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That's by far the most ambitious Reddit project I've seen. Moderation would have to be quite a bit aggressive, yet hopefully sensible, but I can see this as a g

by eksith 14y ago

That's by far the most ambitious Reddit project I've seen. Moderation would have to be quite a bit aggressive, yet hopefully sensible, but I can see this as a genuine alternative the stack* forums (which I feel are a bit stuffy and too "closed as not constructive").

galvin 14y ago
StackExchange sites are meant to be for questions and answers, they aren't comparable.
- eksith 14y ago
  Humans aren't APIs. If observing Stack and a whole heap of other sites (even apps and gadgets) have ever taught me anything, it's that your creation is what your users take it to be. Not what you originally intended. I mean sure, the "nudge" method works by locking, deleting even outright banning, but in the end, people will do what comes naturally. It's like trying to make water flow upwards on a waterfall. The natural direction of interraction is toward discussion, not just question-in-answer-out.
  - derefr 14y ago
    > I mean sure, the "nudge" method works by locking, deleting even outright banning, but in the end, people will do what comes naturally. Alternatively, you can just give people a place to do what comes naturally, so that it doesn't clutter their "productive effort." Talk pages on wikis, for example.
    - eksith 14y ago
      That's true. And I guess that's what "Meta" was supposed to be, but there's still a lot of the same handicaps applied there and "polling" questions (whatever that means today vs. tomorrow) get voted down to obvlivion. E.G : http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/138411/why-are-constructive-questions-being-closed-as-not-constructive http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/138411/why-are-const... So even in a place that's talk "of" the place still isn't safe to talk of.
      - derefr 14y ago
        I think the problem there, is that meta.stackoverflow is still considered by the StackOverflow guys to be an instance of type QuestionAnswerSite. Which means that it's a place to ask objective questions about StackOverflow, not really a place to "talk about things." What they really need is forum.stackoverflow.com. Or, more likely, given the leadership, discourse.stackoverflow.com.
  - galvin 14y ago
    No, what I meant was that University of Reddit is not an alternative to StackExchange. University of Reddit is for learning new skills, kind of like Khan Academy, Coursera, Udacity, or a real University. StackExchange sites are for solving problems, I very much doubt they will ever become anything like that regardless of natural evolution. I have seen plenty of interesting discussions closed on StackExchange and whether or not that's a good thing is besides the point. The fundamental purpose of the two services is not comparable. It's called the StackExchange Network by the way, not Stack.
    - eksith 14y ago
      Yes, by Stack* I was referring to StackExchange's sites.
rz2k 14y ago
There have been things like this for a fairly long while on Reddit. Mostly, they have been along the lines of organizing a study group version of self-study following, doing something like a course on OCW. They predated Coursera, and the first three pre-Coursera/Udacity courses for ML, DB, AI got a lot of buzz in that community. However, in general, the problem has had less to do with the need to moderate, and more with the slow decline in enthusiasm when there is insufficient follow through. Perhaps one of the ones that has been the most successful, "carlhprogramming", benefited because it wasn't only lead by someone who wanted to learn along with the rest of the class, but filled the role of instructor. If so, that might not auger well for groups of peers learning together. However, I haven't checked any of these out recently, and I could be completely off base about how ambitious this is and how likely it is to really help a lot of people learn new things.
- eksith 14y ago
  Maybe those earlier efforts didn't because it was too connected to the rest of the community? A completely different place to discuss "nothing but" may be what was needed and if the earlier efforts had more direction, maybe they would have seen continued adoption. It's pretty easy to get distracted on Reddit after all so complete self-study may not have been very effective. I hope this does take off and incorporate the best of those.

by eksith 14y ago

galvin 14y ago

StackExchange sites are meant to be for questions and answers, they aren't comparable.

eksith 14y ago
Humans aren't APIs. If observing Stack and a whole heap of other sites (even apps and gadgets) have ever taught me anything, it's that your creation is what your users take it to be. Not what you originally intended. I mean sure, the "nudge" method works by locking, deleting even outright banning, but in the end, people will do what comes naturally. It's like trying to make water flow upwards on a waterfall. The natural direction of interraction is toward discussion, not just question-in-answer-out.
- derefr 14y ago
  > I mean sure, the "nudge" method works by locking, deleting even outright banning, but in the end, people will do what comes naturally. Alternatively, you can just give people a place to do what comes naturally, so that it doesn't clutter their "productive effort." Talk pages on wikis, for example.
  - eksith 14y ago
    That's true. And I guess that's what "Meta" was supposed to be, but there's still a lot of the same handicaps applied there and "polling" questions (whatever that means today vs. tomorrow) get voted down to obvlivion. E.G : http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/138411/why-are-constructive-questions-being-closed-as-not-constructive http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/138411/why-are-const... So even in a place that's talk "of" the place still isn't safe to talk of.
    - derefr 14y ago
      I think the problem there, is that meta.stackoverflow is still considered by the StackOverflow guys to be an instance of type QuestionAnswerSite. Which means that it's a place to ask objective questions about StackOverflow, not really a place to "talk about things." What they really need is forum.stackoverflow.com. Or, more likely, given the leadership, discourse.stackoverflow.com.
- galvin 14y ago
  No, what I meant was that University of Reddit is not an alternative to StackExchange. University of Reddit is for learning new skills, kind of like Khan Academy, Coursera, Udacity, or a real University. StackExchange sites are for solving problems, I very much doubt they will ever become anything like that regardless of natural evolution. I have seen plenty of interesting discussions closed on StackExchange and whether or not that's a good thing is besides the point. The fundamental purpose of the two services is not comparable. It's called the StackExchange Network by the way, not Stack.
  - eksith 14y ago
    Yes, by Stack* I was referring to StackExchange's sites.

rz2k 14y ago

There have been things like this for a fairly long while on Reddit. Mostly, they have been along the lines of organizing a study group version of self-study following, doing something like a course on OCW. They predated Coursera, and the first three pre-Coursera/Udacity courses for ML, DB, AI got a lot of buzz in that community. However, in general, the problem has had less to do with the need to moderate, and more with the slow decline in enthusiasm when there is insufficient follow through. Perhaps one of the ones that has been the most successful, "carlhprogramming", benefited because it wasn't only lead by someone who wanted to learn along with the rest of the class, but filled the role of instructor. If so, that might not auger well for groups of peers learning together. However, I haven't checked any of these out recently, and I could be completely off base about how ambitious this is and how likely it is to really help a lot of people learn new things.

eksith 14y ago
Maybe those earlier efforts didn't because it was too connected to the rest of the community? A completely different place to discuss "nothing but" may be what was needed and if the earlier efforts had more direction, maybe they would have seen continued adoption. It's pretty easy to get distracted on Reddit after all so complete self-study may not have been very effective. I hope this does take off and incorporate the best of those.