4 ms·

I think the future of the Internet will contain a lot of "Join <expired Discord invite link> to download!" so I hope the Reddit model prevails. Discord communi

by branon 3y ago

I think the future of the Internet will contain a lot of "Join <expired Discord invite link> to download!" so I hope the Reddit model prevails. Discord communities are regressive in that they're not indexed by search engines so a lot of the activity and information there may as well be nonexistent.

PM_me_your_math 3y ago
The reddit model is not without serious issues. Over the short term, reddit communities become echo chambers through the upvote/downvote mechanic. You only get group think, no outside viewpoints or discussion. The model promotes insular communities of single viewpoints. You also get thought-police moderators who will ban your account if you offer an opposing viewpoint.
- branon 3y ago
  Discord has these exact same problems, arguably worse because the echo chamber develops behind closed, un-indexable doors and crawlers can't archive any content before the moderators censor it. If clearnet can't see it, it's inherently of less utility to me. Subreddits can make themselves more like Discord via private subs or approval-only posting but the majority of subs aren't this way. Reddit has a nice wiki feature. Downvoting doesn't remove posts. This is all great. The only thing better than reddit would be a standard MediaWiki instance or regular old web forum. Something less centralized. And yes, your web forum run by a cabal of mods could devolve into a censured echo chamber just like any niche subreddit, but this will never not be a problem. As long as my censured echo chambers are visible to web crawlers, the collective Internet can retain SOME level of agency. Even 4chan boards are archived in several places. Despite inconsistent moderation, bad-faith dialog and the fact that it's ostensibly an echo chamber - we at least KNOW exactly what it is because there's a paper trail. On the flip side, HN has its own paper trail of good-faith dialog here: https://hn.algolia.com/ https://hn.algolia.com/ Discord is a black hole. And worse - it's tens of thousands of niche black holes, each one representing a community that otherwise would have found its home on the clearnet.

by branon 3y ago

PM_me_your_math 3y ago

The reddit model is not without serious issues. Over the short term, reddit communities become echo chambers through the upvote/downvote mechanic. You only get group think, no outside viewpoints or discussion. The model promotes insular communities of single viewpoints. You also get thought-police moderators who will ban your account if you offer an opposing viewpoint.

branon 3y ago
Discord has these exact same problems, arguably worse because the echo chamber develops behind closed, un-indexable doors and crawlers can't archive any content before the moderators censor it. If clearnet can't see it, it's inherently of less utility to me. Subreddits can make themselves more like Discord via private subs or approval-only posting but the majority of subs aren't this way. Reddit has a nice wiki feature. Downvoting doesn't remove posts. This is all great. The only thing better than reddit would be a standard MediaWiki instance or regular old web forum. Something less centralized. And yes, your web forum run by a cabal of mods could devolve into a censured echo chamber just like any niche subreddit, but this will never not be a problem. As long as my censured echo chambers are visible to web crawlers, the collective Internet can retain SOME level of agency. Even 4chan boards are archived in several places. Despite inconsistent moderation, bad-faith dialog and the fact that it's ostensibly an echo chamber - we at least KNOW exactly what it is because there's a paper trail. On the flip side, HN has its own paper trail of good-faith dialog here: https://hn.algolia.com/ https://hn.algolia.com/ Discord is a black hole. And worse - it's tens of thousands of niche black holes, each one representing a community that otherwise would have found its home on the clearnet.