Tsukasa Buddha
Other (please write in)
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2006
- Messages
- 15,302
Preface:
Reddit is a social media site. It allows the creation of "subreddits", which are essentially mini forums where users submit text posts or links to pictures, images, YouTube videos, etc. Each subreddit has mods, which establish their own rules, ban users from the subreddits, etc. All subreddits must follow the rules of the admins of Reddit, which generally include no illegal content and no “brigading” (linking to other subreddits to organise mass votes and comments).
Chapter I: The Origin Story
In the beginning, there was /r/fatpeoplestories. Then came /r/fatlogic. This subreddit was and is a proto-skeptical forum for discussing “fat logic”. Do people’s metabolisms differ dramatically? Do calories after 8:00 PM cause weight gain because they aren’t “burned off”? Can obese people be healthy? These are all issues posted and discussed there.
However. Some members wished to express hatred and mockery for the overweight and obese. They desired to cleanse the subreddit of overweight members.
Thus, /r/fatpeoplehate was born.
Chapter II: The Rise
Though it began modestly, over time FPH overtook their originating subreddit. It was revealed that the head mod was a secret fatty, and thus The_Penis_Wizard took command. Another mod was doxxed by an SJW and sent threats. They experienced a renaissance in fat hatred, establishing vernacular including terms like “obeast”, “hamplanet”, and “butter golem”. For themselves, they were “**** lords”. Who did they target? All fat people and fat sympathisers. They established a system of sending pictures to verify their non-fat worth to the mods, after participating for some time, who then gave them a flair next to their username. It didn’t mean anything, but it established a sense of secure, non-fat community. Eventually, around this past December, they started getting enough support to have a post or two appear on /r/all. This lead to a steady increase to over 150,000 subscribers, about 20,000 active posters and 2,000 online at a time.
Chapter III: The Twilight of the Mods
First news came from the CEO Pao that Reddit would be making it a “safe space” and would be cracking down on the worst groups. The mods of FPH saw the writing on the wall and started investigating alternative sites. The mods decided that some of their favourite image submissions would be placed on the sidebar for fun. One time the admins stepped in and removed a photo, but the mods explained that it was a public photo and the admins apologised.
Then images began to be removed from Imgur, the image hosting site that has strong ties with Reddit. The mods were strict in enforcing their rules for removing identifying information, and the system of choice was to use screenshots with blacked out for all submissions. In retaliation, the mods took the staff picture from the Imgur website, which included a number of overweight members and an overweight dog, and added the text that “even the dog is fat”.
In response, the Imgur CEO came to FPH to clarify that Imgur was becoming a social site of its own with its own rules, and it wasn’t targeting FPH but responding to reporting from Imgur users. The CEO was promptly banned for being “potentially fat”. A user then started an approved image hosting site: slimgur.com.
Chapter IV: The Fattening
On 6/11/14, with no warning, Reddit announced it was banning five subreddits for harassment. No evidence was provided. It clarified that it was banning actions, not ideas. It specified that FPH was the only subreddit with over 5,000 subscribers to be banned, something that media repeated which vastly underestimated the size of FPH.
Many users were nonplussed because Reddit didn’t ban the most infamous and most harassing subreddits, including but not limited to:
/r/CuteFemaleCorpses
/r/sexyabortions
/r/coontown
/r/rapingwomen
/r/BurningKids
/r/KotakuInAction
/r/**** RedditSays
Then began a brief time of rebuilding. /r/fatpeoplehate2 and /r/fatpersonhate briefly gained 20,000 subs and flooded /r/all each before being banned. From then on it was a game of creating more and more subreddits, which the admins got better and better at quickly banning. This solidified for the FPH users that they were being targeted for their ideas and not their actions.
Meanwhile, someone had set up /v/fatpeoplehate when Pao’s statements were first made. Voat is a copycat site of Reddit that is based in Switzerland and the owner promised to let people have free speech (of note, the mods of FPH specifically rejected appeals about “free speech” being violated). Unfortunately, for days the site could not handle the load of incoming FPH users. And it soon became clear that, through a request for inactive subverses, an unapproved person gained main control of /v/fatpeoplehate.
Thus while Voat had a lot of attention from refugees, the mods wanted a different solution. The first came from fph.io. A supporter was developing a site and open sourced it. But then the host Heroku was alerted and shut it down for being a hate site, which was against their policy. For extra measure, it was hit with a DDoS attack.
Thus the mods now direct action via an IRC channel. They plan on building a new independent site. The FPH subscribers who flooded Reddit on the first day were dwindled as they were splintered.
Chapter V: A New Hope
So has Reddit won? The problem of FPH spilling over seems to have dissipated. But there is a weakness here as well. First, by relentlessly splintering them the FPH supports were radicalised. They now wish to take action against Reddit, and they have started relations with other hate groups and anti-SJW subreddits on the site. Second, by forcing them to leave Reddit and onto an independent site they pushed them out of Reddit’s control. Now they are free to act how they wish. Their first strategy will be to brigade and upvote the disgusting, racist, etc. sides of Reddit in order to highlight the arbitrariness of their banning as well as hurt Reddit’s image with users and advertisers. Their new site will be limited only by legality, which is potentially worse for everyone, on and off of Reddit.
End Note (I am not a racist!)
I actually frequent /r/fatlogic, as you can guess by my positive description. I started reading FPH because fatlogic sort of stood in the shadow of it and you could always feel its presence. I continued reading it (never subscribed or posted) because it was entertaining and motivating. They really were a delightfully terrible bunch. It was always funny when someone like me would post on there about how much they liked the subreddit for motivation, and they were then immediately banned. It happened quite often and I quite enjoyed it.
