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Definitely seen it in the specific subreddits for tools, services and products. You’ll subscribe because there’s a community of your peers, you found them! They

by corobo 4y ago

Definitely seen it in the specific subreddits for tools, services and products. You’ll subscribe because there’s a community of your peers, you found them! They’re all doing cool things with the thing you’re using Then 2 years later the subreddit is basically just another support channel for the most boring entry level questions imaginable on loop Bonus points if the moderators decide to allow image posts and memes (eg if it was just text before) or some other massive change that resonates only with the newer folks and everyone else leaves. Now the repeating loop of basic questions are answered by people who themselves came for assistance, who repeat whatever they’ve already read, with no proof or knowledge if it actually works The example I’m thinking of is /r/Twitch in this case. Had a moment of thinking I’d be a streamer superstar, happens to us all right? Was being told* how to build my audience by people who themselves had no audience. Boshed a quick script together and found the average contributing user had less than 10 concurrent viewers when they go live. Useful. * Indirectly. I’m aware of the irony/hypocrisy that I was also looking for said basic questions - I was searching for answers not asking :P

arduinomancer 4y ago
That's a big pet peeve of mine with any hobby subreddit They usually have a wiki for beginners but it doesn't matter, it still just ends up with an endless stream of beginner content/discussions Even for example /r/programmerhumor is like 90% CS101 jokes, its like everyone on that subreddit just learned to code recently
sorenjan 4y ago
You get that in any subreddit that's named too generically, because that's where newcomers to the subject will go by default. If you're just started programming and you're learning Python, you're probably going to r/python to ask any questions you might have. If you just bought your first bicycle you're going to r/bicycle. So you end up with basic questions and people showing off their first 10 mile trip. Trying to fight it is futile, the only solution is to let the beginners have the most obvious community name, and let the more advanced users have their own with some name you won't stumble upon with only basic knowledge. I learned long ago that trying to point new users to specific newbie groups doesn't work, you'll come off as cranky and bitter, and eventually the majority of users are siding with the newcomers because thats how they identify as well.

by corobo 4y ago

arduinomancer 4y ago

That's a big pet peeve of mine with any hobby subreddit They usually have a wiki for beginners but it doesn't matter, it still just ends up with an endless stream of beginner content/discussions Even for example /r/programmerhumor is like 90% CS101 jokes, its like everyone on that subreddit just learned to code recently

sorenjan 4y ago

You get that in any subreddit that's named too generically, because that's where newcomers to the subject will go by default. If you're just started programming and you're learning Python, you're probably going to r/python to ask any questions you might have. If you just bought your first bicycle you're going to r/bicycle. So you end up with basic questions and people showing off their first 10 mile trip. Trying to fight it is futile, the only solution is to let the beginners have the most obvious community name, and let the more advanced users have their own with some name you won't stumble upon with only basic knowledge. I learned long ago that trying to point new users to specific newbie groups doesn't work, you'll come off as cranky and bitter, and eventually the majority of users are siding with the newcomers because thats how they identify as well.