Two questions: Why does Reddit think it's so intellectual and why all the hate for Digg?

daebat · 1 year

Classically a lot of the Diggers who were sick of the trolling came to reddit because it held much more intellectually based conversation. These days you have to wonder how much of a difference there really is.

grantrules · 1 year

The niche subreddits can contain some intellectual stuff but won't get popularized and front-paged. It's like a trade journal as opposed to a published magazine. There are intelligent, intellectual people on Digg, but it doesn't quite have the fine-grained categories like reddit. If you were to submit some of the stuff in /r/particlephysics (I made that up, I think) to Digg, I think it'd just be cruft in the Science category or whatever.

But yeah, I'd put reddit in the middle of the road for intelligent discourse.

esila · 1 year

There are very intelligent people on Reddit, although they're most likely not the type you are looking to discuss with.

Going by your OP, you seemed to have generalized Reddit for the "loud" stuff - popular memes, politics, religion, etc. These are open to varying opinions and are largely commented on because they're open for anyone to have an opinion on the matter.

Now, if you go into specific programming subreddits such as haskell or factor, you will find the comments much on target with the topic at hand as the discussion will be based on pure facts and empirical data (most of the time). There's really no way to contribute to the conversation if you don't know what you're talking about, whereas in a political discussion or religious discussion, opinions can fly.

tl;dr - there are lots of geeks / nerds / etc. that offer very intelligent discussion on the topics that can be intelligently discussed in subreddits. General topics such as religion and politics are largely overrun by opinion, so that's where you get the bad taste in your mouth.

GrassGreen · 1 year

You should post a question to Digg as well then compare the responses.

Champington · 1 year

Thank you. My belief is that this attitude has been fostered by the upvote/downvote system, and that some people are simply driven by that arbitrary number in order to achieve something (not sure what exactly). This leads to people making comments that will definitely get the upvotes, leading to a recurring trend of what is acceptable and what isn't.

A good example of this was the thread you mentioned with the fight between the old white guy and the young black guy. Immediately the trend is being set in the title alone, and then people just simply go along with that trend and reaffirm their own values such as the racism of black people against whites, the 'he deserved it because of his smack talk' attitude etc. without any context (which confuses the hell out of me) and make this whole thing just one great big circlejerk. If you want to find comments that disagree with the main submission, you'll unfortunately have to do quite a bit of digging for them, as they've either been downvoted or just ignored.

EDIT: Actually I just discovered this comment that sums up your thoughts quite well. It seems it's possible to go against the trend, just don't expect it to be a huge success.

If you want to do what I do, go to the circlejerk subreddit. It's a nice satire on the main page of reddit, although some of it isn't quite subtle, it's still altogether quite funny.

Thanks for bringing this to attention. To answer your question, I believe that reddit is better than digg because of the smaller communities you find in the smaller subreddits. They are fantastic as they specialize in an interest you foster and generally makes things more agreeable and more personalized as the people you are with already share a common liking, and it's there you'll find the intellectual part of reddit. Not to say that you won't find it on the main page, there have been some fantastic responses in popular submissions, however they're a bit of a rarity.

Double Edit: Fixed the link.

s3x0r · 1 year

I do agree there is a culture on Reddit where its users constantly talk about Reddit itself. Frequent phrases you encounter: "good job Reddit, (you helped to save a kitten or whatever)," "you're supposed to be better than this Reddit," "there are a lot of intelligent people on Reddit," "Reddit, I'm disappointed in you," "dear Reddit, (insert question)" and of course, the "Reddit >>>>> Digg" ethos. Of all the sites I've visited on the Web, including non-English communities, no other members of a community mention their site's name as much as Redditors do.

I think the sheer number of such expressions might cause the casual viewer to wonder why users here take Reddit so seriously. Just pass it off some kind of organizational culture here. A real life example (perhaps appropriate age group as well) is College X students thinking that their university is the best, b/c the organization hypes itself so much through marketing, rankings, school spirit, sports, etc.... AND they always have some kind of rival school, College Y, which they'll make it out as being inferior to them in all areas. Popular opinion isn't necessarily truth in such cases.

