u/SassyFindomKitten

So has anyone else noticed how much harder it’s gotten for genuine new users to actually get started here? How do you think Reddit could fix the onboarding process without opening the floodgates to bots?

The original point of the voting system was pretty straightforward: upvote stuff that contributes to the discussion, downvote spam, scams, or blatant rule-breaking. Disagreeing with someone wasn't supposed to be a downvote reason but over time, that’s completely shifted. Votes are basically just an agree/disagree button now, and because your ability to actually participate in most subs is tied directly to your karma, it creates a weird dynamic for anyone with a new account.... i think it's mainly due to reddits LACK of information behind this because they assumed it SHOULD have been self explanatory. There's only ONE small section that's HARD to find that explains exactly what the voting system is about. I've even HAD TO ARGUE WITH DOZENS OF PEOPLE that swore I was stupid and didn't know what the hell I'm talkin about - INCLUDING MULTIPLE MODERATORS WHO WERE ALSO VIOLATING ALMOST EVERY MOD RULE AND ABUSING THEIR POWER IN A WAY THAT ENABLES AND ENCOURAGES AND REWARDS THIS EXACT SAME BAD BEHAVIOR WHILE PUNISHING THOSE SHOWING THE PROPER BEHAVIOR, WHICH THEY ALSO ARGUED - until I showed them that page to prove it... which is exactly why accounts that are actually BOTS or doing the OPPOSITE behavior as they intended for the karma system to portray are basically the majority of redditors that are able to freely use reddit as they please.... while REPEATED admin reports about BOTH of these behaviors remain unanswered for months and years, which ALSO contributes to this.

​A lot of subreddits set karma and account age minimums. It makes sense on paper but in all reality all itndoes is it lock new users out of standard discussions. If you're new, you end up forced into a handful of low-barrier subs just to get enough karma to participate elsewhere.

....which leads me to the next problem. The problem is those open subs are often filled with low-effort posts or hivemind mentalities where saying the slightly wrong thing or asking a basic question gets you downvoted into negative numbers. Once your karma goes negative, AutoMod auto-removes your posts in most places, and you're pretty much stuck.

​Even trying to build karma normally by posting good content in open groups gets people flagged or accused of karma farming. It creates this weird paradox where to gain access to normal spaces, you almost have to act like a troll or just post effortless crowd-pleasing memes instead of engaging genuinely

​A lot of older accounts say "we all had to earn it," but the platform isn't the same as it was 5 or 10 years ago. Back then, you could drop into small communities, comment normally, and build a profile without running into aggressive AutoMod filters, karma walls, or mass-downvote bots. The onboarding experience now is night and day compared to how it used to be.

​It feels like relying purely on an easily manipulated downvote counter isn't a great way to judge whether an account is real or posting in good faith. Account standing would probably make more sense if it was judged on actual rule adherence, account verification, and behavior history rather than whether a specific thread liked your opinion???? I've experienced this EXACT issue for YEARS where content that should've been downvoted and removed actually gets MASS UPVOTED despite meeting EVERY SINGLE CRITERIA for downvoting, being removed, suspended or banned from the group or even from REDDIT.... while content that should've NEVER been downvoted because it didn't meet the criteria gets MASS DOWNVOTED, REMOVED BY MODS, THEIR ACCOUNT SUSPENDED OR BANNED AND MORE while those that SHOULD'VE had that done to them? Receive THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE... especially if a mod does or doesn't like you or you do or don't stroke their ego... don't even THINK about correcting them or embarrassing them, either... theyll get you SHADOW BANNED COMPLETELY....

I'm GENUINELY curious? I'm literally going out of my way to ask this right now SOLELY because I'm sincerely struggling to grasp the logic here....

So here's the situation: I had the NERVE AND ***AUDACITY*** to post something that ACTUALLY followed the group rules, stayed COMPLETELY on topic, and used PROPER grammar & fluently articulated English.... but APPARENTLY I must have missed the memo about how expressing thoughts and speaking/typing on posts like, oh IDK..... AN EDUCATED ADULT WHO ENJOYS WRITING (ya know, instead of VIOLENTLY MASHING MY FUCKIN FACE repeatedly against the screen of my phone and just going with the first words that autocorrect manages to come up with then from there deciding the BEST form of action is to randomly start selecting the word i like the most out of the predict text options in order to form all of my damn sentences like the MAJORITY of redditors seem to do... I can't decipher whether these people are on them spectrum or just a MASSIVE community of VERY angry and severely uneducated preteens that dropped out in the third grade and have a tendency to project their own insecurities onto complete strangers on the internet solely because they're too cowardly and spineless to EVEN CONSIDER conducting themselves like that online with ANYONE they know in person - much less FACE TO FACE..... especially seeing as these SAME exact people ALSO tried to INACCURATELY correct my FACTUAL, EVIDENCE BASED AND SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN information and statements with their misconception-based OPINIONS solely because they didnt LIKE the fact I made a post that was constructed PROPERLY in the ACCURATE subreddit and were DEAD SET on trying to prove i was a BOT or it was AI GENERATED context?.... one even tried to say the post included a symbol that "only AI uses" even though it DEFINITELY was NOT EVEN REMOTELY located ANYWHERE in the post?... so I'm PRETTY sure that is all I need to say about the kind of humans I'm referring to...) AUTOMATICALLY means I'm CLEARLY using AI and/or a BOT attempting to karma farm for internet kudos.....?

