Friday, August 24, 2012

Reddit Gold: Negative?





My sister wants me to write about the negative aspects of our recent Reddit experience.  I cannot reread the comments section of our video post because I really don't want to revisit all that hostility.  So instead of quoting like the previous post, I'm just going to speak on the gist of what happened that made our bear cry.

When Alison posted our video (labeled "My brother spent months making this video to try and promote his failing t-shirt company") on Reddit, it was actually about our 15-20th try.  She brought up reposting it a month after our last try and I approved not expecting any results.

Then, all of a sudden, our two posts made the front page.  After this lucky turn of events, someone built this success to be some sort of conspiracy, and our video was wiped off the front page as well as the video page.  We didn't break any of the rules and have yet to receive a response from the staff as to why it was removed.  Another commentator on Youtube accused us of stealing artwork.  He saw my post from about ten months ago which ended up being my first design for this company and assumed I stole it.  The user went as far to say that on Reddit I stated I would never sell that artwork.  I find it pretty humorous that all these people think a brother and sister are like Pinky and the Brain, brilliantly scheming to take over Reddit's front page and stealing artwork.

Now onto the majority of the comments on the video section.  What did I get from it?  Basically it felt like we built a target on our company and a number of people took turns spitting on it.  They were saying, "You suck!  This is why you suck!  You and your company are stupid!  You should have never tried!"  Constructive criticism is something I can bear, but many of the comments had an extremely condescending tone.  I totally understand why people love to socially dominate others online, I just wonder if they have ever considered encouraging themselves and others to be better people.

I'm going to close thanking all the people that did take the time to silently up vote us to the front page, as well as the few commentators that wrote uplifting messages and got down voted to hell.  I am grateful knowing that there are a lot of people out there that still have consideration and class on the internet.


-Mark





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