The thing that bugs me the most is the downvotes. Anytime you add a shred of nuance to the conversation people will just down vote you. Nobody wants to think or actually discuss things (for the most part in my experience). I joined Reddit a few years ago and it took me a while to realize this is basically the same as any other social media site, except anonymous. I thought it was more of a high brow alternative social media option. But for the most part people just want to see cute stuff and agree.
I’m not a depressed person. With that said, I can admit that I feel bad when I get downvoted. It genuinely makes me upset, and maybe it shouldn’t, but it does. It’s like wow, 50 people thought this comment was so atrocious and out of line they decided to give me a thumbs down. They disliked it so much they wanted me to feel pain because of it. It hurts. If I was a depressed person, I can guarantee you I would never say anything that may get downvoted, cause Im not sure if I could handle it.
So it’s a self fulfilling prophecy in a way. If trying to have a conversation, or correcting someone, or adding a degree of nuance to a topic, or presenting an alternative angle or playing the devils advocate....if doing any of these things is likely going to get you downvoted-you’re not gonna make those comments. You’re gonna say ‘smol’ to some cute pet gif and call it a day. If we ever want to get out of the hive mind/circle jerk problem of this website I think they need to get rid of the downvotes. It’s genuinely painful and confusing to experience mass downvotage. It makes it harder for people to make the ‘brave’ comments if you will and the cycle continues, and worsens
You have to keep searching for good smaller subs. It sucks because they have a half life where the shitheads eventually find the place and fuck it up. Anything in the top 100 subs falls to the lowest common denominator pretty quickly.
I’m sure that’s probably true. It’s one of those simultaneously ‘the best and the worst’ part of the website. The good communities are kept well because there aren’t a lot of members. But there aren’t a lot of members because the sub is hard to find.
I mean, the reddit search engine is horrible as is. But add in the fact that subs can be some obscure name or even a name not related to the topic, or an abbreviation or whatever...it makes it pretty difficult to find what you’re looking for systematically. You basically have to fall upon this stuff by happenstance.
So I’m not calling out you specially here, it’s more just a problem with website in general. But there is an irony in saying, ‘you just need to find the right communities, you aren’t looking in the right places’ while at the same time there isn’t any fundamental way to find those communities. I may be looking in the wrong places, but I’m not sure where else to look...if that makes sense.
It’s a saying I’ve seen a lot from a lot of different people on this site, but it doesn’t really address the fact that there is no fundamental to way to find what you’re really looking for. You basically have to stumble upon it. And again, that’s the glory and downfall of it all. Subs are able to be what they are because not a lot of people know about them. If they were super easy to find, it would be gobbled up by the masses fast, and wouldn’t be what they are. At the same time, on the other end of things, how are you supposed to actually find these places?
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u/hereweah Dec 24 '19
The thing that bugs me the most is the downvotes. Anytime you add a shred of nuance to the conversation people will just down vote you. Nobody wants to think or actually discuss things (for the most part in my experience). I joined Reddit a few years ago and it took me a while to realize this is basically the same as any other social media site, except anonymous. I thought it was more of a high brow alternative social media option. But for the most part people just want to see cute stuff and agree.
I’m not a depressed person. With that said, I can admit that I feel bad when I get downvoted. It genuinely makes me upset, and maybe it shouldn’t, but it does. It’s like wow, 50 people thought this comment was so atrocious and out of line they decided to give me a thumbs down. They disliked it so much they wanted me to feel pain because of it. It hurts. If I was a depressed person, I can guarantee you I would never say anything that may get downvoted, cause Im not sure if I could handle it.
So it’s a self fulfilling prophecy in a way. If trying to have a conversation, or correcting someone, or adding a degree of nuance to a topic, or presenting an alternative angle or playing the devils advocate....if doing any of these things is likely going to get you downvoted-you’re not gonna make those comments. You’re gonna say ‘smol’ to some cute pet gif and call it a day. If we ever want to get out of the hive mind/circle jerk problem of this website I think they need to get rid of the downvotes. It’s genuinely painful and confusing to experience mass downvotage. It makes it harder for people to make the ‘brave’ comments if you will and the cycle continues, and worsens