5 ms·

I'm always amazed at how different /r/SpaceX and /r/Tesla are from the rest of Reddit.

by H4CK3RM4N 10y ago

nickik 10y ago
There is lots of stuff on reddit. I would not call either of those very out of the norm.
- jessriedel 10y ago
  Sure there are other good subreddit, but at the level of r/SpaceX? Very curious what those would be.
  - brianwawok 10y ago
    Any deep topic. For example advancedrunning has pro level runners and coaches. Many very niche rabbit holes there..
    - jessriedel 10y ago
      A random niche topic is less terrible than r/all, but it is not close to the quality of r/spacex. What specific subreddit reach this level of quality?
      - brianwawok 10y ago
        What are you using to judge the quality of the sub? I can name many subs that attract some of the top members in the world in that field. If you are fascinated by rocketry, then yes /r/spacex is going to really impress you. There are knitting subs attended by the top knitters in the world that write the knitting books everyone else uses. But I think it less likely to impress you if you don't value knitting as a skill, like you value rocketships.
        jessriedel 10y ago
        I judge the quality of the subreddit by the signal-to-noise ratio for posts, by the insight and intelligence of the comments, and by the extent to which is provides content that cannot be found through simple googling. Most knitting subreddits do not have this. Again, do you have specific examples? I don't know why you think my opinion of r/SpaceX is driven by some obsession with rocketry. I am much less interested in SpaceX than in a dozen other hobby topics, but that subreddit stands out in the objective quality of the moderation and community. Likewise, HackerNews is one of the higher quality places for discussion on the internet even though I do very little programing.
    - fennecfoxen 10y ago
      The deeper, the better. For instance, post-2011 magical girl anime subreddits like https://reddit.com/r/madokamagica https://reddit.com/r/madokamagica have nothing on post-2011 magical girl anime's far-future transhumanist scifi fanfiction subreddits like https://reddit.com/r/tothestars https://reddit.com/r/tothestars (though the traffic levels suffer) (and now you know those are both things)
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - pps 10y ago
    What do you mean exactly by "at the level of r/SpaceX"? I think r/askscience is great. r/science and r/rust also.
    - jessriedel 10y ago
      I look at r/askscience from time to time, but it's not reliable. Often has wrong answers, people ask the same questions again and again, mods allow lots of obnoxious/caustic/sarcastic answers. Substantially worse than r/spacex.
  - Tuna-Fish 10y ago
    Niche subreddits tend to be of much better quality than the broad ones. The most popular great subreddit is probably askhistorians.
    - freehunter 10y ago
      The problem I have with AskHistorians, what keeps me from subscribing, is that Reddit's algorithm isn't designed for content that gets popular and then starts receiving replies, it's weighted towards content that gets popular because of the replies. When an AH post hits the front page, there's never any answers, and by the time there are answers it's gone. I don't subscribe, but I browse "best of last week" occasionally.
    - jessriedel 10y ago
      Yes, half a dozen people in this thread have praised niche subreddits in the abstract, but none have actually given particular examples. Yes, r/askHistorians isn't bad, but this isn't particularly niche. It's constantly on the reddit front page. I'd like to learn about something new. EDIT: Happily, in the last hour some people have made at least 3 specific recommendations. (Anime doesn't personally interest me, and I think /r/TrueReddit is highly overrated, but /r/syriancivilwar looks very interesting.)
  - wyldfire 10y ago
    I heard about /r/TrueReddit here on HN. Thoughtful, interesting articles get posted there and the discussion is generally productive.
    - philh 10y ago
      Counter-anecdote, I unsubbed from truereddit a while back (probably a couple years now) because the discussion didn't seem very productive, though I don't remember details. (I do remember that the mod had a very hands-off attitude that IMO didn't work very well, with clickbait headlines to bad articles frequently getting upvoted.)
  - nickik 10y ago
    The two best organised subs that I use are '/r/AskHistorians/' and '/r/syriancivilwar/'. Historians is very well moderated (strict) and has users have expert tags. The civilwar sub always has the newest information tagged with the needed facts about the sources. Lots of different people and sometimes pretty high level discussions. They are literally producing their own magazin now. There are some of the best.
    - jessriedel 10y ago
      As a personal preference, I think /r/AskHistorians is good but not great. I'd never seen /r/syriancivilwar/ and it sounds very interesting. Thanks!
kolinko 10y ago
There are many other specialist subreddits that are very good.
- jessriedel 10y ago
  At the level of r/spacex? Do you have examples?
RivieraKid 10y ago
/r/spacex has definitely above average content and discussion. I find /r/teslamotors mediocre, most posts are uninteresting and the comments can be ridiculously naive and optimistic. Many people there are convinced that Tesla has the most advanced self-driving tech and hugely exaggerate the importance of crowdsourced fleet learning.
TulliusCicero 10y ago
People often lump different subreddits together too much. /r/gaming and /r/games are both ostensibly about video games but their content and culture are very different from each other.
- sealjam 10y ago
  I find the difference between r/golang and r/node quite marked.

