Why cant this place be more like Reddit?

Harry Palmr · 14-11-2016 12:06AM

Senna wrote: »

I never really got reddit, I have visited the site many time, but I can never understand what I'm looking at.

You're looking at random posts, which are the ones most upvoted.

RDM_83 again · 14-11-2016 02:04AM

Using Reddit more has made me appreciate that while Boards has its flaws it could be a lot worse, Reddit got astroturfed to bits with the US elections in its main forums to a point that you might as well be reading official Hillary clinton press releases. That and the super SJW cadres that go around inflitrating moderatorship on seemingly innocuous forums.

That said the reason I have been using it more is because with the Reddit is Fun app I can actually read the site on a slow mobile phone data connection, with the apparent death of m.boards.ie my usage has fallen hugely

mahamageehad · 14-11-2016 02:13AM

I like Reddit. I use it for conversation and fan theories about TV shows that I follow. Things that dont have much of a following on boards like Orphan Black. I also like reading some of the more interesting AMAs as they get big names and that's cool or mad stories like the guy with two working cöcks.

I like boards for something completely different. Take the new werewolf game forum for example, that'd never work on boards. I use boards for general news, after hours randomness, aforementioned werewolf game and just to generally keep an overview of what's happening at home.

Amazingly I've found that you can use different websites for different things!

tomwaterford · 14-11-2016 02:31AM

LexieOnRale wrote: »

I really want to see what Reddit is like but I actually couldn't be arsed going to the effort to check. It's a sorry day when you're too lazy to type a website address into an address bar.

Probably ok on a computer

But absolutely terrible on the phone.....too much effort to use it is found

That site that rhymes with orange....but can't be named :rolleyes: at least when it was working you could look at it on the phone....

Edups · 14-11-2016 02:39AM

tomwaterford wrote: »

Probably ok on a computer

But absolutely terrible on the phone.....too much effort to use it is found

That site that rhymes with orange....but can't be named :rolleyes: at least when it was working you could look at it on the phone....

I want to know the site now

Arghus · 14-11-2016 05:51AM

Reddit hurts my eyes and, frequently, my brain.

Jericho Caine · 14-11-2016 06:02AM

Edups wrote: »

I want to know the site now

Imagine Boards with no rules frequented by people who make Mussolini look like a centrist. Credit where it's due, the place is a comedy goldmine. I spent four hours laughing reading the posts on there.

14-11-2016 06:24AM

Horses for courses. I'm a boardsie, boyfriend is a Redditor. He says "Oh you guys are so sad!"; also has this weird idea that boards mods HATE reddit. Sure I've never even looked on the site (outside of the Elevator Ritual) - maybe you would do better staying over there? If you like it better, like.

Del.Monte · 14-11-2016 06:43AM

Jericho Caine wrote: »

Imagine Boards with no rules frequented by people who make Mussolini look like a centrist. Credit where it's due, the place is a comedy goldmine. I spent four hours laughing reading the posts on there.

I thought that was Politics.ie

CruelCoin · 14-11-2016 08:49AM

June1992 wrote: »

There's 3,300 posts in the Trump thread for example. Who wants to read all that?

Why not have the best, most upvoted (or liked in the case), posts rise to the top like Reddit and make things far more readable?

Im back reading Boards after a sabbatical but I see nothing has changed. It's still very much Old Web and a chore to peruse. What a shame and a wasted opportunity.

Back to Reddit for me it is then.

"Why cant this place be more like Reddit?"

You mean you want Boards to become the same as the circle-jerking, vote brigading, yes-man ****hole Reddit is?

Here we can something approaching a debate, without getting a vote brigade auto-ban.

_Kaiser_ · 14-11-2016 09:19AM

Boards is not Reddit, or Facebook, or Twitter (although to be fair, with some of the decisions that have been made in recent years you'd sometimes forget that)

Boards is a discussion forum, built around the idea of conversations and the natural flow of them. I'll agree on the thanks whoring to a point (particularly in AH), but it can be a useful thing too to acknowledge a post/idea you genuinely agree with or which was well put - everything in moderation though. Personally I find the "gimmick posters" far more annoying myself as it's just the same line every time regardless of the topic.

I can see how the "short attention span" types of the smartphone era might get frustrated though. Myself I find the Reddit/Twitter style of media virtually unusable but they can't be avoided either as particularly the latter is leaned on more and more for news and comment elsewhere.

_Kaiser_ · 14-11-2016 09:27AM

Wibbs wrote: »

This in a big way. For me anyway. OK I'm an old fart, so that may be one reason I don't like reddit style layouts, but the echo chamber tendency is far greater on such a platform. Sure it's easy to read the top up voted replies, but that reflects the local ecosystem and worldview of the sub. Grand for techies stuff, even welcome, but not nearly so much for actual debate. Granted, it does seem as if more and more people want more and more echo chambers, but again for me I usually learn far more about myself and my position on a subject from those who disagree with me.

I'd agree with this one except that I've noticed that the same echo chamber effect has definitely seeped into the more "controversial" topics here in recent-ish times.

There's definitely a greater intolerance among Generation Internet for differing views or indeed anything that doesn't conform to the "validated" position, and rather than debate/counterpoint, you get pages and pages of childish name-calling, whataboutery and every "ist"/"ism" they can throw at you, but because of the echo chamber effect (and lazy "traditional" media staffed increasingly by these types themselves) the effects of this are magnified hugely which distorts the reality.

