7 ms·

I think it's okay to some extent but I find that forums definitely are a much better resource and controversial threads or posts in forums don't get buried or h

• barkingcat 8y ago
  But there is a giant subreddit for all BMW cars...
  • rdxm 8y ago
    yeah, but sites like r3vlimited, rennlist, jeepforum are just better moderated, more friendly and have more helpful content (i.m.h.o)
  • thiagocsf 8y ago
    Does it have dank memes? OP complained that it’s basically a photo sharing sub.
• toweringgoat 8y ago
  Yup. Any hobby or interest I've had has a subreddit, but the quality of discussion and advice is terrible. There's so much that's plain wrong. Forums have plenty of misinformed people, but the density is lower.
  • epicalex 8y ago
    Worth recognising that each subreddit is its own community, and like individual forums, will likely vary wildly by subject. My experience of subreddits for my interests and hobbies is the opposite to yours; information is correct and discussion useful.
  • hfdgiutdryg 8y ago
    I think Reddit skews really young, and therefore less experienced. I'll see way more technically informative posts by crusty old beards on subject-specific forums.
• fhood 8y ago
  Don't assume forums are somehow freer of group-think because they are less accessible. Once they get established, the existing user base tends to push out anyone that doesn't agree with their views. Some subreddits are awesome, and some are way less awesome. And much of the best, most informative and technical information out there lives on subreddits. Many people pine for the days when only the most savvy users knew about the forums, but I don't think there is any way to bring that era back.
  • fleitz 8y ago
    Eternal September.
  • jaypeg25 8y ago
    Getting rid of anonymity would probably help.
    • Nasrudith 8y ago
      The funny thing is that appears to makes it even worse - even with the attendent "fired for sparking controversy and making the company look bad" risk.
    • Fnoord 8y ago
      Does that solve the problem on Facebook?
    • coldseattle 8y ago
      I'm no troll, but I like to keep my fun/hobby life separate from my professional life. My customers don't need to be able to google me and get my "fan theories" about Westworld, etc.
  • braindongle 8y ago
    IMO, groupthink is worse here than on Reddit, or at least the subs I visit. Divergent thinking is often celebrated. Here it's more about convergence to the most defensibly informed perspective. I may be wrong, and these differences are subtle in any event. Regardless, any discussion of groupthink on HN should include some critical self-reflection. Please downvote me!
• vidarh 8y ago
  There are plenty of really shallow forums, and plenty of really close-knit and/or tolerant sub-reddits with good moderators. It's just that the big ones are the easiest to find, and tends to quickly become impossible to moderate in anything but very impersonal ways. > I also dislike reddit because it's hard to remember a name constantly There are tons of extensions/apps for Reddit that lets you annotate/tag users and the like. I do tend to agree with that to some extent, though - a more personal touch would make it easier to have conversations feel like they're with people rather than with handles.
  • mistermann 8y ago
    Could anyone name any popular extensions other than RES?
• PascLeRasc 8y ago
  subreddit flairs help with personifying, and you can tag people. Eventually you remember usernames of frequent commenters.
• hokkos 8y ago
  Subreddits and forums are fundamentally different. Forums are linear and your are expected to have read all the post to post in one thread. There is also the old members who nag you into not creating a new thread but use the search tool to comment on an old one. There is forum local stars that control the discourse far more than on subreddits, and the photo + footer customization make them more prone starification and to group think. On subreddit freshness is always welcomed even it is an old subject with a different spin. You are not expected to present you, there is no random subforum, you can be focused.
  • eXpl0it3r 8y ago
    You must be frequenting very specific sub-reddits then. There are plenty that are similarly moderated than forums. And yes, if you ask the same question that has been answered 50 times before, you should accept the fact that it's your job to spend some amount of time to search, instead of just waiting till someone delivers you answers.
  • tomc1985 8y ago
    Reddittors' frequent insistence on no reposts and original content seems to contradict your assertions I have a bunch of old folders full of funny images that I would love to post but I'm quite sure I will get accused of karma whoring, even though I just want to share funny pictures that are more funny than the current crop of memes
    • robbyking 8y ago
      Which is ironic since Reddiquette encourages re- and cross-posting.
    • epicalex 8y ago
      In my experience that tends to only be true in the larger subreddits. The (potentially) more niche subreddits I use don't have that same problem outside of maybe a 'read the FAQs before posting'
• cortesoft 8y ago
  While it is true that sometimes valid, yet unpopular, opinions get downvoted and buried, most of the times the things getting downvoted and buried are simply comments or opinions that are worthless. They are either trolls, racist, or derogatory comments that I WANT to have hidden from my view. I think the upvote/downvote system is what makes reddit so popular, since it acts to filter out the useless comments that often fill up other forums. Unless you have VERY active moderators in those other forums, you will be inundated by useless comments. Now, reddit's system is not perfect, but the hiding of some comments is certainly a feature and not a shortcoming of the platform.
  • deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  • camelCaseOfBeer 8y ago
    Damn that's a lot of commas. - useless comment
  • corwinstephen 8y ago
    Though it certainly isn’t a perfect solution for all use-cases, I think the comment system is so incredibly useful for the things it does well that it’s worth dealing with it’s issues. Key example for me is getting answers to questions without someone’s personal bias / agenda leaking through. Five years ago if I had a question about, say, which vitamin supplement brands are good quality, I would have googled it and imply clicked on one of the first few links. In all likelihood that would have led me to a blog post written by one single person making recommendations based on who pays them affiliate dollars. THese days though, I do the same search, but I append “reddit” to the end of the query. Invariably someone has already asked the same question in a subreddit, and the first comment is an answer that survived the onslaught of downvotes that come from spam, bias, etc. It’s not a perfect system, but it’s loss better than the next best option.
