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While you don't get as much "blogspam" on Reddit, it has a very different problem today: The amount of misinformation and echo chambering of said misinformation

While you don't get as much "blogspam" on Reddit, it has a very different problem today: The amount of misinformation and echo chambering of said misinformation on Reddit is simply staggering. Very few subs have FAQs or rules asking newbies to search the sub for their question. As a result, most of the subs I follow are littered with the same questions over and over. The other problem is that when someone does ask for advice, the quality of the advice is usually somewhere between mediocre to terrible. I think this is largely because there is no incentive for experts to stick around in subs to provide good answers. And because they are tired of giving the _same_ advice over and over. This gives space to the non-experts who don't _really_ understand the concepts behind the advice they are giving and end up giving bad (and sometimes dangerous) advice because that's what they were told by other non-experts in the same situation.

Domenic_S 7y ago
> As a result, most of the subs I follow are littered with the same questions over and over. I answer questions in r/personalfinance's "new" area, and the split is something like: "I am upside down on my car loan/loan is too expensive/want to get out of my current car" - 40% "How do I do I make [some crazy ROI]? I have [$small amount] to invest" - 20% "I have no money and need to pay my bills" - 20% "Can I afford to buy this house?" - 10% Novel questions - 10% So many car questions come up I'm tempted to write an ebook on it and sell it for $1 - I sold cars in college and have a lot of info on how the sausage is made.
- bobloblaw45 7y ago
  I noticed a good amount of of young people humble-bragging too. Like "I just got out of college and I make 6 figures, should I eat lentils or splurge and get Sizzler?" To be fair I haven't seen much recently they seemed to be more common in the past.
  - InitialLastName 7y ago
    > To be fair I haven't seen much recently they seemed to be more common in the past. I wonder if that's usable as an indicator?
- nkassis 7y ago
  I'd probably read something like that. I hate buying cars. I know I'll get scammed somehow and pay more than I should.
- outworlder 7y ago
  > So many car questions come up I'm tempted to write an ebook on it and sell it for $1 - I sold cars in college and have a lot of info on how the sausage is made. You should, but charge the full price, if you genuinely have useful information. The perceived value of an item changes according to the price you charge. Given that cars are multi-thousand dollar expense, investing a tiny fraction to get better information is a good return of investment.
- lonelappde 7y ago
  r/AskCarSales is already popular
debaserab2 7y ago
I have found that subreddits almost become an anti-expertise forum over time - when actual experts show up to give advice, they are often downvoted if their advice goes against whatever that subreddit is cargo culting (which, as you mentioned, is often not great advice in the first place). Then the expert is discouraged from participating ever again. I've witnessed this pattern in an array of subreddits spanning from hobbies to coding to gaming. Ultimately they become discussion forums for the lowest common denominator of skillsets.
- code_duck 7y ago
  I’ve seen this on medical subs. Doctors get downvoted and their posts disputed. This is often because members have had poor experiences with doctors and the doctors underestimate the level of sophistication of the patient members, and their own level of knowledge is not always what one would expect.
- GFischer 7y ago
  Maybe some subreddits, but on other subreddits you get actual top people - I´m in a couple of card game ones and I sometimes get answers from a top 50 player. You also get advice from not so good players too of course.
  - marblar 7y ago
    That seems like an unusual case because you have an external way to verify the expertise of a top 50 player. You don't have the same for a finance subreddit.
    - NicoJuicy 7y ago
      Yes they do. They require proof of payment
- cookiengineer 7y ago
  > I have found that subreddits almost become an anti-expertise forum over time - when actual experts show up to give advice, they are often downvoted if their advice goes against whatever that subreddit is cargo culting (which, as you mentioned, is often not great advice in the first place). Then the expert is discouraged from participating ever again. /r/programming in a nutshell.
code_duck 7y ago
>Very few subs have FAQs or rules asking newbies to search the sub for their question People don’t follow that, anyway. First, the rules for subs, on the sidebar on the desktop, are fairly hidden away now in the ‘about’ link. It’s doesn’t matter, though. Even when it’s at the top in a sticky post people don’t read it - take /r/scams, for instance, and the ‘I installed a RAT and filmed you watching poern so give me bitcoin’ scam. People post about that every day for months despite a highlighted bold post at the top of the sub for 6 months. Or /r/celiac. Plenty of links about diagnosis in the sidebar, but people ask ‘I have this and this symptom, do I have celiac?’ about 4 times a week. Overall people come to reddit or a forum to have a discussion. Searching and reading is what they don’t want to do. I’m on the fence as forbidding previously covered topics makes a forum dry and cobwebby. On the other hand, repeating the same basic advice 5 times a week for different people feels very repetitive, like you say. It takes a community of dedicated posters, basically obsessed volunteers, to make a sub consistently give good advice to everyone who comes by. I essentially do this as a hobby, myself.
maest 7y ago
Reddit also has a big problem with astroturfing. There are 2 really prominent use cases: 1. (mostly) US politics, with shills on all sides 2. corporate advertising. r/hailcorporate takes this to the extreme sometimes, but there are plenty of astroturfed posts supporting or advertising various brands reddit. Think about how much companies would pay to have the discussion around their brand monitored and controlled on a forum with millions of eyeballs. Also, reddit accounts being farmed for karma then sold on is an open secret.