Reddit is a social media site. It allows the creation of "subreddits", which are essentially mini forums where users submit text posts or links to pictures, images, YouTube videos, etc. Each subreddit has mods, which establish their own rules, ban users from the subreddits, etc. All subreddits must follow the rules of the admins of Reddit, which generally include no illegal content and no “brigading” (linking to other subreddits to organise mass votes and comments).
Chapter I: The Origin Story
In the beginning, there was /r/fatpeoplestories. Then came /r/fatlogic. This subreddit was and is a proto-skeptical forum for discussing “fat logic”. Do people’s metabolisms differ dramatically? Do calories after 8:00 PM cause weight gain because they aren’t “burned off”? Can obese people be healthy? These are all issues posted and discussed there.
However. Some members wished to express hatred and mockery for the overweight and obese. They desired to cleanse the subreddit of overweight members.
Thus, /r/fatpeoplehate was born.
Chapter II: The Rise
Though it began modestly, over time FPH overtook their originating subreddit. It was revealed that the head mod was a secret fatty, and thus The_Penis_Wizard took command. Another mod was doxxed by an SJW and sent threats. They experienced a renaissance in fat hatred, establishing vernacular including terms like “obeast”, “hamplanet”, and “butter golem”. For themselves, they were “**** lords”. Who did they target? All fat people and fat sympathisers. They established a system of sending pictures to verify their non-fat worth to the mods, after participating for some time, who then gave them a flair next to their username. It didn’t mean anything, but it established a sense of secure, non-fat community. Eventually, around this past December, they started getting enough support to have a post or two appear on /r/all. This lead to a steady increase to over 150,000 subscribers, about 20,000 active posters and 2,000 online at a time.
Chapter III: The Twilight of the Mods
First news came from the CEO Pao that Reddit would be making it a “safe space” and would be cracking down on the worst groups. The mods of FPH saw the writing on the wall and started investigating alternative sites. The mods decided that some of their favourite image submissions would be placed on the sidebar for fun. One time the admins stepped in and removed a photo, but the mods explained that it was a public photo and the admins apologised.
Then images began to be removed from Imgur, the image hosting site that has strong ties with Reddit. The mods were strict in enforcing their rules for removing identifying information, and the system of choice was to use screenshots with blacked out for all submissions. In retaliation, the mods took the staff picture from the Imgur website, which included a number of overweight members and an overweight dog, and added the text that “even the dog is fat”.
In response, the Imgur CEO came to FPH to clarify that Imgur was becoming a social site of its own with its own rules, and it wasn’t targeting FPH but responding to reporting from Imgur users. The CEO was promptly banned for being “potentially fat”. A user then started an approved image hosting site: slimgur.com.
Chapter IV: The Fattening
On 6/11/14, with no warning, Reddit announced it was banning five subreddits for harassment. No evidence was provided. It clarified that it was banning actions, not ideas. It specified that FPH was the only subreddit with over 5,000 subscribers to be banned, something that media repeated which vastly underestimated the size of FPH.
Many users were nonplussed because Reddit didn’t ban the most infamous and most harassing subreddits, including but not limited to:
/r/CuteFemaleCorpses
/r/sexyabortions
/r/coontown
/r/rapingwomen
/r/BurningKids
/r/KotakuInAction
/r/**** RedditSays
Then began a brief time of rebuilding. /r/fatpeoplehate2 and /r/fatpersonhate briefly gained 20,000 subs and flooded /r/all each before being banned. From then on it was a game of creating more and more subreddits, which the admins got better and better at quickly banning. This solidified for the FPH users that they were being targeted for their ideas and not their actions.
Meanwhile, someone had set up /v/fatpeoplehate when Pao’s statements were first made. Voat is a copycat site of Reddit that is based in Switzerland and the owner promised to let people have free speech (of note, the mods of FPH specifically rejected appeals about “free speech” being violated). Unfortunately, for days the site could not handle the load of incoming FPH users. And it soon became clear that, through a request for inactive subverses, an unapproved person gained main control of /v/fatpeoplehate.
Thus while Voat had a lot of attention from refugees, the mods wanted a different solution. The first came from fph.io. A supporter was developing a site and open sourced it. But then the host Heroku was alerted and shut it down for being a hate site, which was against their policy. For extra measure, it was hit with a DDoS attack.
Thus the mods now direct action via an IRC channel. They plan on building a new independent site. The FPH subscribers who flooded Reddit on the first day were dwindled as they were splintered.
Chapter V: A New Hope
So has Reddit won? The problem of FPH spilling over seems to have dissipated. But there is a weakness here as well. First, by relentlessly splintering them the FPH supports were radicalised. They now wish to take action against Reddit, and they have started relations with other hate groups and anti-SJW subreddits on the site. Second, by forcing them to leave Reddit and onto an independent site they pushed them out of Reddit’s control. Now they are free to act how they wish. Their first strategy will be to brigade and upvote the disgusting, racist, etc. sides of Reddit in order to highlight the arbitrariness of their banning as well as hurt Reddit’s image with users and advertisers. Their new site will be limited only by legality, which is potentially worse for everyone, on and off of Reddit.
End Note (I am not a racist!)
I actually frequent /r/fatlogic, as you can guess by my positive description. I started reading FPH because fatlogic sort of stood in the shadow of it and you could always feel its presence. I continued reading it (never subscribed or posted) because it was entertaining and motivating. They really were a delightfully terrible bunch. It was always funny when someone like me would post on there about how much they liked the subreddit for motivation, and they were then immediately banned. It happened quite often and I quite enjoyed it.
Edited by Agatha:
Edited for breaches of rule 10
Last edited by a moderator:
