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Relaxed section for discussion and debate that doesn't fit anywhere else. Whether it's advice, how your week is going, a link that's at the back of your mind, or something like that, it can likely go here.

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I would like communities to be a better place for discussion. (beehaw.org)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Both here and on reddit communities/subreddits, especially big ones, is a difficult place to hold a discussion on the topic of that community. Take for example technology, I could enjoy to discuss anything from SR-IOV to maglev trains. But the technology subs are filled with business news of companies run by eccentric billionaires. Even when the news article is a somewhat interesting topic many "news" site are so filled with ads and autoplay videos I close them immediately.

I would enjoy seeing what other people have on there their mind, and see it bring interesting discussions. Instead all these communities drown in posts of links to news site. And the comment-section on those type of post isn't the right place for a "philosophical" discussions that would otherwise be on topic for that sub/community, but exactly align with topic of that post or news article.

Some old fashion webforum have a separate subforum-section dedicated to posting links to external sites, leaving that place open to actual discussion. Reddit have flairs, but few people use them. So still the problems remain that text post would drown in the hundreds of link posts, leaving the text-post empty.

What are your thoughts on this?

I hope this isn't too much negativity from my part. I would only like to see something better than what we have now.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

And the comment-section on those type of post isn't the right place for a "philosophical" discussions that would otherwise be on topic for that sub/community, but exactly align with topic of that post or news article.

Can you explain why you believe this? I've always understood deep dives into the topic or context or general issues raised by an article to be fair game, whether we're talking the comments on the news article itself, a link on Reddit, a link on Hacker News, a link on a vBulletin/phpBB forum, or even old newsgroup/listserv discussions.

Reddit's decision to start allowing "self" posts that were only links back to the comments thread itself (showing just how link-centered the design of reddit originally was, that every post had to have a link to something) came after the discussions around links became robust enough to support comments-first threads.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I prefer text post to news article

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Be the change you want to see in the world! Make text posts, or start discussions in the threads of links that inspire you 💜

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I largely agree, a mix of discussions and text discussions would feel nice. I've noticed some communities seem to have a lot more of one over the other, and I wonder if that has to do with where people came here from. Reddit is certainly link heavy, but I know other platforms are less so. Or maybe it's just self selection, people feel more confident posting links in places with links and text in places with text.

If it's that second one, a remedy might be to post what you want to see! Maybe that would encourage others to do the same.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

With you all the way. I try to call out this bad behavior here on lemmy, not aggressively, but just reminding OP to post a summary of the link or article to kickstart discussion.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Thank you, it's nice knowing I'm not the only one.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Agreed. Appreciate your post. Some communities are filled with links to news with ads and autoplay videos. Regarding the technology I find https://slrpnk.net/c/selfhosting and https://lemmy.world/c/selfhosted pretty nice for seeing people exchanging thoughts.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The way I understood websites like these is they are meant to be link aggregators which would imply that the entire page would be full of links on that topic and the discussion would be about those articles or links in general.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes, link aggregation is one of the main feature of reddit. And I guess it's a main feature here as well. But another feature on both sites is also the text-post that can be used to promote discussion among users. But they are so few and far between they drown in all the post with links to new-site of less than good quality.

Of course there are webforums, but the one that are still active are usually single topic webforums. Like for example windows 10 forums, or a rc-helicopter/remote-drone forum. This place is a much better place to discuss a wide range of topics inside the correct community, anything from gardening, to politics, to power electronics. That's why I would enjoy a common place in the fediverse to meet people :)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

To avoid making my post a 1000 word essay, I've omitted some detail to get my point across.