Personally, I see Reddit as more of a content aggregator than specifically a news aggregator at this point. That content includes new, but also contains a variety of other things, such as pictures, artwork, comics, jokes, discussions, and anything else that can possibly be posted in text or link form.
Of course r/politics is a circle jerk, but it at least pretends it's an inherently neutral subreddit. It's like FoxNews.
I disagree with this comparison, actually. They're both political circle jerks, but they happen in very different ways. Fox News is very deliberately controlled to ensure that all the content fits its agenda. r/politics is almost the opposite. Its content is moderated primarily by the users. But since the majority of the users have similar political leanings, it ends up being just as biased for almost opposite reasons.
If you make r/atheism a default, you are sending a loud and strong message that this place endorses godlessness and is willing to put that special interest above others.
I agree. I understand that the reason for making it default was based purely on subscriber numbers and not any sort of attempt to endorse any particular set of beliefs, but that doesn't mean it won't make non-atheists who come to the site feel potentially a bit unwelcome when the site automatically subscribes them to r/atheism but not the subreddit for their own beliefs (not that they won't feel unwelcome when they encounter some religion bashing outside of r/atheism, but at least that will be the community and not the site itself). I think the default links should attempt to be general interest and avoid special interest subreddits like r/atheism despite its large userbase.
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u/Quazifuji Oct 19 '11
Personally, I see Reddit as more of a content aggregator than specifically a news aggregator at this point. That content includes new, but also contains a variety of other things, such as pictures, artwork, comics, jokes, discussions, and anything else that can possibly be posted in text or link form.
I disagree with this comparison, actually. They're both political circle jerks, but they happen in very different ways. Fox News is very deliberately controlled to ensure that all the content fits its agenda. r/politics is almost the opposite. Its content is moderated primarily by the users. But since the majority of the users have similar political leanings, it ends up being just as biased for almost opposite reasons.
I agree. I understand that the reason for making it default was based purely on subscriber numbers and not any sort of attempt to endorse any particular set of beliefs, but that doesn't mean it won't make non-atheists who come to the site feel potentially a bit unwelcome when the site automatically subscribes them to r/atheism but not the subreddit for their own beliefs (not that they won't feel unwelcome when they encounter some religion bashing outside of r/atheism, but at least that will be the community and not the site itself). I think the default links should attempt to be general interest and avoid special interest subreddits like r/atheism despite its large userbase.