Building Alternatives: It's not about the project
Posted by WanderingInAVan@reddit | RedditAlternatives | View on Reddit | 9 comments
So I see a lot of posts here and in the Mastodon subreddit asking for instances that fit a certain niche or what project is a good Alternative. I usually try and give an answer that points in a decent direction. But I frankly feel a lot of the need of the Alternative is the community itself.
Reddit is just a forum with a popularity contest hard coded into the system.
I firmly believe one of the worst things to happen to the internet was centralization. First at Facebook, then Twitter/X, and so on.
We used to build projects using code or FOSS options that we were passionate about and that others shared our interest in. That's what we need to try to get back to again.
Even if its a simple PHPBB forum for whatever your hobby is.
Let's see how much of that we can contribute to.
IMDXLNC@reddit
Even after using it for over a decade this is one of the problems I still have with it, and that a lot of alternatives are following the same model.
I scrolled through a forum that someone on here suggested to me ("bobistheoilguy.com" though this could apply to any forum) and the old forum style really stuck out because the "top" response didn't gain the most viewership only to snowball and get more because it's at the top. In forums/message boards you read posts on threads chronologically, I don't know if this has fallen out of favour but it's quite enjoyable to me. I remember on old communities I was a part of in the 2010s, I'd spend days reading through some long discussion threads and even bookmark the pages I was on.
I'd love to make something simple that everyone joins just for the sake of joining and promoting to their circles in hopes of growth, but everyone wants to do the same thing and share something which I assume is what's causing nothing to really gain as much traction as it could. Making it seems to be the easy part, promoting it is the harder part.
WanderingInAVan@reddit (OP)
A lot of folk are trying to promote a reddit or X or Facebook alternative as a big thing everyone joins and finds their community on. This should be more a person picking their preferred option and using what's best for the community they want to build.
I like the old Forum chronological by default layout. The vote system has been a major problem over time. Karma farming and such.
IMDXLNC@reddit
It really encourages a lot of the bad behaviour that nobody likes on Reddit. It definitely attracts botting and generic answers.
To be honest I'd join anything like this, a catch-all site, if it didn't so strongly resemble either of these three options and actually took on the old forum style. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to exist.
Born_Unit_7204@reddit
I have a test instance of my project right now and I am working on forum style posts as an option (you could set your community as a subforum)
Thoughts on how this looks? link here
This is just linking to my public development test instance, it's SSL secured
Born_Unit_7204@reddit
I recognized this need for something configureable to suit the communities needs. I am trying to make my project configurable such that the "subreddits" of my project, or boards, can function as either a reddit style feed or forum style threads. It's still WIP though. Also I am going to try and flesh out the option for each board to have a wiki page as well that board moderators can contribute to.
Think_Load_3634@reddit
I've never understood this popularity contest BS. I come here, I organise threads by "new". I read responses by "new". I sometimes comment, I go away again. Anything else is just fluff and distraction.
IMDXLNC@reddit
Me neither. It used to be a sign of the most helpful answers being at the top but now a lot of wrong answers make it to the top because they either "sound smart" or showed up first. It's an outdated system.
The need for karma is also stupid. When I joined it took me weeks to understand the appeal of karma, I thought it gave you money or something. I couldn't wrap my head around why people needed internet points so bad when they don't do anything.
To be fair I still don't understand it, nor do I understand the need for the system. By this point it's more a benefit for Reddit rather than the user.
Palnubis@reddit
Which is why I've been supporting building communities ever since I've started my first one. Recently, doing that through making a platform that allows you to start a traditional forum for free in less than a minutes. Literally. https://forumspark.net/
Born_Unit_7204@reddit
I hear you loud and clear, that's why I am working on the project I am working on. (It's the only posts on my profile if you want to check it out, if not no big deal)