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Best Awesome Content

  • Reddit Debate Religion (/r/DebateReligion) vs DebateIsland Debate Religion

    Reddit Debate Religion https://www.reddit.com/r/DebateReligion has over 40,000 subscribers , but does that make it better to debate Religion than DebateIsland Religion section at http://www.debateisland.com/categories/religion
    kmelkevolution17DebateIsland
  • Reddit Movies - Why 95% of Reddit Movies (/r/Movies) subscribers are male?

    Reddit Movies


    Now with over 15.2 million subscribers, Reddit Movies (/r/Movies) is the most popular place to discuss movies on the Internet.  But, is that a highly skewed demographic of essentially a dude-only club? According to a large scale survey just conducted on Reddit Movies, Pulp Fiction is Reddit r/Movies’ Favorite Film of All Time.  But, the biggest surprise was that 95% of Reddit Movies subscribers who replied were male!


    Why aren't more women participating in Reddit /r/Movies? Is Reddit Movies just for guys?


    Even the author of screenrant survey results didn't find it surprising. "The survey ended up receiving several thousand responses, which may not seem like that many considering the subreddit has over 15 million subscribers. Perhaps not shockingly, 95% of those who responded were male while only 5% were female."

    So what makes Reddit Movies so female-unfriendly, and great for guys?

    Is it that women don't like watching movies, don't like to discuss movies, or don't like to discuss movies on Reddit movies?  I always see a good mix of men and women in movie theaters, and know plenty of women who love watching movies and talking about movies.  So it is likely an issue specific to Reddit Movies.

    Lets explore Reddit Movies further

    What is allowed in /r/Movies?
    Movie News and Discussion Regarding Major Motion Pictures.
    A “Major Motion Picture” has a verifiable for-profit theatrical distributor. Moderators reserve the right to remove student, charity, indie and vanity projects - we recommend you submit to /r/filmmakers, a subreddit devoted to smaller-scale production. Films getting attention from the entertainment press may be exempted from this rule at the moderators’ discretion.
    /r/movies hosts a broad range of content. We curate content in order to maintain a consistent quality across all content types. The rules we use - and the rules we program Automoderator to enforce - are listed below. Please note that we reserve the right to remove any content that we judge lacking in quality, regardless of the requirements listed.

    That description sounds pretty harmless to attract female Reddit Movies subscribers.

    Lets take a look at some popular Reddit Movies sub reddits


    • /r/TrueFilm - reddit movies sub, /r/TrueFilm is a subreddit for in-depth discussions about film. We want to encourage and support in-depth intellectual discussions. Clear, polite and well-written responses should be upvoted; opinions should not be downvoted.

    • /r/Flicks - This Reddit movies sub is a casual place for serious discussion. 
    /r/Flicks is a place to have serious discussion of film in a more laid back manner. In other words, think of it as a gap between /r/Movies and /r/Truefilm.

    • /r/NetflixBestOf - this Reddit movies sub is dedicated to discussion about Netflix movies content. /r/NetflixBestOf is not an archive. Reposts are not only allowed, but are encouraged to some extent. The front page of this subreddit is meant to be a living representation of quality content on Netflix and you might see the same submissions multiple times. The mods are leaving it up to the community to utilize downvotes if they feel that reposts are too excessive.

    • /r/ComicBookMovies - this /r/Movies sub is all about Comic book movies. Here you can discuss cinematic and live-action television adaptations of comic books. It has over 34k subscribers, and has useful resources, such as upcoming comic book related movie releases and good discussion about comic book movies.

    • /r/Filmmakers - /r/Filmmakers is a Reddit Movies sub to meet, share work, tips, tutorials, and experiences in the field. Professionals and amateurs alike unite to discuss the world of filmmaking. For meaningful participation it requires you to work with /r/Filmmakers moderators to validate your credentials and industry expertise.  This is a place to learn from and share with professionals. In this spirit we encourage detailed and insightful posts, comments, and discussions on the Cinema Arts. Try to enlighten.

