ataradov on August 23, 2025, 02:20:03 pmThe mods there are the kind of people, who blanket ban people, if they were talking about "female dsub9 connectors" because trigger word.I never said the platform is dead. Blue sky has like 10 million active users that platform is not dead either. Doesn't mean it's not a woke echo chamber.

author: hans
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2025, 02:59:09 pm
content: Maybe you're imagining these things, as I honestly have no clue what you're on about. I've never seen that.Sure if you go to certain unnamed subreddits (something with pills), you will maybe see that. Solution is simple: don't go there.There are tons of discussions on technical subreddits that use 'sensitive' words. Nobody gives a damn if its appropriate for the context or jargon.You can call it woke, but even the frontpage has a sense of fresh air & common sense IMO. In particular building tolerance for things you wouldn't choose, yet reserving intolerance to intolerance. Imo "woke" in itself trends towards intolerance, and I know a lot of folks don't want to be called that.

author: Simmed
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2025, 04:06:19 pm
content: well i just found out that reddit accounts could be soldso now it makes sense that there are karma farmerssure there could be 99% of genuine usersbut oh well

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2025, 04:49:10 pm
content: Quote from: hans on August 23, 2025, 02:59:09 pmSure I must be imagining thingshttps://surajkarak.github.io/projects/NLP-Reddit-Political-Bias/When the largest subreddits show 90% political bias.

author: hans
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2025, 05:54:15 pm
content: I agree that Reddit is more on leftist scale. But since when is left==woke? It may be a subset, but one does not require the other.Also, I think if one would do a similar analysis on Reddit to sort on culture/country, then I will bet a majority of those posts on US events/problems discussing EU solutions. The political scale is not calibrated equally. Fortunately the study you linked looks like it uses a relevant training dataset for this (many US headlines), but my point being is this (EU ideology) could skew these results.In particular, I see a lot of western internet culture derives from US culture/problems which sometimes holds remarkably little context abroad. But I digress. Its not my intention to flamebait or make this discussion about politics anymore than this.My point was that on technical subreddits, as you gave a technical example, I haven't seen this amount of uproar.I will still be labeling my SPI lines MOSI and MISO, and I haven't seen other people take issue with that on Reddit (and then not doesn't get downvoted to oblivion).

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2025, 05:54:22 pm
content: Quote from: tszaboo on August 23, 2025, 04:49:10 pmToo many ofyourposts show political bias.

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2025, 05:55:24 pm
content: Quote from: hans on August 23, 2025, 05:54:15 pmWhen it suits people push their political cause.

author: abeyer
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2025, 06:00:02 pm
content: Quote from: hans on August 23, 2025, 05:54:15 pmEver since it stopped having any useful meaning and became used as the big generic boogeyman of "everyone who doesn't agree with me."

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2025, 07:24:28 pm
content: Quote from: ataradov on August 23, 2025, 02:20:03 pmSince you participate both here and on Reddit, a question if you don't mind:How would you compare the two in terms of, let's call it valid information content?My experience is mostly here: I only see Reddit posts in passing, and to be honest the ones that I get from Google searches mostly contain what I consider dumbass content. (I'm probably not seeing anything from the subreddits that you read.)Whereas here on EEVblog, the signal-to-noise ratio seems to me to be pretty high, despite the occasional thread derailment or wacko posts.What's your assessment here?

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2025, 07:27:03 pm
content: Quote from: abeyer on August 23, 2025, 06:00:02 pmRight. Pretty much the same as with "troll".

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2025, 07:30:24 pm
content: Quote from: abeyer on August 23, 2025, 06:00:02 pmThat's a load of bull and you know it. There are a lot of intelligent leftist people, and a lot of policies that I'm very much in favor to have. Most people in Europe can place others on the political compass, especially since most countries will have half a dozen parties with varying policies. It's not as dumbed down like the 1 bit US politics.One of the biggest issue is that those intelligent people either get radicalized because otherwise they get cancelled, or they stay silent.

