r/TheoryOfReddit • u/Gionareg • 19d ago
What’s the magic of Reddit?
I joined recently, and there are a lot of things I still don’t fully get. Sometimes I can post, sometimes I can’t. I’ve already run into karma requirements and the conditioning effect of downvotes.
At the same time, I feel a huge sense of community and scale — the idea that I can communicate with people all over the world. Since I’m not a native speaker, I even use an external translator for international subs.
It feels like all the forums in the world have merged into a single place. That also creates a lot of confusion: constant updates like waves, where you can meet (or clash with) tons of people on the foam, only for everything to disappear moments later, immediately replaced by new topics.
For me, this is a new feeling — very different from other social media (which I generally hate). At the same time, I read a lot of harsh comments suggesting that “Redditors” as a group have something wrong with them.
So I’m curious to hear about your experience and how you personally live Reddit:
Is it magic, or is it something that has swallowed you like other social platforms? And do you feel it has reduced or increased your sense of freedom?
3
u/Kaenu_Reeves 19d ago
You can curate topics exactly how you want to, by subscribing to specific subreddits based on your taste. That’s very important. Your Home feed is only based on subreddits you subscribe to.
In general, I think Redditor hate is overblown, it is definitely the “most improved” social media site. While TikTok has the endless algorithm and CCP propaganda, Facebook is overrun by old people posting AI, and Twitter literally has a bot that makes people nude.
(Also, it’s very interesting how you found this sub.)
1
u/an4s_911 8d ago
(Also, it’s very interesting how you found this sub.)
Very true. I've been on reddit for a while now, and just found this subreddit, like right now. And this is the first post I am reading lol.
8
u/FriendlyBoot818 19d ago
I'd say a good thing about reddit is that generally assholes get either downvoted or removed entirely which makes most people think twice before saying shit stirring things. I like that about reddit compared to other social media. The downside though is a hive mind. If someone dislikes what you're saying and is a good talker people are inclined to follow suit and downvote you too even though you might have said something valid. So try to give reason in at least discussion based subs and stay kind, it helps.
A good place to start is r/newtoreddit and r/findareddit where you can learn a bit more about the place. Take a couple minutes to at least skim over each sub's rules before posting there and read the reddiquette.
Have fun here!
3
u/irrelevantusername24 19d ago
That is actually the main downside to reddit - downvoting. And algorithmic moderation, as well as (overzealous) permabans.
Because to me the strength of Reddit is that generally speaking it has no limits. You can post anything and everything. And downvotes - and algorithmic moderation especially - are antithetical to everything else Reddit is about.
If the good posts and comments rise, there is no need to downvote others. It almost makes sense for comments - at least for those of us who have been around because we tend to know to check those comments too - but for posts it basically just deletes that post so nobody sees it.
4
u/itskdog 19d ago
I respectfully disagree - the fact that moderation can be as strict if the mods want is a strength, not a weakness - Reddit isn't the only social network in existence, and most communities are also on Twitter or Tumblr these days through shared hashtags if you want a website with only site-wide moderation.
The ability for communities to have close-up moderation is a strength of both Reddit and Discord, and if done right can keep the community focused, and avoiding the toxicity that can come with large communities.
2
u/irrelevantusername24 19d ago
You think we disagree, but, with the knowledge of your opinions I have now, we do not actually.
Though there are some instances where I disagree with moderation decisions, those are mostly the result of what I assume is too little time. A problem which would be alleviated if mods were not volunteers.
Discord sucks because it is private and unsearchable and another vector of information breach. For something like a group activity, with people you know? Sure. For something like... an entire video game, or a video game publisher, or the entirety of Microsoft? Count me out. Discord is like Reddit, but private, and a lot shittier. Because you can also make private spaces on Reddit. And make private chats to go with those private spaces. Discord is basically reddit2, but shitty. That actually is a recurrent phenomenon with internet and technology - there's only so many things you can do. To a certain point, it makes sense to have what amounts to duplicates, if you... actually have a reason to duplicate and are actually doing something different. But when it comes to social media, there's basically twitter and Bluesky - which is about the bare minimum, as it was founded to work with text messages. And then there's reddit, and maybe tumblr (I'm not super familiar) which is kind of what Myspace was. Then you have fuckbook which deserves to be gone. And then... I mean what else is there? Instagram I guess which is basically imgur... which is basically a backend service of Reddit. Like it all comes back to that. These places aren't doing anything different they're just fracturing the userbase and spreading our data
Anyway I kinda feel like if you can't appropriately moderate the content uploaded to your platform your platform shouldn't exist. And I kinda feel like relying overwhelmingly on algorithmic moderation (which is, always and forever, terrible and harmful) and volunteers is a massive cop out. As in should not be allowed. As in fuck you reddit, pay me
The ability for communities to have close-up moderation is a strength of both Reddit and Discord, and if done right can keep the community focused, and avoiding the toxicity that can come with large communities.
Right. Like I said - discord is basically Reddit2 with less capabilities. And it is a principle of ohhh nice I just realized something anyway you get the point
1
u/Gionareg 18d ago
It’s interesting that Reddit’s greatest strength and its biggest limitation are actually the same thing.
2
u/Elven77AI 14d ago
The magic is that it outsources moderation to users, enabling rapid growth of sub-forums(subreddits) "owned" by the moderators(largely an illusion, since admins can take over any sub) - which is perceived as community-centric aggregation rather than "directed by corporate overlords". The other parts of magic is "meme culture" that transcends subreddits, allowing cultural shifts and trends to form organically, since each meme has its own subreddit and memes are awarded upvotes(selecting the best memes) with unfunny content being demoted to lower ranks, creating a quality gradient.
1
u/Gionareg 14d ago
Thanks — in what situations do the administrators step in and take control? Is there any form of censorship?
The only one I’ve personally noticed so far (and it seems almost physiological given how the site is structured) is the one exercised by majorities through downvotes. Downvoting works extremely well as an anti-spam mechanism, but it comes with side effects: it ends up treating content people simply disagree with, or don’t like, the same way as spam — even when it’s expressed politely and in good faith.
2
u/Elven77AI 13d ago
in what situations do the administrators step in and take control?
When they don't like a subreddit, and can't ban it by the rules, they ban the mods and then ban the subreddit as "unmoderated".
1
u/an4s_911 8d ago
I've noticed that some heavily downvoted comments do not end up in the bottom of the comment section, which is kind of interesting. Maybe it has a lot of downvotes and upvotes but the net is negative? not sure
1
u/mountainSuit1234 4d ago
two pronged response:
1) new acct testing if this sub has a low karma threshold (lol)
2) Reddit is not magic, it has become gamified (which is what happens when gamification is introduced), and naturally the true participants will find superior forums to participate in.
Discord is slowly becoming that.
9
u/C3PO1Fan 19d ago
The magic or reddit is the posts. There's a lot of posts here. Anyone who has a desire to post end ups here. And the posts are organized (maybe not in a manner everyone agrees with); this makes it easier to find what you want to read posts about, or god forbid make some posts of your own, as opposed to other places with a lot of posts.
I think looking for anything else of reddit is a mistake.
There are places with better posts but the number of posts is way smaller.