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I don't think of Reddit as a single entity, but as a platform for communities(subreddits). The differences between subreddit communities are vast, ranging from

I don't think of Reddit as a single entity, but as a platform for communities(subreddits). The differences between subreddit communities are vast, ranging from 100% toxic to 100% positive.

BoratObama 9y ago
My view of reddit has changed similarly. I think of it as something similar to vBulletin or bbPress with r/all or r/popular as a flagship gateway to subreddits. And recently I purged all my subreddits and started from scratch to build a better reddit experience geared towards self improvement and a more wholesome experience. No more toxic communities. I look for niche communities with civil discourse and common interests.
- pat_space 9y ago
  Good call - I've done the same myself. As someone who grew up heavily invested in niche forums, I've found subreddits becoming their replacement in my adult life.
- fav_collector 9y ago
  How do you find these less popular subreddits?
- irrational 9y ago
  I don't know if you are interested in board games, but I have found r/boardgames to be incredibly wholesome and nice. It's just a pleasant place to visit.
bri3d 9y ago
I started thinking of Reddit that way, but once you start thinking about it that way, it's a pretty crappy software solution. A platform for diverse communities with a single SSO solution and frictionless cross-community posting combined with limited moderation features, poor ban capabilities, and easy discovery? That's not a good software recipe for a community to become empowered or build their own space at all.
- nickthemagicman 9y ago
  Its already proven itself to be a great recipe for communities and empowerment...it's literally the best the world has ever seen. Hacker News even uses it's format...
  - awkward 9y ago
    On the other hand, PG built Hacker News specifically to get a reddit-like that has it's own culture, identity and moderation policies.
  - Stanish 9y ago
    It has also proven to be incredibly vulnerable to manipulation when people discover how to leverage money into vote manipulation and moderator takeover. All of the political subreddits very quickly became cesspools of propaganda during the course of the last presidential election, and this has only increased since. Many of my favorite political subreddits are just dead now.
- rtx 9y ago
  User numbers don't agree with you.
  - komali2 9y ago
    >That's not a good software recipe for a community to become empowered or build their own space at all. Keywords: become empowered or build their own space The argument was not "that's not a good software recipe to cause high traffic."
- pat_space 9y ago
  Crappy it may be, it sure beats the hell out of setting up & hosting your own message board!
- cookiecaper 9y ago
  I think this is a core issue with reddit. They're trying to be a self-hosted platform at the same time that they're trying to be a single coherent community of "redditors" with a default, universally-applicable front page. This leads to conflict when one person feels their identity as a "redditor" is under attack by the success of a sub that is diametrically opposed to their political or religious perspective, which leads to invasions, trolling, doxxing, harassment, and lots of other types of nastiness.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

I don't think of Reddit as a single entity, but as a platform for communities(subreddits). The differences between subreddit communities are vast, ranging from 100% toxic to 100% positive.

BoratObama 9y ago

My view of reddit has changed similarly. I think of it as something similar to vBulletin or bbPress with r/all or r/popular as a flagship gateway to subreddits. And recently I purged all my subreddits and started from scratch to build a better reddit experience geared towards self improvement and a more wholesome experience. No more toxic communities. I look for niche communities with civil discourse and common interests.

pat_space 9y ago
Good call - I've done the same myself. As someone who grew up heavily invested in niche forums, I've found subreddits becoming their replacement in my adult life.
fav_collector 9y ago
How do you find these less popular subreddits?
irrational 9y ago
I don't know if you are interested in board games, but I have found r/boardgames to be incredibly wholesome and nice. It's just a pleasant place to visit.

bri3d 9y ago

I started thinking of Reddit that way, but once you start thinking about it that way, it's a pretty crappy software solution. A platform for diverse communities with a single SSO solution and frictionless cross-community posting combined with limited moderation features, poor ban capabilities, and easy discovery? That's not a good software recipe for a community to become empowered or build their own space at all.

nickthemagicman 9y ago
Its already proven itself to be a great recipe for communities and empowerment...it's literally the best the world has ever seen. Hacker News even uses it's format...
- awkward 9y ago
  On the other hand, PG built Hacker News specifically to get a reddit-like that has it's own culture, identity and moderation policies.
- Stanish 9y ago
  It has also proven to be incredibly vulnerable to manipulation when people discover how to leverage money into vote manipulation and moderator takeover. All of the political subreddits very quickly became cesspools of propaganda during the course of the last presidential election, and this has only increased since. Many of my favorite political subreddits are just dead now.
rtx 9y ago
User numbers don't agree with you.
- komali2 9y ago
  >That's not a good software recipe for a community to become empowered or build their own space at all. Keywords: become empowered or build their own space The argument was not "that's not a good software recipe to cause high traffic."
pat_space 9y ago
Crappy it may be, it sure beats the hell out of setting up & hosting your own message board!
cookiecaper 9y ago
I think this is a core issue with reddit. They're trying to be a self-hosted platform at the same time that they're trying to be a single coherent community of "redditors" with a default, universally-applicable front page. This leads to conflict when one person feels their identity as a "redditor" is under attack by the success of a sub that is diametrically opposed to their political or religious perspective, which leads to invasions, trolling, doxxing, harassment, and lots of other types of nastiness.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]