everybody on ilx complains about reddit

It's passive-aggressive maudlin fucking heartstrings being pulled for UPVOTES.

For some posts, absolutely. But it's a huge site, if some overworked single parents find it and realize they can vent about their shit AND get some easy praise I'm not shocked.

Even if it's all just lies and maudlin bullshit for upvotes, that's firmly in the who cares category for me. There's a not insignificant chunk of ILX over the years (TITTWIS/etc.) that's been all about the HOLD ON, KITTY.

If I constantly posted things like "I don't know if I can pay my car insurance this month, but at least I still have my kids. Here's my vote in the Prince poll," you'd killfile me in a heartbeat.

So what about:

r/askhistorians
r/asksociology

and there's a science one and a literary studies one and some others.

Core of qualified users answer your questions. I read these pretty much every time I go online I guess. I ask questions occasionally, get interesting and worthwhile answers. I'm not aware of anywhere else you can get this specifically?

(Mainstream reddit culture is horrible, of course. A whole lot of paedophile apologists. A whole lot of rape apologists. Or if we're feeling more charitable, people who talk out of their arse about these topics and will not listen. I don't want to/can't talk to the average redditor, in any of the main subreddits, about these topics, certainly.)

quora?

Sure, but ILX is a tight knit community for a non-specialist forum (or perhaps because it's non-specialist) - even if you haven't corresponded with someone or met them outside of ILX, regulars often know each other's stories just from reading posts. jaymc.xls is the norm at ILX rather than the exception.

There are reddit celebs and dedicated posters who know each other, but for the most part redditors are completely anonymous to each other. If I only ever saw your one Prince vote, then it wouldn't bother me and I'd probably even feel bad for you. Especially with the right image macro.

was an xpost to pp

omg there are some shiny glass bottles in this heap of internet garbage!!

Why is that not a valid defense, if someone really digs askhistorians or w/e?

if you're looking on reddit for 'specialists' i for real feel sorry for u xps

If I constantly posted things like "I don't know if I can pay my car insurance this month, but at least I still have my kids. Here's my vote in the Prince poll," you'd killfile me in a heartbeat.

:D

hey ilx, look at this terrific indie playlist my girl friend (who's also a gamer) made for me.

if you're looking on reddit for 'specialists' i for real feel sorry for u

― administrator galina (Matt P), Wednesday, February 20, 2013 11:27 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Didn't really go to reddit to look for them. But they vet the users and users have to provide proof of a relevant qualification. Most of them are postgrad students/academics with some spare time. In terms of the answers you get there's not a lot of agenda pushing or claims to know everything, just 'this is what this theorist said', 'have a look at X book', 'x scenario seems most likely because'

FWIW I'd also say r/circlebroke and r/srs are pretty good if you're in the very niche group of people who go on reddit but don't like it and want to work out exactly why you don't like it.

I guess it's about whether you can call a website 'bad' because most of it's bad, or, whether you can call a website worthwhile because certain bits of it are just quite good fun to spend time on

circlejerk and srs are both hilarious

Is there some app I can use just to check the dog & cat photo subreddits?

r/circlejerk only allows links from gawker!! or did for a lil while.

Sure there's a lot of pedo and rape apologists, but the earthporn sub has some really nifty cactus pictures.

otm

kingfish, you can remove all your subscriptions and only see r/aww and dogs and cats on your front page - this would also work with the two iOS apps

^^

What i really meant was, the rest of the comments were people patting each other on the back. Some kind of pop-culture trivia circle jerk.

mm

I guess it's about whether you can call a website 'bad' because most of it's bad, or, whether you can call a website worthwhile because certain bits of it are just quite good fun to spend time on

― cardamon, Wednesday, February 20, 2013 7:25 PM (Yesterday)

And to expand on that- The bad parts of the website aren't necessary to visit since you can just go directly to r/askphilosophy without visiting the front page first or spacedicks or something. And there isn't much user crossover in those subs.

omg there are some shiny glass bottles in this heap of internet garbage!!

― administrator galina (Matt P)

speaking only for myself, but there is nothing redeeming about reddit's discussion format; threaded conversations are the WORST & the voting system rigorously discourages dissenting opinions. so the insistence that "some of the subreddits aren't so bad" doesn't really matter to me because the structure is deeply flawed.

like, there structural reasons for how ILX became what it is ~as a community~ just like reddit's structure lends itself to the tyranny of its (straight, white, male, technocratic, atheist, sexist, libertarian) majority

For what its worth on the structure point the smaller subreddits don't have a lot of up and downvoting and the threads are small enough that the dissenting opinions don't get as dramatically buried.

which subreddits do you like evan

I like a lot of the ones in the same vein as what cardamon cited- the ask_________ subs are fun/interesting.

