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  • DastardlyVandal
    +4

    Smaller communities tend to help with the direction of a website a lot more than having a larger userbase. Once the userbase gets big, you end up playing with the bottom of the barrel types. When you have a smaller community that tends to take the time to write out and explain thoughts more clearly than a handful of punchlines, you end up setting the bar a lot higher for them to get involved. Once upon a time, Reddit would crucify you for making a simple typo, or for posting things without giving a well thought out process and possibly even a source or two. That ended up changing once the site grew larger and the community diversified. Where Reddit was once overall pretty liberal, it ended up leaning in a more libertarian direction, once what was just a small minority ended up getting more members and became less afraid to share idea that would disagree strongly from the old school Reddit.

    The site has changed a lot over the 4-5ish years I've used it, and it progressively was losing everything that I had liked about it from before. Now I'm finding what I liked in Reddit, community wise, here at Snapzu. Just maybe.. At an earlier point in it's life cycle, anyways. :)

    • snapchopsuey
      +3

      Totally agree. This place feels a bit like reddit pre-2010 in the way you describe. I remember what kept me from participating in the first place there, it was feeling intimidated by the whip-smart caliber of many of the commenters (my hesitation exacerbated by anxiety and low self-esteem as well). Head-game aside, it's been a long, long time since the average commenters over there set a standard that requires effort to meet. This place has that standard, and it's refreshing.

    • casuallynoted
      +2

      I absolutely agree. I noticed how big Reddit was getting just months after I joined around 3 years ago. I think most sites remain a ton better when they have small communities. (Google+ is an amazing example, I loved it during the early beta tests, and the second more people started getting on, I found it so much less enjoyable to use.)