Also, as esila mentioned, it sounds like you are mostly a front page viewer since the topics you mentioned - politics & religion - generate the most noise. It's kinda hard to have a sane conversation about those issues ANYWHERE on the Internet... different communities just act as giant echo chambers for people to re-affirm certain views. Internet sucks (and is sometimes dangerous) in that aspect, imo. You should really go for subreddits on topics that you're interested in.

tldr: noise (and those who generate it) != representation of ALL users of a community

jaykoo21 · 1 year

Pretension. People typically like to believe they are smarter than average and as a result they pontificate on the internet. A site with many similarities, digg, is seen as inferior and as a result is vilified in order to support that narrative. Although I admit, things on digg are usually on reddit at least a day or two before, but people then take it a step further by saying people on digg are stupid. Basically, reddit's loudest contributors are like Dwight from the office. So much so that I involuntarily read a lot of comments here in that voice.

Bob_Dedication · 1 year

I just recently moved from Digg (having been there for a few years) to Reddit, and I noticed very quickly the quality of conversation here is on a much higher level than Digg. I mean, you see the same negative traits on both sites, but the frequency and apparent support for it (by way of up-votes) seems to be far less than on Digg. When I saw the box to the side that says "moderators" I thought "FINALLY, a bit of structure and some standards." Plus, every response is not a race to fit a meme to the topic at hand. Don't get a big head Reddit, but don't humble yourself too much either, Reddit is still a nice place.

turkeypants · 1 year

I don't mean this in a defensive or aggressive way, but I wonder if this is the right forum for you. I know exactly what you're talking about, but I use Yahoo Answers as my example. That appears to be the distilled wisdom of distracted 13 year olds. The medical advice these kids give, for example, is painful and shocking and naive and stupid. "Rub some coriander on the tumour lol." What?! So when it comes up in my search results, I skip it, because I know it's going to be absolute crap. If this place is crap for you, skip it. If there's not something better out there for you, with more mature viewpoints level with your perspective, that stinks. If you really are over 50, then this place sounds like it's peopled with immature kids because, in a relative sense, it is. I'm one of them. I like to weigh in with whatever experience I've had on a topic, which is going to be less than plenty of people's, maybe yours for example, and sometimes I just like to participate in the fun by tossing out some sarcastic quip. I like other people's sarcastic quips. Or sometimes it's just a vent outlet that I can get away with because it's anonymous and unaccountable - the kind of thing I might think but never say in person. Twenty years from now, I'll be different and speak from a more informed perspective and cringe a bit when I think of the things I'm saying now. This answer, which seems pretty reasonable to me now, could seem juvenile then. Or now, from your perspective.

As someone mentioned in another comment here in so many words, everybody thinks they know what they're talking about until they age a bit and look back on a previous phase and can see the various manifestations of their ignorance or naivete or narrow perspective, which is what I think you're calling hubris. They'll probably be a bit embarrassed about it, but that's just the way of things. And then they age some more and it happens again, and again, and again. You just can't see until you can see. If you're so far ahead that listening to us is tedious, stop subjecting yourself to it! I'm assuming you weren't thinking your post would make the user base act like you want. Imagine trying to challenge the Yahoo Answers kids and get them to stop acting like idiots. It's futile. People can' t fast forward to where you are. It has to be done day by day and year by year, just like you did, assuming you're not actually a young digg fan who has just been made to feel inferior here and is posting in disguise (hey, you never know).

As for this place vs. digg, I imagine the lion's share of it is just the usual egocentrism/tribalism. My kind/country/group/community is better than others. Bet there's something similar at digg, at metafilter, at slashdot, at something awful, etc.

Retromingent · 1 year

We're about the same age then. With all due respect, world experience is not intellectualism. Is this a site of intellectuals? That's pretty general. I don't know. But it depends, of course, how that's defined. But I don't think that MIT grads and individuals working on hard-science PhD theses can be considered dumb, which there are a number here. (And, yes, I do put a lot of emphasis on book learning because mere experience does not qualify as full comprehension.)

And is the fight video really any different than collegiates of yore getting high, holding a "be-in," or stuffing themselves into VWs? Petulant behavior is not mutually exclusive with intellect.

IranFree · 1 year

I am not going to argue with your opinion and question, but ask one of my own. Is the only successful thing your daughter has done is being beautiful?

OnDutyFeminist · 1 year

I've raised two successful sons and a beautiful daughter

For a guy concerned with the subtle misogyny of Reddit, you yourself have placed the value of your sons in success (good education, good job, high earning potential) and the value of your daughter in beauty (completely superficial), a subtly misogynist way to describe your children.

death_becomesme · 1 year

I don't think Reddit is intellectual. But rather, a place for interesting debate and discussions.

