I have had a lot of hope for this site. It is one of several communist communities that I've been involved with online, which splintered from its main site and created a cloned version. Mostly the other example for this is bunkerchan.xyz, although they jumped twice, from 4 to 8 Chan and then to bunkerchan.
Anyways, without going too far into it, simply cloning a website and setting up your community in the replicated space will replicate the same dynamics. In chapo chat's case, this has clearly recently demonstrated itself in mod power tripping.
What we have done is create immaterial spaces which are communist in essence but not in form. These are still fundamentally hierarchical websites with the express purpose of controlling content and, originally, producing profit by drawing attention to advertisements.
There is probably not a way to replicate the form of reddit without creating an opportunity for people to take things to far with their mod powers and damage the community. Where there is an opportunity, individuals will take advantage of it, whether they do so consciously and intentionally or unconsciously and accidentally. Whether they are well or ill intentioned.
What is needed? An immaterial space, a website, which is communist in form but not explicitly in essence. You ( we? ) have created an officially socialist, operationally capitalist space. Sure, there are ways to make things run smoother, but I believe there is a structural issue at the heart. From the mod structure to the way posts and communities are created, before even getting into scoring and comments.
What would a website that is communist in form look like? I don't know, I've never seen one. But, when I think about building one I imagine a site that is:
- dynamically and democratically community moderated
- psuedononymous
- limited membership ( must be sent an invite link by a user to create an account. Think wechat)
- structured as a flowing series of 3 dimensional posts
Idk just some thought, I'll delete this in a couple days. Happy new years chapos.
This is a good discussion worth having, for sure. There seems to be a lot of disconnects on what users/mods want this site to be, and how they want to see it grow. This is a good time for the discussion too, while we’re still small and implement changes and adapt swiftly and flexibly. There’s no right way to set up an online forum, of course. But it’s pretty damn clear that Reddit’s setup has its upsides, but might not be fundamentally compatible with the ethos of this site.