5 ms·

What I really want is a big list of subs with actual useful stuff. No memes, no hate or soft-hate [1] but useful things like electronics or how to play the pia

by zibzab 5y ago

What I really want is a big list of subs with actual useful stuff. No memes, no hate or soft-hate [1] but useful things like electronics or how to play the piano. [1] have you noticed that many of top subs are about either watching others humiliation or judging people? idiotsincar, iamatotalpieceofshit, maliciouscompliance, etc. Do I actually become a better person by following these?

throwaway0a5e 5y ago
Beware of the Murray Gell-Mann amnesia effect. Based on my experience with the subjects I know intimately my experience is that Reddit advice is roughly equivalent to asking a teenager to Google something for you. I fully agree that any sub that's core content involves shitting on people has terrible inhabitants and all the quality of commentary that follows from that. Some of the more lighthearted ones are a little better (e.g. holdmybeer vs idiotsincars) when the content is conducive to such but only in the sense that someone with a crippling mental illness might have a good-ish day here and there.
throwaway98797 5y ago
the world of reaction is bigger than the world of action. any sub that’s practical is inherently less active. There’s only so much good base knowledge. Reacting to base knowledge is endless low value content.
1_2__5 5y ago
The level of hateful, spiteful, and bitter disdain I see in comments across all of Reddit have led me to believe it’s not just popular subs and it’s not even just Reddit: this is where the younger generations in America are right now, emotionally. People are looking for someone or something to judge and hate. It’s not limited to any particular political cohort or socioeconomic strata either. I see it here on HN quite a bit too, even in more anodyne discussions you can read it prowling around the edges of the discourse. It’s not just that there’s people who make these comments - of course there’s always going to be - but that fact that they’re typically so highly upvoted anywhere there’s a voting/likes system. Anything that attempts to reflect nuance or lower the temperature has no boosters, while anything that reflects the worst, most reductive or least honest take is what bubbles to the top.
- zibzab 5y ago
  Or... maybe that's how we will become if we are constantly fed this type of content ?
  - BizarroLand 5y ago
    There is also the lingering effects of the eternal September, with fresh and impressionable new blood being constantly poured into the online communities. It's much easier to radicalize a 13 year old than a 30 year old. Not that it's impossible to radicalize a 30 year old, just that the less experience you've had in life the more mentally malleable you are.
h0h0h0h0111 5y ago
>have you noticed that many of top subs are about either watching others humiliation or judging people This is something I've noticed too! I occasionally browse /r/all and it's awash with judgemental holier-than-thou material. Echoing many posters here, there is a lot of great content on reddit if you dig a bit, but it doesn't often seem be the stuff that gets pushed to the top for me. Even on subs that do have good content, low effort posts seem to get the most upvotes (perhaps low effort = less effort to read = quicker to upvote?). A concrete example for me is on the /r/unresolvedmysteries subreddit - 2 line updates about a case (e.g. "Police announced no new evidence") are top of the front page daily, while longer insightful breakdowns of cases are often buried. Perhaps a system for weighting upvote value to content length or complexity could be worth exploring?
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- vayeate 5y ago
  I'm been using a tool to simply help filter out negativity: http://healthy.surf/ http://healthy.surf/ It's still a really early version but I know the guy is still working on it
hasbot 5y ago
That'd be a massive list. I easily find useful subreddits for my interests in bicycling, rowing, climbing, and harmonica playing. My local subreddits are not exactly useful but they're ok for what they are.
bena 5y ago
There are subs I subscribe to and subs I'll "just visit". I'll subscribe to programming, python, csharp, lego, starcraft. Basically anything I'm specifically interested in. To find out what's the general feel of those topics. But I'll pop in leopardsatemyface, iamverysmart, and a few others just for fun.
charwalker 5y ago
It's social media, the judging drives clicks.
grae_QED 5y ago
Go to the reddit sidebar/wiki's. For example, if you want to learn another language, r/languagelearning has a very helpful wiki that is pretty comprehensive[1]. [1]https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/wiki/guide https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/wiki/guide

by zibzab 5y ago

throwaway0a5e 5y ago

Beware of the Murray Gell-Mann amnesia effect. Based on my experience with the subjects I know intimately my experience is that Reddit advice is roughly equivalent to asking a teenager to Google something for you. I fully agree that any sub that's core content involves shitting on people has terrible inhabitants and all the quality of commentary that follows from that. Some of the more lighthearted ones are a little better (e.g. holdmybeer vs idiotsincars) when the content is conducive to such but only in the sense that someone with a crippling mental illness might have a good-ish day here and there.

throwaway98797 5y ago

the world of reaction is bigger than the world of action. any sub that’s practical is inherently less active. There’s only so much good base knowledge. Reacting to base knowledge is endless low value content.

1_2__5 5y ago

The level of hateful, spiteful, and bitter disdain I see in comments across all of Reddit have led me to believe it’s not just popular subs and it’s not even just Reddit: this is where the younger generations in America are right now, emotionally. People are looking for someone or something to judge and hate. It’s not limited to any particular political cohort or socioeconomic strata either. I see it here on HN quite a bit too, even in more anodyne discussions you can read it prowling around the edges of the discourse. It’s not just that there’s people who make these comments - of course there’s always going to be - but that fact that they’re typically so highly upvoted anywhere there’s a voting/likes system. Anything that attempts to reflect nuance or lower the temperature has no boosters, while anything that reflects the worst, most reductive or least honest take is what bubbles to the top.

zibzab 5y ago
Or... maybe that's how we will become if we are constantly fed this type of content ?
- BizarroLand 5y ago
  There is also the lingering effects of the eternal September, with fresh and impressionable new blood being constantly poured into the online communities. It's much easier to radicalize a 13 year old than a 30 year old. Not that it's impossible to radicalize a 30 year old, just that the less experience you've had in life the more mentally malleable you are.

h0h0h0h0111 5y ago

>have you noticed that many of top subs are about either watching others humiliation or judging people This is something I've noticed too! I occasionally browse /r/all and it's awash with judgemental holier-than-thou material. Echoing many posters here, there is a lot of great content on reddit if you dig a bit, but it doesn't often seem be the stuff that gets pushed to the top for me. Even on subs that do have good content, low effort posts seem to get the most upvotes (perhaps low effort = less effort to read = quicker to upvote?). A concrete example for me is on the /r/unresolvedmysteries subreddit - 2 line updates about a case (e.g. "Police announced no new evidence") are top of the front page daily, while longer insightful breakdowns of cases are often buried. Perhaps a system for weighting upvote value to content length or complexity could be worth exploring?

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
vayeate 5y ago
I'm been using a tool to simply help filter out negativity: http://healthy.surf/ http://healthy.surf/ It's still a really early version but I know the guy is still working on it

hasbot 5y ago

That'd be a massive list. I easily find useful subreddits for my interests in bicycling, rowing, climbing, and harmonica playing. My local subreddits are not exactly useful but they're ok for what they are.

bena 5y ago

There are subs I subscribe to and subs I'll "just visit". I'll subscribe to programming, python, csharp, lego, starcraft. Basically anything I'm specifically interested in. To find out what's the general feel of those topics. But I'll pop in leopardsatemyface, iamverysmart, and a few others just for fun.

charwalker 5y ago

It's social media, the judging drives clicks.

grae_QED 5y ago

Go to the reddit sidebar/wiki's. For example, if you want to learn another language, r/languagelearning has a very helpful wiki that is pretty comprehensive[1]. [1]https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/wiki/guide https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/wiki/guide