TempleOS

HAHAHA! Yeah I thought that was hilarious too!

No doubt some will find it interesting and join up- I just don't see any one of these becoming anywhere near mainstream and due to that, I don't see them making enough money to survive.

Religion is divisive and really, lets imagine a world where these online religious social communities started gaining a decently sized user-base of some kind, eventually they will be compared to secular competitors if they get big enough and then the differences between the two will be painfully apparent. Homophobia is just one thing that is fairly common in the religious world, but there exists a plethora of outdated or backward beliefs in many religions, nearly all of them frowned upon by today's generation (which happens to be the largest internet using demographic). When you can plainly see the differences between religious online social communities and secular ones side by side, it will be hard for the majority of young people to pin themselves to a site that seemingly supports ideals counter to those held by the majority of their generation.

Hahaha, good point!

I just don't think it will go very far. The developed countries of the world are getting less and less religious as time goes by and I think we will see it fall out of favor within my lifetime (I'm in my late twenties). Young people, who make up the majority of internet users, are even less inclined to be religious. This combined with the restrictive and conservative views on important civil issues that religions seem to champion, make me believe that the majority of people seeking an online social community are not going to look at any of these new religious start-ups. I am sure they will get some kind of a following but the issues that set them apart from non-religious social communities are mostly civil rights issues and that will inevitably give them really bad press. In other words, it might gain popularity at first but as soon as they start to really define what makes them different from their competitors, it will cause enough controversy for the moderately religious to back out in fear of being associated with the politics of an online religious social community.

This all adds up to a pretty specific and small user-base that probably won't be able to monetize very successfully.

Essentially, what if Ellen Pao is being used as a corporate red herring?

That is a definite possibility but frankly, there is no way for us to know. This is the point of having a CEO, they get to be the punching bag when things go poorly and they get championed when their company looks good. If Ohanian is directly responsible for anything, it still has to fly through Pao and ultimately, she is responsible. Still, to me, it doesn't really matter WHO it is, just that the decision makers are making bad decisions and those decision makers work for Reddit, the company. I don't have anything personal against Ellen Pao or Alexis Ohanian, I just want Reddit to be happy, non-toxic, interesting, and successful- I don't think it can be with the current trajectory.

I think we agree, on the whole.

She is a CEO of a company, not a mod of an internet community. She has financial goals that directly correlate with her professional success as CEO and she has to be accountable to those goals. I think the only point where I differ in opinion is on the blame of AMAgeddon. There is surely enough blame to go around but the situation was not handled well by Reddit (the company) as a whole and communication was horrific. I think the real criticism I have for Ellen Pao is her lack of communication with the Reddit community/Reddit Mods, not the direction she has taken the company in hopes to monetize the site. That being said, it is hard to blame her for her silence when you see the personal attacks and hatred that the Reddit community has relentlessly spewed at her.

So based on your personal experiences, you decide to crucify the Mods, blaming them for the blackout?

I understand your position on this issue and I even agree with you on many points but this kind of tone doesn't encourage people to agree with you or change their opinions. I think /spaceghoti was clear that he/she wasn't blaming all mods or even saying that all of them were bad.

Anywho I agree with you that the mods do thankless work and are a HUGE part of making Reddit successful. I also agree that a large percentage of the users supported the mods and their blackout. However, I have to respect that Ellen Pao and the Admins have now directly addressed the community and are clearly defining concrete goals to improve communication. I can't say that I am completely on board with the direction they are going and I definitely don't agree with how they handled this whole ordeal but I am optimistic that they have a chance of working things out now.

I understand your position and you may even be right in the specific case you mentioned. That said, however, I think the larger picture as a whole points blame at more than just the mods, and primarily at the CEO/management.

Mods are volunteer labor. Some are good, some are not. Positions of authority attract those who want authority. This can be a bad thing and can enlist tyrannical people into positions with too much power. I think it is fair to say that some of the mods on Reddit fit this description but I think it is equally fair to say that their CEO does too. Ellen Pao is ignoring the complaints of the Reddit community entirely. She is pretending that nothing is happening, and won't even make a blog post or text post to her own website to address the concerns of the community. This is unprofessional and unfortunate.

It is obvious that the company has been in flux since Ellen Pao took over and the results are seemingly disastrous. If I was a stakeholder in Reddit, I would demand her resignation, regardless of the mods and their actions. Obviously she has no idea what the community wants and how to competently communicate with them. She has shown how inept she is at dealing with sensitive issues multiple times- I think it is clear that her leadership is not what Reddit needs if it wants to survive.

EDIT TotallyTrusty pointed out that Ellen Pao has just addressed the Reddit Community, I withdrawal my criticism on this issue.

I too am a reddit refugee, welcome!

My tips are as follows:

1. Be nice and comment thoughtfully. This place is much more focused on civil conversation than other sites that tend to value puns and humor over civil discourse.

2. Contribute! Figure out how to make a "snap" and start sharing cool stuff with the community. This place will not hide your content by downvoting it into oblivion, feel free to share and share frequently

3. Read through the FAQ and the Site Rules as they are different from Reddit and other sites.

Welcome to the community and let me know if I can help answer any questions. I may be new but I am very enthusiastic about this site :) Alternatively, the mods of this sub are incredibly helpful and the rest of the community is too, ask a question and someone will answer you!

Welcome! I am pretty new here too so maybe I can preemptively quell some anxieties about this place. For one, don't be afraid to post, post a bunch! Communication, discussion, and sharing is what this community is built on. If you find something cool and want to share it, simply open up a snap, pick the tribes that it is relevant to, and share it! If you want to discuss someone elses snap, go to the comment section and share your thoughts. Everyone here has been very welcoming, conversational, and non-combative thus far. I haven't had a single bad experience on this site.

Another heads up, there are quite a few differences between this site and other community sites, it would be to your advantage to read through the FAQ and site rules to orient yourself and better understand how things operate. Don't be afraid to ask questions here if you need to!

I hear your point and agree with it soundly.

I also think that people, in general, could spend some time on their comments. Short 5 word comments may be able to add to discussion but more often than not, they are simply a pun or a message of agreement/dissent. I think more can be said in those comments. If you agree, why do you agree? If you disagree, why do you disagree? If it is a pun, fine add your pun but then under it, also add relevant opinions to start discussion.

I am obviously not a chief here or an admin or anything, simply a user- However, I maintain the opinion that we should be promoting civilized, quality, conversation in the comments. This site takes a bit of personal investment to get into and that should show in the comment section to differentiate it from other aggregating sites that are littered with garbage comments and empty content.

I can't speak to this from the perspective of a Snapzu veteran as I am new as well. That being said, my take on things so far is that Snaps, text posts, and Link posts are whatever you want them to be, within the rules of the site. This "more than 5 words" thing is directed at the comments section. Basically what is being stated: If you came to the comments to discuss the post or the snap, it should be a thorough discussion, not a 5 word comment.

Obviously if a particular tribe has designed a unique comment system where comments are for link sharing rather than discussion, I would think their tribe rules would clarify this in the side bar. Furthermore, if they intend to use the comments section for something other than discussion, I would also assume that they would disallow cross-posting content as it would confuse people that linked to the comments from another tribe.