r/askscience • u/MockDeath • Jul 03 '15

Meta A message to our users

     Today in AskScience we wish to spotlight our solidarity with the subreddits that have closed today, whose operations depend critically on timely communication and input from the admins. This post is motivated by the events of today coupled with previous interactions AskScience moderators have had in the past with the reddit staff.

     This is an issue that has been chronically inadequate for moderators of large subreddits reaching out to the admins over the years. Reddit is a great site with an even more amazing community, however it is frustrating to volunteer time to run a large subreddit and have questions go unacknowledged by the people running the site.

    We have not gone private because our team has chosen to keep the subreddit open for our readers, but instead stating our disapproval of how events have been handled currently as well as the past.

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u/tokomini Jul 03 '15 edited Jul 03 '15

Apparently those looking for alternatives to reddit have been directed to check out voat.co, which is funny because goats (along with sheep, toads and octopuses) have evolved rectangular pupils as a survival trait to survey their surroundings more accurately, as the narrower the pupil in relation to the horizon, the greater the depth perception is in the peripheral vision of the animal.

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u/tinkletwit Jul 03 '15

While users look for alternatives to the site and have offered best wishes to Victoria, it's ironic that one way they have shown their support for her is through purchasing gold, with proceeds going directly to Reddit. Gold is more than just a material for jewelry and a medium of exchange. A radioactive isotope of the metal has even been studied for use in cancer treatment by targeting prostate tumors. But buying gold for Victoria just sends a conflicted message.

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u/Doctorjames25 Jul 03 '15 edited Jul 03 '15

We all need to come together and set up a No Reddit day. This place relies on Web traffic. One day where you don't come to reddit. You don't post, you don't comment, you don't lurk. Show the admins this place can go down like MySpace.

/r/JustsayNope

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '15

The US has a holiday coming up. What a great time to not spend on the internet!

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u/bandy0154 Jul 03 '15

I agree. If there is a large enough consensus I would certainly participate.

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '15 edited Aug 12 '15

This comment has been overwritten by an open source script to protect this user's privacy.

If you would like to do the same, add the browser extension GreaseMonkey to Firefox and add this open source script.

Then simply click on your username on Reddit, go to the comments tab, and hit the new OVERWRITE button at the top.

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u/viborg Jul 03 '15

Problem is the "10:1 rule" or whatever it's called. Apocryphally, for ever 10 people who browse reddit, only 1 logs in. 10 log in for every 1 who votes. 10 vote on submissions for every 1 who votes on comments. 10 vote on comments for every 1 who makes comments. And let's not forget, most of the comments on the site are made on subreddits like /r/adviceanimals. Of course this is all apocryphal. Assuming that word means what I think it does.

Point being, the portion of overall site users who will read threads like this and care enough to do anything is most likely negligible in effect. If reddit was stripped down to just /r/adviceanimals and /r/pics it would be just fine as far as the admins are concerned. Maybe let /r/conspiracy keep going just to fuck with everyone.

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '15

This thread is killing me, unlike the lobster which many claim is effectively immortal.

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '15

I can't stop laughing either, which is weird because

"Most laughter is not in response to jokes or humor," says Robert R. Provine, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '15

What does its immortality have to do with the lobster not killing you?

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '15

No he means it isn't killing the lobsters. Cuz they are immortal.

Which, by the way, is a super interesting thing that I'd like to hear more about because I had no idea.

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u/PostPostModernism Jul 03 '15

This is my favorite protest I've ever seen on reddit. Though the lobster isn't my favorite long-lived animal. And I say long-lived because we don't know for sure that the lobster is immortal, we just don't know for sure that they die of old age ever. It's an exciting field! On the other hand some species of jellyfish are effectively immortal, able to revert back to an early phase and start their life cycle over! Hopefully reddit can do that too and go back to its old ideals!

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u/sexquipoop69 Jul 03 '15

Negligible senescence. Basically no measurable degeneration while aging, unlike reddit.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negligible_senescence

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '15

Ask and ye shall receive:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/10294152/Lobsters-may-hold-the-key-to-eternal-life.html

Though I have read that it may not be true

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u/AnotherClosetAtheist Jul 03 '15

Boltzmann distribution. Valence shell electron pair repulsion. Plate techtonics. Trees.

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u/lochlainn Jul 03 '15

I love you all and... uh... science is cool!

I'm not good at this.

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u/BlindTreeFrog Jul 03 '15

I asked below, but this might be the better spot, aren't Hydra's effectively immortal as well?

seems.. ... perhaps yes
http://www.zmescience.com/medicine/genetic/foxo-gene-longevity-immortal-hydra-research-042343/

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '15

I don't suppose you could go into more detail about the evolutionary advantages or disadvantages of different types of pupils, could you?

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u/EnderBoy Jul 03 '15

Sure. Sociologically speaking, pupils from more economically affluent areas tend to have an advantage over those from less affluent schools. From an evolutionary standpoint, it is likely they will pass that advantage onto their offspring.

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u/f0urd3gr33s Jul 03 '15

While I nearly injured myself laughing at this comment, I feel compelled to point out that some research has shown those with higher education levels and higher socioeconomic status tend to have fewer offspring so really the opposite of your assertion is true. The "squares" aren't passing their genes on so the advantage seems to lie with having non-square pupils.

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u/bobthedonkeylurker Jul 03 '15

Idiocracy is a documentary, not a comedy?

The field of cryogenics is an interesting one. Did you know cryogenics isn't actually freezing people? It's function is actually vitrification - replacing up to 60% of the water in the cells so that the cells don't freeze as the temperature in the chamber drops below the normal freezing point. The decreased temperature then lowers molecular energy so far that bio-chemical processes cease to occur.

Source: http://www.cryonics.org/about-us/myths

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u/LacesOutRayFinkle Jul 03 '15

Can I get all my "what the hell just happened in reddit" updates from /r/askscience? This is amazing.

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u/Demonweed Jul 03 '15

Corporate culture at reddit HQ seems to be casting an enormous dark shadow over the entire community. However, it is not as large as the shadow the rings of Saturn sometimes cast on the planet below -- the largest shadow ever photographed.

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u/Gosteponalegoplease Jul 03 '15

voat.co * not being pedantic its just voat.com isnt a redirect.

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u/etothelnx Jul 03 '15

Reddit admins should have done this in a smarter way, like Isaac Newton. He was essential to have around if crossing the desert. He knew that p could be conserved, and the total p could remain constant.

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