• dhork@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Also includes some examples of stuff that is ultimately irrelevant for reddit as a platform, such as canning and electric garage doors.

    That stuff absolutely is relevant, because having the right info for those things is crucial, because acting on the wrong info can literally kill you.

    The reason why Reddit content is valued so highly by users (and search engines) is because it was seen to have some level of curation to it, due to the efforts of the volunteer moderators who took their “job” seriously. They felt that it was vitally important to weed out dangerous info. And that basic safety effort is likely all that is saving Reddit from a massive lawsuit once someone tries to fix their garage door the wrong way and dies.

    It’s like Reddit made a list of things that sane companies do to protect their brand and reputation, and made a point of doing the exact opposite.

    • TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      I dont know how to break this to you but there has always been a LOT of incorrect bullshit on Reddit, and it’s always done just fine.

      If the Boston Bombing didn’t do the platform in, canning surely wont.

      • thrawn@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        It’s not about Reddit. The platform will continue. It’s about the communities with some built-in danger reducing the bar for safety, potentially leading to death.

        The internet is pretty callous, but someone dying over this would be bad, right? That’s still a living person who might not do enough research or follow the unsafe article and get hurt or die. Reddit as a platform aside, and even if you or someone else believes they should have been more careful, people dying in part because of this is the issue.