That being said, in recent times the front page articles and comments have not inspired a discourse. But the subreddits have not lost it. There has been plenty of articles that have a great discussion in them.

Digg on the other hand hasn't had the same number of discussions. Discussions start with a curse word and the thread proceeds to deteriorate as it gets longer.

mechanate · 1 year

One question: Why do you think you're so intellectual? Your self-described successes give you no more right to pass judgement on an entire internet subculture then our own perceived intellect.

vodkarox · 1 year

You will find an array of responses and opinions on Reddit.

Many of them are intelligent and empathetic. Many are not.

I am 50/50. 50% Genuine and sincere response to a submission. 50% like to B.S. to blow off steam during the workday. The latter is why I'm addicted to this site because there are redditors on this site that make me laugh out loud at my desk... sometimes cry laughing ! That is why I like this site so much, 'cuz anything goes.

What's Digg ?

Beatle_Matt · 1 year

Ask Mr. Babyman what's wrong (or in his case "right") about Digg.

It's why I left.

DriveByTroll · 1 year

heh, the racism isn't subtle.

kew2 · 1 year

Because many have changed from Digg to Reddit. Now, they synthesize happyness. It's like sport fans who cheer at their team and shout at the other one. The rules say that those who change their team have to proof that they truely have changed side and that they despise their old team. Dissing their old team, that's what's happening.

Reddit was different. An upvote was given for the quality of the argument and not in agreement of the position. Those were the intellectual days. The idea of intellectuality has remained but the behaviour has gone. For me, that's good because it allows me to gain some karma points but sometimes, I wish the old days would come back. (When was the last time, submission from the newyorker made it to the default frontpage?)

Dummies102 · 1 year

I've sat down and talked with [...] who when asked, give more respect and consideration to an alternative viewpoint

anonymity is a helluva drug

DingoKidneys · 1 year

Similar to the way we Americans detest France, much of our dislike is actually the result of our refusal to acknowledge how similar we are.

JohnStamosBRAH · 1 year

its always amused me as well. thats the one thing i dislike about reddit. the thing that keeps me from returning to digg, however, is the collection of subreddits that are fairly active. things like askreddit, iama, tf2, programming are things that you just cant find on digg. another thing that turned me away from digg is the powerusers. theres a collection of people over there that when they submit anything it makes it to the front page... no matter what.

r-r-roll · 1 year

I enjoy the many different subreddits and the self posts. The layout is a lot cleaner too.

[deleted] · 1 year

A person is smart.

People are dumb.

Reddit's population has grown.

bubbal · 1 year

People here think they're smart because 3 years ago, the people here were smart. Just like in every other online community, it got "discovered", got "big", and the level of discourse plummeted.

Rockopotamus · 1 year

I've said it before and got downvoted, and I'll say it again and get downvoted again.

I'm of the firm belief that Reddit is simply up it's own ass. It doesn't really matter which major sub-reddit you're in; it's more than likely up it's own ass about SOMETHING. Go to /r/music and mention Nickelback; downvotes. Go to /r/photography and mention HDR; downvotes. Go to /r/atheism and mention any belief other than atheism (namely agnosticism, and obviously Christianity); downvotes. And, like you mentioned, go to /r/politics and mention being supportive of any rightist ideal or belief; downvotes. And those are only the hot button issues that I'm aware of!

As I've said before (and got downvoted for), Reddit thinks it's so mature, but there's really nothing mature about being so far up your own ass that you can't acknowledge another person's opinion as contributing to the discussion * (what up/down voting it *SUPPOSED to be used for) even if you disagree with it. By and large, I really hate Reddit as a community... If you're not a part of the majority, you more than likely don't/won't fit into this community, period. Not a mature mentality at all.

Vestboy_Myst · 1 year

Redditors are smarmy.

This is , after all, 4chan lite

RAMIREZ_YOU_CUNT · 1 year

It used to be interesting - what killed it was the notion that all are created equal, except, HAHAHA JUST KIDDING WE ARE THE MODS AND WE ARE GREEN LOL.

Ahem. This place became a parody of itself, inbred.

The code changes that were made were all exclusively to support niche stupid ideas a few subreddits.

It is painful and stupid.

The MODERATORS in capitals over on the right tells you all that is wrong with this idiot site, that bans people based on their opinions, and uses pseudo-rules and unwritten laws to berate anything they don't agree with.

It has become a place where they care about their image and don't like criticism.

They try and wrest control in the most stupid and redundant ways. It is sick, sad and ultimately has created a place of very little value.

