In the wake of the AI takeover, it’s becoming harder and harder to find actual information on the Internet. Sure there’s information, but it’s ripped (by AI bots) from articles written by AI bots so…you know, the vibe is not immaculate. And don’t get me started on social media.
It’s no surprise, then, that folks in search of actual discussion find Reddit to be one of the last bastions of semi-intelligent discussion on specific nerdy themes and topics. But sadly Reddit is hardly immune to the usual BS. And recently—true to form—things are getting even worse.
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There’s plenty of excitement (and queerness) in store for this season, and we’re ready for all of it.
Consider the popular subreddit r/MapP*rn. Once it was a place where you’d go to enjoy cartography with your fellow nerds. Now it’s facing some drama that’s giving users pause.
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One redditor recently tried to post Erin Reed’s extremely helpful anti-trans risk assessment map on the channel, and to their dismay it was removed quickly. Why? Ostensibly because of its “political” content.
“I hate that our existence is considered “political”,” wrote another trans commenter. “Maybe white cishet men should be considered political.”
They should be indeed. Sadly, this isn’t the first time redditors have encountered weirdness from the sub.
They do this exact same thing with many pro-palestine posts, they say it’s too similar to other posts, or it’s too poorly drawn, or it’s too low quality or lazy etc, while maps about anything else are left untouched. It’s clearly time to quit that sub,” someone else stated, while others noted seeing more conservative commentary on the sub in recent months.
“Map communities seem to attract conservatives because they are all about clear, black-and-white boundaries,” another user pointed out.
One user who’d already posted the anti-trans risk assessment map, however, provided a counterpoint. While yes, there’s a fair bit of nastiness in the comments, maybe the mods removed OP’s post because the map had already showed up previously? It could also be a moderation question. Since transphobes tend to show up in full force, one user speculated that they might avoid “controversial” topics since they have no way of filtering out bad comments. Which is sad, but also entirely a possible reason for the map’s removal.
The good news is, you can access Erin Reed’s map on her own newsletter here, free of mean comments, and it ain’t going nowhere.
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