4 ms·

The bigger question is: why must hobbyist forums be all-encompassing? Setting up a phpbb is trivial, so what is the advantage to me the user having a single ide

The bigger question is: why must hobbyist forums be all-encompassing? Setting up a phpbb is trivial, so what is the advantage to me the user having a single identity linking my professional conversations about software with my more casual conversations about unicycle rally racing?

screye 6y ago
Convenience and consistency. I was a big user of forums before reddit, and I am glad it has centralized. IMO, it is pretty obvious. It is the same reason any social media website has 1 identity for everything on it. > linking professional conversations and casual conversations You know you can alt accounts right ?
- mostlysimilar 6y ago
  “Having a single identity for all of your interests is more convenient” and “you can have multiple identities to keep your interests separate” seem like pretty contradictory statements.
  - astrobe_ 6y ago
    Yes they are, and yes some users want both at the same time. Users are complicated.
mywittyname 6y ago
I can think of many reasons, but I'll limit them to: 1. visibility - it is easier for users to find the community on reddit. Both from search engines, and "organically" on reddit. 2. foot traffic - users don't need to remember that you exist to visit, once a sub is in a user's feed, they will see all of the new posts. 3. Setting up a server and installing forum software might be "easy," but it is still much more difficult than setting up a subreddit. The only real benefit to setting up a phpbb server is that you might get some revenue from ad traffic once the userbase grows up some.
- lotsofpulp 6y ago
  I think the difficulty in setting up a server and installing forum software is eclipsed by the time, effort, and liability stress from moderating the content and dealing with illegal or undesireable content / malware. To me, one of the impressive things about Reddit is how they have managed to be a mainstream site with porn, and how they manage to keep it off their front page.
  - wccrawford 6y ago
    Probably true, but people don't learn that until after they've set up a subreddit and it's gotten somewhat successful. For their own site, they're immediately hit with a wall of pain as they try to figure out what all they need to know just to get their first user. And there's nothing driving those users to their new forum, either.

screye 6y ago

Convenience and consistency. I was a big user of forums before reddit, and I am glad it has centralized. IMO, it is pretty obvious. It is the same reason any social media website has 1 identity for everything on it. > linking professional conversations and casual conversations You know you can alt accounts right ?

mostlysimilar 6y ago
“Having a single identity for all of your interests is more convenient” and “you can have multiple identities to keep your interests separate” seem like pretty contradictory statements.
- astrobe_ 6y ago
  Yes they are, and yes some users want both at the same time. Users are complicated.

mywittyname 6y ago

I can think of many reasons, but I'll limit them to: 1. visibility - it is easier for users to find the community on reddit. Both from search engines, and "organically" on reddit. 2. foot traffic - users don't need to remember that you exist to visit, once a sub is in a user's feed, they will see all of the new posts. 3. Setting up a server and installing forum software might be "easy," but it is still much more difficult than setting up a subreddit. The only real benefit to setting up a phpbb server is that you might get some revenue from ad traffic once the userbase grows up some.

lotsofpulp 6y ago
I think the difficulty in setting up a server and installing forum software is eclipsed by the time, effort, and liability stress from moderating the content and dealing with illegal or undesireable content / malware. To me, one of the impressive things about Reddit is how they have managed to be a mainstream site with porn, and how they manage to keep it off their front page.
- wccrawford 6y ago
  Probably true, but people don't learn that until after they've set up a subreddit and it's gotten somewhat successful. For their own site, they're immediately hit with a wall of pain as they try to figure out what all they need to know just to get their first user. And there's nothing driving those users to their new forum, either.