Domenic_S 7y ago

> As a result, most of the subs I follow are littered with the same questions over and over. I answer questions in r/personalfinance's "new" area, and the split is something like: "I am upside down on my car loan/loan is too expensive/want to get out of my current car" - 40% "How do I do I make [some crazy ROI]? I have [$small amount] to invest" - 20% "I have no money and need to pay my bills" - 20% "Can I afford to buy this house?" - 10% Novel questions - 10% So many car questions come up I'm tempted to write an ebook on it and sell it for $1 - I sold cars in college and have a lot of info on how the sausage is made.

bobloblaw45 7y ago
I noticed a good amount of of young people humble-bragging too. Like "I just got out of college and I make 6 figures, should I eat lentils or splurge and get Sizzler?" To be fair I haven't seen much recently they seemed to be more common in the past.
- InitialLastName 7y ago
  > To be fair I haven't seen much recently they seemed to be more common in the past. I wonder if that's usable as an indicator?
nkassis 7y ago
I'd probably read something like that. I hate buying cars. I know I'll get scammed somehow and pay more than I should.
outworlder 7y ago
> So many car questions come up I'm tempted to write an ebook on it and sell it for $1 - I sold cars in college and have a lot of info on how the sausage is made. You should, but charge the full price, if you genuinely have useful information. The perceived value of an item changes according to the price you charge. Given that cars are multi-thousand dollar expense, investing a tiny fraction to get better information is a good return of investment.
lonelappde 7y ago
r/AskCarSales is already popular

debaserab2 7y ago

I have found that subreddits almost become an anti-expertise forum over time - when actual experts show up to give advice, they are often downvoted if their advice goes against whatever that subreddit is cargo culting (which, as you mentioned, is often not great advice in the first place). Then the expert is discouraged from participating ever again. I've witnessed this pattern in an array of subreddits spanning from hobbies to coding to gaming. Ultimately they become discussion forums for the lowest common denominator of skillsets.

code_duck 7y ago
I’ve seen this on medical subs. Doctors get downvoted and their posts disputed. This is often because members have had poor experiences with doctors and the doctors underestimate the level of sophistication of the patient members, and their own level of knowledge is not always what one would expect.
GFischer 7y ago
Maybe some subreddits, but on other subreddits you get actual top people - I´m in a couple of card game ones and I sometimes get answers from a top 50 player. You also get advice from not so good players too of course.
- marblar 7y ago
  That seems like an unusual case because you have an external way to verify the expertise of a top 50 player. You don't have the same for a finance subreddit.
  - NicoJuicy 7y ago
    Yes they do. They require proof of payment
cookiengineer 7y ago
> I have found that subreddits almost become an anti-expertise forum over time - when actual experts show up to give advice, they are often downvoted if their advice goes against whatever that subreddit is cargo culting (which, as you mentioned, is often not great advice in the first place). Then the expert is discouraged from participating ever again. /r/programming in a nutshell.

code_duck 7y ago

>Very few subs have FAQs or rules asking newbies to search the sub for their question People don’t follow that, anyway. First, the rules for subs, on the sidebar on the desktop, are fairly hidden away now in the ‘about’ link. It’s doesn’t matter, though. Even when it’s at the top in a sticky post people don’t read it - take /r/scams, for instance, and the ‘I installed a RAT and filmed you watching poern so give me bitcoin’ scam. People post about that every day for months despite a highlighted bold post at the top of the sub for 6 months. Or /r/celiac. Plenty of links about diagnosis in the sidebar, but people ask ‘I have this and this symptom, do I have celiac?’ about 4 times a week. Overall people come to reddit or a forum to have a discussion. Searching and reading is what they don’t want to do. I’m on the fence as forbidding previously covered topics makes a forum dry and cobwebby. On the other hand, repeating the same basic advice 5 times a week for different people feels very repetitive, like you say. It takes a community of dedicated posters, basically obsessed volunteers, to make a sub consistently give good advice to everyone who comes by. I essentially do this as a hobby, myself.

maest 7y ago

Reddit also has a big problem with astroturfing. There are 2 really prominent use cases: 1. (mostly) US politics, with shills on all sides 2. corporate advertising. r/hailcorporate takes this to the extreme sometimes, but there are plenty of astroturfed posts supporting or advertising various brands reddit. Think about how much companies would pay to have the discussion around their brand monitored and controlled on a forum with millions of eyeballs. Also, reddit accounts being farmed for karma then sold on is an open secret.