I'm always amazed at how different /r/SpaceX and /r/Tesla are from the rest of Reddit.

nickik 10y ago

There is lots of stuff on reddit. I would not call either of those very out of the norm.

jessriedel 10y ago
Sure there are other good subreddit, but at the level of r/SpaceX? Very curious what those would be.
- brianwawok 10y ago
  Any deep topic. For example advancedrunning has pro level runners and coaches. Many very niche rabbit holes there..
  - jessriedel 10y ago
    A random niche topic is less terrible than r/all, but it is not close to the quality of r/spacex. What specific subreddit reach this level of quality?
    - brianwawok 10y ago
      What are you using to judge the quality of the sub? I can name many subs that attract some of the top members in the world in that field. If you are fascinated by rocketry, then yes /r/spacex is going to really impress you. There are knitting subs attended by the top knitters in the world that write the knitting books everyone else uses. But I think it less likely to impress you if you don't value knitting as a skill, like you value rocketships.
      - jessriedel 10y ago
        I judge the quality of the subreddit by the signal-to-noise ratio for posts, by the insight and intelligence of the comments, and by the extent to which is provides content that cannot be found through simple googling. Most knitting subreddits do not have this. Again, do you have specific examples? I don't know why you think my opinion of r/SpaceX is driven by some obsession with rocketry. I am much less interested in SpaceX than in a dozen other hobby topics, but that subreddit stands out in the objective quality of the moderation and community. Likewise, HackerNews is one of the higher quality places for discussion on the internet even though I do very little programing.
  - fennecfoxen 10y ago
    The deeper, the better. For instance, post-2011 magical girl anime subreddits like https://reddit.com/r/madokamagica https://reddit.com/r/madokamagica have nothing on post-2011 magical girl anime's far-future transhumanist scifi fanfiction subreddits like https://reddit.com/r/tothestars https://reddit.com/r/tothestars (though the traffic levels suffer) (and now you know those are both things)
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- pps 10y ago
  What do you mean exactly by "at the level of r/SpaceX"? I think r/askscience is great. r/science and r/rust also.
  - jessriedel 10y ago
    I look at r/askscience from time to time, but it's not reliable. Often has wrong answers, people ask the same questions again and again, mods allow lots of obnoxious/caustic/sarcastic answers. Substantially worse than r/spacex.
- Tuna-Fish 10y ago
  Niche subreddits tend to be of much better quality than the broad ones. The most popular great subreddit is probably askhistorians.
  - freehunter 10y ago
    The problem I have with AskHistorians, what keeps me from subscribing, is that Reddit's algorithm isn't designed for content that gets popular and then starts receiving replies, it's weighted towards content that gets popular because of the replies. When an AH post hits the front page, there's never any answers, and by the time there are answers it's gone. I don't subscribe, but I browse "best of last week" occasionally.
  - jessriedel 10y ago
    Yes, half a dozen people in this thread have praised niche subreddits in the abstract, but none have actually given particular examples. Yes, r/askHistorians isn't bad, but this isn't particularly niche. It's constantly on the reddit front page. I'd like to learn about something new. EDIT: Happily, in the last hour some people have made at least 3 specific recommendations. (Anime doesn't personally interest me, and I think /r/TrueReddit is highly overrated, but /r/syriancivilwar looks very interesting.)
- wyldfire 10y ago
  I heard about /r/TrueReddit here on HN. Thoughtful, interesting articles get posted there and the discussion is generally productive.
  - philh 10y ago
    Counter-anecdote, I unsubbed from truereddit a while back (probably a couple years now) because the discussion didn't seem very productive, though I don't remember details. (I do remember that the mod had a very hands-off attitude that IMO didn't work very well, with clickbait headlines to bad articles frequently getting upvoted.)
- nickik 10y ago
  The two best organised subs that I use are '/r/AskHistorians/' and '/r/syriancivilwar/'. Historians is very well moderated (strict) and has users have expert tags. The civilwar sub always has the newest information tagged with the needed facts about the sources. Lots of different people and sometimes pretty high level discussions. They are literally producing their own magazin now. There are some of the best.
  - jessriedel 10y ago
    As a personal preference, I think /r/AskHistorians is good but not great. I'd never seen /r/syriancivilwar/ and it sounds very interesting. Thanks!

kolinko 10y ago

There are many other specialist subreddits that are very good.

jessriedel 10y ago
At the level of r/spacex? Do you have examples?

RivieraKid 10y ago

/r/spacex has definitely above average content and discussion. I find /r/teslamotors mediocre, most posts are uninteresting and the comments can be ridiculously naive and optimistic. Many people there are convinced that Tesla has the most advanced self-driving tech and hugely exaggerate the importance of crowdsourced fleet learning.

TulliusCicero 10y ago

People often lump different subreddits together too much. /r/gaming and /r/games are both ostensibly about video games but their content and culture are very different from each other.

sealjam 10y ago
I find the difference between r/golang and r/node quite marked.