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2025, 07:39:27 pm
content: Quote from: Analog Kid on August 23, 2025, 07:24:28 pmI would say about the same if only comparing electronics stuff. There are more less informative, but not malicious posts. Like people asking what project they should do as a beginner, for example. Or a million posts asking if AI will replace everyone. But this is just a function of Reddit being more popular, so it naturally attracts more people like that. This is also why some subs introduce karma and new poster rules. Otherwise they will be overwhelmed by low quality posts where OP may not even read the replies because they moved on to something else.But the benefit of Reddit is that there is a sub for everything. And many of those subs let you easily identify trusted responders. Especially if incorrect answers may lead to harm.Quote from: Analog Kid on August 23, 2025, 07:24:28 pmYou will always have worse quality stuff if you have more stuff in general. But overall, if you just take this forum, I'd say there is for sure comparable amount of "good" threads. They are just diluted by a lot more nonsense. And I guess it depends on your ability to ignore nonsense.This is similar to StackOverflow. People like to shit on it, yet I find it extremely useful. May be not as a place to ask questions, but as an archive of good information.Quote from: Analog Kid on August 23, 2025, 07:24:28 pmThis will always be the case in a niche forum. Eevblog does not naturally come up in searches a lot, so you need to be aware of its existence before posting, which is a high bar already. Most people know what Reddit is, so it is natural to post there.And it is a huge advantage to have related technical subreddits in one place. Take FreeCAD, for example. On this forum the last post that even mentions FreeCAD in passing was 20 days ago. FreeCAD has its own forum, but I'm not that interested to even register there. Yet /r/FreeCAD is reasonably active, and being more niche, it has reasonable quality of discussion.So, if you are interested in one topic only, dedicated forum will likely be better (if you can find one). But for a broad set of topics, Reddit is way better. I'm subscribed to a lot of places that I have no direct interest in, but I want to observe from a distance. In that case, I don't care if every post is a true gem.

author: u666sa
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 24, 2025, 07:32:06 am
content: I'll give you all my most recent encounter with reddit. So I got me a number via hushed. I wanted an anonymous number to register for telegram. So I got me a number, and I went to register with it, but it would just say we send your code to telegram app. Google search, what's happening, why telegram app and how to make it send you an SMS. Anyway, a reddit article send me to a false route, I had to use a certain version of android app, which has option for sms code.In the end, that version did not offer option for sms code.What it really was is geolocation. When you are located far away from place your number is at, it would tell you sending code to app even though there is no account associated with the number. So what you do is get a VPN. Problem solved.Reddit was not only not useful, it send me on a wrong path. Everything stems from reddit karama. Not everyone can post there. So you are looking at things through a straw.

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 24, 2025, 07:51:10 am
content: Quote from: u666sa on August 24, 2025, 07:32:06 amOmg. Some random Reddit user was incorrect about something, at least one time, on the side facing you.Like no one here has ever been wrong about anything.I'd demand a full refund.

author: WatchfulEye
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 24, 2025, 03:23:12 pm
content: I do recognise a little in what the OP says. Reddit has been a very active discussion forum, but it does have its problems.There are problems with toxic behaviour in some communities, unpredictable or poor moderation, and also user hostility. Much of reddit used to be open to browse without a login, and via a web browser and it all worked pretty well. A site redesign a few years ago broke a number of features, increased loading times, made it more difficult to follow threads by automatically hiding posts, and added incessant nagging overlays to try to push people towards the app which requires a login.I have also had my own personal problems with the site. I had an account for a few years, mainly using it for posting in various hobby forums, as well as some technical work related forums - posting infrequently, but posting carefully considered and researched opinions. Then one day I noticed that I was getting less engagement than normal - in fact, when I looked into it, I'd had no engagement at all despite multiple detailed contributions to some difficult problems. What had happened was that I had received a site-wide "shadow ban" - to you, it looks like everything is working normally - but to anyone else, your account does not exist. Your posts don't appear in threads, can't be searched, you user profile shows as user does not exist, etc. I have absolutely no idea why - I didn't do anything controversial, just technical chat. Reached out to moderators of the forums I used, as well as reddit admin staff. No reply.Created a brand new account a few months later using different equipment, email, etc. Worked for a few months. Shadow banned again. Gave up.Out of interest, I tried again, after a year or so away from reddit - signed up from a new mobile account, in a different part of the country, different e-mail provider, etc. This account is now a few months old and is still not shadow banned, but as a new and low activity account, it is banned from many forums, on the basis of insufficient activity.I still read reddit from time to time (mainly if a search finds a thread that seems relevant to a query I have), but for whatever reason, they don't want me posting there - so I don't.

