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One problem is that the `/r/:subreddit` url creates name-squatting and the illusion of canonical forums. /r/canada is like <company>.com: anything else looks s

One problem is that the `/r/:subreddit` url creates name-squatting and the illusion of canonical forums. /r/canada is like <company>.com: anything else looks second-rate. /r/canada2? /r/bettercanada? /r/altcanada? /r/the_canada? /r/mapleleaf? I think reddit should've gone with `/r/:username/:subreddit` to remind everyone that every subreddit is just some random person's forum, not some canonical message board on that topic. It also makes it much easier to migrate to another subreddit because you aren't stuck picking some second-rate subreddit name like /r/bitcoin -> /r/btc. /r/spez/politics, for example, reminds you that it's the politics of whoever spez is (reddit co-founder) and his mod team.

pavel_lishin 8y ago
That's not a bad idea, but it definitely harms discoverability, and makes it easier to impersonate known subreddits. (It also could mean that a person deleting their account, or being banned, takes down the subreddit; it means transferring ownership becomes complicated.)
monksy 8y ago
That would be interesting for an approach. If you add all of the r/[this] be an aggregation of everyone's r/monksy/[this]. (That would mean that the name r/[this] couldn't be posted to) We have seen issues where cities have had terrible moderation and that people have complained about it/split off. (r/seattle and r/seattlewa sticks out, as does r/chicago, r/realchicago, r/chicagonothinggoes, r/chicagoanythinggoes)
CookieMon 8y ago
Or let any user offer moderation duties and give every user the ability to change/revoke who is moderating their feed. /r/spez;always_good/politics, for example, could specify the politics feed minus anything spez or always_good marked as spam or off topic (rather than using whichever mods you've set for your account).
AlexMax 8y ago
That's a neat idea, but what prevents people from squatting official-looking usernames? And what happens if the mod team changes?

pavel_lishin 8y ago

That's not a bad idea, but it definitely harms discoverability, and makes it easier to impersonate known subreddits. (It also could mean that a person deleting their account, or being banned, takes down the subreddit; it means transferring ownership becomes complicated.)

monksy 8y ago

That would be interesting for an approach. If you add all of the r/[this] be an aggregation of everyone's r/monksy/[this]. (That would mean that the name r/[this] couldn't be posted to) We have seen issues where cities have had terrible moderation and that people have complained about it/split off. (r/seattle and r/seattlewa sticks out, as does r/chicago, r/realchicago, r/chicagonothinggoes, r/chicagoanythinggoes)

CookieMon 8y ago

Or let any user offer moderation duties and give every user the ability to change/revoke who is moderating their feed. /r/spez;always_good/politics, for example, could specify the politics feed minus anything spez or always_good marked as spam or off topic (rather than using whichever mods you've set for your account).

AlexMax 8y ago

That's a neat idea, but what prevents people from squatting official-looking usernames? And what happens if the mod team changes?