  • prepend 8y ago
    “most of the times the things getting downvoted and buried are simply comments or opinions that are worthless.” What is your basis for saying “most” of the time. This is very different from my experience and I find it difficult to measure as groupthink prevents discussion, so what do you measure. I’ve watched many subs for hobbies I follow get boringer and boringer as mods try to enforce various rules and start moderating what’s appropriate or not. As a result, discussion kind of stopped. So I’m glad your experience is that mostly racists get banned, but I’ve seen discussions on /r/badhistory devolve into weird gender/race discussions that don’t really have a productive outcome.
• robbyking 8y ago
  I think it depends on the specific Reddit community and how it's moderated. I moderate a community with 80k+ subscribers, and I put a lot of effort into keeping it on topic and interesting. (And we have community flair so users can add something very similar to a profile photo.
• varrock 8y ago
  > I also dislike reddit because it's hard to remember a name constantly. It's easier when there's a little profile picture next to the name. You go, "oh yeah, that guy. He's helpful." You remember those posters more often. To me, personally, I like Reddit because this kind of association is more difficult. I like reading a comment and not having any bias towards the user.
  • zrobotics 8y ago
    I think it depends on the hobby/forum. The parent mentioned automotive forums, and I would agree that I would much rather remember certain posters. The best written posts aren't always right, for some reason there's a large subset of people who will write an informative-sounding post containing incorrect information. If I'm asking what valve lash specs are or which pin # on a connector is the + EGR solenoid, then I don't care how typo ridden the post is if the information is correct. On a Ducati forum I read, one of the most knowledgeable posters writes at roughly a 5th grade level (combination of being a mechanic and non-native speaker). Doesn't matter, I recognize the profile pic and know that it's worth parsing, the information is likely more accurate than the manual. Hiwever,for a general discussion that is non-technical, then I would agree that a newb's opinion carrying nearly the same weight as a regular is a good thing.
    • varrock 8y ago
      I can definitely see where credibility is of importance. You point to a great example. What is nice about Reddit is that you do have that option to remember names so that you can do exactly what you describe. Sometimes, subreddits will also take care of that with verified flairs, or alternatively, the user can go out of their way and use RES to make note of users they trust.
    • rangibaby 8y ago
      > If I'm asking what valve lash specs are or which pin # on a connector is the + EGR solenoid, then I don't care how typo ridden the post is if the information is correct Oh yeah, the classic Unregistered Hypercam 2, typing in Notepad, kid with a squeaky voice or barely comprehensible Russian or Indian guy Youtube video
• pmarreck 8y ago
  > To me, reddit seems a great way for a community to reinforce groupthink. I think this is due to its utterly basic up/downvoting as well as its completely-unenforced TOS which state you should not downvote simply for disagreeing. When you downvote, you should have to specify a reason (such as "offtopic") and one of the reasons should not remotely be "I disagree"
  • christoph 8y ago
    Some of the politics subreddits are the worst places for this. Anything that questions, disagrees or even states facts that go against the common grain, can quickly be downvoted into oblivion.
    • retsibsi 8y ago
      And the other side of that coin is possibly even more annoying: plenty of obviously dumb comments rise to the top, presumably because a lot of people agree with the sentiments they express. I think two-axis voting (see my other comment in this thread) might fail to save subreddits that have already sunk into all-consuming tribalism, but it could help others to avoid that fate.
  • retsibsi 8y ago
    Have any major forums tried a two-axis voting system -- something like Agree/Disagree and Good post/Bad post? I know some people would abuse this and hammer both downvote buttons out of mere disagreement, but I think it would improve the situation. In most of the subreddits I've seen, it's clear that upvoting for agreement and downvoting for disagreement are both rampant, and I think this is self-perpetuating. When I read a quality post that I disagree with, I would like to stick to the supposed spirit of the voting system and upvote, but I'll think twice about doing so because I know it will be misinterpreted. Giving me a way to explicitly signal one thing and not the other would break this bind. And even if the system was still abused by 50% of people, it would be possible to offer some interesting filter settings: for example, you could favour posts with a relatively high ratio of Good Post points to Agree points, on the theory that highly agreed-with posts will probably score more Good Post points than they deserve.
• jwalton 8y ago
  > It's easier when there's a little profile picture next to the name. I've been thinking about updating my GitHub profile photo, but this is what's stopping me. No one will know who I am anymore. :P
• mastazi 8y ago
  > I think it's okay to some extent but I find that forums definitely are a much better resource and controversial threads or posts in forums don't get buried or hidden by a downvote. In many of my hobbies it's the other way around, controversial topics are censored or locked by overzealous forum admins but are visible on Reddit, which has a more laissez-faire attitude in terms of moderation.
• bluedino 8y ago
  Car-related subreddits are the most useless thing compared to a forum for that car. You get the same dumb questions over and over plus the “hey guys just joined the club, what are some must-have mods” one picture posts, who never return.
• detaro 8y ago
  I find the purely time-based ranking in forums helps there a lot. Reddit basically forces repeats over repeats of "old" topics, where a forum could handle it in in one large thread. Those can get unwieldly on large forums, but in many ways I still prefer a 50 page thread over 50 different posts somewhere in the subreddit history, with different titles. Especially if the forum community is good at maintaining roundup posts. HN has that issue too in some ways, with threads about company X always repeating the same arguments, which in a forum at least somewhat could be channeled in extra discussions.