Forums / Discussion / Serious Debate

So I've been thinking about mentioning this for a while, and this forum seems quite level headed so I might as well bring it up and see what people think.

I don't know if any of you guys follow Know Your Meme's Facebook page, but lately it seems to be getting more and more mean-spirited and polarized. Like, obviously the comments sections are going to be mostly this unless you spend a ton of time moderating it, but the troubling thing is that it seems to be being encouraged by KYM itself. I've frequently seen things shared that support a particular side of a controversy or make fun of a certain group, seemingly with the intent of driving up a circlejerk, and if anyone disagrees then they're insulted by other posters, and on at least one occasion I've seen, by KYM itself.

This isn't intended to be an attack on whoever's running the page, I'm sure it's not a particularly exciting job and they felt like having a bit of fun with it. But as I understand it, KYM is supposed to be first at least trying to be a reasonably neutral and objective source on Internet culture, and secondly a good place for people to discuss it. If the face of KYM is pretty much explicitly supporting one side and belittling people it disagrees with, that's not going to do much for its reputation as a source or encourage people with varying opinions to follow it, nor is it going to foster a good community.

One might say I'm giving criticism about this because the stance KYM's page is taking differs to my own, and maybe that's why it's stuck out to me, but I'd hope if the situation was reversed and KYM was explicitly supporting my side of the issue I'd also have a problem with it for the same reasons – I've no doubt others would. At the end of the day, it doesn't really affect me one way or the other, but I do like KYM as a mission and a site (I don't know why else I'd still be here after four years) and it's a shame to see it being represented like this.

Yeah, a lot of FB pages for sites, games, and other stuff are polarized and negative. At least the FB comments on KYM are not that bad as they used to be. It would be great if we can appoint a KYM member as some FB moderator for both the page and comment sections.

I’ve frequently seen things shared that support a particular side of a controversy or make fun of a certain group, seemingly with the intent of driving up a circlejerk, and if anyone disagrees then they’re insulted by other posters, and on at least one occasion I’ve seen, by KYM itself.

Wait, what? Do you have a screencap of that?

Sadly no – should have thought of that at the time. I've just been trying to find it but it was too far back and my Facebook gave up. I believe it was that video with the red-haired feminist protestor, some guy posted an argument in the comments that disagreed with the majority anti-feminist opinion and KYM responded with this video.

I did find this, though, which is kinda similar, although obviously not as blatant:

New example; KYM shared this image macro about the Ferguson riots. This in and of itself is kinda the sort of polarized circlejerk inciting I was criticizing before, but also when someone disagreed with what was posted, KYM began arguing with him in the comments about it.

I haven't done much research into the Michael Brown shooting personally, so I'm not going to comment on the veracity of what they were saying, but IMO (and people in the comments appear to agree with me) it's a bit inappropriate for the public face of KYM to be promoting and arguing for a particular stance on a controversy, that the site is supposed to be trying to cover neutrally and objectively. If KYM does have an official stance on issues like this, perhaps that should be made clear from the outset.

Well… who the hell runs the KYM Facebook account? Does anybody know? If we do know, then why not contact them directly?

Another example of the page sharing a one-sided and inflammatory picture, this time something which multiple users both here and on Facebook have pointed out is a strawman.

Well… who the hell runs the KYM Facebook account? Does anybody know? If we do know, then why not contact them directly?

I've no idea, and tbh I have my doubts that they'd listen if I did try to contact them directly. I thought posting here was probably the best way of doing something about it.

Could it be that the image was shared not because it was one-sided but because of the different reactions it triggered in the KYM gallery and now on the Facebook page?
Same for the Ferguson picture?

Remember that images uploaded to Facebook are trending images and these ones were for a while.

Then why was KYM arguing in favour of one particular reaction in the comments?

Relevant, this video was shared a couple of days ago. Again, promoting a particular point of view (that's consistent with the point of view that's being promoted previously), and at the time of sharing had zero comments on the site.

Additionally, the video in question has ~60,000 YouTube views at the time of posting, whereas this video with an opposing viewpoint in the same gallery that has ~800,000 YouTube views at the time of posting, was not shared.

Your example is a parody of Feminist Frequency (KYM loves to highlight parodies), but I agree that it lacks a bit of uploads from opposing views to the Facebook page.

Here, I am the one who come here to emphasize on what I think is now becoming problematic with this upload.
KYM Staff, what's going on? Even the commenters seem to agree that it's getting a bit overboard with the SJW bashing.

I'm surprised it's not just a bot. Perhaps a bot would do a better job of managing the page in keeping things objective and effectively democratizing the Facebook posts by letting the users pick what content trends. It would also eliminate the problem of the page responding to comments. There is no excuse to use the power of a major Facebook page for a site whose goal is to remain objective in documenting internet culture to belittle or alienate people based on personal bias.

Bottom line, someone needs to look into this.

Ok, to come back on all of this, we have to analyze the problem on a case-by-case basis.
The first image Twee linked to is actually a Gurren Lagann joke. Both Kamina Glasses and Trigger as a reference to Studio Trigger (which features Hiroyuki Imaishi, creator of Gurren Lagann, as co-founder). So, in THIS peculiar instance, it's just a light joke KYM is allowed to make.

For the other instances, we are currently investigating them.

Tomberry and I are attempting to sort this out in the mod forum at the moment. Turns out that the page is run by Don in the morning and by James otherwise. James was the one who made the glasses joke and got into the argument over Michael Brown; he is currently defending his actions by asserting that he was simply issuing factual corrections. We'll see.

I want to question the purpose of the page itself. Outside of telling you what's currently being researched, it seems pointless. It just posts random pictures and videos. Surely there is a better purpose for it anyway, maybe by posting more site news or promoting discussion in KYM itself. It would easily solve the bias problem if it wasn't just 2 people posting things.

> I want to question the purpose of the page itself.

Facebook is the largest source of referral traffic to the site by a gigantic margin.

That's not a purpose, that's a statistic.

But I see your point, but I'm not saying get rid of the page or anything. I just think the stuff on KYM people are referred to could be more then just "caption this image", "here's a video." and "we're now researching."

That’s not a purpose, that’s a statistic.

…the purpose is to drive traffic to the site. That's pretty much what all Facebook pages for sites are created for.

I've removed the post in question. If there is an issue with FB posts in the future, please direct any concerns to me. Locking this thread.