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Pretty much all my sort-of-nerd friends and I left the site some time between 2012 and 2015. I think it all went downhill when Obama got his second term and the

Pretty much all my sort-of-nerd friends and I left the site some time between 2012 and 2015. I think it all went downhill when Obama got his second term and the 'libertarians' became dislodged by full-blown Nazis. There used to be quite a few prominent academics on /sci/'s early days.

huntie 8y ago
Maybe? I've always attributed the fall to a combination of the fappening, Moot's departure, and the 2016 elections. The huge influx of new users combined with a change in moderation absolutely destroyed the site. My memory isn't so good, but I don't think there was much political content outside of /pol/ and /b/ until 2015 or so. Might be dependent on what boards you browsed though. I think you're right about Nazis coming in, but I think that it was much more contained when Moot was there. I guess maybe that provided the setup for the 2016 elections.
- kipchak 8y ago
  For what it's worth the increase in traffic from 2010 onward was largely mobile users, with desktop users staying around 50M, while total users grew to a peak of about 133m at the start of 2018.
  - huntie 8y ago
    Yeah, I still see people suggesting that phone-posters should be banned. I wonder what the site would be like if it had been implemented. I didn't know how large the numbers were though, that is nuts. Looking at the general quality of the site though, it makes sense.
    - kipchak 8y ago
      It seems like it would be a great case study for someone interested in social psychology or Social Norms Theory or something similar. I remember when I first came across the site 13 year old me being worried if I posted something too stupid people would trace my IP and hack me. With new users being added in at such a rapid pace it seems like it was impossible to on-board them in terms of generally accepted practice; a eternal summer echo of the "Eternal September" of the usenet days which involves many of the same complaints.
      - huntie 8y ago
        I had a pretty similar experience, so I didn't post much at first. You used to see people getting called out for not following site norms, being told to "lurk for 2 years before posting" but you don't see that anymore. I think that type of self-moderation is really good for maintaining a quality community, but it selects for a certain type of user so most people don't like it.

huntie 8y ago

Maybe? I've always attributed the fall to a combination of the fappening, Moot's departure, and the 2016 elections. The huge influx of new users combined with a change in moderation absolutely destroyed the site. My memory isn't so good, but I don't think there was much political content outside of /pol/ and /b/ until 2015 or so. Might be dependent on what boards you browsed though. I think you're right about Nazis coming in, but I think that it was much more contained when Moot was there. I guess maybe that provided the setup for the 2016 elections.

kipchak 8y ago
For what it's worth the increase in traffic from 2010 onward was largely mobile users, with desktop users staying around 50M, while total users grew to a peak of about 133m at the start of 2018.
- huntie 8y ago
  Yeah, I still see people suggesting that phone-posters should be banned. I wonder what the site would be like if it had been implemented. I didn't know how large the numbers were though, that is nuts. Looking at the general quality of the site though, it makes sense.
  - kipchak 8y ago
    It seems like it would be a great case study for someone interested in social psychology or Social Norms Theory or something similar. I remember when I first came across the site 13 year old me being worried if I posted something too stupid people would trace my IP and hack me. With new users being added in at such a rapid pace it seems like it was impossible to on-board them in terms of generally accepted practice; a eternal summer echo of the "Eternal September" of the usenet days which involves many of the same complaints.
    - huntie 8y ago
      I had a pretty similar experience, so I didn't post much at first. You used to see people getting called out for not following site norms, being told to "lurk for 2 years before posting" but you don't see that anymore. I think that type of self-moderation is really good for maintaining a quality community, but it selects for a certain type of user so most people don't like it.