KahRahTay's recent activity

  1. Comment on Metaphysics of web forums and avoiding death by entertainment in ~talk

    KahRahTay
    Link
    I think you can learn a lot about the decline in quality on Reddit from looking at when and why it seemed to happen. The first big decline that I personally noticed in the quality of content, etc....

    One concern about Reddit is the huge proportion of either low-quality posts or attention-chasing memes. And a lot of Tildes users seem to be asking why that is the case; and whether a site like Tildes can be different.

    Some say that Reddit is a victim of the profit cycle. As a commercial entity, Reddit must aim to bring in as many users as possible, thereby increasing advertisement revenue. And lowering the bar to new user entry means that you get more and more people who aren't really concerned with making thoughtful, high-value contributions to the discussions.

    I think you can learn a lot about the decline in quality on Reddit from looking at when and why it seemed to happen. The first big decline that I personally noticed in the quality of content, etc. was after the Digg v4 update and exodus to Reddit. Before then, Reddit seemed to be a relatively small online community with a dedicated user base that had formed a pretty strong culture of mutual respect and general disdain for low effort posts. Obviously you'd find exceptions but for the most part, and certainly in comparison to other comparable communities like Digg, I would argue that was the case. The problem was that when the larger Digg community imploded, Reddit was flooded all at once with new users who did not share that culture. Pretty quickly the kinds of abusive comments and low effort posts that were par for the course on Digg became more common on Reddit as well.

    Since then, I would argue that every noticeable dip in quality on Reddit corresponded with a period of sharp new-user growth. I think if this community is to be a place for thoughtful, interesting discussion, without requiring overly strict moderation, there must be a system in place to somewhat limit the speed at which this community grows so that new users can acclimate to the culture and not overwhelm it completely.

    2 votes

  2. Comment on What hobby do you wish you could do but can't? in ~hobbies

    KahRahTay
    Link Parent
    You could probably make it work starting with smaller scale stuff like go cart racing leagues. You could at lease get your racing fix there and potentially make networking connections with people...

    You could probably make it work starting with smaller scale stuff like go cart racing leagues. You could at lease get your racing fix there and potentially make networking connections with people who could connect you with larger scale organizations.

  3. Comment on What books are you reading nowadays? in ~misc

    KahRahTay
    Link Parent
    The Colour Of Magic was great. It was probably the first book that I ever read for pleasure and really loved.

    The Colour Of Magic was great. It was probably the first book that I ever read for pleasure and really loved.