Post AWfkWSoweij3Llwf6e by teledyn@mstdn.ca
(DIR) More posts by teledyn@mstdn.ca
(DIR) Post #AWfkTLubsxa13S6xdo by dredmorbius@toot.cat
2023-06-12T22:29:09Z
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So ... I've just logged in to Reddit for what appears to be the first time in five months, to set my small stable of subreddits dark.(Few of those are in fact active, but hey...)#Reddit #RedditBlackout
(DIR) Post #AWfkTMqOQ7nhwf96hs by dredmorbius@toot.cat
2023-06-12T22:31:56Z
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I guess I'll just have to remember to log back in in another five months to re-set them to public....
(DIR) Post #AWfkTNapdSwoGgsC5g by dredmorbius@toot.cat
2023-06-12T22:34:26Z
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Some regrets / concerns with /r/Plexodus, which is specifically about moving to other platforms. I ... may revise that / add a pinned post regarding.
(DIR) Post #AWfkTOGf7wPMMQRbI8 by dredmorbius@toot.cat
2023-06-12T22:39:24Z
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And I'll also note that amongst my reasons for not using Reddit much at all:The tools suck. Mod, posting, discussion, all of it. I've written about this for years. And at some point even my dim brain has come to realise that sites / services which haven't changed glaring deficiencies in all likelihood never will. (Hello, Google+, Ello, Diaspora*, ...)The most active sub, /r/dredmorbius (and yeah, that's what my avatar here represents, something ... I really should change) ... has itself been both all-but-inactive and highly Reddit-critical for 5+ years now.The discussions ... just aren't useful. Some subs are good for generating suggestions / surfacing content, but I've generally got much better ways of doing that now. Mostly traditional research methods: reading books, tracking down bibliographies and citations, that sort of thing.Uninformed / manipulative / abusive chatter ... #AintNobodyGotTimeForThat (This from someone who's online presence dates to Usenet pre-Morris Worm.)#Reddit #RedditBlackout #OnlineDiscussion #TheHuntForClue #Clue #SignalNoise
(DIR) Post #AWfkTOyyTBqyZrAzMO by mdhughes@appdot.net
2023-06-13T00:31:22Z
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@dredmorbius While I've had some really awful interactions, vast majority were positive ones. And I got a lot of great information from reddit, new books, shows, RPGs, retrocomputing. Some of the computing subs are fine, others are nonsense.I don't care how awful the tools are if the people & content are good. Redditors were not perniciously evil VC-cock-suckers like h4xx0rn00z, or petty tyrants like most Discords.But the company's just shit. Has been for a decade.#reddit
(DIR) Post #AWfkTREe5tZrZ2WX44 by dredmorbius@toot.cat
2023-06-12T22:48:37Z
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Oh, and FML, Reddit Enhancement Suite may also be affected by the API changes:https://teddit.net/r/RESAnnouncements/comments/141hyv3/announcement_res_reddits_upcoming_api_changes/Most of my access to Reddit these days is through Teddit.When I actually do hit the site directly and log in, it's on old.reddit.com and using RES. Losing either of those really would be final straws.There are a few support subs I've used in the past few years, that's about my only remaining substantive use.
(DIR) Post #AWfkTSGSGecQkwNUWW by dredmorbius@toot.cat
2023-06-13T00:30:40Z
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The mod suckage is the primary reason I've all but abandoned most of those subs. The one's I'm a mod on, or lead mod on.The exception to the mod-suck issue are restricted-submissions / sole-submitter subs, such as /r/dredmorbius. There, there's really not much of a moderation overhead as I'm the only person to beat over the head with a stick.But I'd found a year or so's accumulates spam (or misdirected) posts on one sub. Dealing with even a half-dozen or so is tedious. Sure, you can flag-as-spam (which as a mod seems to nuke the content), but if you want to also block the user, there's another three-to-four step process to do that, which, when you're dealing with bulk actions is, you guessed it, tedious.(Real Mods apparently use Real Tools to streamline all of this. The same Real Tools which the API termination / fees will make unusable and/or prohibitively expensive.)On another sub, where I'm not chief mod ... I had to flag down the chief and see if they want to take the subreddit dark. Again, tools for collaborating and coordinating with other moderators, on Reddit, suck.All of these are pretty small-potatoes. And it still sucks.I can't imagine what it's like to run a large, or even moderately-large sub.
