6 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: Let's talk content. AMA.
to attract more mainstream audiences
I have a question not for /u/spez, but for readership here. Most of us were attracted to Reddit for the little niche discussion forums where we could "be among our own" and really geek out about our specific interests. So while I know that we're all alarmed to see text about hiding or removing "the ugly," isn't the text about going mainstream troubling as well? I mean, do we as readers really want to be on a vanilla, generic discussion forum that was cleaned up for the masses? Do we really want to have safe, PC discussions about mainstream topics?
I personally want to see porn of older women on a little niche subreddit I run for older people. I want to geek out about role playing games on little RPG subreddits. And that porn subreddit is going to have crude comments, and that RPG subreddit is going to have hotly contested debates about obscure rules. Those debates won't even necessarily be *nice* because sometimes it's pretty annoying to have to correct some idiot who didn't read the rules but wants to spout off about his guesses as if they were facts. I mean, these little weird discussions about niche topics are *why I'm here.* And they're not always PC, and not always relevant to the mainstream audience.
The more mainstream Reddit gets, the more these niches get overrun. For example, /r/fitness was just last night having a debate/problem with some misinformation about a guy who *supposedly* got ripped in 2 months from just doing pushups, and a bunch of people upvoted it as if it were legit. Suddenly, the "locals" in that subreddit realized that because the subreddit had been added to the default set of subreddits, a bunch of uneducated masses were overrunning the subreddit with misguided ideas/posts/votes.
This direction isn't a good one. I think talking about concerns with "going mainstream" are just as important as talking about "removing the ugly."
Comment by Warlizard at 16/07/2015 at 21:06 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Going mainstream allows more people to experience and enjoy the positive things Reddit has to offer.
I like the idea of allowing subreddits to remove themselves from showing up on the front page if they wish.