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Surprised that he doesn't mention Reddit, where the lost communities he described certainly do exist and thrive.

by werds 8y ago

yifanl 8y ago
Reddit's a bit different than forums as far as I can tell. There was a forum I used to frequent, even years later I can recognize someone's avatar, crack inside jokes with them. Reddit's a little too open to have that kind of connection.
- johnchristopher 8y ago
  It seems really to boil down to: can you spin off a server and run on your own place or not ? If not you get a free for-all place with bouncers (privacy policy, rules, modes, etc.) coming up at some point or not. I can see "the next messenger app" plus "total privacy à la signal" capturing that feeling back.
- ryanmercer 8y ago
  That depends on the sub. If you join some massive sub sure but in /r/silverbugs for example we have a Monday thread where we talk about what's going on in our lives as well as similar, newer, Friday thread and several people have even met up offline. We've got a lot of shared jokes and stuff in /r/mysteriousuniverse too related to the podcast by the same name and are pretty tight-knit.
  - txcwpalpha 8y ago
    I've noticed this in a lot of smaller subs and I agree that there is a much better sense of community, and in general, a much better experience. With the smaller community tends to be higher quality content and less of a propensity for small, minute details to launch a vitriolic argument. However, being attached to the larger reddit "network" can easily ruin those communities. All it takes is a single front page r/AskReddit thread where a top comment says "check out r/[small_community_here], it's great!" and that pretty much spells the end of that small, tight-knit community. It's the age old problem that's not at all unique to online communities: everyone wants to be part of the cool, fun communities/bars/neighborhoods. But if everyone crowds in, that community/bar/neighborhood isn't as cool or fun anymore.

Surprised that he doesn't mention Reddit, where the lost communities he described certainly do exist and thrive.

by werds 8y ago

Surprised that he doesn't mention Reddit, where the lost communities he described certainly do exist and thrive.

Reddit's a bit different than forums as far as I can tell. There was a forum I used to frequent, even years later I can recognize someone's avatar, crack inside jokes with them. Reddit's a little too open to have that kind of connection.

johnchristopher 8y ago
It seems really to boil down to: can you spin off a server and run on your own place or not ? If not you get a free for-all place with bouncers (privacy policy, rules, modes, etc.) coming up at some point or not. I can see "the next messenger app" plus "total privacy à la signal" capturing that feeling back.
ryanmercer 8y ago
That depends on the sub. If you join some massive sub sure but in /r/silverbugs for example we have a Monday thread where we talk about what's going on in our lives as well as similar, newer, Friday thread and several people have even met up offline. We've got a lot of shared jokes and stuff in /r/mysteriousuniverse too related to the podcast by the same name and are pretty tight-knit.
- txcwpalpha 8y ago
  I've noticed this in a lot of smaller subs and I agree that there is a much better sense of community, and in general, a much better experience. With the smaller community tends to be higher quality content and less of a propensity for small, minute details to launch a vitriolic argument. However, being attached to the larger reddit "network" can easily ruin those communities. All it takes is a single front page r/AskReddit thread where a top comment says "check out r/[small_community_here], it's great!" and that pretty much spells the end of that small, tight-knit community. It's the age old problem that's not at all unique to online communities: everyone wants to be part of the cool, fun communities/bars/neighborhoods. But if everyone crowds in, that community/bar/neighborhood isn't as cool or fun anymore.