It improved on the reddit model. As a basic platform I like reddit because it's the closest to Web 1.0 communities like Geocities or blog groups. I don't like it structurally or as spectacle though, with karma being the core flaw of the website. By gamifying community participation they encourage artificial participation. You're incentivised to karma farm and avoid downvotes. A power user there actually means something and it's extremely toxic, both for the individual and for the communities they participate in.
Hexbear took away the posting metagame so it's a step closer to the old internet. You can still be bullied for an opinion but it doesn't impact your account. You can still get points for an opinion but they're restricted to that thread alone. My account posting more or less daily looks exactly the same as a new one without any sort of trophies or score. As a model, the only incentive to participate is that you want to authentically participate in that community moment. That's a decommodification of social media which I much prefer to anything that structurally reflects celebrity.
They're a chicken versus egg problem for me. The metagame of reddit encourages that kind of person and traps them in a snowballing circlejerk of their views. It's like the peer pressure version of youtube's algorithm. Demographically and as a company reddit is terrible. The idea of a centralised forum where I can create my own subforums is where they got it right. It's a unique kind of rhizomatic growth where each new node can be a whole new miniature movement, with peasant rebellions against the subreddit lords. Hexbear's a step back there in that structurally ideas can't organically become new communities without admin approval.
It improved on the reddit model. As a basic platform I like reddit because it's the closest to Web 1.0 communities like Geocities or blog groups. I don't like it structurally or as spectacle though, with karma being the core flaw of the website. By gamifying community participation they encourage artificial participation. You're incentivised to karma farm and avoid downvotes. A power user there actually means something and it's extremely toxic, both for the individual and for the communities they participate in.
Hexbear took away the posting metagame so it's a step closer to the old internet. You can still be bullied for an opinion but it doesn't impact your account. You can still get points for an opinion but they're restricted to that thread alone. My account posting more or less daily looks exactly the same as a new one without any sort of trophies or score. As a model, the only incentive to participate is that you want to authentically participate in that community moment. That's a decommodification of social media which I much prefer to anything that structurally reflects celebrity.
I visited reddit once and got downvoted to oblivion for saying I would piss on the queens grave
Never again
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They're a chicken versus egg problem for me. The metagame of reddit encourages that kind of person and traps them in a snowballing circlejerk of their views. It's like the peer pressure version of youtube's algorithm. Demographically and as a company reddit is terrible. The idea of a centralised forum where I can create my own subforums is where they got it right. It's a unique kind of rhizomatic growth where each new node can be a whole new miniature movement, with peasant rebellions against the subreddit lords. Hexbear's a step back there in that structurally ideas can't organically become new communities without admin approval.
This is a really good breakdown, I agree wholeheartedly.
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