Kardlonoc · 1 year

Its pretty easy: The most intellectual comments you never see because they arent worth writing. You see its a lot easier to up-vote some sort of simple message generally agreeable with what everyone thinks. Its generally a sentence to a paragraph long and is often clever/humorous but not very insightful. This is the circle-jerk happening and there is barely any thought put into it.

Now I am certainly no genius but writing insightful comments is tough mainly because you write a page arguing for or against something and most of the time it will get completely ignored. Unless a person is really interested they arent going to go mucking about the 1 karma comments that came in late but most are quite insightful. And if you write a smart comment for a article that never gets anywhere.

And that's the thing, smart comments take too much effort. When you write a two page long comment about something and the only reply is someone complaining about your bad grammar a person loses heart. I certainly do, as such i personally cannot lend my intellectualism every single article mainly because it gets ignored or I land myself in arguments where people call me names because their emotions are running high.

However I do enjoy writing such comments and voicing my opinion nobody really cares for it. Like my one sentence comment about mike rowe and old spice landed more karma than nearly all my paragraph long comments after that.

Ultimately you cannot count on the collective for being intellectual. What makes reddit intellectual is individuals that come out of the woodwork and have something smart to say. I would say there are more of those people here than at Digg primarily because Digg is so popular that those intellectual voices get wiped out by dumb comments.

Lastly im going to recall when I was a young lad that I would go out of my way on reddit to argue points opposite to what people were agreeing with mainly because I liked playing devils advocate at the time for things like the Iraq war. When I did I slowly learned where the other side was coming from and what they were trying to achieve and that it was not all crazy like the majority redditors were shouting. And I had to learn outside of Reddit that republicans are people too as much as partisanship divides us and makes the other side out to be child eating monsters.

Its just important to always remember whats on reddit and the internet is not always truth. You need to be objective mind about all things and try not to be swayed by the collective mindset in making decisions.

[deleted] · 1 year

Another topic is politics. Instead of listening to the alternative viewpoint, the popular approach is to make a straw man of what that side might argue and attack that.

Everybody likes to think they're smart

You do realize that these tendencies aren't reddit-exclusive, do you not? Go ahead and find me one discussion based group with tens of thousands of people, as on Reddit, that DOESNT have racists or arrogant individuals ignorant about politics, and perhaps you then might have a point about "Reddit" (as though it's a singular entity with a uniform personality). Until then, it just seems like you're making a critique of humanity in general.

BevansDesign · 1 year

For me, the "hate" for Digg has to do with the way that submissions work. On Digg, if you're not one of a handful of powerusers, there's almost no chance that anyone will see your submission. On Reddit though, anyone can get a submission on the front page if enough people like it. It's the popularity of the submission that matters, not the submitter.

Further, since we have so many useful subreddits here, we can target our submissions more exactly, to people who will actually care about them. I can submit something to the WoW subreddit for people who are interested in WoW, whereas on Digg the same post would go into a general video games category, and many people would downvote it because it's about WoW.

gguy123 · 1 year

Not all Redditors think Reddit's intellectual. And not all of them "hate" Digg.

In a general tone your points are very clear.

The hate for Digg is simple. It's a rival. Just like two High Schools in the same town.

The intellectual thing is a mix between the average age, education, and computer suave. I don't have the stats really; this is based solely on my take.

20s?: They want CHANGE. Or at least talk about wanting it. The other people are in the way and stopping them from the perfect fairy tale future their parents once promised them. Reddit is a great outlet to put the other people in their place. It gives them a sense of power, they may not have it anywhere else. Q: Who are the other people? A: The people they don't agree with.

College Grads?: Since they are more likely in school or recently out of it, their brains are ON. Without the wisdom of age, they bore into their beliefs based on what they've learned in school and the wisdom they've thus gathered. The mix is very righteous, and passionate, but usually lacks in total objectivity. They've never really experienced the "other side", so they don't know any better.

Computer Suave?: These people are "nerds". They've dealt with jocks, and bullies in their young lives. They've been less dependent of physical endeavors, and more focused on intellectual ones. They've always thought they are smarter than other people. The fact that they are more in to computers and "nerdy", they are in a place to gather LOTS of information. They questionably absorb it instantly. TOO MUCH in my opinion, but it gives them even a better upper hand on the "regular" people out there.

Sorry if this scatter brained.... I'm just typing really.

Just so you know. I was a media major, studied communications, demographics, human relations yada yada... Doesn't at all mean I'm certified; but in some cases it just matters where info comes from.. especially on reddit.

