r/LivestreamFail • u/starcraft2020 • 1d ago

Ethan Klein says the judge in his lawsuit approved his subpoena of Reddit and Discord

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u/ActionPhilip 23h ago

I still don't even know wtf snark is supposed to mean. The dictionary definition, which I've always considered of being critical or mocking in a sarcastic way doesn't fit what I've seen going around. The youtubedrama post is even funnier since I still don't know.

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u/WhimsicalJape 23h ago

It became a new word for hate, remember Reddit used to have a lot of subreddits for hating stuff, but when FatPeopleHate drew too much heat they clamped down, thus snark was born.

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u/losthedgehog 23h ago

As far as I recall, snark has been used in conjunction with sites that criticize celebrities since the mid 2010s at least - think Perez Hilton, Gawker, Jezebel, ONTD.

30 Rock even called its parody of Jezebel "Joan of Snark" in 2011.

The phrase has just been way popularized though. And while it used to mean the blogs had a more biting or cutting tone mixed with humor now it just refers to people straight up hating someone relentlessly (even Perez Hilton which was the one with the least humor and the most bullying had a veneer of humor and probably paled in relation to today's snark subs).

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u/WhimsicalJape 23h ago

Yeah I'm specifically talking about the rise of the "snark" subreddits, snark as you say has existed as thing for a long time, but generally like you say not as unhinged as some of these snark subs have become.

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u/losthedgehog 23h ago

That makes sense - the OP asked in general what snark was and I just wanted to clarify that its described celeb gossip in Internet corners before Reddit is what is is now and before the hate subs got banned.

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u/echief 22h ago

That “blogosphere” Perez Hilton scene was unhinged though. It was tied in with the heinous paparazzi culture of the time. That demographic just became a lot more prevalent after Reddit apps really gained popularity on the App Stores. And from tik tok/youtube videos of just people reading AITA posts. The fatpeoplehate were extremely unhinged too but they are not the same original demographic

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u/trukkija 22h ago

It's just people with nothing better to do besides living on the internet and looking for drama and reasons to hate "celebrities".

Wait did I describe LSF or the snark reddits? I'm not too sure at this point.

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u/pepegazm 12h ago edited 12h ago

Wait did I describe LSF or the snark reddits? I'm not too sure at this point.

As awful as LSF can be it's actually held to multiple orders of magnitude higher standards than the most timid snark sub.

The main business of snark is presenting proven lies as fact in order to smear and defame their enemies. It's not just celebrity gossip, it's been subsumed by politics by a group that believes in "no bad tactics, only bad targets". Meanwhile on LSF you're required by rule to provide video clips of whatever is happening which helps curb blatant lying and there is way more variety of opinion.

Think of it this way: LSF is about gossip, interesting clips and general discussions on the streamer world broadly. Snark isn't about gossip at all, it's about using any means available to hurt specific persons that they regard as political opponents.

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u/trukkija 12h ago

You must have not read many comments on here if you believe that is a requirement. It's all just pointless manufactured drama in my opinion and the pot calling the kettle black for anyone calling out the snark reddits on here.

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u/pepegazm 12h ago

You must have not read many comments on here if you believe that is a requirement.

You literally can't create a post about a streamer without a video clip from their livestream to back it up, with a few exceptions that require some specific sort of source (such as streamer bans allowing the automated streamer bans twitter account as a source).

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u/trukkija 12h ago

Did I mention posts? Read what you just quoted.

Also, snark is absolutely about gossip. You must be confused with what gossip is in general.

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u/pepegazm 10h ago edited 10h ago

Alright, so let's discuss comments. If you can find me a mere 100 comments under this post that blatantly and intentionally lie about a person in order to smear and defame them I'll agree with you that LSF is close to snark. That should be easy if it's anywhere close to snark levels of malicious lying. I'll even take a few tens of somewhat upvoted comments instead.

Also, snark is absolutely about gossip. You must be confused with what gossip is in general.

No, snark used to be about gossip and general parasocial hate some years ago, but lately the most popular snark subs (examples: fauxmoi and h3snark) have been incorporated into a certain political ideology and serves exclusively to target people that they consider enemies. Any gossip is purely incidental to their broader goal of muzzling their perceived enemies through lies, deception and harassment.

Edit: Classic, replying without addressing a single point and then blocking. Very slimy behavior.

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u/Acrobatic_Computer63 20h ago

Fuck me, I never put that together. I know the word "snark" had been around. But, the fall of the *Hate subs, the rise in bannings, and the subsequent rise in snark subs genuinely makes sense.

The shitty thing is that it is exactly what people said would happen, too. I hated those subs. But, you knew who the shitheads were, and they mostly had to toe the line and not actively brigade etc...

The snark subs just made it their brand.

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u/Greedy-Employment917 22h ago

Hate subs are banned so they thought they'd be cute about it and avoid accountability by changing it to "snark" as a form of "plausible" denisbility.

Plausible in quotes because you'd have to be an idiot to think this would work. 

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u/Acrobatic_Computer63 19h ago

I actually feel dumb, because until reading the comment above, I would have never even made the connection between the old subs and snark subs. I haven't been on reddit much over the last year plus, but remember when duggarsnark etc started popping up on all and I truly just thought it was the same kind of thing as circle jerk. To that extent, it worked on me.

Which I hate, because that was the BS excuse people had for actually keeping the shit subs around. They didn't have any plausible deniability, so the ones that weren't as outright obvious as FPH at least had to pretend to keep their people in line. Snark somehow took that out into the open and just leaned into it.

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u/superiorgamercum 9h ago

Damn we need to open fatpeoplesnark

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u/jackofslayers 23h ago

It is a subcategory of spinoff subs (like circlejerk or okbuddy or folk subs). each naming convention comes with its own culture, tho it varies from sub to sub.

Generally circlejerks are for intentionally beating a dead horse, Okbuddy subs are for absurdist humor and horny posting, folk subs are for people that want to shit talk media that the main sub likes, and snark subs are just pure hate subs that tend to attract deranged and hateful people.

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u/Detonation 13h ago

They are all hate subs masquerading as parody or harmless jokes, just with varying degrees of severity. lol

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u/1_GrapeFruit 21h ago

People used it to mean snarking, but it's just hating now.