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Ask HN: Alternatives to Reddit

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Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Reddit

#151

Post by irrational »

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…

There is also original content. A few weeks ago someone made a similar argument, so I went to three of the subs I most frequent (boardgames, woodworking, and baking). The very first post of each thread was original content. Someone had made their own themed version of a game, someone had made a woodworking project, and someone had baked something. Since those subs are now dark, I can’t share similar links this time.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Reddit

#152

Post by sebstefan »

runjake wrote: post #78
sebstefan wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use https://raddle.me/ but it's small for now. They seem to have a much better approach to moderation; the moderation logs are open and admins don't let them go full authoritarian. But the API is lackluster. It's open source however so hopefully it should improve I always envisioned some kind of reddit where you could simply appeal moderation actions through a dedicated report system and if some mod goes above and…

I'll save a bunch of people some trouble. This is a politically-"leftist" site (top current thread is "How did you get into anarchism", along with something about ACAB). It's not really a general purpose Reddit alternative. So, if that's your thing, check it out. If it's not, probably not a good fit and the "better approach" to moderation probably won't go in your favor.

That's just how the community developed. Reddit was spicy as well at the start

You can have righto subs on it, nobody is going to stop you or ban you. For example in the past they removed moderators of f/communism for excluding users pushing the libertarian flavors of it

Here's TOS

    Content Policy

    Content is prohibited if it is bigotry i.e.

    Promotes white supremacy, queerphobia, transphobia, misogyny, classism, ableism, body shaming, antisemitism, Islamophobia, colonialism, speciesism or age discrimination.

    Sexualizes minors or promotes adults having sex with minors.

    Trivializes or makes light of rape.

    Apologizes for police or military brutality, imperialism, eugenics, genocide.

    Apologizes for violence towards children.

    Is a pornographic image/video (however, nudity is permitted if it's non-pornographic).

    Is wilful copyright infringement (however fair use is acceptable).

    Is a "dox" i.e. personally revealing information about a person or persons including but not limited to name, identification number, address, phone number, photograph.

    Advocates for arson, bombing and/or killing people.

    Is instructions on how to design and/or produce explosives.
I'm sure you can find two or three right wingers capable of doing all this. Maybe at least for a few weeks :)

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Reddit

#153

Post by dominick-cc »

For the last few years, I've mainly used reddit as a way of sifting through search engine results to a better answer more quickly: e.g. "what is the answer to x reddit". I've been sick of overly SEO-optimized websites that are full of fluff and ads and don't easily surface information. I'm curious, if people do move from reddit, what my new search term will be.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Reddit

#154

Post by beret4breakfast »

nehal3m wrote: post #140
crosvenir wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Hence why 3pa like Apollo are great, it’s video/gif player is (was :’( ) the best.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Reddit

#155

Post by digitalsushi »

Why do we keep using private residences to host these parties, when we could be having them out in the streets where no one can take ownership of them?

Reinvent usenet with modern web technology. All posts replicate, with verifiable authenticity, and the website presentation remains up to the instance host on what it should look like.

Run a node, host an API for 3 bucks a year so that mobile clients can pull data. Run a website, host it with free accounts and spam it. Let people decide how they want to pay - wallets or eyes - but just stop hoarding the damned conversations.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Reddit

#156

Post by holler »

https://sqwok.im

- All posts fully public and google indexed.

- Built-in realtime chat rooms instead of threaded comments on all posts, complete with presence, @mentions, markdown support (check faq)(mobile & desktop web supported currently).

- Trending based on chat activity and time decay.

- Search, notifications, follows, themes, other settings like block a user.

- Focus on simplicity, accessibility, usability.

Previous Show HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31160302

I'd taken some time off the project over the past several months to focus on regular work/life but still planning to release new features and push the project forward, with an upgrade to chat/presence to be released imminently and long-form posts to follow.

Have been blessed to see people from all over the globe use this silly site I built because I wanted to use it myself.

If you find it interesting please let me know how we can improve it etc.

