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Subreddit communities. Particularly the small to mid-size ones. I honestly think knowing how to use subreddits as a resource is essential to being a functional

Subreddit communities. Particularly the small to mid-size ones. I honestly think knowing how to use subreddits as a resource is essential to being a functional user of the Internet. It's a crowd-curated feed of all things relevant to any particular topic, presented in a way that is consistent and meaningful. For example, I'm debating between Android and iPhone for my next upgrade. I really only want to use iOS if it's jailbroken. So what's the latest jailbreak news? There are probably some forums or tech blog primers that could give me the answers I need, but the easiest way to get that info, is to go to r/jailbreak. Chances are, the sidebar will have everything I need. You want to get your dad a nice shaving kit for father's day? r/wicked_edge. Interested in owning a noisy keyboard? r/mechanicalkeyboards. Why doesn't the guy next to you wash his jeans? r/rawdenim. Just experience your first panic attack? r/anxiety. What are the essential hip-hop albums I should listen to? r/hiphopheads. Classical? r/classicalmusic. Jazz? You guessed it, r/jazz. There are thousands of medium-sized subreddits that cater specifically to one thing, and the content of those subreddits has all been curated, critiqued, and discussed by an organic, self-motivated user base. I may only be interested in the subject-matter for a short time and narrow purpose, but the community of that subreddit is interested in that subject-matter all the time, and they've done all the leg-work for me. I know the information I get will have undergone more review and rigor than almost any other source on the Internet. As a bonus, the organization of that information is always presented in the same familiar way, so I don't have to learn a new UI or workflow. And that's just for using subreddits as one-time information repositories. You've also got the power of reddit as a newsfeed. Again, I can follow a subreddit for daily updates on whatever topic I want. This is so incredibly advantageous to those following sports, TV shows, or news events. ESPN is fine if I want general sports news, but what if I only want news about my local NFL team (the Seahawks)? I could follow a Seahawks blog, but then that's just a few people generating content. Instead, I can go to r/seahawks. There I've got all the content distilled, updated, and sorted for me: blogs, Twitter posts, articles from beat journalists, plus all the user discussion in response to this content.

gabemart 12y ago
The thing is though, for every topic I know anything about, the corresponding reddit communities are OK but certainly not the most authoritative place go to ask questions or read the latest news. The most knowledgeable communities still tend to be based around traditional phbBB bulletin boards or other types of conventionally structured forums. I use reddit a lot for asking questions because it's a really low-friction way to find a community that knows quite a bit about a certain topic. But once you really start researching a topic thoroughly, reddit's structure and voting system doesn't seem well suited for most discussions, and as a result the communities that form always seem to have a certain casual quality to me. I think reddit offers tremendous value, but more because of the potential for easy discovery of new communities and the potential for community cross-pollination that results.
- matznerd 12y ago
  I think you are right in terms of forum-based communities having more in-depth discussions due to the way that in a forum, new replies bring threads back to the front page, whereas on reddit, after a few days, no one is posting on old threads. For this reason, I think reddit really shines for communities where there is time sensitive discussion around news and for getting a perspective on the latest happenings. So it really just depends on the topic area...
arfliw 12y ago
Are you creating new threads asking questions in those niche subs or are you using the search function for old threads?
- ryanfreeborn 12y ago
  Neither really. If I do either it's very rare (and if I'm searching I'm probably using Google). Most of the time the information I need can be found quickly through the sidebar.

gabemart 12y ago

The thing is though, for every topic I know anything about, the corresponding reddit communities are OK but certainly not the most authoritative place go to ask questions or read the latest news. The most knowledgeable communities still tend to be based around traditional phbBB bulletin boards or other types of conventionally structured forums. I use reddit a lot for asking questions because it's a really low-friction way to find a community that knows quite a bit about a certain topic. But once you really start researching a topic thoroughly, reddit's structure and voting system doesn't seem well suited for most discussions, and as a result the communities that form always seem to have a certain casual quality to me. I think reddit offers tremendous value, but more because of the potential for easy discovery of new communities and the potential for community cross-pollination that results.

matznerd 12y ago
I think you are right in terms of forum-based communities having more in-depth discussions due to the way that in a forum, new replies bring threads back to the front page, whereas on reddit, after a few days, no one is posting on old threads. For this reason, I think reddit really shines for communities where there is time sensitive discussion around news and for getting a perspective on the latest happenings. So it really just depends on the topic area...

arfliw 12y ago

Are you creating new threads asking questions in those niche subs or are you using the search function for old threads?

ryanfreeborn 12y ago
Neither really. If I do either it's very rare (and if I'm searching I'm probably using Google). Most of the time the information I need can be found quickly through the sidebar.