Differences? Reddit has a bit more porn.
I am positive there are. My casual use though doesn’t have me just bumping into them. It would take a specific effort to find the specific narrow sub that I knew ahead of time I was interested in.
Here my wheat to chaff ratio is higher with casual scanning. That was what was good about the column back in the day: I didn’t know that was an interesting question until I read it asked and the answer to it. I didn’t know it was something I wanted to know. But it almost always was.
It is just fulfilling a different want.
I’m on both platforms but I find the SDMB vastly more enjoyable. SDMB has a group of generally intelligent people, some of whom are true experts on various topics. Most people here express themselves well and are respectful of others on the board. I enjoy stumbling across unexpected and fascinating questions with useful responses.
Reddit, while mostly full of idiotic junk, does have some subreddits that I find useful or funny. It takes a while to sort out the junk. But if you want a laser-focus on a particular topic, it can be useful.
I have never really looked into Reddit.
But I was there in the days of usenet, which seems to have been, if not a precursor, at least somewhat similar.
Usenet started as a discussion forum on UNIX systems populated by engineers and academics.
Mostly on technical issues, but gradually expanded into other areas.
This lasted for a while, but at some point when access providors like AOL allowed almost anyone to post on usenet, the signal to noise ratio was swamped by nonsense and flamewars. There were some attempts at introducing moderation, but these didn’t really work.
So my suspicion is that Reddit is probably much like late-period usenet: drowned in rubbish and flamewars. “My opinion is just as valid as your opinion Because I Say So”, etc…
I may look at it a bit again, but I don’t have much hope?
You were doing great up to here. It’s very reminiscent of the old Usenet but spam is squashed pretty quickly and the fora are all moderated.
Fair enough. I haven’t looked at it recently, and perhaps I should revisit.
This is easy
SDMB is a Michellin Star restaurant compared to the McDonalds that is Reddit.
Nah. The Dope is a good fusion restaurant that never has too many customers, Reddit is an entire city of fast food chains, greasy spoons, 5-star restaurants, and specialty restaurants/grocery stores.
You can’t really say that Reddit i like this or like that because it varies with the subreddit. For casual amusement, opinions, and certain factual information I usually rely on the Dope. For very specific contexts, however, I find Reddit to be a better source. You can probably find a subreddit for the university you attended or for any of your favorite topics, but we don’t have such specialized subforums here. And if you don’t find them you can create them yourself.
In one important way Reddit beats this message board: it has an app. Almost always, I find it much easier to use an app that is optimized for mobile devices, than it is to use a mobile browser as we have to do here.
I came to the Dope from Usenet, which I used since the days alt.sex was only one low volume group. I left not because of flame wars and lack of moderation, but because the volume of even well run groups was too great to keep up with.
I’ve tried reddit several times, but I’ve never found specialized subreddits worth following and the more general ones have the lack of true discussion problems mentioned by others. I mostly go in when Google points me to a specific discussion.
One of the ways bookstores and libraries are better than Amazon is that browsing is easier and my turn up treasures you didn’t know existed. Sure, Amazon and Reddit are great when looking for a detailed item, but the Dope is like a nice bookstore of just the right size. And people to tell users to hush when necessary.