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  • SuperCyan
    +11

    They moved back to Reddit, because Snapzu isn't Reddit.

    There's an uprising / revolt / revolution every couple months on Reddit, over an arbitrary decision by the admin team that happens to upset quite a bit of the vocal people. They go on posts and talk about how outrageous the change was and how they're going to leave Reddit once they figure out where to go. Someone will eventually come along to mention a site to go to. This time around, it was Snapzu, Hubski, and Voat. The affected users go to the new sites, hoping to find a new home for them. However, they don't want a completely new place, they just want Reddit - minus whatever upset them. However, they're met with communities with smaller populations and less posts and comments.

    Redditors are used to a front page with posts with thousands of votes and comments. Instead, they're met with posts that get tens of upvotes, if popular, and maybe a dozen comments, if there's a good discussion. Redditors are accustomed to thousands of places to enter conversation, either with informative insights to a claim, or (usually) an over-used joke. However, smaller sites make them work for their points. A regurgitated meme probably isn't going to get 1000+ upvotes and gold here, which is what is the norm over there. In order to get a respectable amount of votes and responses, they're forced to post something thought provoking and apt to discuss.

    Their other problem is that they're unable to pull themselves out of the rabbit hole. They look at Reddit as the Internet, rather than the mere part of it that Reddit is. They think their problems on Reddit are just as important elsewhere, and the values that they hold from those concerns are equally pressing on other sites. They think that their desire of total free speech all the time is the center of every site's userbase, because they're used to it being a big deal on Reddit. When they're met with a half-hearted "I guess," or "Actually, what you're promoting is kinda dumb," they become appalled, because they can't fathom why their modus operandi isn't held with the same weight in another community. What makes them more upset, is when someone comes out against them and starts to argue, rather than making it rain upvotes and gold for their restatement on something that's been said 1000 times already by their group.

    Redditors come into new sites with the expectation that their new homes are going to be the a better Reddit, but find out that their new neighborhood has different people, with different outlooks and priorities, and no relation to their old community. As they discover this more, their problems with Reddit get smaller and smaller, until they finally move back to Reddit, because they really didn't want to leave in the first place.

    • racerxonclar
      +6

      IMO, you're grasping at straws far harder than necessary. You're basically painting a picture that the only thing they care about is having their ego stroked, which I'd have to say is largely not true. Yes, memes and jokes are spammed and overused (it's hardly anything exclusive to the internet), but I'd say that's hardly the majority of Redditors purely do the number of subreddits and segmented communities withing reddit itself.

      The simple fact of the matter is that there's a drastically smaller number of people, which makes many thins not work anymore. I've personally seen forums that were more active than Snapzu. This isn't a matter of "we have higher standards for content", it's more "our numbers are so low that our demographics are very focused". Even a fantastic post in a tribe that's a ghost town will go unheard, and a lot of tribes even have ghosts for leaders.

      If you share something political, philosophical, or societal in nature... Snapzu will enjoy it. They regularly get 20-30 upvotes and are the general place of conversation. Post anything else and the demographic that is interested in that content (whether good or bad) is drastically smaller. Is that bad? Depends on who you are. If your greatest interests are within that same demographic, not at all. If your tastes are different, it's surprisingly discouraging. I've caught myself starting to put together a large post (Dota patch notes, linking several YouTubers' thoughts on said notes) and stop about halfway through because I remember that tribe and the gaming tribe have shown zero interest in Dota (at least from my experience). So, I've refrained from that entire type of content.

      Again, that's not a lack of internet fame and ego stroking. That's walking into an empty room, talking to the wall, and finally getting bored. But... with all this said, political or business news does well here and I still check fairly regularly (and contribute) for those things. I tend to run across stuff here that I don't see somewhere else.

      • SuperCyan
        +5

        Yeah, looking back, I think I hit the egotistical point a little too much. I was partly attempting to just say that they're not here, because it's not Reddit.

        With the migrations, the largest mass of people come back to Reddit, because they left Reddit in spite, rather than just moving to a platform that they liked better. Once they simmer down a bit, the old habit of checking the front page takes over and they never visit the other sites again. For the rest that go back, they do so, because they couldn't find anything to really replace Reddit.

        The one thing that Reddit offers, over pretty much any other site, is a detailed level of diversity. As you said, anything that gets posted, that's not favorable to the largest demographic, is just ignored out of disinterest. On Reddit, that doesn't happen as much. Since the site is so massive, it's possible to find a large and active community that cares about a topic. Snapzu isn't really strong in that regard, because it's just so small.

        The reason I mentioned people coming to the new site, and finding out that Reddit isn't the internet was a bit more slandering than I intended, but I was trying to use it as an example of how they don't find what they're looking for. When people come over, that are upset over something that happened over Reddit, it's on their mind and they want somewhere that they can vent. They find a site, post something about the issues, which gets a small response, but they get a little backlash of the main community, because they really don't care about what's going on at another site. In combination with the lack of specific communities that they're used to, they find that they're kinda talking to a wall, as you said, and just leave. I hope that's a little more elaborative and less vindictive, and I'm sorry if I came off as a little harsh.

        I think a lot of people leave Reddit looking for Reddit 2.0. They want that large community, with conversations about anything they desire to talk about, but with a new name, interface, and system void of the problems that they had on Reddit. Instead, they find smaller communities that are vastly different than what they were hoping, so they move back to the best option that they have.

        • racerxonclar
          +3

          I hope that's a little more elaborative and less vindictive, and I'm sorry if I came off as a little harsh.

          More assumptive than harsh, but no worries :)

          I will agree, even I would like to find Reddit 2.0, but I don't think that's going to happen. Hard to move the attention of several million people, you know?

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