author: Simmed
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 24, 2025, 03:47:27 pm
content: Quote from: WatchfulEye on August 24, 2025, 03:23:12 pmyes exactly what you describedthis is something which i also knew about going on insidethere is a weirdness in how certain people are shoved off reddit for unknown reasons

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 24, 2025, 04:22:54 pm
content: I've acquired a sense of the whole TROLL thing, (which my antennas came up, on this thread, naturally). But in a serious way, as I'm still shocked and pretty naive. I don't think this organized group effort benefits. I went off and read other sources on trolls and the psychologist summary's, using technical terms, like;'Sadistic Vector motivational ', and other scary Dr. Lector talk. (I'm being only partially technical). The doctors say it better.But, that's partially the expert's summary, of troll motivation.So, here today I'm wondering, also, if (this OP) can still accomplish some twisted goal(s) which I guess is disruption of regular biz. That's because this thread comes out 'on top' of the recent post list, and everybody but the OP has a post...almost as if OP is just hovering out there, in the either, (and maybe smirking).Twists the mind to contemplate, but I think for the reactions by moderators is about appropriate, especially when they've retained all the other posts.P.I.T.A.

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 24, 2025, 08:38:32 pm
content: I see parallels, with my own peeves,Post#49 here: "...nagging overlays to try to push people towards the app, which requires a login..."That's my despair, no YouTube, when it's formatted to ask that you update your Google app (&account). Hit and miss, maybe 20% aren't diverted, to the screen requiring sign-in and receive updates.(AND, How come they don't just SNEAK their updates into my phone property?)Makes it slightly worse when folks here don't respond (the way I'd like). Why not just break-down, and comply (register & password) ?One idea is: What happens when, NEXT, PAY A NOMINAL SUBSCRIPTION FEE, along with your registration ?

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 25, 2025, 05:01:25 am
content: Just saw your whatever video on other thread (Reddit, Jesus saves).Feels like I'm getting played, and so I decline to watch your flesh simulatoer

author: BlackHecilopter
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 25, 2025, 03:02:56 pm
content: Quote from: RJSV on August 25, 2025, 05:01:25 amI thought the videos were fairly well done. This was the first one I watched and made me think of this thread.The second was a Youtube suggestion that I watched afterwards. The second one I posted is more concerning than this Reddit one. I can tell you by first hand experience the H-1B system is abused.

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 25, 2025, 04:49:58 pm
content: At least we aren't lacking in a SHIT SIMULATOR video. I cannot think of the proper insult / rotting food to throw at your head, European style.That's what they do to DRUNKS, singing at 2:30 am in the streets; people show their disgust, directly...dumping the bedpan on the heads of the crap-spewing idiot

author: BlackHecilopter
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 25, 2025, 04:59:32 pm
content: Quote from: RJSV on August 25, 2025, 04:49:58 pmI can't make sense out of this. Was there something related to the thread you wanted to add?

