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Permission now required to take subreddits private

old.reddit.com

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Re: Permission now required to take subreddits private

#21

Post by Terr_ »

ZunarJ5 wrote: post #11

I predict old reddit is going to go away soon.

Still, old-vs-standard is a fascinating example of how someone can pour millions into a new interface which is--accidentally or possibly deliberately--shit.

Especially when you're arriving through a search engine and the discussion you wanted to find is is buried somewhere in a thousand "load more comments" prompts that occasionally all reset because of an unexpected page transition.

P.S.: Actually, doesn't that tie back into the Reddit spokesperson's "communities should honor the expectations they set"? If I search for a particular term and some Reddit comments come up, I expect to actually see that term when I click through, rather than have the corporation pull some bait and switch with the content.

Re: Permission now required to take subreddits private

#23

Post by Root_Denied »

dredmorbius wrote: post #17
m463 wrote: post #3

Curious what people have left reddit use now?

Books, podcasts, HN, the Fediverse. Occasionally Tildes.net. Reddit at best was marginally useful for content discovery. There are many alternatives now. Discussion quality had nearly always been abysmal, except on the very smallest subs. I've commented on this on HN many times: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... >. As David Weinberger noted, "conversation doesn't scale": https://dweinber…

As an alternative perspective: I'm still using reddit, but it's a very curated list of subreddits and once I stop seeing new content from that small list I end up going elsewhere.

The subreddits I keep in my list are a mix of niche interests (such as a specific video game or geographic region), professional groups (I still enjoy r/sysadmin even though I haven't been one for years), and a couple of news/politics/economics for larger stories.

Ad blockers and RES are the only reason I still use Reddit as much as I do. If they even do away with old.reddit or make it so RES doesn't work I'll scale back my usage even more.

Re: Permission now required to take subreddits private

#25

Post by johnnyanmac »

dmonitor wrote: post #2

Good. Going private is a ridiculous nuke button for mods to have at their fingertips. Years of history becomes lost once a subreddit goes private. It's not even useful as a protest, since the admins will just undo it the moment your protest gains traction. Hopefully, next they change the "unmoderated subreddit" punishment from going private to restricted submissions and locking comments.

Outside of protests, there are plenty of legitmate reasons to go private. The biggest reason being extreme brigades (including content against site rules that can get the sub banned), and a lack of resources to moderate in real time. That's partially why for years mods have relied so much more on "locking" posts. Which IMO is even worse and punishes all participants over what is often a few threads that should be locked individually.

If mods responded half as fast to that as they do when privating big subreddits, I'd have less sympathy for this change.

>Hopefully, next they change the "unmoderated subreddit" punishment from going private to restricted submissions and locking comments.

stuff like potential illegal content is exactly why going private/removing the sub is the punishment instead of restricting submission.

Re: Permission now required to take subreddits private

#26

Post by johnnyanmac »

m463 wrote: post #3

Curious what people have left reddit use now?

a mix of HN and Tildes. Still a few niche stuff I can only find on Reddit, but I haven't had an account for years at this point.

Have my eyes on a few other sites, but they aren't really active enough to be considered anything other than a prototype as of now.

Re: Permission now required to take subreddits private

#27

Post by johnnyanmac »

dredmorbius wrote: post #17
m463 wrote: post #3

Curious what people have left reddit use now?

Books, podcasts, HN, the Fediverse. Occasionally Tildes.net. Reddit at best was marginally useful for content discovery. There are many alternatives now. Discussion quality had nearly always been abysmal, except on the very smallest subs. I've commented on this on HN many times: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... >. As David Weinberger noted, "conversation doesn't scale": https://dweinber…

> High-quality information tends to associate more with expertise, whether the result of long study or on-the-ground first-hand knowledge. Neither are prevalent in large-scale discussions.

I don't necessarily need high quality information. I mostly just aim for somewhat civil discussion. That's not easily scalable, but I geel its at least viable. Scott's old forums had a great guideline for "civility": https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/03/02/the-comment-policy-is-...

Re: Permission now required to take subreddits private

#28

Post by johnnyanmac »

OgsyedIE wrote: post #4
m463 wrote: post #3

Curious what people have left reddit use now?

You could skim r/redditalternatives and see what site gets regularly repeated.

ironic, isn't it?

But lately a lot of that sub shifted towards a lighterform of r/watchredditdie or r/subredditdrama.

Also a bit funny that I searched by /top/year and the 2nd post was "Can we just admit already that there isn't a good reddit alternative?"

Re: Permission now required to take subreddits private

#29

Post by dredmorbius »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #27
dredmorbius wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Books, podcasts, HN, the Fediverse. Occasionally Tildes.net. Reddit at best was marginally useful for content discovery. There are many alternatives now. Discussion quality had nearly always been abysmal, except on the very smallest subs. I've commented on this on HN many times: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... >. As David Weinberger noted, "conversation doesn't scale": https://dweinber…

> High-quality information tends to associate more with expertise, whether the result of long study or on-the-ground first-hand knowledge. Neither are prevalent in large-scale discussions. I don't necessarily need high quality information. I mostly just aim for somewhat civil discussion. That's not easily scalable, but I geel its at least viable. Scott's old forums had a great guideline for "civility": https://slates…

The problem currently on Reddit is that you're not getting even civil discussion. Just drive-byes, tired memes, regurgitated idiocy, trolls, spam, disinfo, and the like. Most particularly on the larger subs, but even on most of the smaller ones I'd once found at least occasionally rewarding.

The sour taste from both that and the site's inevitable migration to something I wish to have nothing to do with kills whatever faint interest I might have in seeking information there.

Maybe this is just another instance of trivialisation of a mass medium, as happened with print, radio, television, cable, and much of the rest of the Internet already. But then, I didn't wallow in that filth either.

Good Internet discussion sites come and go. Cesspits accumulate.

Re: Permission now required to take subreddits private

#30

Post by Terr_ »

Terr_ wrote: post #20
m463 wrote: post #3

Curious what people have left reddit use now?

It's been tricky, but for the most part I've tried to stop needing the validation of saying something clever or helpful and seeing a number go up in validation. It's been hard, especially on days when other hobbies or tasks feel un-startable.

P.S. I would also obsessively return to things and tweak them because they didn't sound just right, or because I noticed an error such as two "validation" clauses, which I partially blame on trying to edit text on a phone. In this respect, the 2-hour edit window of HN is both a blessing and a curse.
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