Why Reddit falling apart is a good thing
Reddit falling apart and its communities reassembling themselves into new communities such as Voat, this and others is good for the reason that the road to monetization the admins seem to have taken is bad, but the real reason why it in the long term will be beneficial for all is because the amount communities within reddit with unique and opposite desires created hostility and frustration in most discussions. While in the beginning Reddit was the home to a homogeneous community, it through expansion saw more niche subreddits pop up to fulfill the desires different groups of users had. After a while all of these identity subreddits such as SRS or TRP became big enough to become semi-autarkical communities, fighting against each other and using the downvote button to punish those who dissented with them.
The problem is that all these metaphorical gangs had to share common grounds in prison in non-identity subreddits such /r/askreddit or /r/worldnews where the increase in heterogeneity caused the distance between the hivemind and any random user to grow. Often it was the case in for example AskReddit threads that people would become mad for the theme or direction that the comments had (e.g. puns but in a broader sense ideology).
I geuss I used a lot of words to describe how the addition of new political parties would lead to a redistribution of party profiles to fit the profiles of voter groups - leading to every voter to have a choice between websites they might feel happiest in. Even shorter: for the same reason Reddit would have been much shittier if it merged with Tumblr, it will be much better to have a part of Reddit split up into new communities.
That being said, hello everyone. I am stoic, a Dutch cinephile and 21yo philosophy and criminology student and I already made an account on Voat a month ago because I didn't want to wait on my activation code for Snapzu and because relatively inactive comment sections back then. Some of the features of this site are very promising to me, most noteably to have the ability to search through types of posts (e.g. analysis) instead of just tribes itself. I hope this will turn out what I expect it to be.
Join the Discussion
I'm just getting used to leaving one community and joining a new community about every 3-5 years. Sad but true.
[This comment was removed]
I am the exact same, it seems that nothing lasts forever and history just keeps repeating itself over and over :-/
It's funny you should say "every three years" actually. I came to reddit just over three years ago having not used a similar site before. Has that sort of length seriously been the lifespan of these sites before they go tits-up?
This made me wonder, how does SnapZu actually make money? I don't see any ads anywhere?
Don't say the m-word, it will probably make the admins cry ;-)
Yeah. Do they have a donations page up?
You can donate via Paypal and Bitcoin: http://snapzu.com/t/blog/tribepost/FUS6JPF/tr...er-upgrades-donations-for-monthly-server-fund
Yeah I'm wondering about that as well, they appear to have a system in place for you to monetize your tribe through referrals but I haven't really looked in to it, so I don't understand quite how it works.
If you figure it out , I would love to hear from you
I created a tribe today, immediately I got a message which mentions, among other things, a a revenue sharing system. The details are here: http://snapzu.com/referralprogram
The important part is:
So, it's Snapzu's version of Reddit Gold or TotalFark.
I figured the same. I hope however those are the only perks, and not an overhyped "exclusive" lounge.
As they say, nothing in life is free...
It seems like the right-wingers are going to voat, and the left-wingers are going to Snapzu and to a lesser extent Hubski. Reddit really did feel a bit like being in a prison-gang war sometimes.
On the bright side I think most the people from Fat People Hate went over to Voat. So we may have dodged that bullet!
Don't forget /r/conspiracy and most of the Free Speech Warriors. Since they already have an established community on voat, the people moving to other Reddit alternatives are the ones who are the opposite of those people.
Ya I tried to avoid Voat because that is where it looks like all the people I hated from Reddit were headed. Plus I didn't really want to get involved in the community that the jailbait subreddit moved to.
I was under the impression that they closed down the jailbait subs on Voat. And I've never encountered any of the fat people haters or right wing people. That being said, this place seems nice and I also don't want to just go to a Reddit clone. It's just going to go downhill faster that way. Hopefully we can 10 years out of this site before it becomes too corrupt to want to be on.