How often do you see a man and think "I'd fuck him" or "I want to fuck him"? (self.AskWomen)

What are some corny/cliched romantic gestures that make you go "awww" every time? (self.AskWomen)

What's the worst thing a male stranger has said to you? (self.AskWomen)

Women, what do you feel when a guy orgasms inside you? (self.AskWomen)

How to make a shy girl feel comfortable? (self.AskWomen)

What subtle gestures do woman give off that the person they are chatting to is either creepy or they don't want to speak any more? (self.AskWomen)

Do vaginas really have teeth? (self.AskWomen)

Does female skin feel like silk? (self.AskWomen)

So reddit is the Internet distilled, basically? Pockets of good, overwhelmingly terrible, full of people who think women are the Other?

no reddit is worse

the actual internet has more than like 10% women total

Well wait a second, what is the male/female ratio of regular posters on ILX?

historically afaict 10% female/90% dom

like, there structural reasons for how ILX became what it is ~as a community~ just like reddit's structure lends itself to the tyranny of its (straight, white, male, technocratic, atheist, sexist, libertarian) majority

― fueled by satanism, violence, and sodomy (elmo argonaut), Thursday, February 21, 2013 9:27 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The structural reason I think has waaay less to do with discussion format and waaaay more to do with social origins. Reddit was a tech startup whose base skewed techie/startup-worshipping/student/early adopter/etc.

Ilm was a few tight-knit cores of people interested in taking pop music seriously.

As far as actual discussion format, as irritating as reddit is, outside of the minimalist ilx flat-thread model (which like nobody but ilx has), reddit is sort of the next sanest thing out there I've seen. Text heavy(ish), no phpbb nonsense with avatars and the like, etc. Individual posts are pretty lightweight. It lends itself to zings and brief responses, but also handles large walls of text.

On the other hand, the nesting can foster small stupid spin-off arguments that go on and on, while if those were disrupting a single main thread, other posters would probably tell the participants to can it. So arguably posts can be too cheap and lightweight. But again, I don't think the subthread format is really the worst thing about reddit. And over a certain number of people (where "community" is necessarily just out the window), you really do need upvotes and downvotes and etc. otherwise there's no hope of managing the size of threads.

As for reddit culture, in a weird way, I'm quite glad to have gone through the process of ending up on srs/circlejerk and finding out finally why all this 'friendzone' etc talk is wrong. Not that I ever used the term (or any of that PUA shtick) but there was a time when I wouldn't have picked up on it when someone else used it.

What's the worst thing a male stranger has said to you? (self.AskWomen)

I read this even though I knew it would bum me out and now I'm bummed out. Surprise!

Had the brief idea it should be mandatory for reddit dudez to read that one and sit and think for a moment about how it might wear women down to be treated like a piece of meat for everyone's public appraisal and pawing as a matter of course, and how ridiculous it is that according to reddit we are the oppressors in this day-to-day relationship - but then I realised they'd just read it for hot new zings and come-ons and then sit and wank for a moment about how awesome it would be to put some females in their place

(there is a token guy in there who pretends sweetly not to understand why telling a stranger she looks tired and follow it up with "LOL you look like you were in bed all day" is not cool, and then when someone takes the bait and explains why he embarks on a tirade about how nowadays you can't show any concern for anyone bcz feminazis or something)

hope this makes sense: reddit is weirdly fascinating from a communication theory point of view because it basically quantifies communicational connections. that is, for every communication (post) you can see a NUMBER for "acceptance" or "rejection" responses to that communication. this then makes that quantity available for communication! and that's sorta the maddening aspect of reddit to me.

ILX has standardized "otm" and things like that but we are often much more in the dark about the actual quantifiable success or failure of our communications.

true only in the post-SB era ; )

maybe we should petition Keith to add a button per post you can click which, when enough people have clicked it, turns said post bright flashing red

ryan, it's that aspect plus what gets the highest number of "acceptances" that makes reddit even more maddening. you'll see lame puns, video game jokes, and "women are slutz and arabs are dirty I"M JUST SAYIN!" posts get 1,000 upvotes. it's shit like that that makes me back away from that site. a place like ILX takes a while to get a feel for, but reddit's community stance is visible up front and center. so i guess that's interesting.

Starting to think that instead of an "Ask a Female" page, they should have an "Ask a Human Being" page.

What is your reaction when you receive few quantities of acceptance as you go about your day? (Ask.self.HumanBeing)

hope this makes sense: reddit is weirdly fascinating from a communication theory point of view because it basically quantifies communicational connections. that is, for every communication (post) you can see a NUMBER for "acceptance" or "rejection" responses to that communication. this then makes that quantity available for communication! and that's sorta the maddening aspect of reddit to me.

ILX has standardized "otm" and things like that but we are often much more in the dark about the actual quantifiable success or failure of our communications.

― ryan, Thursday, February 21, 2013 3:31 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ha, twitter kind of does this too, its one of the things that makes it so addicting

haha, it's funny too cuz the upvote system implies a kind of ideal perfect post that gets all upvotes and no downvotes--i can imagine the pressure to compose a "perfect" post in that way must be pretty intense if you buy into the system. this perhaps explains the preponderance of puppies and "i love my kids" drivel. it's a lower hurdle to clear.

that's true max! im terrible at twitter though. i can't seem to figure out how to make a good "tweet." you, incidentally, are awesome at it.

twitter successes are so ephemeral though, unless you are a paying FavStar (tm) member