By Kelly Faircloth 6/10 1:50pm

Vile

And their web design is stomach-turningly bad, too. (Photo: screencap)

Tumblr Has Its Very Own Hub for Creepshots

Hey, ladies! Had you considered dashing out to the Starbucks on the corner, or perhaps making a quick trip to the gym? Well, here comes a bit of news that’ll make you want to lock yourself in your apartment until Judgement Day. Just don’t sign on to the Internet, because you aren’t safe there, either.

Months after the frenzy over Reddit’s r/creepshots, Jezebel has uncovered creepshots.tumblr.com, which has been around since April 2011. The site’s about page explains: “”What is a ‘CreepShot’ you ask? Easy. Creepshots are CANDID pictures. If a person is posing or aware that a picture is being taken, then it is no longer a creepshot.” (Also: “Major fan of Howard Stern and the Crew,” which pretty much figures.) Read More

By Jessica Roy 2/11 1:41pm

Planet Reddit

(Photo: Imgur)

Doppelbangher Subreddit Lets Users Submit Porn Star Lookalikes for Women They Know

It’s no secret that Reddit, the link-sharing site that members tout as a bastion of free speech and creativity, also serves as a seedy showcase of the sexism, racism and misogyny that’s always existed on the web. Reddit has a long history of publicly grappling with its dueling reputations: on the surface, it’s a knowledge-sharing platform that even the President has deemed worthy of his presence.

But the site has also battled to suppress some of its more hateful communities while toeing the free speech party line. Last year’s Violentacrez scandal, in which Gawker outed one of the site’s most notorious trolls for moderating the controversial subreddits r/Jailbait and r/Creepshots, exposed much of what Reddit admins gloss over in favor of inspiring “free and open Internet” rhetoric. In short: Reddit, much like a lot of the Internet, is still a pretty difficult place to be a woman. Read More

By Jessica Roy 10/24/12 9:47am

They're Watching

(Photo: Styleblaster)

Designer Behind Williamsburg SpyCam ‘Styleblaster’ Insists It’s Not the Hipster Creepshots

In an effort to catalog the underappreciated diversity of style in gentrified Williamsburg, a team of Brooklyn technologists has set up a camera outside their apartment that records the street stylings of passersby and posts the images online. But if passersbys don’t want to be recorded, they’re kind of out of luck.

The site, called Styleblaster, aims to “become a destination for New York City peacocks to traipse by and show off what makes the neighborhood hop.” Using a camera perched a block from the Bedford Ave. L train, the site captures and immediately uploads images of Brooklynites walking by in real time. Users can then click a tophat to signal whether or not the subject is “stylin’.” Read More

By Jessica Roy 10/16/12 11:24pm

Internet Drama

(Photo: Reddit)

Reddit CEO in Memo Leaked to Gawker: ‘We Are Not Going to Ban Distasteful Subreddits’

As the story of notorious Reddit user Violentacrez and the controversial subreddits he moderated sinks its tentacles into the greater internet, Reddit administrators–known for their laissez-faire attitude toward site moderation–have remained astonishingly mum. In conversations with Betabeat, Reddit general manager Erik Martin gave little indication as to how Reddit intends to handle the Violentacrez and Creepshots fracas, except to admit that two of the subreddits had been banned by admins.

But a thread published by Reddit CEO Yishan Wong, posted to a private subreddit for moderators and obtained by Gawker, sheds some light on Reddit’s intentions toward the controversial content on its platform: Read More

By Jessica Roy 10/16/12 5:44pm

Internet Drama

(Photo: Reddit)

Creepshots Reemerges Under the Guise of a ‘Fashion Police’ Subreddit

The creeps just can’t be held down. Jezebel reports that the subreddit Creepshots–which has been at the forefront of controversy recently and helped spur a war between Gawker Media and Reddit–is back in action.

The original Creepshots subreddit was banned by Reddit administrators last week, along with “Creepsquad,” a new subreddit which had popped up to collect Creepshots refugees. In an attempt to retaliate against Jezebel for posting the original feature about Creepshots, Creepsquad posted a photo of Jezebel writer Katie J.M. Baker to its front page.

Reddit general manager Erik Martin confirmed to Betabeat that Creepsquad was banned by Reddit administrators, but did not elaborate as to why. Typically, subreddits are only banned if they break one of Reddit’s five rules.

Having been ousted from Creepshots and Creepsquad, Redditors are now collecting in r/Cshots and r/CandidFashionPolice, invoking the term “candid” to justify the photos posted in these forums without the consent of the women featured in them. Read More

By Jessica Roy 10/16/12 3:30pm

Internet Drama

(Screengrab: Predditors)

Predditors, the Controversial Blog Publishing Personal Info About Redditors Behind Creepshots, is Back up and Running

Predditors, the Tumblr that posts the personal information of Reddit users who publish photos to the controversial subreddit Creepshots, is back up and running after a tumultuous few days. The blog was initially removed by Tumblr after administrators there mistakenly believed that the information being published was personal information. In fact, the author of Predditors is simply stringing together information available on public profiles posted by the users. Read More

By Jessica Roy 10/11/12 8:41pm

Internet Drama

(Photo: Reddit)

Reddit Bans Creepshots and Creepsquad, the Subreddits That Fueled Its ‘War’ With Gawker

For the last few hours, the controversial subreddit Creepshots–which is at the center of an “inter-website war” over photos users published of non-consenting women–has been inaccessible.

The message “This subreddit has been banned” is affixed front and center. The banned page notes that the subreddit may have been caught in the site’s spam filter, but Reddit general manager Erik Martin confirmed to Betabeat that a moderator from Creepshots asked an admin to ban the subreddit. Read More

By Jessica Roy 10/11/12 10:18am

Internet Drama

(Photo: Says-it.com)

Reddit Readies for Brewing ‘Inter-Website War’; Major Subreddits Ban Links to Gawker Media

If websites are one big dysfunctional family, Reddit and Gawker Media are the two drunken uncles who can’t stop fighting over who has to pick grandpa up at the airport. Now, the two sites are preparing for a grueling “inter-website war” that threatens to rob netizens of wifi packet rations and provide hours of popcorn-eating fodder.

After news broke on Reddit that Gawker writer Adrian Chen was preparing to publish a post revealing the personal information of Reddit user Violentacrez, a moderator of the controversial subreddit r/creepshots, Reddit began to batten down the hatches. The politics subreddit, which boasts almost 2 million subscribers, announced that it will ban all links to Gawker Media properties–including Gawker, Jezebel and Lifehacker–in response to the news that Mr. Chen may be preparing to publish personal details about Violentacruz. Read More