Episode One Hundred And Forty One – On Rbutr And Reddit – Skepticism Online

Happy International Skepticism Day!

For this episode, I’m talking to Shane Greenup of Rbutr – it’s the full version of the interview you might have already caught part of on The Pod Delusion, Episode #155.

rbutr is a community driven app which creates links between webpages where the content of one page is a rebuttal against another. The content may be directly arguing against the original content, or generally presenting contradictory evidence. App users are alerted when they browse a rebutted page, providing them a link through to the rebuttal(s).

Reddit is often called “The Front Page of the Internet” – it’s a social news website where the registered users submit content, in the form of either a link or a text post. Other users then vote the submission “up” or “down”, which is used to rank the post and determine its position on the site’s pages and front page. There’s a number of sub-reddits, including ones dedicated to atheism and skepticism.

For this interview, I talk to Reddit moderators Joe Fredette (jfredett) and Kyle Vanderbeek (Kylev), on what Reddit involves and some of the preconceptions (and misconceptions) people have about the site. Story discussed during the show -“Sikh woman teaches Reddit a lesson in tolerance“.

This show is available on Zune, mp3 via Libsyn or iTunes. Visit www.tokenskeptic.org – and I’d love to get your feedback at tokenskeptic@gmail.com.

Songs used in this episode: “Had a Plan, Had to Change It” and “Tell Me About Gnomedec” by Derek K Miller of www.penmachine.com. Theme songs are “P&P” by Derek K Miller of www.penmachine.com and “Leap Second” by Milton Mermikides, of www.miltonmermikides.com.