44
votes
Suggestion: recruit fewer people from reddit
When I joined, I was excited by a site that aims to be something different to reddit. However, it seems like there's a large influx of people who seem to either want a reddit 2.0, or are influenced by reddit culture enough that it carries over here.
Maybe limit the invites from reddit for a bit until the current set of members have some time to settle in?
From what I've seen, tildes is becoming something very different to Reddit already. I do agree that users should be recruited from other sites, however I don't really see recruiting from Reddit a bad thing as most users, myself included, are tired of the way Reddit works and want to become part of something different. Admittedly yes there may be some influx of reddit culture, but I have seen very little of it so far and that is not necessarily a bad thing, the aim of site is to welcome everyone who wants to join in on civil discussion.
I do agree with you on the limiting of invites at some point, especially considering that the ground rules and core mechanics for tildes are still being established. This would allow the community to decided how it wants to operate but also gives new users time to settle in and become established with the way the site works. To all those new users out there who have just joined, realise this is a place to discuss anything on your mind. Have a question, a thought or an idea you find intriguing? Post it. The best way to grow a community is to share with each other, and I for one love talking about new topics and ideas I've never heard before.
What other sources would you recommend Tildes should get their users from? It could only rely on invites by existing users for a while but maybe that doesn't result in the desired amount of influx.
I'd love to recommend Hacker News as they usually have quite interesting discussions, however combined with Reddit this would probably create a tech-oriented demographic.
What we need would be sites with high quality content reaching over many different topics to have a rather balanced user demographic.
Trying to "recruit" from Hacker News is also quite difficult. The site only has one "section" and I can really only post something there when there's news of some sort. It also doesn't even have any sort of messaging system or anything, so there's not even any way to do invites on HN itself - everyone will need to email.
When I open-source the code, I'll make a blog post about it and that will probably have a decent chance of getting some attention on HN again, but it's not really something that can be done very regularly.
It did get some people at least. I know I came from your last hn post and have been on here pretty frequently since then
I think friends of friends is a good start, as well as other internet forums such as Something Awful. The idea is to get people who are looking for a specific type of site.
But then you lose the benefit of being anonymous
Only to your friends. And you might already not be fully anonymous to them either if you both use the same websites and share that knowledge. And if you don't want your friends knowing you use Tildes just don't invite them or take invites from them, simple as that.
I have been holding onto my last invite with an iron fist because im worried about being able to invite a good friend who expresses a real interest if I give it out
I have yet to actually give invites. I want to invite people who will treat this place right, and while I have many friends who might want one, i don't know what they'll do. And it could reflect poorly on me.
You can always just message and ask me for more, I'm not really trying to heavily restrict them. I'll probably give a few more to all the existing users today or tomorrow as well.
I'd be OK with this. Not everyone from reddit is bad or part of the problem, not by a long shot. But I'm looking for an alternative for a reason. Personally I'm trying to escape the toxic culture that has existed around reddit for a while. I'm tired of people belittling people the don't agree with and shouting down dissenting opinions. I'd like some more constructive conversations. Of that means limiting reddit invites then so be it.
I'm from Reddit. I would have been upset if I didn't get an invite just because I was a user of that site. They'll learn quick that Tildes is different, and they either need to adjust to stick around or they'll get upset and go back to reddit. Being inclusive is part of the idea of promoting civil discussion. It wouldn't be discussion if we were a conglomerate of like minded people and didn't allow anyone with a different viewpoint in. Several people have made threads already asking for things that Tildes users and Deimos specifically don't want, and we haven't changed it just because a reddit user comes in with a different way of thinking. We assert that this site isn't reddit and we help them learn to belong, if they choose to do so.
Non-Redditer here. The person who invited me knew me from a different forum. That's what you should do if you want non-Reddit people. Meet people elsewhere and invite them.
I'm one who actually likes most of what Reddit has been, but seeing twitter go crazy with ads and uncontrollable feeds and videos makes me feel the Reddit I joined several years ago will soon be gone. I really like Reddit's breadth of users and my opportunity to settle in on subs I click with and avoid those I have no interest in.
It was my impression that content was something desired here, and to me that has formed the basis of some of the best discussions, because you have a point of reference in articles etc. I guess I'm not yet seeing exactly what this site is aiming for, but willing to wait and see.
Recruiting from Reddit makes sense.
When you walk into someplace new, do you automatically assume that everything you know about the place you were just in applied to the new location?
An example: I walk into a Jewish temple, as someone who only attended a Sufi mosque in the past. Would I naturally assume that everything I know about the mosque automatically apply to the temple? It’s a different environment that you need to observe to understand before you participate. The same thing happens the first time someone who only lived in the United States walks off a plane in Pakistan. You don’t assume the places have the same social norms, culture, or history.
I don’t think a website with a community operates differently. As a community with invites, you have the capability to influence the culture in a small way by inviting an insightful member of Reddit, or a trolling YouTube commenter. Your decision to be an early adopter of this site means your choices have a larger than normal consequence than someone who enters the site later, after the culture is established.
Invite people who you want to be around, who offer a unique perspective, who can express opinions in a way that your feel contributes to the community, who may be an expert in diffusing online arguments, or maybe would have their life enriched by having a community around them.