Do we have an active subreddit on Reddit?

About This Message Board
1

I mean one specifically for this message board, not Straight Dope articles and books. The talk of diminishing active users got me thinking.

I saw one the other day, but it was private and I pm’d the moderators to get an invite.

If we do not have an active one, I may consider opening up and moderating one(though I am clueless on how to do that). Anyway, do we have one?

17 years and this is one of my very, very few posts in AtM. If this is the wrong spot, please move.

2

What would be the purpose of an “active subreddit” about this message board.

3

One purpose would be as a backup for when the Dope goes down.

4

I got these two responses for a search:
Straight Dope Message Board on Reddit
private r/sdmb a community for 3 years
closed. message us if you’re interested in taking over the sub or something.
search within r/sdmb

The Straight Dope
subscriberestricted r/StraightDope 19 subscribers, a community for 7 years
search within r/StraightDope

There doesn’t seem to be anything in the second one.

5

The one I was referring to in the other thread is this one (formatted to not hotlink):


www.reddit.com/domain/straightdope.com
6

That link actually just compiles all posts on Reddit from the straightdope.com domain. Any subreddits will have /r/ between Reddit.com and whatever the name of the sub is (ie: reddit.com/r/sdmb)

7

Ah, but for that, you have www.giraffeboards.com, your source for all the “THE DOPE IS DOWN” messages as well as fart jokes, and a mascot with an 18" long prehensile tongue.*

*Opalcat, and several others (Skipmagic(?)) used to offer their boards for a temporary haven for SDMB Down! messages, so I figure that this is ok. **

**The above asterisk is in the wrong place, now that I look at it. It should be after the Giraffeboard link, as it is, you probably followed the * to get more info about the 18" prehensile tongue. The joke is on YOU though. There is no more info. And I feel a little dirty discussing it with you.

8

:upvote:

9

It’s Reddit. You could start 12 of them, if you want. Anyone can. You should read through this How To guide, first.

https://www.reddit.com/wiki/reddit_101
Pros:

  • it’s not dependent on the whims of the Chicago Reader (or whoever buys them)
  • it’s a pretty well documented process
  • don’t have to worry about hosting or server side stuff
  • if it takes off, it might attract more followers

Cons:

  • if it takes off, it -will- attract more trolls
  • Reddit format is vastly different than vBulletin
  • will still need to worry about css formatting, maybe
  • it’s going to be way more work than you ever imagined
    As the owner of the SDMB subreddit, you would be free to set the moderation standards however you want. Maintaining those moderation standards will require constant vigilance, since Reddit, in general, is more Deadwood than Downton.

Personally, I suspect the amount of board on board drama at Reddit would make this a bad idea.

10

It’s here. It already existed, but I am a moderator there now.

11

Why is it a secret society?

12

Ah, it’s open now.

13

I presume this will be like certain webcomics, where most people use the official place, but occasionally things go wrong and so people post there for a little bit.

I mean, if you want to snark about people, there’s already a place for that. Other than that, what is there to say that you wouldn’t say here?

14

We also have the Facebook group for when the board goes down.

That subreddit seems to just be links to old threads, but I subscribed in case it takes off. Would we post new and different stuff, or just duplicate what’s here?

15

Nah–the Snackpit is mostly dead.

Totally weird stuff like:

“The Dope is down. I’m looking for my friends. Are they here?”
or
“The SDMB was bought out by the Moonies and they only allow posts praising Son Yong Moon nowdays. Does anyone have any more info???”
or
“I can’t connect to the SDMB–anyone else have the same problem?”
“Yeah–this is Ivory Tower Denizen. Idle Thoughts broke the entire SDMB while mashing buttons randomly (he almost broke the internet). We think we’ll be back up in a day or so.”

16

We can post new things there as well and use it as a backup. I am on the Facebook as well.

It should be totally open now to subscribing. Feel free to join and post if you wish.

17

Could we have a Facebook group about the reddit about the SMDB? I’d like to set up a Twitter feed of that.

18

That depends on a few things, mainly to do with how easily noticeable the subreddit is. It’s possible to stop it appearing on r/all or r/popular, which can help to prevent trolling at the expense of visibility. If the purpose is solely as a backup, that might be a good approach.

19

Well, yeah. But that’s not the place I was talking about. Don’t get me wrong. You guys can snark behind our backs all you want. It’s definitely an improvement. And it is the only place you can let off steam about mods.

As for Facebook: it’s not a bad thing at all. But some of us don’t want to share our real names (or make a pseudonymous account). On Reddit, you can just create a new account with extreme ease–that’s actually considered a reason why it became so popular. There’s very little friction there.

20

The last time I noticed the board was down for a few hours there were no comments by anyone about it on giraffeboards or Unaboard. I thought at least some member in common might include a mention in a post, but nobody did. http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=19282304&highlight=twitter#post19282304

It’s not a big deal, but it would be nice to know.