Article in Atlantic extolling the virtues of Reddit. I never went there. But I’ve relied on the SD for decades (!) for entertainment but also and mainly for information. And I’m wondering what the SD denizens have to say about the comparison. I should say that for me, there is a sense of community on the SDMB, even if it’s more apparent than real. Maybe that’s so on Reddit also. I also tend to trust the nature of the responses here, since there are occasional differences of opinion on interpretation of questions as posts are batted around. Consequently, it seems that a concept closer to truth tends to then develop over certain ideas. So, what’s the straight dope on the issue?
This is what makes the SDMB superior for me. I’ve been here nearly 25 years now, and while I find Reddit to be a proverbial ‘Wild West’ of content, purpose, and intent, the SDMB to me has been like an open-to-all coffee club dedicated to good socialization, exchange of ideas, and relatively focused content on fighting ignorance.
Reddit just seems to be a word salad of dumb to me. Granted, there’s a few subreddits where I can learn a few things, but as a whole, I prefer the structure–and community–of the SDMB.
Tripler
Redditors don’t link up in Afghanistan.
I see them as apples-oranges, and not competitors.
Examples:
If I need advice on a trip plan, I’ll Dope it by posting a question.
If I am looking for tips on how/when/what to fertilize my Bermuda grass, I’m almost certain to find the answers already given on /r/lawncare or adjacent.
We’re much older and occasionally wiser than your average redditor. Our upvotes come in complete sentences and our downvotes are multi-page tangents that anger the gods mods.
It’s very real. When Czarcasm lost his house, possessions and three cats in a fire, a Doper started a GoFundMe for him. When TubaDiva died a bunch of people contributed what they could to donate a tuba in her name.
On a more personal level-
During the times things have been very bad for me and I either explicitly post about it or it just shows in my posts, I receive all kinds of private messages and support. Besides Dopefests, I have met up with Dopers for OTTOMH a baptism and a funeral.
They are two completely different things. How is a screwdriver different from/superior to a table saw?
There’s a subreddit for Santa Barbara (where I live). This place is completely useless for getting local information. Similarly information on the many bands that I follow (although Instagram is even better for that). Similarly information about various specialized hobbies. I could go on and on.
There are a number of reddit fora that are very good for general information but those are typically invite only. They have gofundme campaigns to help long time members. If one bothers to learn how to use Reddit, it’s an outstanding resource.
I liken it to daily choices in footwear/clothing.
When I engage on SDMB I can wear my crocs or sneakers without fear.
When I go to Reddit I often needs boots (and a raincoat).
Superior: I post here, not at Reddit
Inferior: Every question has already been answered at Reddit and the results are more easily searchable
Superior: There are only a few forums, not an infinite number of sub-Reddits that you have to wade through
They are not the same thing and are not really all that comparable.
I don’t go here for info I want to find on Reddit.
This board skews very old and it’s clear who has never actually visited Reddit beyond the main page, hence all the references to it being “the wild west” and “dangerous” and needing to protect yourself while there.
Yes. The freindships I’ve made here feel real to me.
I don’t think reddit or X or any of the other sites would feel as intimate or real. I don’t even do Facebook.
I believe that’s the difference.
We may be an avatar onscreen but the interactions are real.
That can be uplifting or painful.
Be aware what you post affects the other person.
I’m a big mushy mushy person. I take things personally. Heart on my sleeve, so to speak.
I can’t change that.
I’ve been on Reddit since 2014 and yes I have to protect myself a bit more than here lol.
I love Reddit but you still have to be cautious.
Posting on certain subreddits has become more unpredictable especially over the last year or so, I’ve been banned from several subreddits and once from the entire site for what I thought were innocuous comments.
So I mostly just read these days with an occasional comment in one of the cleaning subs.
It feels like social media all gets put under this single umbrella regardless of its nature these days. I think we’re seeing that here, in part. There just feels like fundamental differences between a message board, a confederation of community forums, a venue for immediate bite sized takes, etc. to me.
Linky? Not on their front page.
