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> Don't think this has to do with Reddit so much as the way we interact with each other online, in general. Having spent some (great) time in more traditional
by flukus 7y ago
> Don't think this has to do with Reddit so much as the way we interact with each other online, in general.
Having spent some (great) time in more traditional forums recently I think the algorithmic driven nature of reddit (and HN for that matter) along with it's centralization are the biggest contributors. The scoring systems have gamified online discussions to the point that you can't really have worthwhile discussions, most people with anything interesting to say (anything not mostly accepted by the group as a whole) will be punished by the algorithms, people with the most agreeable opinions will "win".
Being centralized and gamified is also the ideal environment for astroturfing, you can have a big effect for minimal investment. If someone clicks on a topic you can easily control what the first comment they see is, with more traditional forums it's first in best dressed and a lot of people will skip straight to the latest entries.
- jarfil 7y agoThat highly depends on every subreddit's topic and how is it being moderated. Topics which invite populist responses in populist subreddits indeed behave like that, but other subreddits keep more of a Stack Exchange behavior, with out of topic discussion getting discouraged or directly removed, even if they were the most voted.
- kebman 7y agoOn the topic of gamification, I really like how Stack Overflow did it, with a focus on earned trust and good and dependable answers. For all its faults, I've never seen a site so great at solving actual problems, and not just within IT.