    • /r/MoviePosterPorn - this Reddit Movies sub Reddit is dedicated to movie posters.  It is Reddit Television cousin of Reddit TelevisionPosterPorn. It has over 73k subscribers.

    • /r/BoxOffice - This Reddit Movies sub is not too active (17k subscribers) and is dedicated to what's playing on coming up in the box office.

    •Reddit Movies CircleJerk - This Reddit Movies sub is a moderated safe haven for the "disciples of Quentopher Nolantino" whatever that means.

    Other Reddit Movies resources

    There are also interesting Reddit Movies resources, such as top 250 reddit movies challenge.
    Reddit's Top 250 Movies
    This list was compiled by having reddit.com users choose their favorite movies, of which the top 250 were compiled into this list.

    DebateIsland
  • The_Donald, too censored or not enough?

    I just shared my views on Reddit Politics moderation ineffectiveness on related debate.

    http://www.debateisland.com/discussion/574/reddit-politics-is-reddit-politics-good-for-online-debating

    Reddit politics is a large community with many sub reddits, each with a variation of moderation rules that mostly don't work well.  The rules are so complex and try to compensate for inefficiency of the underlying model.  Reddit Politics hasn't figure out a moderation model that just works, like DebateIsland. 

    If you think about design of an IPhone, the reason why it became so successful vs Windows devices is because Apple opted for elegance of user experience that just works vs complex features that target DYI users.  A similar analogy applies to Reddit Politics, they offer complex moderation rules but ultimately it's over designed and creates lots of issues.  

     The_Donald is a pink lenses world of "Trump is great", and the rest of Reddit Politics is anti-Trump.

    Reddit politics should think about relying more on user self moderation, having Reddit Politics users flag out of line content and having moderators act on these warnings.   Also the issue of relying so much on upvoting to determine best content is too one-sided and creates a bias in cases of one-sided political supporters flood the system.  I am not suggesting that Reddit politics stops relying on user upvoting, but just not as the only measure of relevance.
    Given popularity of Reddit Politics, resolving the issue of dominance by anti-Trump redditors is challenging to solve.  For now Reddit Politics essentially decided to gate off Trump supporters into a gated community of The_Donald and is not willing to do much else about bias against Trump in the other Reddit politics subs.  I hope that changes at some point, but if not DebateIsland is a great place to debate politics.

    DebateIsland
  • Political Forum - PoliticalForum.com users switching to Debate Island?

    PoliticalForum.com is a forum covering political, social, and other issues.  PoliticalForum.com is  a discussion forum, not a debate website like DebateIsland.  
    It seems that many PoliticalForum users are abandoning the site, especially after the latest March 2017 PoliticalForum upgrade to Xenforo due to various security issues.  There was no notice given to the PoliticalForum users until after the upgrade.

    PoliticalForum.com is also suggesting donations for keeping up with their newly increased expenses, and as their prior users are pointing out is that worth it for a ghost of user base PoliticalForum used to have.

    The new PoliticalForum site has only a fraction of prior forum users, and It seems that DebateIsland had continued spike of political debates in March.  
    I wonder if that is related to PoliticalForum users now debating on DebateIsland?
    I had a PoliticalForum account, and didn't bother continuing post their Xenforo upgrade. In some ways
    It's also possible that PoliticalForum users are switching to Reddit or Voat, as both have similar discussion format with much more functionality.

    Its too bad that many legacy sites that once were the prime experience for debating and discussions are shutting to give room to the next generations of sites offering better experience.  

    DebateIslandaarong
  • The_Donald, too censored or not enough?

    The_Donald

    Reddit The_Donald, a sub reddit dedicated to Trump supporters is full of controversy.  

    https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/

    Is Reddit discriminating against Trump supporters on The_Donald?
    Is The_Donald a safe harbor for right wing extremists?
    Is Reddit censoring The_Donald too much?
    Is the_Donald a good forum for Trump supporters?
    Are The_Donald users now targeted because Trump approved the law that allows broadcast companies sell user data?

