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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Death of Reddit
I don't use Reddit, but I thought this was interesting, and somewhat germane to any online community.
Posted by Chuq Von Rospach on Jul 11, 2015
My favorite visualization of online communities is the community bar. Ive used, managed and built online communities going back into the 1980s, many of them sports related, so its natural to look at those communities as sports bars. The thing Ive always told people interested in community management is this: if youre running a sports bar, and you have a gang of bikers move in, you have two choices. You can either eject the bikers, or youre running a biker bar. I never set out intending to put my time and energy into a biker bar, so I always worked to prevent the rowdy elements from taking over my communities, because I knew that would cause the people I wanted to be around to leave and find some other place to be.
To carry this visualization to Reddit, what you have is a really large, multi-floor building with a large ground-floor common space and a huge bar area filled with a wide variety of people. Much of the rest of the building are community rooms that people can use for their organizations and meetups to get together and interact. its a huge and very successful community space.
Reddit, however, has a basement, and in all honesty, the owners of this building would prefer nobody look down there, because again, its a big space full of community rooms as well, but down there are the groups Reddit feel are part of the community but would prefer most of us would stay avoid. In some ways Reddit should be lauded for being inclusive of all community groups, even the uncomfortable ones, but down in that basement is a big part of the ultimate death of Reddit.
Heres the thing. there are groups that dont feel the need to behave, that see that rebellion against authority as the base of their enjoyment. And there are people who simply get off by destroying what others build or screwing up what others enjoy. If you invite those people into your house, eventually some of them are going to start pissing into your fireplace or throwing chairs at each other in the main hall. Even if you keep them in their own out of the way mostly hidden community room, the things they do will attract attention adn the authorities, and when the police come through your front door and raid your basement, your other patrons will notice. When that happens often enough, youll see more and more of those become ex-patrons. Most of us dont want to party in a biker bar. Hell, most of us dont want to party next door to a biker bar, or within blocks of a biker bar. Once your place gets that reputation, its going to make everyone around it nervous.
more: http://www.chuqui.com/2015/07/the-death-of-reddit/
MADem
(135,425 posts)all sorts of nefariousness.
These were the same people who would probably say "One man's biker bar is another man's free speech zone." Because they were really into that whole "Waaah, free speech" shit--even when the free speech involved aggressive racism and sleazy borderline child porn.
Turns out, the excoriated Ms. Pao was the only one on the barricades, fighting FOR some of the freedoms the assholes who were crapping on her wanted to retain. And when she was ousted, those assholes cheered.
Now they're sorry. But it's too late, baby, now, it's too late.... As they should have been when they started calling her all those hateful, racist and sexist names.
Hmmmm.
Related post: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1139&pid=12038
LittleBlue
(10,362 posts)Grew into by far the largest discussion site on the internet with all those rebellious basement dwellers.
The guy who wrote this has 2600 followers on twitter by comparison. It is amusing to see the author of that piece and many on DU who think the path to a successful internet site is censorship when 1) they've never run a successful internet site and 2) they have been predicting the doom of Reddit for years as it continues to grow larger.
djean111
(14,255 posts)My grandson is actually a computer nerd, and the characterization of Redditors is ridiculous. i repeat, Facebook is a lot more scarey, and they can get your name and address.
LittleBlue
(10,362 posts)Reddit is just a giant free-for-all. The format is really odd but it's mostly just good interviews, interesting photography, and whatever other interests people have.
The most popular stuff is on the front page. Does it look evil?
www.reddit.com
MADem
(135,425 posts)See the link to another DU thread re: the recent upheaval at Reddit just upthread...
And I agree with this observation of his, too:
LittleBlue
(10,362 posts)A disgruntled former employee won't change that. Gawker has been waging a jealous war on Reddit for years, seething in the fact that it is nowhere near as popular and are losing traffic.
Gawker is garbage
closeupready
(29,503 posts)djean111
(14,255 posts)with 63,000 readers. Smaller one for Hillary. And my grandson is a staunch redditor, and always tells me don't read the comments. Lots of very famous people have participated in the Ask Me Anything, and I really don't see Reddit dying out just yet.
Personally, I just want those 63,000 Bernie supporters to be sure and register and vote in the primaries.
Hmmmm - should I worry about the people in the gun thread here shooting up my neighborhood? Lots of hyperbole there, and I think Facebook is more frightening - they have real names there.
Prism
(5,815 posts)It has always been thus, and it will always be.
It's interesting to watch DU discuss reddit, because some of the most prolific commenters don't seem to be Reddit readers.
People seem to think Reddit is a nonstop hatefest full of racism, misogyny, and homophobia. I assume that happens because those are the kinds of posts blogs will pick up and message boards based on these issues will share. "Can't you believe how awful this random internet person is?!" (Yes, I can.)
Reddit is actually just the internet. You will typically find what you seek. If you want to find, for example, MRAs and watch them be horrible human beings, you can do that. Just sidle over to those subreddits. If you want to watch racists in action, you can wobble on over to racist subreddits and marvel at the ignorance.
But what if you're an average redditor?
You typically won't see this stuff. I read Reddit everyday. I peruse the front page and the "all" pages. The amount of actual hateful disruption is vanishingly small unless there's a major disruption. Most days, I won't see a single thing that's particularly objectionable. Why? Because people in the main subreddits usually downvote the bad stuff to hell and it is hidden by the time I get around to reading.
Before the massive shitstorm, I did not even know "fatpeoplehate" existed. There's a nasty racist subreddit I never heard of until I saw someone highlight it on a blog I read. Reading Reddit, I'd have never caught it.
The site works for what it's intended to do. Do you have a certain interest? Subscribe to the corresponding subreddit. I use it to read about books, astronomy, games, geology, fitness, history, baking, coffee, DIY, uber, LGBT issues, and a host of other minor interests. I rarely see this Worst Site of All Time some on DU are convinced exists. Because I'm not obsessively, actively seeking it out.
Although, I do understand why the tumblerites hate the place. It bucks their would-be Internet authoritarian impulses, where they strive to remake the world wide web into a place where only the shit they approve of will be allowed. (Keep trying, kids. Ain't ever gonna happen). And I'm really quite fine with that. If they didn't have something to be Very Righteously Angry about, what would they do online all day?
alarimer
(16,245 posts)People use pseudonyms here, yet we don't get that kind of horrific behavior (mostly), because of the posting rules.
I think these kind of internet free-for-alls need to go away. Either make people use their own names and be held accountable for their hateful actions, or have rules.
Fuck Reddit and the subhuman scum who live over there.
Prism
(5,815 posts)Honestly. You'd never see anything from Reddit's underbelly if you didn't seek it out, or if others didn't seek it out to show you.
Just like nearly the entire internet.
"I think these kind of internet free-for-alls need to go away." - No thank you. That's the censor-hungry authoritarianism I just described. It's an illiberal impulse I'll never support.
alarimer
(16,245 posts)can't disappear fast enough for me.