Want to read Reddit but don’t have the time? Our daily Reddit Digest highlights the most interesting or important discussions from around the social news site—every morning.
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Comedy site Something Awful played a big role in pushing Reddit make its big decision on suggestive or sexual images of minors. Last night, forum member attempted to explain the “Reddit bomb” at /r/TheoryOfReddit. A massive discussion ensued. If you don’t have time to read all 500 or so comments, jump straight to the mini-thread launched by Anomander’s comment here. (/r/TheoryOfReddit)
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This essay on Reddit’s “new direction” by Web developer James Bennett has been making the rounds. The takeaway: “Most people who are discussing reddit’s policy change are doing so from an extremely naive, extremely simplified perspective. They’re arguing about things like what’s allowed by US law, or whether a policy is vague, or making broad emotional appeals, or arguing about who’s more offended than whom or suggesting other areas where broad banhammers could be applied or… well, anything that’s (relatively) straightforward and easy, rather than facing the fact that this is a gigantic, complex, scary issue with gigantic, complex, scary consequences no matter what path ends up being taken.” (/r/TrueReddit)
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Hey, look, a nice thing not related to child porn! RedditGifts is launching its second annual book exchange (and a couple other exchanges), this time with a focus on donating books to school children. Ken Jennings even made a video about it. (/r/secretsanta)
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How do lungs heal after you quit smoking? /r/askscience, of course, has the answer, as well some interesting tidbits. First among them: “The British doctors study showed that those who stopped smoking before they reached 30 years of age lived almost as long as those who never smoked.” (/r/askscience)
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Whose Line is it Anyway? star Colin Mochrie took redditors questions yesterday. He signed off with a refreshingly direct promotional plea: “Thanks everyone for the questions. It was fun. Please watch everything I am involved with or just send money.” (/r/IAmA)
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Ever heard of Dwarf Fortress, the most complex, difficult computer game on Earth? It spawns unique passions among its userbase—including, apparently, of the literary sort. (/r/bestof)