If that was the only issue with Reddit...
I don't know what it is, but people there seem to be turning nastier and nastier. Like for instance, I posted some technical question on an electronics subreddit earlier, and something in my post - not sure what - landed me a -15 score, and people replying that if I didn't like it I could fuck off. All I said was that some component wasn't placed in a terribly convenient location in the new design, and the people who posted angry and rude comments weren't even the designers. I mean what the actual fuck...
It seems a lot of subreddits I used to enjoy participating in are now full of people in a really antagonistic mood, and I often hesitate to post anything there now because I know it has a 50% change of turning nasty. And so instead, whenever possible, I post in the equivalent Lemmy community because even though they have a hundred times fewer users, it's a much less frustrating experience.
I come interact on Reddit or Lemmy to have a good time, not to pick up a fight and get insulted by passive-aggressive internet lusers with frayed nerves.
Attitude is the main reason I started looking for reddit alternatives over four years ago, not ui or privacy or moderation or the api stuff (which came a lot later). I have a lot of theories for why it happened (that aren't just the capitalism and astrotufing circlejerk) but they're hard to back with substantial evidence
Reddit is worse because society is worse
But it has always been bad
I don't know about that.
I've been hearing society is bad and getting worse from a variety of people since I was born in the height of the Cold War, and I've come to believe it's only a perception. It's no better or worse than it's ever been: it's just that as people get older and the standards of their youth change, they feel alienated by a world that is increasinbly not theirs anymore.
I'm old enough to be a grumpy old man but I keep reminding myself that this isn't my world anymore either. And if I'm honest, I don't see how the world of today is significantly worse than when I was a kid and we were all preparing for nuclear armageddon any minute now. And I always remind myself how my grandparents and my parents constantly told me to stop listening to "removed n*ger music" and quit wasting my time with those damn computer things and pursue more "manly" endeavors. I don't want to become bitter like they were because I have no real reason to: the world of today really hasn't done anything to me, it just feels weird.
However, I will say this: social media brings the worst out of people. It's like reality TV of the 80's and Usenet, but turbocharged. I think the utter social mediocrity that is social media contributes a lot to the perception that society is worse: it isn't, it's just that the worst of it is a lot more visible and more vocal.
You can still access the old new reddit by going to new.reddit.com, ironically enough, or old reddit through old.reddit.com
How is going to be called after the next iteration? newnew.reddit.com? newish.reddit.com?
I hate how Reddit conditioned my brain to see score before the actual content and make up my mind about it before even reading it.
I don’t say scores aren’t important to have some kind of loose groupthink quality control but it all has as many cons as it has pros and there isn’t really a perfect solution just least bad.
Also it is the main thing making social media so addicting when you receive points and I want internet to serve me and not I serve the internet.
If a phone/site/program makes everything possible to be as addictive then it actually makes you a slave to it imo instead of it being a useful tool enriching your experience and serving you to maybe get more useful information or show new ideas.
That’s why these new designs get more pretty to look at but less useful because they are made to hijack your time from yourself for ad watching. So in a way ad based companies literally do everything to steal the most valuable resource from you - your time and by extension - your life.
