• Pockets69
    +8

    Early reddit, under spez, was a very friendly place were downvotes were uncommon. The admins were very present (even if few) and contributed to define the community values. In turn the users propagated those values. New users soaked in them and everything was fine.

    Very much like here :)

    But now my question, i have been on reddit for about an year and half, i never knew the old reddit, but i do see the difference between now and an year ago, but my question is, do you think that spez would be able to revert what is going on? while the administration is at fault with all that happened, don't you think that the amount of users that reddit has will make it difficult to change, and seeing that apparently the originals and its core mentality and examples are gone, what would the new redditors base their behavior on?

    • redalastor
      +12

      I think the best illustration of old reddit is what happened when the mobile version called the upvote and downvote "like and dislike". People were outraged! The downvote is not a disagree button! The admins apologized for the oversight and fixed it. If you broke the reddiquette, people would quote it at you.

      Nowadays, say the downvote is not a disagree button and you'll be flooded in downvotes.

      Then and now, the community resisted changing what it was about. And that's why I think spez has an impossible task because this time, we can't just flood reddit with a bunch of well-behaved users that will change the trend.

      Some bean counter probably thought they could save on community building as a "useless expense" and now it bites them in the ass. Just look at the immediate post-Victoria situation. Guests who flew to meet Victoria faced a closed door in New York because she was the only employee there and their fired her. She was Communications Director and they had no idea at all what that entailed.

      • TenNineteenOne
        +6

        I'm very curious about what they're going to do. spez doing weekly or semi-weekly AMAs might actually go a long way to making things better, but really only if he's honest and doesn't try to avoid the answer. Which might not really be able to happen, what with Reddit,inc being a much bigger company than the days of yore.

    • AdelleChattre
      +8

      If wishes were fishes, we'd all cast nets.

      • Zerei
        +4

        What do you mean?

        • AdelleChattre
          +5

          You were asking if Reddit's new CEO would be able to turn things around. You pointed out the number of users there as a big part of the challenge.

          The comment I linked, from Reddit's CEO, shows out that he's considering at least one approach that can use more users to advantage. Of the users that even have an idea something's been going on behind the scenes, most probably wish things were better. That many people wishing things generates a kind of charge that can be directed.

          Public moderation logs have a lot of potential to make more users a help not a hindrance. It's a critical part of the theory that's not in practice yet. That's as true about a future Snapzu revision as it is Reddit.

          • Zerei
            +3

            Oh! I get it now! Sorry, I didn't see you had a link on your post. Was a bit out of context.

          • Pockets69
            +3

            actually i asked that xD

            But yeah, do you think that those measures would improve the overall running of the site? let's suppose it does for a second, wouldn't the amount of users (again) be a problem, like the moderation team and the staff working close together and better than ever, but the users pushing in another direction, and resisting the change?

          • AdelleChattre
            +3
            @Pockets69 -

            My mistake, sorry. Yes, I strongly believe that what we’re now calling ‘public moderation logs’ is the next step in making systems like Reddit or Snapzu work. It’s an awkward phrase. It’s an artifact of the current Reddit, so it doesn’t convey what is actually meant by principled early advocates like /u/cojoco and the dearly departed /u/go1dfish.

            What you’re getting at, I think, is that there’s a break between mods and users at large. The need that open moderation meets is meaningfully erasing that distinction. Dedicated users acting as a check on all-powerful mods, even with features built more as toys than tools, would work well. Like /u/spez is saying lately, it doesn’t have to be easy, it just has to be possible. There are aspects of this we’re not getting into, like the resolution of conflicts about curatorial decisions between mods, and between mods and users, but open moderation can be made practical, and will be an obvious advantage wherever it is implemented.

            One of my favorite things about Snapzu is that the code is molten. While Reddit, which used to have a workable search function, is rusting out.

    • fred
      +7

      probably not. I was migrated to reddit about 6 months to a year before the DIgg migration. It was a much smaller site at the time.

      They have been dealing with issues of scale, not only in keeping the site running, but in its membership. Unfortunately as popularity gains, you see quality drop, and that is both for content and commentors alike.

      I dont think he will be able to reverse it, unfortunately. Even if he tried, you will just get one shitstorm after the next. That is not to say i think the site is doomed, just that it will never again be what it was.

      • joethebob
        +4

        as popularity gains, you see quality drop, and that is both for content and commentors alike.

        I would say that's the most prominent governing rule. Critical mass is a difficult thing to handle when expansion is the name of the game in your design model. To co-opt a quote - 'You can satisfy some of the users all the time, and all of users some of the time, but you can't satisfy all of the users all of the time'

        • fred
          +1

          Seems like a life rule really. It is one i live by for sure. I prefer to keep my relationships in life simple.

          On another note, arent i supposed to get notified if someone replies to a comment? I just happen to come across this because i was looking for a way to see my own comment history.

          • joethebob
            +1

            There's a line that's posted to the notification log, although it seem to lack any kind of visual representation that it is there. On a similar note there doesn't seem to be any sort of pm system either. Lots of UI work to be done here.

          • fred (edited 8 years ago)
            +1
            @joethebob -

            yeah i found that. I figured there was a PM system based on the inbox and the little manage button saying "who can send you messages" but you are right, i cant find where to actually send a message. odd.

            oh well.

            Interesting. seems to adding @joethebob to replys now....

      • Pockets69
        +1

        Indeed as i said in the post i got on reddit one and half year ago, although i haven't witnessed reddit in it's good state, it was not as bad back then as it is now, seriously.