I don't necessarily see this as a problem. Part of me yearns for the days of vbulletin and phpBB forums, where each one was small enough that it had its own unique culture and feel. You "knew" the people you were interacting with and were able to build camaraderie with fellow forum members.I couldn't tell you the username of 99% of the people I engaged with on Reddit. Having a huge, monolithic community ala Reddit completely destroys any sort of culture of the community.
This is the best of both worlds, in my eyes. Naturally, certain communities in certain instances will become the community for a topic, but with the added benefit of being able to find a smaller, more focused community elsewhere.
I agree, I hated when some of the subs I was in would brag about hitting a number like 100,000 members. After a certain point more members doesn't add any value at best, and and at worst actually hurts the quality of the community. The bigger numbers were just an ego thing for the mods.
Yup, for a very long time I used reddit for nothing but r/NBA. You often had quality posts with substance and users generally knew what they were talking about. Compare that to today, and every single thread is filled with nothing but memes and shit posts that don't actually add anything to the conversation.
The problem is how do you know how a community feels?
I search for "word" and see 12 different servers for the exact same word, which would I go for? For now it's the one with the most subscribers
You browse it and lurk for a bit and see which ones you like the most.
You can't trust the subscriber numbers, it appears it's only counting subscribers from the server you are on.
Well, presumably, you visit the community and check it out. There is nothing wrong with what you're doing and it's exactly how the natural gravitation to certain communities I mentioned will happen. If you're not interested in anything other than the content that community offers, then you're set. If you want to explore more and perhaps get different insights and perspectives on that topic, you're free to go visit any of the other 12 options and check them out, too.
I don't necessarily see this as a problem. Part of me yearns for the days of vbulletin and phpBB forums, where each one was small enough that it had its own unique culture and feel. You "knew" the people you were interacting with and were able to build camaraderie with fellow forum members.I couldn't tell you the username of 99% of the people I engaged with on Reddit. Having a huge, monolithic community ala Reddit completely destroys any sort of culture of the community.
This is the best of both worlds, in my eyes. Naturally, certain communities in certain instances will become the community for a topic, but with the added benefit of being able to find a smaller, more focused community elsewhere.
I agree, I hated when some of the subs I was in would brag about hitting a number like 100,000 members. After a certain point more members doesn't add any value at best, and and at worst actually hurts the quality of the community. The bigger numbers were just an ego thing for the mods.
Yup, for a very long time I used reddit for nothing but r/NBA. You often had quality posts with substance and users generally knew what they were talking about. Compare that to today, and every single thread is filled with nothing but memes and shit posts that don't actually add anything to the conversation.
The problem is how do you know how a community feels?
I search for "word" and see 12 different servers for the exact same word, which would I go for? For now it's the one with the most subscribers
You browse it and lurk for a bit and see which ones you like the most.
You can't trust the subscriber numbers, it appears it's only counting subscribers from the server you are on.
Well, presumably, you visit the community and check it out. There is nothing wrong with what you're doing and it's exactly how the natural gravitation to certain communities I mentioned will happen. If you're not interested in anything other than the content that community offers, then you're set. If you want to explore more and perhaps get different insights and perspectives on that topic, you're free to go visit any of the other 12 options and check them out, too.