They did indeed close down the jailbait subs, which resulted in a lot of community members criticizing that decision. During my time there, however, I did see a lot of FPH posts reaching the front page before they excluded themselves from /v/all, and the right wing seems to be really prevalent there. I have become invested in Voat before the whole FPH drama, I have donated to it, and I will go there when the servers are back up, but I am also going around places like Snapzu and Hubski to see what I like the most.
I agree. I just hope there isn't any drama in Snapzu because it eventually became overwhelming on Reddit both these past few days and for the past few years now.
I think eventually there is drama everywhere. It's a symptom of people.
Drama is inevitable. The question is, can we move on from those events?
More importantly, can we derive constructive lessons from those moments?
You could literally give most of the folks over at r/conspiracy a megaphone and a crowd of 10,000,000 people and tell them they can say whatever they want, they would still tell you that the government has programmed the megaphone to alter what they are saying. There is no speech free enough for them.
So, as a new member here from reddit, you're trying to tell me that Snapzu can be reddit without the assholes? I like it!
Bless the heavens.
Yeahh. I could not stand that community. Was kind of glad they were gone honestly.
Except they aren't. There are still plenty of people spewing anti-fat hatred on reddit. The only difference is there isn't a dedicated place for it any more.
Well, damn, right-winger here-- more like middle-winger but that's beside the fact-- and I love Snapzu so far. However, I have not had a look at Voat yet.
[This comment was removed]
[This comment was removed]
I'm an independent who was told in one of those online political quizzes that I didn't agree with ANY major candidates. I like Snapzu better because it isn't just a Reddit clone. I like the experience system so far.
It's similar enough that you can figure it out pretty easily though. Now if only it had an RES equivalent.
[This comment was removed]
I feel like Voat is a bit 'doomed', per se, and I find it sad. I must admit, the mods seem to care much more about the community, but it is just too similar to reddit. The cycle is just going to continue again if you're only going to keep making clones. Snapzu gets my bias because of how original it is, compared to every other social media platform.
I'm just signing up for everything and seeing what one wins
To me, it seems like voat is less right-wingers and more people who are there simply to hate, sadly -- mostly because it became popular at the same time that FPH and similar subs were banned on Reddit.
I think reddit just didn't scale well. Their system worked perfectly when it was a small website, but they did ABSOLUTELY nothing to help it adjust to being a bigger site. The only changes they made were PR related. You can't just let your website sit there and hope it fixes itself like it always has. That eventually stops working.
Personally, I hope we all go our separate ways. I think we should be like forums. There is no real top-dog forum. Everybody just lives in peace with their own community. I like the Snapzu and Hubski communities, I'll stick with them. Other people might like the Voat and atob community and be there. I think trying to make your content aggregator the biggest on the internet is just a doomed goal. You should focus on your community, not your traffic.
Truth! Community is king!
atob is awesome, btw, but I wouldn't compare it to reddit. It's more like 4chan.
IMO their system worked fine a large scale too because people can go and hang out in their little areas and corners of the site. But recent, sitewide changes really jimmies the nails.
Ya, I actually thought the subreddits and mutlireddits were great developments when it came to scaling. I think they just got too greedy, to aggressive with trying to monetize and offended everyone.
plus there was almost zero communication between the admins and the mods. a lot of reddit's "rules" were very vague and were never explained fully.
I think the issue with reddit was size and attempts for them to make money off of a user base that is generally anti-corporate. Bans on subreddits that are offensive to increase appeal to advertisers and then this latest BS related to IAMA was the straw that broke the camels back.
I feel the same way about the community splitting up. I really don't want Snapzu or Empeopled or Voat or Hubski to become the next Reddit; I want them to be the new Reddit for the people in those communities.
I personally am starting to work more within Hubski and Snapzu, and I like switching back and forth between them. I don't want one site to be dominant, I want them all to be equal. That way, if you like the way a webiste looks or leans, you can stay there without going to others. If one site became huge, it would have the same ills as Reddit. There would be a bunch of different factions fighting over turf in normal places like /t/videos or /t/news. I've seen a lot of horrible stuff being said about minorities and women in seemingly neutral places on Reddit. Then people come in and start fighting with each other. It's horrible.