    My personal user experience with The_Donald has been mixed. I tried to post a few things and it never got accepted, even though my comments were generally pro-Trump.  Maybe there were not pro-Trump enough?  

    Now for the The_Donald debate, is Reddit The_Donald too censored?
    Pro: Yes, it is censored too much and doesn't enable two side views for a good discussion.  It is just pink-colored glasses for Trump administration.
    Con: No, the_Donald needs to censor to protect themselves against attacks by liberals


    Is Reddit discriminating against Trump supporters on The_Donald?


    Reddit defends against accusations of ad fraud and Trump censorship

    reddit.com came under fresh fire today for allegedly discriminating against users of the pro-Trump section of the site called /r/The_Donald. Critics accused Reddit of under-reporting how many "subscribers" the section has while telling advertisers that the section has a much higher number of users. 
    But Reddit tells Fox News that the flap was caused by a simple labelling error that Reddit made when it rolled out a new system for advertisers Thursday.  

    Rspolitics, the site that published the post, got attacked with a DDOS and is currently down, is that revenge from Reddit or liberals?


    Developing: Millions of Active Pro-Trump Redditors Concealed By Site - RS Politics
    rspolitics.com › technology
     Right Side Politics suffered a MASSIVE DDOS attack which started at approximately 11:33 AM EST.

    Social media site Reddit censors Trump supporters

    Huffman announced that due to some “toxic” users, he would begin to censor all posts in a pro-Trump section of the site (called “r/The_Donald”) by limiting the ability of posts there to reach what many consider the “front page” of Reddit – where the posts get seen by a wider audience.

    Reddit’s ‘The Donald’ breaks with Trump over his support for killing internet privacy rules



    Members of Reddit‘s r/The_Donald—a community known for its exaggerated support for all things Trump—is tearing at the seams over the president’s support for legislation that kills Federal Communications Commission privacy rules that would have prevented internet providers from selling a vast array of personal information.


    So the irony is that many of Reddit Trump supporters (the_Donald) value privacy, and anonymously participate in Reddit to make sure their voice is heard, but Trump, the very person they are so enthusiastically supporting, just back stabbed them with supporting discontinuation of legislation that protects their privacy.

    Reddit Is Tearing Itself Apart


    For the past 11 years, an eternity in internet time, Reddit has touted itself—repeatedly, and loudly—as the place to have “authentic conversations” online. For a variety of reasons, that sentiment has always rang hollow. Now, Reddit, in its goal to be a laissez-faire haven of (relatively) free expression, has been overrun by nationalist trolls. Its staff of volunteer moderators is losing hope in the site’s future.

    ‘r/The_Donald’ — Reddit’s Delusional Cesspool of Trump Fanaticism

    Having been on Reddit for more than a few years now, I’ve watched a lot go down on the self-described ‘front page of the internet’. While I wasn’t there for the legendary banning of r/jailbait, the borderline child-porn subreddit, I was around to witness the ill-advised crowdsourced vigilantism that led the hive-mind to falsely accuse a missing student of being the Boston bomber. I also thought it was interesting when Reddit, one of the top twenty-five most popular sites on the web, recently banned six white-supremacist subreddits that had been attracting a lot of negative attention for quite a while.

    DebateIsland
  • Reddit Television

    Reddit Television 

    Reddit Television (/r/Television) is a great resource to interact with other fans to discuss television programming.  

    Why not integrate Reddit Television directly into TV programming to make it an interactive experience?


    I am surprised that neither Cable companies, Netflix, Roku, or etc didn't come up with an integrated option with Reddit Television to gain competitive advantage.

    Reddit Television (https://www.reddit.com/r/television) has 12 million+ subscribers, with many specialized sub reddits for various Television shows, that each have many active subscribers.

    Viewers can discuss TV shows live on Reddit Television 
    By integrating Reddit Television as part of the actual TV experience, as an episode is playing, viewers can get easy access to relevant Reddit Television content, including upvoting  comments with their remote.

