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Ask HN: Alternatives to Reddit

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Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Reddit

#131

Post by mhink »

sharperguy wrote: post #44

I see reddit less as a website and more as a collection of communities. Each community has its own set of reasons for hosting itself on reddit vs other locations. Therefore I would predict that in the absence of reddit, not every community would move to the same place. I also noticed that in recent years many subreddits have increasingly been taken over by memes and other low quality posts and so users looking for mo…

> I also noticed that in recent years many subreddits have increasingly been taken over by memes and other low quality posts and so users looking for more substantial content have already moved elsewhere.

I feel like I've seen the opposite, generally- there was always kind of a tension between serious posts and memes, but in the past few years it seems to have become much more common to see subreddits with a counterpart strictly for memes (/r/chess and /r/anarchychess being a recently popular example).

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Reddit

#132

Post by RobotToaster »

jhallenworld wrote: post #57

For technical discussion groups: USENET. Either moderated newsgroups or even unmoderated ones for obscure enough topics. Spam is the issue, but not much spam on USENET these days. Also, the ham radio guys like groups.io, which is where yahoo groups migrated to. There are a lot of groups there on specific things, like Yeasu FT-857D transceiver. Groups.io has per-group file storage, which is handy for this. Anyway on U…

Worth noting that google censor a bunch of usenet groups from google groups.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Reddit

#134

Post by ollien »

SkyMarshal wrote: post #30
lucasyvas wrote: post #27

The one being promoted the most on migrations subreddits is Kbin (particularly kbin.social for sign-up). It federates with Lemmy as well - apparently some folks think the Lemmy devs have questionable moral character so decided not to promote Lemmy as a primary option (hell if I know, didn't look into it). That Kbin instance is getting slammed and trying to scale up right now - many identical /r/{subreddit} are now av…

Seems there are complaints about both dev teams - Kbin devs are apparently fascists or something in that vicinity, and Lemmy devs are apparently tankies or something in that vicinity.

I've heard about the Lemmy dev's politics, but what's this about the Kbin devs?

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Reddit

#136

Post by SkyPuncher »

scrollaway wrote: post #103
SkyPuncher wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm really enjoying tildes. The community/culture is correct. Just needs more content (which will come with time). I as well would love an invite.

You and GP can send me an email for an invite (see profile).

Thank you so much! I sent you an email.

As an aside, do you get a bunch of spam from having your email semi-public?

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Reddit

#137

Post by jhallenworld »

metadaemon wrote: post #108
jhallenworld wrote: post #57

For technical discussion groups: USENET. Either moderated newsgroups or even unmoderated ones for obscure enough topics. Spam is the issue, but not much spam on USENET these days. Also, the ham radio guys like groups.io, which is where yahoo groups migrated to. There are a lot of groups there on specific things, like Yeasu FT-857D transceiver. Groups.io has per-group file storage, which is handy for this. Anyway on U…

Wasn't aware of groups.io for ham discussions, thanks for posting! For USENET, I think I know the answer, but are there other consumption methods that you know of/recommend?

I was a USENET addict- long ago I had a shell account on "world.std.com" (The Software Tool & Die)- they were the first dial-up ISP, located in Brookline, MA. Anyway at some point they stopped- by which I mean they stopped billing me and people moved on to the web. But for at least a decade they left the machine running, and I could use it no charge.

So anyway, on a shell ISP, you read and post news with the "trn" command- "trn" is a text-only newsreader client.

For discovery- well USENET was in the filesystem. So "comp.arch" is located in /usr/spool/news/comp/arch. So you could just "find" and "grep" to discover new groups. Also there was a newsgroups file that had the full list- I forgot the name of this.

For the web today? I know there are for-pay sites, don't know any free ones. Maybe others do. Google groups was kind of good enough if you only frequented a few groups.

You can use https://www.eternal-september.org/ with a newsreader client. See: https://www.maketecheasier.com/best-usenet-newsgroups/

I just tried it with claws-mail. Here is a quick start for Ubuntu (this feels like 1999):

    apt-get install claws-mail
    claws-mail
      it forces you to create a mailbox, don't worry about this (you can delete it later).  Once you have the main screen:
        Configuration->Create Account
          Name of account: USENET
          Protocol NEWS (NNTP)
          News server: news.eternal-september.org
          Check This server requires authentication
          Fill in USER ID and Password you got from email after signing up with Eternal September and close.
     Now right click on mailbox USENET, select subscribe to newsgroup.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Reddit

#138

Post by irrational »

Today I realized how much of a habit I was in checking certain subreddits like r/boardgames and r/woodworking. Probably three times today I have gone to Reddit out of habit, only to remember that I no longer have access to my customary subreddits. I’m hoping this time of blackout will break me of the Reddit habit.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Reddit

#139

Post by spondylosaurus »

naet wrote: post #128

I don't use reddit directly as a user, but last night I was googling a tech question that had a bunch of relevant results in Reddit threads... only to find that the relevant subreddit had been put into "private" mode in protest of API changes, leaving the content inaccessible. So even though I don't necessarily pull up Reddit just to read, it does provide a good archive of questions and answers or other useful explan…

I had the same experience trying to search some medical-ish* questions last night. It would be a shame if adding "reddit" to searches stops being an effective method to find non-SEO human content.

* Medical-ish as in trying to find out if people with the same condition as me have had good/bad experiences with a particular OTC supplement. Certainly not looking for treatment or diagnosis via Reddit (or any online avenue) :P

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Reddit

#140

Post by nehal3m »

crosvenir wrote: post #85
kybernetikos wrote: post #12

Reddit does two things really: 1. Link Discovery 2. Discussion There are a few options for Link Discovery. I have a bunch of fora and sites hooked up to an rss reader (the old reader, since google shutdown reader) which does pretty well (although I'd like it to do a bit more). The link discovery thing is like the equivalent of having channels on your TV. You can stream any program (website) of a huge number but a cha…

Reddit does another thing that is very important to me: 3. Content Rehosting You see this on subreddits such as /r/IdiotsInCars and /r/Earthporn. The former allows the user to upload videos while the latter is for images. This helps the user have a more pleasant experience because it reduces/eliminates - popup fatigue (worldstar, local news sites, etc.), - back button hijacking (CNN, local news sites, etc.), and - wa…

It's been a little better lately, but their video player kinda sucks ass. Scrubbing usually causes total lock for me, requiring a reload of the entire page. Sometimes the video and the controls will get stuck but the audio keeps playing, even if you fold shut the player on old.

It got to the point where I don't bother unfolding the video unless it's embedded.

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