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"Slashdot Media is doing badly" I've always believed that admin moderated link aggregators have a ceiling as far as traffic/popularity goes. And so far, I seem

"Slashdot Media is doing badly" I've always believed that admin moderated link aggregators have a ceiling as far as traffic/popularity goes. And so far, I seem to be correct in that belief. Sites like mefi, /. and fark all hit a peak than plateau or more commonly, drastically decline. I firmly believe a large part of that is due to the moderation itself. When you have the same group of minds selecting the content that gets seen, over the course of years, the users eventually get burnt out seeing the same type of stuff, chosen by the same people over and over again. The content becomes stale even if its fresh (if that makes sense). There is one exception to this, however. That's reddit. Reddit's genius lies in its subreddits. That, in short, is the ability for users to create their own link aggregators within the site. In this, the content can never 'get stale' because if you get bored visiting /r/Cars, and your interests are now about photography, there are a dozen different subreddits focusing on that niche. There is always something there to keep your attention. Maybe you're a political nut, maybe you're into botany, or even my little pony. There's literally something for everyone. It's a link aggregator with virtually no limits. I think the biggest thing that separates reddit from all the rest, however, is that the links aren't moderated by the admins or paid employees of the site. Each subreddit/community has its own mods who make the rules. Some communities are modded very laissez faire-ish while others like /r/askscience are modded with an iron fist. The drawback to that is it can give rise to internal drama, but I believe that's easily offset by the limitless potential. I think reddit will eventually be spoken in the same breath as twitter and facebook a few years from now and sites like slashdot, fark and mefi will all but be gone or forgotten.

jeremysmyth 13y ago
The corrollary to this is that all community-moderated sites (including this very one we sit in) tend toward Digg, and ultimately toward Cheezburger. There's a cycle: Clique with narrow shared self-moderated interests, becomes cool, attracts more people with broader interests, self-moderation becomes wider and people vote up things with more general appeal, until ultimately it all becomes a new "cool things on the internet" bucket. I tend to prefer sites with stronger guidelines and stronger moderation. Stack Overflow has strong guidelines but still gets its share of detractors, because it doesn't allow "cool things on the internet". Slashdot is still mod-curated, has sections, but stories don't hit the front page unless voted up. It's a different model to HN, but not that different. It still relies on other people's clicks to make me see it, and in that model the community becomes the key factor. Is Slashdot's community dead? That's the question, not just the infrastructure.
motdiem 13y ago
I think mefi is a little bit different too, as I understand it, the main revenue come from ads on the Ask Metafilter pages. It certainly isn't growing very much, but I don't believe it's actually declining. I've been away from slashdot for quite a while (I have a 4 digits username there), I checked the beta site, and while it looks a bit bland to me, I don't get why it is such a big deal for the active users. Would love to have pointers that describe exactly what happens/why it's happening now.
bmm6o 13y ago
> When you have the same group of minds selecting the content that gets seen, over the course of years, the users eventually get burnt out seeing the same type of stuff, chosen by the same people over and over again The moderators on MetaFilter do not select the content for the site. They can delete posts, and do so several times a day, but it doesn't influence the content to nearly the same extent.
PiracyIsAwesome 13y ago
Reddit is a shit hole of shadow bans and fake accounts. I myself have many fake accounts on reddit that I use to upvote and downvote. I have successfully taken posts off the front page of a sub-reddit all by myself , I have successfully fought shadow bans with multiple accounts , I have successfully downvoted , all by myself , downvoted people I don't like into the hidden section. And I'm just one guy doing this , there are corporations who manipulate reddit all the time , there is even a sub-reddit dedicated to talking about it. There are also people who have created businesses on selling accounts and votes on reddit. That's how corrupted that place is. Is it something to do ? Yes. Do I see it in the same league as facebook and twitter ? NO Way. And because of the shadow bans you are never really free to say what you want , which is another reason reddit sucks. Plus the very concept of the shadow ban deserves that they should get abused.

jeremysmyth 13y ago

The corrollary to this is that all community-moderated sites (including this very one we sit in) tend toward Digg, and ultimately toward Cheezburger. There's a cycle: Clique with narrow shared self-moderated interests, becomes cool, attracts more people with broader interests, self-moderation becomes wider and people vote up things with more general appeal, until ultimately it all becomes a new "cool things on the internet" bucket. I tend to prefer sites with stronger guidelines and stronger moderation. Stack Overflow has strong guidelines but still gets its share of detractors, because it doesn't allow "cool things on the internet". Slashdot is still mod-curated, has sections, but stories don't hit the front page unless voted up. It's a different model to HN, but not that different. It still relies on other people's clicks to make me see it, and in that model the community becomes the key factor. Is Slashdot's community dead? That's the question, not just the infrastructure.

motdiem 13y ago

I think mefi is a little bit different too, as I understand it, the main revenue come from ads on the Ask Metafilter pages. It certainly isn't growing very much, but I don't believe it's actually declining. I've been away from slashdot for quite a while (I have a 4 digits username there), I checked the beta site, and while it looks a bit bland to me, I don't get why it is such a big deal for the active users. Would love to have pointers that describe exactly what happens/why it's happening now.

bmm6o 13y ago

> When you have the same group of minds selecting the content that gets seen, over the course of years, the users eventually get burnt out seeing the same type of stuff, chosen by the same people over and over again The moderators on MetaFilter do not select the content for the site. They can delete posts, and do so several times a day, but it doesn't influence the content to nearly the same extent.

PiracyIsAwesome 13y ago

Reddit is a shit hole of shadow bans and fake accounts. I myself have many fake accounts on reddit that I use to upvote and downvote. I have successfully taken posts off the front page of a sub-reddit all by myself , I have successfully fought shadow bans with multiple accounts , I have successfully downvoted , all by myself , downvoted people I don't like into the hidden section. And I'm just one guy doing this , there are corporations who manipulate reddit all the time , there is even a sub-reddit dedicated to talking about it. There are also people who have created businesses on selling accounts and votes on reddit. That's how corrupted that place is. Is it something to do ? Yes. Do I see it in the same league as facebook and twitter ? NO Way. And because of the shadow bans you are never really free to say what you want , which is another reason reddit sucks. Plus the very concept of the shadow ban deserves that they should get abused.