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No one likes secret internet clubs, they're lame and end up as a circlejerk or a hugbox, much like early IRC servers and discord servers now. Opinion: lobste.r

No one likes secret internet clubs, they're lame and end up as a circlejerk or a hugbox, much like early IRC servers and discord servers now. Opinion: lobste.rs sucks because you need to be one of the chosen people to post there, and you're only chosen if you think like someone already in there. The posts there are very high quality, but it might as well be a hivemind's blog. Why would I read someone else's comments when I could make my own, on a different website with the same links posted? But you don't want to end up like reddit, with their facebook tier front page and repetitive, bot(-like ?) comments. Reddit sucks now is because they let anyone post anything, and the admins want to capture the stream of quick, digital trash coming out of tiktok and the likes. That's what the shareholders want, more users to sell ads. Who cares what the peons babble about, make sure whoever visits the site doesnt have an ad blocker and stick around a long time. Having a small community lets you specialize more and, in my opinion, specializing a website is much healthier. Discussions are much more pleasant when you go to traffic-forum or chair-forum dot com to discuss traffic tech or leather chairs. You go to reddit, or facebook, or whatever, and see mounds of unrelated videos and pictures flooding your screen. The moderators don't do their job because when you allow everything, you only have to do the bare minimum.

some_furry 3y ago
> lobste.rs sucks because you need to be one of the chosen people to post there, and you're only chosen if you think like someone already in there. The posts there are very high quality, but it might as well be a hivemind's blog. Why would I read someone else's comments when I could make my own, on a different website with the same links posted? You should read some of the threads of lobste.rs users reacting poorly when a technical article happens to be posted by an author with a furry or anime avatar. It's just like some Hacker News threads. Indistinguishable.
- telotortium 3y ago
  At least your user name is honest...
arp242 3y ago
I think "circlejerks" and "hiveminds" are okay. Would you expect a church to defend their views against atheists every Sunday? Or vice versa? Like-minded people like to hang out and talk about like-minded stuff. That's fine.
- hutzlibu 3y ago
  It is quite ironic, that people flagged your post. Meaning apparently, no your opinion, that people don’t want to be confronted with controversial opinions all day long was a unwanted opinion from the local hivemind. Or was I missing something here? Because I also think, that it is fine, if people do their thing in their groups. There are enough other public (online) places, where you do get confronted with other peoples realities. Is that really a flagworthy opinion?
  - arp242 3y ago
    > It is quite ironic, that people flagged your post. Flagged or downvoted? Downvoting stuff is fine; it's actually a bit more nuanced as I mentioned in my previous post because if you spend all your life in a "circlejerk" then that's perhaps a bit of an issue. That's been a concern with e.g. "The filter bubble" and things like "FOX News media bubble" and stuff. But none of that applies to e.g. Lobsters, so I didn't bother mentioning it. Flagging would be a horrible abuse of the flag feature though.
    - hutzlibu 3y ago
      See the reply from dang above, it was apparently a simple word filter in action, meaning "circlej**" is not allowed to say.
    - hutzlibu 3y ago
      Flagged, like this post of yours was just now. (until I vouched) I see it happen and it disturbs me as well. The other variant would be, you are shadowbanned? But it doesn't seem like it.
  - dang 3y ago
rjh29 3y ago
I don't follow your last two paragraphs. If you unsub from the default subs and stay on smaller ones then you get exactly that small forum experience. The downvote system kills a lot of toxic arguments and insults that forums tend to be full of.

some_furry 3y ago

> lobste.rs sucks because you need to be one of the chosen people to post there, and you're only chosen if you think like someone already in there. The posts there are very high quality, but it might as well be a hivemind's blog. Why would I read someone else's comments when I could make my own, on a different website with the same links posted? You should read some of the threads of lobste.rs users reacting poorly when a technical article happens to be posted by an author with a furry or anime avatar. It's just like some Hacker News threads. Indistinguishable.

telotortium 3y ago
At least your user name is honest...

arp242 3y ago

I think "circlejerks" and "hiveminds" are okay. Would you expect a church to defend their views against atheists every Sunday? Or vice versa? Like-minded people like to hang out and talk about like-minded stuff. That's fine.

hutzlibu 3y ago
It is quite ironic, that people flagged your post. Meaning apparently, no your opinion, that people don’t want to be confronted with controversial opinions all day long was a unwanted opinion from the local hivemind. Or was I missing something here? Because I also think, that it is fine, if people do their thing in their groups. There are enough other public (online) places, where you do get confronted with other peoples realities. Is that really a flagworthy opinion?
- arp242 3y ago
  > It is quite ironic, that people flagged your post. Flagged or downvoted? Downvoting stuff is fine; it's actually a bit more nuanced as I mentioned in my previous post because if you spend all your life in a "circlejerk" then that's perhaps a bit of an issue. That's been a concern with e.g. "The filter bubble" and things like "FOX News media bubble" and stuff. But none of that applies to e.g. Lobsters, so I didn't bother mentioning it. Flagging would be a horrible abuse of the flag feature though.
  - hutzlibu 3y ago
    See the reply from dang above, it was apparently a simple word filter in action, meaning "circlej**" is not allowed to say.
  - hutzlibu 3y ago
    Flagged, like this post of yours was just now. (until I vouched) I see it happen and it disturbs me as well. The other variant would be, you are shadowbanned? But it doesn't seem like it.
- dang 3y ago

rjh29 3y ago

I don't follow your last two paragraphs. If you unsub from the default subs and stay on smaller ones then you get exactly that small forum experience. The downvote system kills a lot of toxic arguments and insults that forums tend to be full of.