[deleted] · 1 year

Digg = Reddit with about a one day delay seeing as how they steal so much of reddits content.

drram · 1 year

Hacker News has a much higher standards of conversation than Reddit if that's your thing.

A problem with this kind of website is that people keep submitting stuff like "Am I the only one who wipes seating down on the toilet", or that fight in the bus, as comments or submission. Inane stuff, that doesn't matter, and gets upvoted for cheap entertainment. I've also seen plenty of times someone talking out of his hat on stuff and be just wrong, but get upvoted way up because of his I-know-that-stuff tone or amusing comebacks. Heck I tried to correct some guy inventing stuff on coding theory, which I study at university, and just got downvoted for it. It's a bit sad.

I think A LOT of comments are just useless. Eg. people saying "that's outrageous" on an article, or stating their own uninformed opinion on some shit.

[deleted] · 1 year

adjusts his monocle and scoffs

[deleted] · 1 year

We are Germany.

And they are Poland.

Pituquasi · 1 year

Consider the possibility that one could be educated, refined, sophisticated, worldly, well-read, well-traveled, introspective, considerate, and fairly intelligent AND be at times vulgar, narrow-minded, boorish, deviant, prejudiced, cruel, fanatical, and immature. People are pretty complex and occasionally contradictory. Why should the associations they form be any different?

Radico87 · 1 year

Neither can legally or morally claim self defense

Actually that's not entirely accurate; the old white guy walked away at first, thus taking action towards mitigating the encounter and avoiding a confrontation. The pugnacious thug, egged on by an equally asinine thugette, chose to exert his dominance over the old white guy and took actions resulting in legitimate self defense, and a well-deserved ass whooping from the aforementioned old white guy.

The reddit v digg squabble is imo, superficial and mostly exists for the sake of existing.

Congratulations on meeting respectful Beckers, birthers, teabaggers, et. al.; the worst most redditers can do is blue arrow your post.

Many can view intelligence objectively, and I try to do so for myself - I don't laud myself as superior to others, but I do believe myself knowledgeable to at least contribute in many diverse topics. No need to justify being a dickhead by having a high IQ.

mcjohnalds · 1 year

"two successful sons and a beautiful daughter". Problem, feminist?

applextrent · 1 year

As a veteran Redditor, I've been using Reddit for 3 years, the original community here was much like Slashdot from the 90's. It was mainly people in their 30's and 20's, and they were typically highly educated. The user-base has obviously grown to include millions of people now and no longer reflects its early-adopters.

Reddit is "better" than Digg for one simple reason: it is a true democracy. Posts like your's can actually get attention and be discussed without fear of censorship or moderation.

On Digg there's a needlessly complicated algorithm, power users, hidden moderators, and censorship. Normal questions and issues receive little to no attention at all. There's very little sense of community because the site only caters to a majority.

On Reddit a sub-reddit can have an active user base of only 100 users and be effective in connecting those people to relevant links, and provide a community to those members. This is simply not possible on Digg.

Lastly, self posts.

YosserHughes · 1 year

I moved here from Digg a year ago because Digg was infested with mindless children that could only use the down-vote button and didn't have a clue how to respond, but these last three months or so on Reddit has made me want to find another discussion forum.

Digg = Reddit.

ThorThundercock · 1 year

I always thought this was a very intellectual place, the longer I've been here the more I've realised the majority of redditors are young males such as myself with no real life experience.

When I first arrived here I was commenting eagerly to try and receive some sort of validation from - what I thought - was a community which comprised mainly of working adults. If I could prove myself here it would be a way of saying 'You're worth something, your opinion matters.'

several accounts later I don't really give a shit. There are many clever people here, not just intellectuals sipping at a glass of fine tokaji while they pan through a leather bound book with a mahogany laptop on the side.

There are also a lot of people who's opinions and comments don't make sense to me and I think are stupid, I'm sure everyone here thinks they are at least not a dumb-arse. Why else would we all spend hours of our lives trawling through pun threads? I mean... there are billions of pictures and videos of tits available!

The internet is just like outside. When we open our browser we are opening ourselves up to the views and thoughts of thousands of people. There are ignorant people and there are less ignorant people. I think due to reddit's layout of mainly text doesn't entertain douchers as much as other sites which offer more instant gratification. The majority of humour on reddit is in the comments, and I think that's why it's so addictive.

I in no way intend to offend those the same age as me, I am merely speaking my mind.

