[namaemuta]

> Nunberg can see how scrolling through AITA might be a “stupendous timewaster,” but he believes the sub has the potential to do some good in the world

I hardly believe so. Reddit is an echo chamber by itself and people's judgment there is way far from perfect. In this subreddit you can see a similar effect than the "fake news" one: present an emotional scenario in which you look like the victim, no matter what you do, and the majority will get on your side. That's why you need to hear all the parties involved in a conflict resolution, otherwise you can be easily manipulated.

[sowbug]

present an emotional scenario in which you look like the victim, no matter what you do, and the majority will get on your side

That is in some ways the point of the subreddit. Many people are acting rationally, if not reasonably, from the facts and mental state available to them. And whoever was making them feel like a jerk and driving them to the site to get a second opinion either couldn't or didn't accept that second set of facts and mental state.

But sometimes even if you tell the story from your own perspective, you're still an asshole. Witness the large number of YTA resolutions: those were people who told their own side of the story and still had the angry mob come after them. The subreddit can't resolve all disputes, but it can identify those cases.

[austincheney]

> That is in some ways the point of the subreddit. Many people are acting rationally, if not reasonably

I think you are mistaking commonality for rationality. That by no means sounds rational.

It is this sort acceptance and worship of echo chamber nonsense that I deleted my Reddit account. If I enjoyed being called names or slapped in the face by ignorant fools I would go work in a child day care or with developers too scared to death to read code in their primary language.

[azhu]

He's saying that at times the point is to demonstrate to an opponent that your side of an emotional narrative makes sense to broad numbers of others. Just about everyone is rational according to their own systems of reasoning, and it's the reconciliation of those oftentimes implicit systems that the subreddit is about.

[onion2k]

I don't think the point of AITA is conflict resolution. On most of the internet people aren't really looking for the answer to a problem. They're reaching out for emotional support, human connection, and a little encouragement that they're not doing everything wrong. Part of the problem with the way many 'technically-minded' people act online is that they don't realise other people are perfectly capable of Googling the answer to a problem but they don't actually want the answer; they want something else.

[prepend]

Many years ago I was a fan of /r/personalfinance. To learn a bit but I also missed out on finance advice as a kid and wished that I had some good input, so figured I might be able to help.

But the sub spiraled into emotional stories about why people were so bad off and looking for comfort. Not that that is a bad thing, but a very different content than people looking for finance advice. Since the stories were one sided, it became hard to get useful insight out of it other than just be thankful to be fortunate.

I get the sense that some people are sympathy trolling for fake internet points, but it’s not really possible to tell one way or the other.

So I just don’t read the sub any longer.

[lasagnaphil]

At least with Reddit, you get to choose your own echo-chamber by subscribing to subreddits. For some other sites such as Facebook and Twitter, you aren't even sure what echo-chamber the all-mighty "algorithm" is guiding you.

I think the best way to enjoy Reddit is to first unsubscribe to all the default ones (I did this with the exception of /r/Art), and then pick really niche subreddits that you want to be a part of, not the general big ones that usually has the shortcomings that you've mentioned.

[macspoofing]

>no matter what you do, and the majority will get on your side.

I think you're overstating it with regards to the specific subreddit, but I take your point in the general case. Most (if not all) recent internet outrage mobs are driven by only taking one side of the equation and sometimes taking the word of the singular individual as gospel, even though the vast majority of cases are more nuanced.