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 25, 2025, 06:25:04 pm
content: Quote from: BlackHecilopter on August 25, 2025, 04:59:32 pmI cannot make heads or tails of 95%of RJSVs comments.Best to just move on

author: fzabkar
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 25, 2025, 10:18:24 pm
content: Firstly, let me say that I don't understand why the OP was banned.My experience with Reddit is that it is ad-infested, but my ad-blocker succeeds in killing off these annoyances.I find the software annoying. Searches are laughable. Formatting with "Markdown" is tiresome. For example, every line in a block of code needs to be prefixed with 4 spaces. In this place it's just a simple click. Lines of text need to be double spaced, otherwise the lines are concatenated. And so on, and so on.The moderation in some forums, eg AskElectronics, is extremely aggressive when it comes to deciding what is on-topic. For example, someone recently wanted to repurpose a vape that had an ARM (?) MCU, but the moderator flagged the post as unsafe, and I'm not referring to the tobacco aspect of it.Reddit now has a new format. It slows my old Core 2 Duo machine to a crawl. Old Reddit is still tolerable, but if it disappears, then it's goodbye to Reddit from me. Just have a look at the amount of crap in the page source.

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 26, 2025, 01:58:31 am
content: Quote from: fzabkar on August 25, 2025, 10:18:24 pmOMG! A Core 2 Duo!!May I ask which exact chip it is -- as c2d ranges from 1.6 GHz (MacBook Air) to 3.06 GHz, with several different µarches and process nodes along the way. And how much RAM? Do you have a C compiler? What version? And would you be prepared to run a couple of simple benchmarks for me?

author: fzabkar
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 26, 2025, 02:13:44 am
content: Quote from: brucehoult on August 26, 2025, 01:58:31 amE4600, 2.4GHz, 4GB RAM, Gigabyte mainboard.I'm running Win 10 32-bit.What do you want me to benchmark?

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 26, 2025, 02:33:54 am
content: Quote from: fzabkar on August 26, 2025, 02:13:44 amOk, nice little mid-range device. Pity it's not Linux, but it doesn't matter too much as this code should work on anything with a standard libc.To start:https://hoult.org/primes.txt; compiled with -O1 or equiv ... i.e. not loading and storing variables to stack every time, but also not heroic loop unrolling etchttps://hoult.org/test_memcpy.c; the "__attribute__((noinline))" might need to be different if not gcc/clang but also might not matter.

author: fzabkar
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 26, 2025, 03:25:11 am
content: Give me a few days and I'll contact you privately.

author: paulca
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 27, 2025, 09:14:03 am
content: I had Reddit as part of my 'web routine' for a year maybe.I stopped it because for every instance of support, collective understanding and interest there are social justice storms.Social justice storms are "viral negatives".You say something a bit "sharp" or "cutting", maybe tell the truth to the wrong sub Reddit where that truth is taboo and .... you get a -5 votes.Now reddit is SUPPOSED to derank that post and show it to less people automatically. It will "roll up" to a spoiler etc. The "theory" of this is that by voting up or down people not only change what THEY see, but they get to democratically vote on what OTHERS see.Fine, I suppose.Except it fails to account for "social vultures" and "bullies". These types actively search and trawl for negged posts and start shiz talking, trolling, sharing and commenting and basically pushing the thing viral. The opposite effect than intended.If you end up on the receiving end of one of these and try and explain yourself you find that explanation get "-234 votes". Then people start clicking on your username and going through ALL your posts and hitting "NEG" on them. You become a target for them to "play".The idea is sound, 90% of the people on it are sound 90% of the time, but when Reddit wants to kick you in the gut, it does it extremely socially aggressively.Like most things a generally good thing ruined by a bunch of a-h's with nothing better to do.Example:I posted on a thread about "Virpal" controls (high-end flight sim controllers), I pointed out that they were lucky and if they had like me, ordered from WinWing you might not get your package OR your money back for months and months. Zero customer service etc.Nobody actually read the comment. They missed the fact I was talking about WinWing being far worse, read it as I was bashing Virpal (a start up sized outfit). The post got 150 negs.I commented to point out I was talking about WinWing. That comment got -400 negs. Other people commented the same, "Did you read his comment before negging jezz?".. they get 100s of negs too.Then comments started being added to my previous threads by trolls, comments from weeks ago for sparatic negs etc. etc.I just logged out. If I need something google can't find outside the walled garden, I search Reddit, but as a "social site", no, no thanks.

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 27, 2025, 09:19:16 am
content: Summary: Goodhart's Law from 1975https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart's_law

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 27, 2025, 07:46:15 pm
content: Hey paulca:I did notice, a small nuance: that you declined to spell out 'shit' exactly. Maybe, Is that a subconscious self-censorship, from using reddit ? Just saying.From a systems perspective a person could say that the 'gain' is way too high, that any even slightly negative crits will get amplified, into saturation. Uhh, do reddit members engage in criticism, about reddit conditions relating to users piling on, when tiny imperfect8ns get to swamp the system ?

author: fzabkar
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2025, 02:31:54 pm
content: On the subject of up/down-voting on Reddit, I'm left to wonder about the worth of these opinions by anonymous critics.For example, I proposed this solution to a question about latching:https://old.reddit.com/r/AskElectronics/comments/1mom95e/can_someone_cast_an_eye_over_my_latching_power/n8dng76/I watched the down- and upvotes over time, until they finally settled in the negative. When I challenged the legion of downvoters to explain their disagreement, none replied.

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2025, 02:48:56 pm
content: Quote from: fzabkar on August 28, 2025, 02:31:54 pmEasy:zeronegative. Up/down voting is too subject to gamification and cliques.It is occasionally suggested for this forum, but is always rejected - and the proprietor shows common sense by being against it

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2025, 03:03:11 pm
content: The only time downvotes matter is with a new account, so it does not stop your ability to post in certain subs. Once you've got some karma, they really do not mater.From this discussion, I think I also see the mismatch here. A lot of issues with moderation and cliques are present in super popular subs. Niche technical subs don't have enough participants to have issues like that.Also, not that I would care to downvote, but I certainly would not appreciate ASCII art post, since it looks like crap with my font settings. And asking why you are being downvoted (by like 2 people) is is a sure way to get downvoted faster.

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2025, 03:20:34 pm
content: Quote from: ataradov on August 28, 2025, 03:03:11 pmI could post a photo of old ASCII art. Some are the obvious cartoon nudes, but there is a really good of of thePost OfficeBT Tower at night - so there's lots of overprinting.

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2025, 11:37:58 pm
content: When I arrived at university in early 1981 the main corridor in the Computer Science department had a line (chain) printer overprinted ASCII art image of M.C. Escher's "Day and Night" on one wall that stretched floor to ceiling and must have been around 4 or 5 metres long.They don't make 'em like that any more.

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2025, 11:56:58 pm
content: Quote from: brucehoult on August 28, 2025, 11:37:58 pmI came across Escher and Day and Night when I was about 14. That picture has shaped some of my attitudes to life, and I have a copy hanging in my hallway.Something similar to your experience occurred in 1996, when I saw a panoramic picture of the Golden Gate bridge printed on one of the HP "architectural/CAD" continuous roll inkjet printers. It was at least 1m wide and maybe 20m long, took 8 hours to print out, and had sufficient resolution that you needed to get very close to see all the details. Yes, it was a digital photo, but the camera was a one-off - IIRC a slit scan panoramic where the linear photodiode sensor was repurposed from something else. Ah, the advantages of working in an industrial lab

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 29, 2025, 12:11:30 am
content: ASCII art:now look what you've started.

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 30, 2025, 01:21:49 am
content: Hey, tggzzz: Just to mention, there is (at least) one book, that covers the GG BRIDGE construction, chock full of pictures, sorry it was a while ago, so don't have title.But that book was a coffee table type of size, and, did cover technical details and project management affairs.Rick

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 30, 2025, 09:46:53 am
content: I quit Reddit about 3 months ago, in part due to the type of behaviour that @paulca and @fzabkar mentioned, but I also came to realise it was just contributing to poor mental health, I was doomscrolling, and getting into arguments with people on the other side of the globe for what reason exactly? Let bygones be bygones. I still read the odd thread, but 95% less than before.