    Integrate viewing history with Reddit Television experience
    As a viewer finishes watching a show, s/he can be promoted to participate in relevant sub-reddit discussion

    Reddit Television not a great option for Debating TV shows, but a great choice for engaging in TV discussions
    While I argue that Reddit Television and Reddit in general is not ideal for online debating ( see related debate about Reddit Politics)

    Reddit Television should integrate Polls to the experience
    One of key DebateIsland.com features missing from Reddit Television is an integrated poll feature.  Polls part of the Reddit discussions would make it especially important to integrate with a TV experience.

    For example, if I am watching Sienfeld reruns, it would be nice to see Reddit Television user comments on that episode. I would also like to participate in a poll if I think Kramer or George messed up more.

    DebateIsland
  • Debate Topics

    Best Source for Debate Topics?

    Having good debate topics to choose from is important for a meaningful online debate.  There are many sources for debate topics that will help you find what to debate.  You can choose good debate topics either from political debates, economics, business, news, controversial issues, debate websites, movies, tv shows, or personal life.

    What is the best source of debate topics for you?

    There are a number of debate topics sources I found useful.

    Debate Topics - Political debates

    With so much attention in US politics, there are many good debate topics to chose from.  President Trump and his administration has plenty selection of debate topics.  For example, Healthcare bill, Tax reform, Russian connection accusations, there is no shortage of topics to debate there.
    Specific government policies are also full of debate topics.
    World politics is another good source of political debates.  Middle East conflict, North Korea, Putin, Ukraine - still at a loss for debate topics? Any of these has many variation of good debate topics and can either be debated based on core issues, or latest developments.

    A small sample
    1. In the U.S. primary voting system, caucuses ought to be abolished.
    2. The U.S. Presidential election cycle is significantly too long.
    3. U.S. primary elections should be held simultaneously.
    4. As a campaigner and candidate, Hillary Clinton is more lucky than skilled.
    5. The Supreme Court found wrongly in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
    6. In the United States, the absence of viable third parties is regrettable.
    7. The U.S. should adopt a parliamentary form of government.

    Debate Topics - News

    Every newspaper article is a source of good debate topics.  That's why many of the online newspapers have a comments section where people come to debate (or argue and troll).
    There is controversy in every article that spans off a good debate or a controversial argument of some sort.  Editorial sections of major newspapers are especially great sources of debate topics.  Whenever an editor writes one of these editorial pieces, he essentially provokes their readership base.

    Debate Topics - Controversial issues

    There are timeless controversial issues that have been sources of debate topics for years, with many one-sided or complex opinions. Topics range from abortion, gun control, immigration, same sex couple rights, and etc.
    ProCon.org has a great list of debate topics, with most popular debates on 
    Medical Marijuana
    Gun Control
    Animal Testing
    Death Penalty
    School Uniforms 
    6Drinking Age - Lower It? 
    7Social Networking - Good or Bad?
    8Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide
    9Illegal Immigration
    10Abortion

    Debate Topics - Debate Websites

    Debate websites have sections for most popular debates, where you can get ideas for good debate topics. Some popular debate topics on DebateIsland include 
    gun control debate
    will Trump increase American jobs
    debateisland.com/discussion/394/will-trump-increase-american-jobs

    If you browse through idebate.org you will also  find good examples.

    Debate Topics - Personal Life

    Often everyday activities are great sources for debate topics.  Did something happen to you when you went to a store, pickup kids at school, a conflict with a colleague, a casual argument with your spouse? These may all be good debate topics.

    Funny debate topics

    There are many sources of funny debate topics, including


    Open source list debate topics

    As part of Open debate topic list, there is a compiled list of debate topics from Arts, Economics, to Sports and Public Policy.


