What's with all the new “hot or not” style subreddits showing up?

That'd be interesting to find out. Have you contacted anybody? Couldn't hurt to ask.

A lot of ratings-attracted people really are under the impression that a) third-party ratings are super helpful/crucial, and b) you can get some improved-objectivity from subjective feedback in the right circumstances. But you have to kind of shape the circumstances (rules/mods)

There's also the fact that a lot of commenters and posters are clearly coming from another zone, so to speak. They are feeling bad, and want others to feel bad, and so on.

So, you can get these really peculiar / odd rules & moderation frameworks in similar cases. Which make sense in context.

But yeah, it'd be interesting to know about the history or context.

I feel like I just saw a news headline about this too. Wouldn't surprise me if there was an organized push coming from somewhere. It does seem like the faces + comments would be a good dataset.

I don’t know. At least for men, you can tell just by walking into a coffee shop. It’s the difference between the barista greeting you with a smile or a frown.

Are these new? I’ve heard of a few for at least a couple for several years now. Isn’t r/TrueRateMe where they do that incel phrenology shit?

I think it's a way to greet newcomers. Reddit just lost of bunch of long-term users, so they've got to attract new people with gimmicks like "hot or not".

I've noticed those threads get pretty sexist/racist quickly too, and doesn't appear to be moderated the same way that established subs are.

it’s cause they don’t include porn in the public feeds anymore but hey what do you know it still brings the traffic! so pg chic pics get bubbled up.

YouTube actually started as a HotOrNot clone that was going to use video clips instead of images.

Facebook started with a HotOrNot-like site as well.

The so-called "tech" companies are getting desperate. How to get peoples' attention.