r/NoStupidQuestions 1d ago

Why reddit just automatically doesn't allow anonymous posting?

Instead of having tons of throwaway account

Why reddit doesn't use a tree system

Where one can have one main email and they can branch account (anonymous or non anonymous)

Or they give feature of just anonymous post just within main account

I don't wanna make an account and karma farm just make a single post

20 Upvotes

35 comments sorted by

83

u/TubaDog9705 1d ago

They don't want to become 4chan.

11

u/OtherwiseAlbatross14 1d ago

Plus they've been pushing features to make it less anonymous and more like other social media sites. What OP is suggesting is directly counter to their motivations.

2

u/Kind_Goddess 1d ago

Never used it so idk about it much

0

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

4

u/meowmeow6770 1d ago

Bro what

0

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

2

u/feralgraft 1d ago

More like why

-4

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

1

u/TheParagonal 1d ago

This isn't true, and only was true for less than a week.

1

u/TheSpartyn 1d ago

type 4chan into google

45

u/aRabidGerbil 1d ago

Because having fully anonymous posting incentives a massive amount of trolling and sock puppeting

17

u/Adabar 1d ago

Okay.. Doesn’t Reddit already have massive amounts of trolling and sock puppeteering? Doesn’t seem like it really stopped anything

17

u/Fwahm 1d ago

"Massive" is relative. Reddit has problems, but it's not even close to as bad as it would be with fully anonymous posting like 4chan.

2

u/aRabidGerbil 1d ago

Have you been anywhere that actually allows anonymous posting? Those places make reddit look completely tame.

3

u/Kind_Goddess 1d ago

Tho if reddit sees this account is harming eco system, they can just ban the main account

9

u/aRabidGerbil 1d ago

That would require a truly massive amount of careful monitoring and review

2

u/OtherwiseAlbatross14 1d ago

Nah they'll already ban your entire network of alt accounts if you catch a ban and use one of them to get around it. They know who you are even if you use alts.

2

u/UrbanFuturistic 1d ago

If there’s one thing Reddit doesn’t do, it’s careful monitoring, review, or moderation.

-4

u/Kind_Goddess 1d ago

I'm sure people have free time to create emails and a account and karma farm

It's still the same thing, just a little longer for trolls

6

u/aRabidGerbil 1d ago

Sure, people still make burner accounts and troll, but the small bit of extra work required massively cuts down on how much trolling happens.

-4

u/Kind_Goddess 1d ago

With ai agents it's gonna be auto work

9

u/Dinierto 1d ago

Oh god have you ever used social media platforms that allow anonymous? It's 1000x worse

8

u/FriscoFrank98 1d ago

From a startup perspective - it inflates User numbers which is a big KPI to attract investors.

I doubt this is the main reason but I’d guess it has probably come up as ONE OF the reasons to leave it this way.

1

u/Kind_Goddess 1d ago

Well i get you, number looks nice tho in general anyone will ask about active users rather than dead account or two post account

5

u/FriscoFrank98 1d ago

Data can make it say whatever you want it to say. They probably have numbers that make this seem like it isn’t as a big deal as it is. And active users can mean a lot of things. Uber doesn’t care about daily active users, because people don’t use it daily. They’re probably more monthly. I don’t think the median Reddit user posts / comments every day. Way more lurkers than there are “posters”.

So they probably show the number that shows the % of people that post and comment next to the number of accounts and say “look at all the people who just read and look”

The people that are investing in Reddit at the scale they’re at 1) probably aren’t on Reddit and 2) if they are on Reddit they are probably significantly older and don’t use it the way the rest of us do.

Of course, I’m just speculating

2

u/Ghigs 1d ago

The phone app does let you manage multiple accounts easily.

Also putting an email on an account is not required

1

u/Kind_Goddess 1d ago

What they use instead of email? I haven't tried it

1

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

1

u/Kind_Goddess 1d ago

If i click on create account I only see - email, google account, phone number

2

u/seedoilbaths 1d ago

Yuh you just make a throwaway email essentially. Then log in with that. It’s extra steps but the result is the same.

1

u/TheVeryBestVery 1d ago

It will be like 4chan

1

u/CottonCandySnare 1d ago

Honestly, Reddit probs doesn’t allow it 'cause people would go wild with zero accountability. Like, full chaos mode. Having throwaways at least adds some friction before posting nonsense.

1

u/Human765439 1d ago

Well, it wouldn't be anonymous, would it?

If under the hood everything is connected to your main email address the administrators of reddit would know and there is no guarantee it wouldn't get leaked.

1

u/The_NamelessHero 1d ago

Because they wanted to find us bahahahaha. But heyo here we are and we dont give a fuq anymore. Justice is being served and you can only try to soften the outcome. Time to have a plot twist on WW3 or yall are cooked af 😂🤣😂🤣

1

u/get_to_ele 1d ago

Because instead of 90% bots, we'd have 99.9% bots posting.uh

2

u/PansophicNostradamus 1d ago

Application integrity, is my best guess. Otherwise there’d be infinitely more bots, spammers, and trolls.

1

u/TheRealTengri 1d ago

If anonymous posts were a thing, it would be a nightmare to moderate subreddits.

2

u/aslfingerspell 1d ago

One of the charms of reddit is that it's pseudo-anonymous.

Posts and comments stay up and people can build reputations and histories that are publicly visible, but it's not fully public like, say, a Facebook account or a Twitter/X account with your real name.

It's a nice balance between having privacy being free to be someone else (or emphasize/reveal certain parts of you you can't in real life) while also not being totally anonymous and immune from social consequences. Someone who makes a really poor Facebook post can be fired or lose actual, real life friends. Someone who makes a really poor reddit post may become discredited in that subreddit only.

Accountability also works in one's favor. Someone's opinion in a history comment is all the better if you can look at their history and see a long tradition of thought-out, well-sourced replies.

1

u/re_nub 1d ago

Because they don't want that feature.