TL;DR: text heavy site design, comedy in comments (takes time to find)

macinslash · 1 year

reddit is like a big circle-jerk for mostly 18-25 yr old guys i've found. i've read some really cool things on this site (which is why i'm still here), but most recently it mostly rubbish.

it's like everybody's comments need to be a one-upper cockswing or some fucking quote from a movie or tv show to appear clever.

[deleted] · 1 year

My experience with Reddit so far is a lot better than Digg.

There are relatively more respectful people on Reddit.

The Reddit interface is a lot better because it is less cluttered with irrelevant stuff and encourages digging through.

Reddit has /r/Frugal, /r/Guns, /r/Libertarian and /r/Programming and they are a lot more active and richer than their Digg counterparts.

The incessant spamming from HuffingtonPost, Rawstory, Alternex, DailyKos, ThinkProgress on Digg during the elections was terrible.

The anti-Sarah-Palin, anti-Glenn-Beck, and throughout anti-Freedom, anti-Christianism and anti-Tea-Party blind hatred is at a more tolerable level on Reddit than Digg. The leftists and atheists on Reddit even seem to be more reasonable on average.

The stealing of links by powerdiggers such as BabyMan, MSaleem, etc plus the leftist bury brigades are another negative on Digg. Digg is virtually an exclusive tool for the party that George Soros bought.

The awful number of ASCII Pedobears, Admiral Akbars, Picard's Wheels of Cheese or any other idiotic ASCII figure on Digg comments - another negative.

callipygian1 · 1 year

dude, reddit is just a website, if it ever becomes self-aware, we're fucked. ok, ok, i give up, you're so much better than we are! can i shine your shoes? let me help you out. how did you get in?

[deleted] · 1 year

I hate Digg because they kickban you if you don't spew leftist Marxisms. Redditors might hate the constitution too but at least they just downvote you and not ban you IP range. Fuck Digg forever.

Russia-On-Ice · 1 year

What you're asking happens on every online forum. Welcome to the internet!

Stoneyz · 1 year

I would have liked to hear some responses from the OP about the arguments given, but he only replied once and it had nothing to do with any of his questions.

Feverant · 1 year

The fact that you can pose that question successfully and have it make the front page suggests to me a more critical level of thinking from Reddit readers. Go try this at Digg.com and see how far you get?

imcguyver · 1 year

Reddit & Digg are not the same tool and the userbase on both sites is distinctly different. Both sites serve a different purpose and attract different types of people.

If both sites were knives then Digg would be a dull butter knife. Able to do serve a single purpose and do little else well. And Reddit is a swiss army knife. Not only does it spread butter but it dices, slices and much more.

Users on Reddit consider themselves to be more sophisticated than Digg because Reddit is more in depth. There are thousands of categories to chose from whereas Digg has only a few. News is 0-1 days old as opposed to 2-3 days old. Reddit has a community, see /r/secretsanta for an example.

A lawyer in their 50s that likes Digg over Reddit doesn't surprise me. Digg is simple & not technical...and come to think of it...I doubt you can figure out how to sort comments here on Reddit and will probably never read this.

SirSandGoblin · 1 year

i've rarely seen far left opinions on here, just far left for america.

dbzer0 · 1 year

I'm not sure if the people who have complaints about this are being genuine or nitpicking. My daughter is successful. I could have left out an adjective and the sentence would have read "I've raised two successful sons and a daughter."

Your phrasing is still completely wrong in regards to your intended meaning. What you'd like to say would be "I've raised three successful kids, two sons and a daughter." or "I've raised two sons and a beautiful daughter which have been successful."

As you're a self-described intellectual, this phrasing mistake is telling and to me points out the subconscious way you're seeing your children.

AlternativeTaken · 1 year

Why would I listen to opinions that differ from my own when they are by definition wrong?

FLOWAPOWA · 1 year

op is pompous as fuck - AS FUCK I SAY!

Veteran4Peace · 1 year

Because SHUT UP, that's why.

atara_x_ia · 1 year

I'm over 50 years old and I've been blessed to have the opportunity to do many things in my life. I've joined the Navy, fought in a way, traveled the world, backpacked through Europe, been a police officer, and volunteer firefighter, and now a lawyer. I've raised two successful sons and a beautiful daughter. I make these points not to brag, but to illustrate that I'm not just blindly spouting out opinions on how I think this community should be.

And I'm the Queen of England.

