4 ms·

Yep, you need to do your own aggregations, now a place to hold all my forum links and note/save them (similar to bookmarks but way more robust) would be pretty

by atwebb 9y ago

Yep, you need to do your own aggregations, now a place to hold all my forum links and note/save them (similar to bookmarks but way more robust) would be pretty nice. I've been forcing myself off Reddit and to search out specific forums and sites. It's an old (I meant odd) mix out there, some have obviously been using phpBB for years, some are brand new with lots of mechanics, and some are tied into other sites that have drastically helped my hobbies. For Reddit, besides the time-sink/image click portion, it doesn't hold much water for indepth hobbiest communities. The short life of a post and terrible search result in a large portion of each sub being the same post, iterated daily. You don't get around that with a forum BUT, and this is important, forums for these hobbies are often attached to sites specific laid out and updated so you see the bare basics before getting to the forum. Subs can have a sidebar all they want but it's clear a lot of people gloss over it daily. EDIT: The more I think on it, the more Reddit has splintered into subs and their sidebars/communities just being single login web rings/forums. Specific example, numismatics There's /r/coins, coins4sale, papermoney, colonialcurrency, banknotes, maybe 50 more. In reality there's a few main ones which are easily grouped together on a dedicated site similar to Numista's forums

exelius 9y ago
Agree Reddit is pretty bad for “technical” information that doesn’t change much over time (or that changes minute-to-minut). It is basically an unfiltered stream of consciousness. Because of this, I like to think of Reddit as a deeper version of Twitter. It’s a fine source for discovery and can work ok for discussion, but the good content is usually elsewhere and there may be a lot of context you’re missing depending on who you follow (or what subreddits you read). There is a lot of overlap between subreddits too; and while the sidebar content is often out of date, in many communities it serves as a repository of community knowledge to answer common questions, etc. This works well for communities already structured like this (the LGBTQ community on Reddit is a great example). But yeah, I worry that the redesign is seriously screwing with the core DNA of the site and turning it into yet another MySpace-like content graveyard.
bitexploder 9y ago
That is another interesting point. There are threads on some forums that are years old. How to replace thing X on your Subaru. Updates about MTG Deck Z. Whereas Reddit aims much more towards "whats happening". That's great but the forum aspect of having a deep conversation on a single topic over many days, weeks, and months can be really important.
- atwebb 9y ago
  It can be, though most forums comment systems could use HN/Reddit like threading. Paging and paging and having to have the reply blocks can be terrible, especially in long ones where they splinter into different conversations.

by atwebb 9y ago

exelius 9y ago

Agree Reddit is pretty bad for “technical” information that doesn’t change much over time (or that changes minute-to-minut). It is basically an unfiltered stream of consciousness. Because of this, I like to think of Reddit as a deeper version of Twitter. It’s a fine source for discovery and can work ok for discussion, but the good content is usually elsewhere and there may be a lot of context you’re missing depending on who you follow (or what subreddits you read). There is a lot of overlap between subreddits too; and while the sidebar content is often out of date, in many communities it serves as a repository of community knowledge to answer common questions, etc. This works well for communities already structured like this (the LGBTQ community on Reddit is a great example). But yeah, I worry that the redesign is seriously screwing with the core DNA of the site and turning it into yet another MySpace-like content graveyard.

bitexploder 9y ago

That is another interesting point. There are threads on some forums that are years old. How to replace thing X on your Subaru. Updates about MTG Deck Z. Whereas Reddit aims much more towards "whats happening". That's great but the forum aspect of having a deep conversation on a single topic over many days, weeks, and months can be really important.

atwebb 9y ago
It can be, though most forums comment systems could use HN/Reddit like threading. Paging and paging and having to have the reply blocks can be terrible, especially in long ones where they splinter into different conversations.