Bongalongherb · 14-11-2016 09:43AM

I tried reddit myself for a while but it's an intergalactic kegger of display, all over the place and not neat. Sh!te really. In my opinion.

ThisRegard · 14-11-2016 09:44AM

Because Reddit is a popularity circle jerk of a mess.

Lovely Bloke · 14-11-2016 09:47AM

Wibbs wrote: »

I usually learn far more about myself and my position on a subject from those who disagree with me.

No you don't.

Wibbs · 14-11-2016 10:03AM

Lovely Bloke wrote: »

No you don't.

I said I learn something about my position or myself, I didn't say I then agree with the contrary opinion. Spot the diff.

Four Phucs Ache · 14-11-2016 10:10AM

Hope boards stays the way it is.Reddit is a graphic mess on a screen.

Boards is a nice, well designed, neat set up that suits my eyeballs.

seamus · 14-11-2016 10:39AM

There are benefits to both styles.

Reddit's upvote system for threads means that absolute drivel ends up being unseen and if you browse in the standard layout, then you see all the worthwhile content first.

Boards on the other hand doesn't become an echo chamber because a particular viewpoint happened to get itself upvoted in a thread. The funny thing about reddit is that the same viewpoint will get very different reactions in different threads based on which "side" has inhabited that thread. Whereas on boards you can be pretty sure to get a consistent reaction to your opinion.

But the main difference here is scale. Boards wouldn't work at reddit scale. Every forum would be choked with nonsense threads with one or two responses, and any popular topics would be an unreadable 500-page mess within an hour.

And reddit wouldn't work at boards scale.

I've mentioned before though that it would be nice on boards to be able to optionally sort some threads into branches and sub-discussions. Once a heated thread has 4 or 5 discussions going on across eachother, it becomes painful to try and follow the whole thing. A branched format would make for a much nicer time.

Riddle101 · 14-11-2016 10:49AM

The idea of most thanked posts being at the top of a thread seems like a popularity contest to me. Posters who are popular would tend to get more likes then ones who aren't, and then there would be an imbalance on threads. Knowing After Hours, every poster who makes a joke on a serious thread would be at the top due to the amount of likes they got which would detract from the discussion I think.

Lovely Bloke · 14-11-2016 11:21AM

Wibbs wrote: »

I said I learn something about my position or myself, I didn't say I then agree with the contrary opinion. Spot the diff.

I was quite simply disagreeing with you.

It was a joke, probably badly timed or something, but that's all it was.

You stated something about learning when someone disagrees with you. I disagreed with you.

Meh.

This is AH, not Feedback. Chill out man.

KERSPLAT! · 14-11-2016 11:24AM

I hope I don't see you in the jokes thread with jokes like those

Alun · 14-11-2016 11:27AM

seamus wrote: »

Reddit's upvote system for threads means that absolute drivel ends up being unseen floating to the top, and if you browse in the standard layout, then you see all the worthwhile content ****e first.

FYP

Lovely Bloke · 14-11-2016 11:28AM

KERSPLAT! wrote: »

I hope I don't see you in the jokes thread with jokes like those

admittedly fell flat, but I thought it was pretty obvious what was happening.

Maybe of it came from someone else the response would have been different.

Meh.

Discodog · 14-11-2016 11:32AM

So Reddit is based on democracy, bit like the US election & Brexit, where people follow opinion like sheep. Tried it, thought it was pointless & kept on using Boards.

super_furry · 14-11-2016 11:48AM

Discodog wrote: »

So Reddit is based on democracy, bit like the US election & Brexit, where people follow opinion like sheep.

Even more so. Because anyone can start their own forum there, whoever starts it first can impose their own rules. That leads to echo chambers like the Donald Trump one there that instantly bans anyone who has anything even remotely questioning or critical to say.

You don't get debate or discussion on Reddit, just groups of people all telling each other how right they are.

Edups · 14-11-2016 12:30PM

Reddit is cancer for your eyes imo. There's no discussion to be had. Boards is a forum like they used to be, Reddit is ****e

qo2cj1dsne8y4k · 14-11-2016 12:35PM

I'm just looking at it now. Pure scour

MOH · 14-11-2016 12:47PM

June1992 wrote: »

There's 3,300 posts in the Trump thread for example. Who wants to read all that?

Why not have the best, most upvoted (or liked in the case), posts rise to the top like Reddit and make things far more readable?

Im back reading Boards after a sabbatical but I see nothing has changed. It's still very much Old Web and a chore to peruse. What a shame and a wasted opportunity.

Back to Reddit for me it is then.

Great story. When's the movie coming out?

inforfun · 14-11-2016 02:04PM

Most upvoted first works great for funny cat pictures but not for debates.
Chronological order is much better.
In extreme cases you just put the one or two idiots, you disagree with by default, on ignore and off you go.

andekwarhola · 14-11-2016 03:11PM

I like Reddit but - maybe it's a generational thing - I just detest the up/down vote structure as well as it being open to abuse.

Non-chronological debates just seem somehow symptomatic of a culture of intellectual skim-reading, sound bites and and instant gratification to me.

Why cant this place be more like Reddit?

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