I mean, yeah, sure. I -completely- believe that some dude who doesn't at all fit the demographic for a site has just registered a new account and written a several-paragraphs essay about a story that, while controversial, was not exactly the most major recent posting. Not only that, but he knows enough about the place that decorated backgrounds get you taken seriously.

Now, mind you, what's not at all likely is that this was posted from a spoof account, right? Why would anyone want to dissociate himself from what is not only a decently written essay that reveals nothing too personal, but is also a pretty guaranteed way to get some positive recognition from the community? I mean, unless they had something to hide, like, the fact that if they had posted under their normal account, it would have been all-too-quickly revealed that they're a 23-year-old college dropout, and that conflicts with the wise-old-elder image they were trying to present. It would have been revealed that the author of this thread is actually just as much of a "brilliant" pseudophilosophical adolescent as the people he's here to criticize.

Now, am I accusing you of something? Fuck yes I am.

SmellsLikeMendacity, I hereby register my doubt as to your supposed identity.

KiraA · 1 year

Well, I'm over forty myself, and having been a redditor for a few months now, I have noted some of these trends, too. My suspicion is that these are mainly a consequence of youth - which is often marked by political bravado, moral self-righteousness, and a rabid intolerance of perceived hypocrisy. Who wasn't somewhat like that at twenty? So I suspect that accounts for much -- a large population of fairly bright and enthusiastic high school and college kids.

DudeAsInCool · 1 year

I'm not sure whether or not the term "intellectual" describes your typical Redditor - but this is definitely not a community that reflects the status quos or is middle of the road. What you might consider snobbish intellectualism is really an attitude with a sense of humor and irony. I think most of the folks here would agree that they are "offbeat" in some respect, whether it's their choice or music, politics, subreddit of interest, or sense of humor. In terms of politics, I don't think this is a left-wing community either - there are plenty of Libertarians and Ron Paul supporters from America; and since it's an international community, the range of politics is pretty varied. if there is a unifying attribute politically, I would say Redditors are egalitarian and socially progressive. If the conservative point of view you seek isn't as prevalent, it's because the conservatives don't speak up or make very convincing arguments. In terms of religion, there are a number of outspoken atheists on Reddit that might make you feel that Reddit is not religious - the truth is Redditors do not like pseudo-Religions like Scientology, or Religions that brainwash or control. I don't think anyone wishes to be disrespectful to other's beliefs unless they are outwardly harmful. Case in point, I thought the Minister who posted here recently was treated respectfully. Speaking of Digg, no one really hates Digg; Digg rarely posts topics that haven't already been posted at Reddit and the discussions aren't as interesting or as amusing as they are here. So many subjects are covered in this community that it's easy to highlight the most offensive or juvenile posts; but if you hang around long enough, you will eventually come across some stunning knowledgeable post on an interesting subject you had no knowledge about - this will seduce you into coming back for more. And in that respect, yes, Reddit does have some of the smartest people on the web. Perhaps someone should do a study on the both communities - my guess is that they would find a slightly older, better educated and international community on Reddit as opposed to Digg, but who knows. Last but not least, despite its lapses, this is a community that not only cares, it attempts to do something about the issues that it cares about (e.g. compare Reddit's recent donations to Haiti vs. Digg's). PS - I didn't read the comments about the fight on the bus - but I thought the old man had a great right hook.

[deleted] · 1 year

You should have seen it years ago, before the unwashed masses had found out about this site. Back then, it was specifically only for technology and programming related news, so the average intelligence of the userbase was much higher. The conversations and submissions were much different. That was when Reddit was exponentially better than Digg in terms of promoting intelligent links and conversation.

Since then, our community here has branched out in a hundred different directions with the advent of subreddits, brought in people from all walks of life, and the site has changed. It is much more about entertainment, just enjoying the site with memes or pictures of cats, whatever. Not a bad thing, just different. But that viewpoint that we're better stuck. In a way, we are, but where in the past the thing we were better at was promoting intellectual discourse than Digg, now we're better at entertaining eachother than Digg.

The_Big_Dirty · 1 year

I always use to use digg at first untill I found Reddit. I love the comments here because they are usually intellectual (love ask.reddit) and humorous. If you look at digg's comments, almost 80% of articles have a pedo-bear or "Its a Trap" picture that receives high ratings. Their comments suck.

