People keep saying how great Reddit is, but I tried signing up to a bunch of my "Niches" and all the posts where just low quality junk; for example every other post in the 3dprinting subreddit is just "MY FIRST PRINT!" or "I BOUGHT A THING!" and for some reason people think it's cute so they upvote it. EDC? here is another picture of my gun! Tech reddit; "here is a link to a medium post that you can't see unless you subscribe!".
And the rest of the posts are just people re-asking the same questions over and over because they can't be bothered to search.
Reddit is just a fire hose of low quality content.
Those topics are still too generalized which tends to indicate the sub has a lot of casual and beginner members. Larger communities also mean they’re a target for low quality/repost material that accounts can use to significantly increase karma in a short amount of time.
On a similar note to your comment about the fire hose of low quality content, I find this most with what should be specialist subreddits. Something specifically dedicated to some special technical interest is usually filled with novices larping as experts to other novices who can't yet realize that's what's going on.
A secondary issue with Reddit is what I like to call "drive by toxicity". When you're discussing something and a zealot of some sort decides you've made an error of some kind so egregious that they must correct you, and that the error has also absolved them of any need to do so respectfully. Often times this error isn't even central to what you're discussing (ie: using the phrase linux OS rather than "implementation of the linux kernel"). This is particularly bad in tech subreddits, which are generally teaming with people who can't wait to nitpick over minutia.
Lastly, the odd cultural feature of Reddit where users feel it's appropriate to dig through comment histories and pull unrelated comments they disagree with into an attack on you over something is unsettling to say the least.
I think this is a good take. What killed reddit was ultimately the proliferation of imgur (and image previews/quick-views for images). There was a dramatic shift from a primarily-text platform to a primarily-image platform, and that's why there's so much meme-heavy content.
When someone talks about a "good" subreddits, they probably mean that it's mostly text-based. /r/fpga and /r/amateurradio are two that come to mind for me.
Overall, I agree with what you're saying though; I no longer have an account and don't miss it at all.
I think this is inflation. There's plenty of subreddits that were great for awhile then just became over run with stuff like that. I think because a lot of people are more casual members and just casually upvote a lot. But to be honest, there's still not that much great material in the first place. Maybe there's a way to separate out these groups. E.g. noobs and technical members. These people have different needs and wants. Technical members should help noobs (wizards don't exist without noobs) but maybe all technical members don't want to do that and only want to see what other technical users are doing. A niche topic stops being niche when it gains too many users and I think that harms the community when members are looking for said niche community.
That's a pretty broad brush. Check out /r/askscience and /r/askhistorians for some heavily moderated subreddits. Not all need that level but they produce almost all quality posts.
That's the exception that proves the rule. /r/askscience and /r/askhistorians have heavy handed moderation to keep quality much higher than the rest of Reddit.
I don't know how one can disagree with the fact that most of Reddit is quick engagement posts (images, memes, even if they don't fit the subreddit) and witty one liners voted to the top. There's good stuff, sure, the point is that it's hidden behind a ton of crap.
Yeah I'm not sure if there is an "ask" style subreddit for 3D printing, but IME the ask subreddits are a good way to get quality content on a broader academic topic.
There may also be a sidebar on a given sub with more specific related subreddits listed out. These can sometimes be more technical (for example there is a subreddit specific to breaking down NFL plays) or sometimes they are just a way to get a more specific viewpoint (I like to check out both teams' subreddits after some controversy happens, neither side is usually level headed but then you at least get both sides of the story).
The "I BOUGHT A THING!" posts reek of astroturfing in my opinion; just browse /tea or /breadit and you'll see the same item posted every single week reach the top page.
I do wonder how many of them are actually sponsored/artificially promoted by the company's PR department vs just natural hive-mind. In the end it doesn't matter because the posts are of zero value...
To be honest, it is everywhere. For example, I subscribe r/succulents and it's largely the same thing (and I doubt anyone astroturfs particular plant species).
I think the main reasons are that it gives people with nothing insightful to contribute something they can share and can elicit some emotional response which is easier for a picture than text. A picture is also faster to consume and process which likely explains the popularity of image macros and memes. Another problem is that the majority of posts in such subreddits are usually the same few questions, so typically a sticky post or a wiki page will be made to refer people there (or asking for help will be specifically banned) and suddenly there is not much to talk about.
The most egregious example for me is r/selfhosted which started as a tech DIY subreddit and transformed into people posting pictures of all the docker containers they are running at home.
edit: In fact, I would go as far as to suggest that the primary reason HN is slow to succumb to the Eternal September is because it doesn't allow for embedding media.
> In fact, I would go as far as to suggest that the primary reason HN is slow to succumb to the Eternal September is because it doesn't allow for embedding media.
I agree, I think your whole post basically highlights how social media has converged into Instagram behaviour: quick scroll and spend 2 seconds on a post (image because text takes more than 2 seconds to process) and then double-tap for a like (a like being a mere reflex to the 2 seconds of mental stimulation you just felt).
That being said, even HN has its own issues: the same discussions get rehashed ad infinitum for many popular topics (just compare two posts about p.e. Apple, 1 year apart). Maybe we can have a school essay-type plagiarism checker that declines any comments with a high enough similarity to existing comments? :) (please don't do that!)
Most communities have a related subreddit where that sort of stuff is banned, but finding it usually requires spending enough time reading to see a mention 20 levels deep in an off-topic thread near the bottom. You might get lucky with the subreddit's wiki or sidebar if it has one.
YMMV. Subreddits still need good moderators to succeed.
For me, the sweet spot is:
1. If I want to buy a $PRODUCT, I find the subreddit for enthusiasts of $PRODUCT and see if they have a wiki or a stickied post or a sidebar that has accumulated recommendations and/or advice.
2. Some subreddits are more about the stickied general discussion thread than the rest of the subreddit.
3. There are lots of subreddits, and many of them were started specifically out of some grievance with a different subreddit. Are you sure there isn’t a “EDC-but-no-guns” subreddit, if that’s what you really wanted?
Yeah this annoys me to no end. I only subscribe to subreddits which have strict moderation. Even those subreddits really struggle to keep up with removing low effort comments because there’s too many.
The cooking subreddit is somewhat okay. They have a no image post rule and that is pretty effective just on its own.
I’m dying for a better 3d printing community. I recently took it up with my son, and finding good content isn’t trivial. I really enjoy some of CNC Kitchen’s content on YouTube, thingiverse is neat, but when it comes to sharing work, ideas, plans, files, etc - I’m not having much luck.
Random posts are low quality, but the great thing is you can let others find the good ones for you by coming back to subreddits periodically and sorting by "top posts this week" for example.
Yeah, hackernews seems much different. There are zero low effort meme posts on the first view pages. There's a variety of interesting content. The comments are thought provoking. The moderation is professional.
I notice now and then a few reddit style comments creeping in at the edges but I take my responsibility to downvote them seriously. (By reddit style comments I mean pointless joke, puns, "this", comment chain type stuff).
It can depend on the subreddit, but you are mostly right. The moderation makes a big difference and it's all volunteer, at least for niche subs. I have a small handful I subscribe to and check regularly. Mostly I Google for reddit threads when I'm interested in a topic since you'll generally end up with a quality thread on almost any imaginable topic.
And the rest of the posts are just people re-asking the same questions over and over because they can't be bothered to search.
Reddit is just a fire hose of low quality content.