(DIR) Post #AWfkTddtxouU2qQs64 by dredmorbius@toot.cat
2023-06-13T03:46:53Z
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@mdhughes The problem with the "I don't care how awful the tools are" approach is that bad tools drive out good mods and contributors.It is frustrating to try to moderate on Reddit, and the striking mods have been raising this issue with Reddit for well over a decade. There's been little visible progress.The result is that good mods go inactive or quit. You're left with either un-moderated or under-moderates subs (several of my own would fit that description), or with mods seeking that status who have either personal or pecuniary interests in the position.Bad mods mean that good contributors find both that they have less productive engagement, and less recognition.It's a death spiral.I'd walked from Reddit myself about five years ago, with very occasional, and increasingly reluctant, exceptions.Treat your volunteer labour force(s) with respect and integrity, or they'll turn on you.#reddit #RedditStrike #RedditBlackout #Moderators #Moderation
(DIR) Post #AWfkTeOh9qLANyKF28 by mdhughes@appdot.net
2023-06-13T04:34:43Z
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@dredmorbius But good tools don't bring back good people to a site full of shitty people. Anyway, now it looks like all the big "social" sites are just trashed. Only little villages like fediverse will survive the apocalypse.
(DIR) Post #AWfkUd3Xd6fGW1ti1w by dredmorbius@toot.cat
2023-06-13T06:38:32Z
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@mdhughes So, first, this is shifting the argument, and I just want to point that out.My initial point was why tools matter. Even those you cannot see yourself directly.Whether and/or how a site can recover, and/or what lessons are learned from Reddit, are additional questions. From my experience, site degradation tends to be a one-way trip, so to that extent, yes, it's unlikely that those who've left will return.On the other hand ... people aren't an absolutely fixed resource, there's fresh blood arriving all the time, and with work and respect reputations might get turned around.The other aspect is that of the sites vying to become the next centre of online discussion, understanding why admin / mod tools matter and what the consequences of underprovision are is also key, and we're getting a masterclass in that right now.There's a constant tension between small and vital, on the one hand, and large and commercial, on the other. I've watched online discussions rise and fall, and there are examples from earlier periods of groups (say, the Algonquin Round Table, a writers' group, or H.L. Mencken's American Mercury magazine), where clue resided for a time, then left. The one just sort of faded, the second became the worst sort of reactionary anti-semitic rag.For the television age, there's TLC ("The Learning Channel"), at one time a public-broadcasting / NASA partnership, or the History Channel, both of which degraded significantly from initial visions. It's an old story.
(DIR) Post #AWfkUdnyqRoMq3cnPk by mdhughes@appdot.net
2023-06-13T06:53:30Z
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@dredmorbius I can't think of *any* example of a social site that fell apart, abused the community that had formed there, and survived. MySpace and Livejournal are, as I've noted elsewhere, probably criminal fronts now. Freenode was a hostile takeover much like bird site, and the community just left and made libera.chat. Zero chance anyone will ever go back, that "new blood" will fix it.Facebook remains an aberration. It's lost everyone who started, but old/clueless people remain trapped.
(DIR) Post #AWfkWSoweij3Llwf6e by teledyn@mstdn.ca
2023-06-13T23:09:42Z
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@mdhughes@secondlife re-emerged from very dark times. I'm not at all sure how they did it. @dredmorbius
(DIR) Post #AWfkWTanmn0TkCKshU by mdhughes@appdot.net
2023-06-14T05:28:23Z
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@teledyn @secondlife @dredmorbius I had a good development business in SL, until LL made gambling & whoring "illegal" to preserve their banking arrangements. That drove out the highest-profit businesses, and that drove out the money for everyone else.But LL never really harassed their users, so at least the furries & other fan groups stayed, it just got quieter and never grew.They really needed to make opengrid/opensimulator support easier if they wanted to grow.