KazooSymphony · 1 year

the caliber & depth of the comments on this page directly disprove any resemblance to 4chan or digg.

i don't care what weird submissions gets up/downvoted to the main page, there is always a wealth of intelligent opinions here, whether or not you are willing to acknowledge them.

people compare reddit to those other sites because of superficial similarities. the repeating memes. the anonymous, trolling morons. but you will find those in any large online community.

reddit is light years above the competition, in my opinion. if you don't believe me, quit posting your thoughts here & take them over to digg or 4chan.

on a separate note, people with "alternative viewpoints," like those right-wing nutjobs you mentioned, are ridiculed because their opinions are ridiculous, stubborn, & unfounded on any actual evidence. to expect everyone to conduct polite discourse with a raving lunatic just because they have an "alternative viewpoint" only serves to legitimize their conspiracy theories.

freakball · 1 year

It's all about the subreddits, hombre.

If you subscribe to /r/philosophy, /r/science or /r/math, it can be alot different than /r/circlejerk, /r/ffffuuuuuu, or even /r/askreddit.

Reddit is better than digg not because we're smarter, but because we have a better system of organizing conversations.

junkit33 · 1 year

IMO you are pretty spot on. 3-4 years ago when Reddit came onto the scene it was very different from Digg. I used it as a news aggregator and eventually signed up to participate in discussions. (big mistake, but I digress...) People were generally more intelligent, and spoke on more interesting topics than whatever lolcat was popular that day. Sure there was a bit of the silly, but it was a palatable minority.

However, in the last year, Reddit has swiftly declined. The front page speaks for itself, and while everybody shouts "subreddits", they are missing the point that 99% of the people who visit reddit don't get past the front page. Thus potential new members are turned away at the crap on the front page, and inevitably the commute festers/dies.

To bring it back full circle, I've actually been going back to Digg more for the last few months. Popular stories are more interesting and noteworthy over there, and the site isn't littered with stupid pictures.

IMO what I think happened is Digg basically flocked to Reddit in the last year or two. It finally hit a critical mass in the last few months, and the good users on Reddit started getting pushed back to Digg.

Additionally I've noticed that the average age of Reddit has plummeted to college level or below. As you probably know it can be like banging your head against a wall sometimes to attempt to converse with an 18 year old whose life experience amounts to working the register at McDonalds. Additionally this is the age where people think things like "FFUUU" comics and memes are more funny than trite.

So to answer your question - anybody who thinks that Reddit is more intellectual than Digg circa 2010 is kidding themselves. I still greatly prefer the general format of Reddit, but the Reddit community is a far cry from what it once was.

ttaannkk · 1 year

I came here from digg. I was there for 3 years and now I just check the top 24 now. I became a redditor 3 months ago and I now call this my home more than what digg felt for the past 3 years. I stayed for the intelectual talk and what seems like just respect for random people. I love digg and will never talk bad about it.

fauxromanou · 1 year

We need a "them" to be an "us".

mvsac · 1 year

EVERYONE needs religion, labels, and identification markers. For many, sadly, reddit is just that.

[deleted] · 1 year

I do not support Digg because they removed me from their site with no explanation. I declare them to, at that time, be shaping content by getting rid of users at will, which is what they did toward me.

Payback is indeed a bitch. And I do not forget. I consider Digg admin. to be extremely unethical.

Kitchenfire · 1 year

I hold the opinion that reddit's main subreddits (the top-10 that new users are automatically subscribed to) are now a worse place than Digg ever was.

Jawshem · 1 year

I lost a lot of respect for reddit when I saw some one use the term "newfag". I think(read: hope) it's just a vocal minority...

devilsadvocado · 1 year

I think the wit here is pretty superior to most other communities (on and off line, from what I'm aware of), but maturity and true open-mindedness are lacking. As for kindness, I'd say we're a mixed bag but overall decent folk.

ryanbatts · 1 year

Doesn't it suck being 50? I mean your generation helped make this country what it is then you guys started having opinions. Now most young people wish you guys would just go away because economists say that medicare will bankrupt us all. So the aging Republicans have become the villains. Not easy to enjoy all the progress you've made now huh? We do it on purpose by the way. The young perceive that older generations don't respect us because they look at society like they do work. Seniority rules.

sluggernaut · 1 year

A lot of the Digg hate is that they are like us, but slightly different. As a result it's easier to magnify these perceived differences in light of our more common characteristics. Just like Christians vs. Muslims, Indians vs. Pakistanis, and Republican vs. Democrats.

Freud's Narcissism of small differences: Check it out

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissism_of_small_differences

Oh I almost forgot. REDDITOR4LYFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1 year

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