Also if you think you could bring something to this project and have interest feel free to reach out by email.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Reddit

#158

Post by mostlysimilar »

mewpmewp2 wrote: post #102
boplicity wrote: post #95

What do you want, exactly? I've been running a forum for 15 years. It's now horrible, outdated software, full of bugs and probably security holes. However, it works. It has an active community. It requires almost zero maintenance on my end. A cheap VPS will do the trick. Before Reddit, people would just type in "forum" when doing a Google search. That should still do the trick. For example a Google search for, how to…

There's many problems with forums though. Different UI/UX interface. Different requirements in order to be able to start using. You have to register a new account. A lot of friction before you are able to join and participate in a new community. Many forums will also require you to have certain amount of useful posts to avoid spam etc. With Reddit, or Reddit alternatives you don't have to worry about all that.

Perhaps some friction is a good thing. Registering an account isn't exactly a huge burden, especially in the era where your browser will pre-fill and store the credentials for you forever. Maybe if it wasn't so easy to pop in and karma farm / spam / meme we would have some more thoughtful discourse online again.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Reddit

#159

Post by shagie »

mewpmewp2 wrote: post #102
boplicity wrote: post #95

What do you want, exactly? I've been running a forum for 15 years. It's now horrible, outdated software, full of bugs and probably security holes. However, it works. It has an active community. It requires almost zero maintenance on my end. A cheap VPS will do the trick. Before Reddit, people would just type in "forum" when doing a Google search. That should still do the trick. For example a Google search for, how to…

There's many problems with forums though. Different UI/UX interface. Different requirements in order to be able to start using. You have to register a new account. A lot of friction before you are able to join and participate in a new community. Many forums will also require you to have certain amount of useful posts to avoid spam etc. With Reddit, or Reddit alternatives you don't have to worry about all that.

> A lot of friction before you are able to join and participate in a new community.

Arguably, that is one of the things that keeps the quality of content higher.

Likewise, it is too easy to post on Reddit allowing for the easy low content/quality material to make its way there more frequently.

Quoting from A Group is its Own Worst Enemy - https://gwern.net/doc/technology/2005-shirky-agroupisitsownw... ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35855988 ) - from four things to design for:

> Three, you need some barriers to participation, however small. This is one of the things that killed Usenet, because there was almost no barrier to posting, leading to both generic system failures like spam, and also specific failures, like constant misogynist attacks in any group related to feminism, or racist attacks in any group related to African- Americans. You have to have some cost to either join or participate, if not at the lowest level, then at higher levels. There needs to be some kind of segmentation of capabilities.

> Now, the segmentation can be total—you’re in or you’re out, as with the music group I just listed. Or it can be partial—anyone can read Slashdot, anonymous cowards can post, non-anonymous cowards can post with a higher rating. But to moderate, you really have to have been around for a while. It has to be hard to do at least some things on the system for some users, or the core group will not have the tools that they need to defend themselves.

> Now, this pulls against the cardinal programming virtue of ease of use, but ease of use is the wrong goal for social software. Ease of use is the wrong way to look at the situation, because you’ve got the Necker cube flipped in the wrong direction, toward the individual, when in fact, the user of a piece of social software is the group.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Reddit

#160

Post by rkangel »

tayo42 wrote: post #31
hughesjj wrote: post #7

I've seen Lemmy paraded around, it ha promise but you gotta diy your community. My biggest concern with the fediverse is trust. Trust takes a while to establish. Looking back, man usenet's format was kinda similar to reddit wasn't it? Usenet with voting. Idk about y'all but this is actually kinda super fun. I'd love to reintroduce some modernized takes on old school platforms. The internet was more fun before everyth…

poking around lemmy the other day: I don't like the UI, to much white space, one of my main issues with reddit Going through the code and issues, i have suspicions its a bit over engineered in the wrong ways and will have trouble continuing to scale, like they are already seeing. it doesnt matter your using hip rust frameworks or w/e if you cant write sql queries or architect the app to run fast... I dont get the fed…

This exact situation is why federation is valuable. It allows us to separate the "shape" of tool that we want from the people who run it.

Reddit is a useful concept: a series of communities with voting and hierarchical discussion. It also provides aggregation (ability to see a feed of all your communities) and discoverability. Individual forums get you some way, but don't solve the aggregation thing (which is a primary way I use Reddit: scroll through my "Popular" feed). How about we just design some form of system that allowed people to build their own aggregated feed of a group of individually hosted forums? That would be (a) cool, and (b) we've just done federation.

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