Someone PLEASE explain this to me..... When the HELL did communicating with CLEAR, ARTICULATE ENGLISH become SUSPICIOUS? And when did using subreddits as they were INTENDED to be used for become considered KARMA FARMING?....

Are people TRULY so convinced that NO HUMAN BEING could POSSIBLY be capable of articulating a CLEAR PARAGRAPH consistent of FULL, PROPERLY CONSTRUCTED SENTENCES? It's concerning that an ENTIRE GROUP OF PEOPLE accused me of this because I can construct sentences properly?....

While modern speakers associate the word COCK strictly with male anatomy, it actually had a long history of being used to describe female genitalia, specifically as slang for the clitoris or vulva. The word originally comes from the Old English term for a male bird, which later morphed into a general term for a spout, tap, or valve that controls liquid flow. Because of that association with spouts and small protrusions, eighteenth and nineteenth century slang dictionaries, like Francis Grose's 1785 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, explicitly document regional uses where cock meant the clitoris, or served as general slang for female anatomy in phrases like cock lane. It was only as modern taboos standardized anatomical slang that the word became almost exclusively male.

As for the word PUSSY, it actually started out as an affectionate pet name for a cat, coming from old Low German or Old Norse words for felines. By the 1500s, people started using it as a term of endearment for young women or girls in a similar way to how someone might say kitty today. It was not until the late 1700s that the word shifted from a sweet nickname for a person into explicit slang for female anatomy, heavily driven by the mental association with softness, warmth, and fur.

The word DICK followed a similar path of taking a completely normal name and turning it into anatomy. It started as a basic rhyming nickname for Richard back in the Middle Ages, right alongside other common nicknames like Hick and Rick. By the 1500s and 1600s, people were using Dick as a generic placeholder name for any regular guy, pretty much the same way we use terms like jack or guy today. By the mid 1800s, that generic reference for a man eventually morphed into explicit slang for the penis through simple personification.

BUT WAY BEFORE THAT? People used a completely different set of terms!

In the Old English and medieval eras, the standard coarse word for female genitalia was actually cunt, which was not considered nearly as severe or taboo back then as it is today and even showed up routinely in official medieval street names like Gropecunt Lane in London.

For male anatomy, people during that time usually relied on words like prick, referring to a sharp point or stake, or yard, which came from the Old English word for a rod or measuring stick.

Moving into the 1500s through the 1700s, everyday slang shifted toward terms like quim or cuny for women, while men were described with terms like pizzle, which originally referred to an animal's penis, as well as weapon, member, or taper!

​We all know English is a chaotic mess, but the wild phenomenon of "semantic bleaching" and full-on word reversals takes the cake. Some of our most common words mean the total opposite of their original definitions because people couldn't stop using them sarcastically, incorrectly, or metaphorically until the dictionary just gave up.

​FOR EXAMPLE, HERE ARE SOME OF THE MOST MIND BLOWING HISTORICAL FLIPS

​Nimrod

Originally meant a legendary, highly skilled hunter (referencing the biblical figure Nimrod). It turned into an insult meaning "idiot" entirely because Bugs Bunny used it sarcastically to mock Elmer Fudd, and an entire generation of kids didn't catch the sarcasm.

​Egregious

Traces back to the Latin egregius, literally meaning "standing out from the herd" as an exceptionally great or distinguished thing. People started using it sarcastically to mock terrible things, the sarcasm permanently stuck, and now it exclusively means outrageously awful.

​Terrific

Stems directly from the Latin terrere (to fill with terror). In the 1600s, a "terrific" event was a horrifying tragedy that left you screaming in fear. By the mid-1900s, it completely flipped into meaning fantastic or amazing.

​Prestigious

Comes from the Latin praestigiae, which meant jugglers' tricks, sleight of hand, or outright deceit. Calling someone "prestigious" used to mean calling them a literal scam artist or cheap trickster. Today, it denotes elite honor and respect.

​Girl

In Middle English, "girl" (or gyrle) didn't specify gender at all. It was a completely neutral word for any young child. Boys were called "knave girls" and girls were called "gay girls."

​Awesome

Originally reserved for terrifying acts of God, overwhelming dread, or horrific natural disasters that left you paralyzed with fear. Today, it means a slice of pizza tastes good.

​Artificial

Started out as a high compliment meaning something was skillfully crafted by a master human artist (full of art). Over time, it shifted to imply something is a cheap, fake, or synthetic imitation.

​Silly

Derived from the Old English sælig, meaning holy, blessed, or innocent. It degraded over centuries from holy to innocent, innocent to helpless, helpless to ignorant, and finally to foolish.

#SO..... HERE'S MY QUESTIONS:

1. ​What are some other words you can think of that somehow managed to pull a TOTAL 180 over time?

2. What modern slang words do you think are in the middle of flipping right now?