Tildes effect
For the past few months I felt less and less inclined to engage in conversation on Reddit and other discussions platforms. The risk of any expression being met with a (severely) negative response is just too great. I don't know if it was always like this and that I just don't find it worth it any more or if there is an actual trend of people being more of an asshole more of the time to each other online.
I've only joined Tildes a couple of days ago, and enjoy most of my time here. I've also noticed that I'm now more active again on other platforms. It's made me want to express myself again. I put more effort in my contributions. I'm not necessarily getting more pleasant responses, but there are fewer negative ones, I think.
Does this sound familiar to any of you?
Definitely! There's something refreshing about new platforms; especially ones that don't immediately devolve into something like Voat. In general, right before Popular Group Opinions™ set in on a platform is probably the best time for being able to rethink your own opinions on things. It's something really special and precious on the internet.
I agree. The most interesting part of it, to me, is the fact that a lot of people will feel this exact same way, up to a certain point. The scales tip at a certain point, but it's not clear to me when that is. 10k users? 100k?
For now I'm loving Tildes
The scale tips when users can no longer feel a sense of individualism in the community; ala reddit. This can be anywhere from a hundred users to three hundred thousand. It all really just depends on how well the transition is handled - both by existing members and site management.
I have a feeling that subgroups could help keep the sense of individualism alive longer. Instead of having a massive r/music, having things like ~music.metal.heavy or ~music.rock.indie.altj (for example) will allow smaller, more intimate communities, without keeping them entirely separate from the whole (~music).
Definitely!
Plus, it gives Tildes a bit of a semi-retro feel (Newsgroups), which is great!
I am loving the current batch of users as well. Being the worry wart that I am, I tried to think of a way to “lock” that group in somehow, so I posted this: https://tildes.net/~tildes/1e0/crazy_idea_tildes_will_likely_change_as_more_users_join_but_what_if_there_was_some_magical_way_to
I joined last week so I'm not sure I would be considered the newest batch of users but I'm certainly trying to do my part to make this a community much less vitriolic than other sites currently available.
I'm with you. I've posted here more in the past day than I've averaged over several months throughout my six years on that other site. I have a lot of hope for the trust model, and the lack of a downvote button or visible karma takes away a lot of the humming and hawing I'd usually do before commenting.
I posted a cute cat gif to reddit the other day that had to be locked by the mods due to getting so many nasty comments. I've posted a lot of cat gifs to reddit over the last several years and that was the first time that had happened.
I’ve actually found myself typing things out on Reddit and deleting them.
Mostly because I feel like if it’s contentious issue the people responding are more interested in scoring points and taking them away from me than engaging with me directly. But sometimes I’d imagine it’s just being too lazy to finish typing and/or proofreading, I don’t think tildes will change that.
I do this sometimes as well, because I don't have the time to deal with the inane or outright hostile responses some comments will attract.
Welcome to my past 3 years (maybe more) on reddit :P
Same here! And even when I do finish typing a response, I'm always calculating the possible responses, to make sure I'm not sticking my neck out to be chopped by the community. That's not to say all Reddit communities are hostile, but some are notably so.
Absolutely. The toxic environments of other platforms is precisely why I've moved over to Tildes, and I haven't looked back. The community here is pretty great :)
Absolutely, I was considering making this exact same effect. The twitter/facebook crowd is growing quickly on reddit and you can see it happening.
I simply can't stand comments on most subreddits these days. From the echo chambers to hostility towards anyone that disagrees, it's just not a fun place to discuss anything worthwhile. For video games and other entertainment, it is still providing the service of being a relatively independent forum (Don't get me started on subreddits moderated by the company publishing/developing the game).
Yep, same here!
Wouldn't leave comments anymore on reddit - only if I was drunk.
Tildes seems so... welcoming and open. Really refreshing to see high quality discussions.
I’m not as active posting wise on reddit, it’s always felt like a kind of weird popularity contest, ‘karmawhoring’ was a huge thing so my posts were only really focused in the smaller subreddits that i frequented. And even there it was less about discussing and more about just leaving my thoughts on the post.
my issue with all of these kinds of platforms is that I tend not to respond to a post or comment unless I disagree with it. I'm not really interested in discussing my opinion with someone who shares it.
on reddit, I have to worry about getting downvoted for having the wrong opinion.
here, my concern is still that I'll face repercussions (tags, warnings, etc.) for coming across as a negative, antagonistic person.
I've probably deleted more comments here for fear of coming off as aggressive than I've actually left up.
That's not necessarily a bad thing IMO... in fact, taking a deep breath, stepping away from a heated topic for a few minutes and truly thinking about how your response should be formulated and how it will be perceived before making it is a good thing.
You can disagree with someone and not be aggressive about it.
You can express a controversial opinion without being antagonistic.
However that requires consideration for how best to frame your arguments and what language you should use in order to ensure you are specifically confronting the ideas you disagree with and not the character of the persons you disagree with.
Agreed. Given up on Reddit and Twitter because of the toxicity and echo chambers on all sides.
Amen. I'd just like a little diversity of ideas or at the very least a place that's a little less political. I feel most sites engage in groupthink that results in toxicity towards any opinion contrary to theirs and it makes me less willing to engage. So far Tildes has been much better than the alternatives and, like OP, I feel more willing to contribute.
Yeah, over the past month I've been pretty comfortable tearing almost completely away from Reddit and just not looking back. I had already restricted the diet considerably. Once there was actually a viable alternative (that wasn't Voat) I was out. Oh I'll still look back at /r/DankMemes some time because shit's golden, but pretty much nothing else.
I agree. I'm probably sticking with Reddit until Tildes starts blowing up with popularity, probably when it gets out of invite-only alpha, just because Reddit is that big. But Reddit is a big echo chamber and I hate the toxicity of r/The_Donald and r/incels (now r/braincels) leaks, so I hope Tildes won't get that. I also dislike Reddit because of Reddit's mass Groupthink™, for example, you get a few downvotes and suddenly you're at, like, -50. Good thing Tildes doesn't have downvoting.
Ironically, I actually like it more because there are so few people. I can actually read everything posted, and everyone seems to stay calm. I hope we can maintain some of this atmosphere when ~ grows.
I think in the past few days I have commented and posted more to tilde than I ever did to reddit in nearly a year that I have been using it. I really enjoy that I am not midlessly consuming maybe hundreds of posts and funny videos a day, but am actively engaging in discussion about different topics. I really enjoy that everyone is very positive about posting and I feel like the atmosphere is a lot more forgiving in general.