    Here are some examples for 

    history debate topics list


    1. Had the Roman Empire won the Battle of Teutoburg Forest, its lifespan would likely have significantly increased.
    2. Generally speaking, the U.S. began as a Christian nation.
    3. The US ought to have dropped Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
    4. The US ought to have entered [WWI or WWII].
    5. On balance, European conquest of Native American lands was justified.
    6. On balance, European colonization was good for the colonized peoples.


    arts and culture debate topics

    1. In the context of the Odyssey, it is likely that a majority of Odysseus's story to the Phaeacians was a lie.
    2. In Star Trek, Judge Advocate General Louvois's ruling that Lt. Cmdr. Data had "a right to choose," was wrong.
    3. In Star Trek, Kaelon II’s custom of “resolution" is ethical.
    4. On balance, the Force is more of an instrument than an end in itself.
    5. To be art, something must have been created with artistic intent.
    6. On balance, the Louvre Museum is better than the Uffizi Gallery
    7. Literature originally written in a European language cannot qualify as African literature.
    8. Pierce Brosnan was the best James Bond actor.
    9. The Coen Brothers are better directors than Quentin Tarantino.
    10. Everything is art.
    11. In Journalism, it is better to prioritize impartiality over truthfulness when the two are in conflict.
    12. That the modern-day fusion of journalism and entertainment is alarming.

    economics debate topics

    1. As a substitute for government regulation, workers should receive stronger collective bargaining rights and protections.
    2. Estate and/or inheritance taxes ought not to be levied.
    3. Supply-side economics is a better remedy for recession than Keynesian fiscal policy.
    4. The US Congress should not raise the debt ceiling.
    5. The Federal Reserve ought to raise interest rates.
    6. Janet Yellen’s decision in December, 2015, to raise interest rates was in the best interests of the United States.
    7. The USFG should increase unemployment benefits.
    8. On balance, affluent countries ought to offer a universal basic income.
    9. Universal healthcare is a wise economic investment for developed countries to make.
    10. Countries ought to engage in free trade.

    ethics debate topics

    1. Adultery is nearly always immoral.
    2. Collective Punishment is just.
    3. For individuals in developed countries, recycling is a moral obligation.
    4. The French government's ban on Burqas is morally permissible.
    5. Black lives matter ought to be opposed on ethical grounds.
    6. The fairness of the process is more important to justice than the fairness of the results.
    7. Regarding criminal acts, justice can usually be obtained without the victim's forgiveness of the criminal.
    8. First use of a nuclear weapon would be immoral.
    9. An unjust law is no law at all.
    10. That human cloning ought to be opposed on moral grounds.

    DebateIslandagsr
  • Reddit Shower Thoughts - Best Shower Thoughts and are Shower Thoughts getting better?

    Reddit Shower Thoughts /ShowerThoughts

    I was amazed to find out about Reddit Shower Thoughts, and was even more surprised to find out that it has over 11 million of subscribers.  It wasn't until I read some of these Reddit ShowerThoughts, I realized how uncreative my own shower thoughts were. :smile:   I even challenged myself to come up with more creative shower thoughts, and posted them at the Reddit Shower Thoughts, but none of my Shower Thoughts were interesting to the other Reddit Shower Thought readers :)

    Some of these Reddit shower thoughts got almost 100k upvotes, and over 4k comments.

    I found it curious that if you look at the top Reddit shower thoughts for past year at
    you will see that many of these popular shower thoughts are weighted towards recent postings.  I would have thought that shower thoughts are more timeless, and the older shower thoughts would get even more popular over time, as Reddit Shower Thoughts users will continue to find them and continue to upvote these postings.

    So, 2 questions about Reddit Shower Thoughts

    1 - Best Reddit Shower Thought?
    2 - Are Shower Thoughts getting more popular, given the data that top Reddit shower thoughts for past year are weighted towards recent postings?


    Reddit Shower Thoughts - Top 1


    DebateIsland
  • Reddit Neutral Politics - r/NeutralPolitics - is extreme moderation the best answer?

    Reddit Neutral Politics

    is a higher-quality sub of Reddit Politics family, with over 150 thousands subscribers.   While Reddit Politics sub is arguably the highest volume site for discussing politics (  Reddit r/Politics site has over 8.3 million subscribers), Reddit Neutral Politics has the most civil content out there in Reddit.

    Neutral Politics is a community dedicated to evenhanded, empirical discussion of political issues. It is a space to discuss policy and the tone of political debate.