If each faction kind of coagulates in their own places on the internet, I think each community would be a lot more enjoyable.
Well written. I agree with your appraisal of the situation! :) Thanks for sharing!
Yeah, didn't want to make a shitpost for my first post. Thanks for the positivity :).
Always :)
Nicely put. Welcome!
Very well put.
I made a snapzu account a little over a year ago after I saw the site linked somewhere randomly on reddit, but I never really got into it. Now due to the current circumstances over at reddit I'm happy with my past self for making an account here. I checked out Voat briefly after the whole FPH thing but that place just seemed kinda... icky? I don't know. The vibe here on snapzu is great though and I'm looking forward to whatever awesome things will take place here.
Yeah, I would say Voat is "icky", and I'm not talking about the alleged jailbait porn, either. I think the last straw for me was when somebody posted this and received hundreds of upvotes for it. The comments section was mostly positive, too, and people who remarked about how on point and insightful this was had dozens of upvotes. I was just all "Really? REALLY??" It's kind of like when you're at the masquerade party thinking "Everything seems alright here" and then everybody takes their masks off...
Hello there! I am a recent refugee from the Reddit chaos. I have to say, what I've seen so far of Snapzu is really encouraging! So many of the tribes seem much more promising than their subreddit counterparts. For example, /t/china is a much more positive place than /r/china. I am a 26yo American living and working in mainland China. I am planning to repatriate home soon, but I will still have a soft spot for Chinese language, news, and culture. I like that the tribe here seems to be more about sharing information and news, and less about ranting and raving from culture-shocked individuals.
It's nice to see some other converts here, and especially nice to see that Snapzu seems to have gotten many of the more courteous redditors.
I agree with what you said. I'm going to stick with reddit's sinking ship for awhile as well as branch out to other sites, like voat as I've done here. I guess I'll just try out everything and see which communities grow and become something I want to be a part of, and which ones go down a road I don't wish to be on. I think snapzu is quite nice so far and I'm glad I found it.
[This comment was removed]
[This comment was removed]
Welcome to the party man. :D I've got my popcorn and am watching it all go down. Good points OP.
Reddit is falling apart because it has become too big for its britches! They are trying to sensor everything and everyone. The admins are not in communication with anyone at all.
It sucks that I'll have to leave Reddit as thats where I started, converted from a friend. Reddit was my introduction to all these aggregate site.
Hopefully I'll have a fun time here. Oh, and Voat should try an invite system if they want to stay online more.
i dont think its falling appart, things will get back to normal soon enough.
Very well put! While Reddit as a website won't disappear, and I'll still have my favourite subreddits where I can engage in topical discussions, it's a huge backlash and a hopefully a lesson for the admins. They don't run the site, the voluntary users do. It's like a child pushing the limits to see what he/she can get away with before the parents react. They reached their limit now, and they're not getting away with any of it anymore.
You can almost guarantee there will e some sort of drama. History tells me it's inevitable. Enjoy this site while you can.
It was pretty much about time, reddit hang around long enough anyway while getting noticeably worse :( I like it here so far though!
Very good points. Nice username.
Welcome to Snapzu! I have been here for a very short amount of time but I can rwll you it feels more like an integrated community than reddit ever did. :)
I could imagine that Reddit will become an amateur/user submitted porn site. I can't imagine there would be an exodus of /r/gonewild and such.
I hope these new sites learn from Reddit's mistakes.
Because monopally of any thing any where is not good.Market (any) always need to have competitors so that leading products have a fear to deliver what community demanding else losing customers . In case of reddit they have been treating their customers very poorly from last few months , this happened due to change in management , people started blaming new CEO, which I personally think is unnecessary , CEO is just an face for company u never know what goes inside with management and investors , It might not be pao's decision to ban those boards last month or management decision .
I left digg for reddit when they did the redesign. I'm leaving reddit now for similar reasons. It comes down to not listening to the people that consume the product.
This is my first time leaving/thinking about leaving a big community like Reddit, it feels weird basically having to start over.