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The issue is not online communities per se, it is creating yet another social media site that tries to house everyone. HN is a focused audience with active mode
by mattgreenrocks 4y ago
The issue is not online communities per se, it is creating yet another social media site that tries to house everyone. HN is a focused audience with active moderation, that's why it works.
Social media? Completely different story. Scale is off the charts so it is difficult to moderate. Lots of noise, people trying to be brands and brands trying to be people. Idiotic clamoring for blue checkmarks as if they actually mean something. Collective belief in the metrics of the platform meaning something overall. Little pushback against unpleasant individuals, and few people questioning the pace or mechanics of platforms that actually create toxic environments.
But yeah, other than that, social media is great. :)
- BaseballPhysics 4y agoYou're drawing some arbitrary line where a "focused audience" isn't "social media" whereas a "media site that tries to house everyone" is. All of these are social media. Tik Tok, Reddit, Hacker News, Facebook, Twitter, Bluesky, Mastodon, Github (yes, Github), Discord, and on and on... they're all social media, in that they provide places for individuals to connect and communicate. Which is what the OP seemed to be objecting to. Personally, I 100% agree with you: I don't believe winner-takes-all social media platforms must necessarily be the future, and in fact I think it'd be better if there was far greater diversity, which is why I strongly believe in a protocols-over-platforms future.