    Is Reddit Neutral Politics a subreddit for people who are politically neutral?
    No - in fact we welcome and encourage any viewpoint to engage in discussion. The idea behind r/NeutralPolitics is to set up a neutral space where those of differing opinions can come together and rationally lay out their respective arguments. We are neutral in that no political opinion is favored here - only facts and logic. Your post or comment will be judged not by its perspective, but by its style, rationale, and informational content.

    There are 2 questions I would like to Debate regarding Reddit NeutralPolitics
    1)does Reddit Neutral Politics strict (and I argue extreme moderation) the most effective way to end up with a great user experience while having high quality content?
    2) Is Reddit Neutral Politics the best option to debate politics?


    Reddit Neutral Politics r/NeutralPolitics Extreme moderation
    It is ironic that Reddit, designed for open community view is so highly moderated, with Reddit Neutral Politics being one of the most extreme examples.
    Reddit censorship gave a boost to a competitor Voat, which vows for a much lower level of moderation.
    If reddit Neutral politics users rely on moderators to triple check their work, like college professors, then you get a feeling of high-pressure college essay situation and rely on the moderators to make censorship decisions.  Moderators make a call if tone of the submission is biased or disrespectful in any way, the source is not strong enough, or if any of the other rules are not strictly followed.
    I also argue that heavily moderated content doesn't result in neutral political content, but in many ways biased political content.
    The one key benefit of heavy moderation is that published language is much more respectful than the rest of Reddit, but as we see at DebateIsland.com community self moderation by flagging inappropriate comments works just as well, without making it a Big Brother debate site.

    Is Reddit Neutral Politics  r/NeutralPolitics the best option to debate?
    I argue that it is not.  The same structural issues that plague the rest of Reddit Politics regarding debating apply to Neutral Politics, with an exception of vulgar language, but adding heavy censorship.

    Reddit Politics - Is Reddit Politics good for online debating?
    The structure of Reddit discussions is not meant for debating, as each comment takes you in a different direction, making it difficult to advocate specific positions.  It is a polar opposite of debate.org, which forces you in a very strict 1-1 multiple rounds format.  The similarity between debate.org and Reddit r/NeutralPolitics is that both have high censorship rules (although in very different ways).
    The other key feature missing from Reddit Neutral Politics (r/NeutralPolitics) is polls.  To review results of a debate, one has to go through various comments, and often sub-comments.  While upvoting of comments is useful, since there are no stated pro and con positions, everything in r/NeutralPolitics just becomes branches and sub-branches.
    DebateIsland solves both problems of censorship and polls, by having a community with essentially self-moderation by community (users flag inappropriate content for the moderator), and an elegant debate experience that is casual and just works.  Political discussions on DebateIsland are structured in forms of debates, but are normally not evolved into multiple sub-threads and stay focused on specific stated positions within each poll, providing further flavor/supporting arguments.


    Coming back to the broader topic, of why people go to places like Reddit Neutral Politics To discuss and debate politics.
    One set of users go there to read about political trends and opinions.  I think that passive listeners will find Reddit Neutral Politics r/NeutralPolitics a great resource.  It has lots of content, has latest news, and a deep dive really provides a diversity of perspectives.

    Those who look to participate in the r/NeutralPolitics discussions, want to either gain acceptance and respect of the Reddit community, or want their voice to be heard.  I'd say that if one is willing to commit to doing some homework, that can be a gratifying experience. The mixed results will come in for the novice and more casual users, who will be frustrated with rejection of their content or if their discussion gets hijacked into multiple unstructured directions by other users replying to their thread.

    Those who come to Reddit Neutral Politics specifically to debate (not discuss) political topics, will likely have a similar experience as posting a comment in a WashingtonPost article.
    DebateIsland
  • My undocumented friend: Carlos does the work few in Vermont want to do

    Carlos was one of the estimated 1,000-2,000 undocumented, mostly Mexican immigrants employed on the state’s dairy farms


    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/25/undocumented-immigrants-vermont-dairy-industry


    aarongpiloteer

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