I guess it is this one:
I’ve been on there for about 3 years now, mainly as an exercise in trying to find authentic subs with vibrant communities.
I have completely failed in my quest.
reddit is the front line of the Dead Internet; there are whole subreddits dominated by either bots and/or confabbing jokesters penning endless walls of fictions. If you are lucky you’ll just get some shallow yammerings over very well-trodden ground (see our now-on-life-support Great Debates forum which no longer discusses such topics for the most part). Thanks to a recent thread on estranged families I visited the corresponding sub, but found it was no improvement over most other subs devoted to more “serious” topics. I’d guess those devoted to very “hard” topics may be useful for certain folks (like r/Carpentry), shrug. In such an environment truth is never the goal, is thus never approached, but instead pretty much becomes irrelevant as insincerity, shallowness, and one-upmanship uber alles.
And don’t get me started on upvotes and downvotes, or how thread bumps work (or don’t work, still have no idea how that works there), authoritarian mods, and how inefficient the search function is there.
C’mon now, that’s not fair. I had apparently still have an account on Reddit, but the din, cacophany, inconsistent moderation, rambling hijacks, lack of grammar and spelling, and zero connection made the place boring to me. There are some subreddits that are barely half a step above 4chan, if that’s still around.
After a dozen years poking around it, all Reddit is good for anymore, to me, are occassional uplifting videos of kittens, or wingsuit wearers doing insane thread-the-needle flight videos; hardly anything I’d consider thought-provoking conversation.
The SDMB is the meat ‘n’ taters of “good browsing” for me.
Tripler
Mmmmmm, steak.
There are also literally hundreds of thousands of other subs, all of them with their own culture and moderation. It’s exactly the same as saying that the SDMB as a whole is garbage because you read a thread in the Pit started by a troll.
I though the place to go to find subs was Fet Life??
As I already indicated, thanks. For the topics I am most interested in my goal has been a failure. Even the ones devoted to sports and gaming I don’t get much out of.
The upvoting / downvoting system of Reddit is the biggest difference, methinks / have heard. It spoils discussions. Here at SDMB, you can say the stupidest thing, and your voice will still be heard. If what you say is ridiculous etc., it will be taken care of by argumentation, but you are not downvoted into invisibility.
Then there’s the ban hammer that swings wildly on sundry subreddits, with all those big fish in the littlest ponds. Here at SDMB you have to be a real jerk to get banned on any level.
An online community can be too big, too. I don’t care to interact with complete strangers, even online. While we play anonymity here at SDMB, most people have shared more than enough of themselves over the years for one to create a vivid picture of some depth to go along with the commentary.
“This guy’s an Alaskan bush pilot who’s been married four times”, so I listen to his tales about wilderness aviation with interest, but maybe not so much his relationship advice, etc.
Moving to IMHO. While this thread is about the message board, this kind of discussion (that also talks about Reddit) really isn’t how that forum is used.
I’ve had a Reddit login for about 19 years now but I only started using it in earnest about 6 years ago.
SDMB is definitely a very small place with a very particular community and its own vibe. I have feelings about the SDMB userbase as a whole. Like a very small village where you know everyone and can generalize the whole community based on its population. I know what topics I can find info on here, and what I prefer to find info on here.
Reddit is like a huge city where you can’t possibly know everyone. New people are moving in and out all the time. Everyone is anonymous in the sense that for the most part nobody knows you by your username. You share a single moment together - laughing, crying, giving advice, taking advice, telling someone they suck - then scoot back out on to the street of oblivion. But unlike Twitter the conversations are very focused, more like here. Discussions are easier to follow for sure. Honing your feed is, to me, the most important part of being able to enjoy Reddit.
I also like the upvote/downvote feature. It allows you to support or discount people without having to add anything more to the discussion. You’re anonymous to the discussion but you still feel a part of something.
I didn’t quite get Reddit at first (hence the 14 years of an un-used account) and was under the impression that it was full of trolls and bros like 4chan but now I’m addicted to it. Once I gave it a chance and honed my feed, it’s really amazing.