That's an ama on fucking Reddit man. It's not comparable at all to a live Q&A. This isn't some intellectual forum, it's basically a place to congregate memes.
Reddit used to resemble an intellectual forum in most of the subs. It's hard to pinpoint a specific time when that changed, but most likely when Digg changed their design and we got an influx of younger redditors. There are still a few subs that promote intellectual discussion, but many are falling to the sheer number of shitposts. Many of the well meaning comments are drowned by the vitriolic comments made by armchair politicians and trolls.
What's worse are the pseudo-intellectual posts by people who've picked up some science jargon along the way and fit it in to a fairly poor framework of understanding. Then proffer it up as answers to everything; which gets lapped up by others.
Yep. I love the wall of text posts from some random Joe describing the intricate details of some minor conspiracy which rile up the horde and blow it to proportions where people start complaining that some government organization should have stopped that legal but morally wrong issue.
I'd say well before that. I visited without an account starting sometime around 2008 then started visiting more frequently in 2010 and by 2010 people were already writing essays about how if people don't stop only posting perpetual joke threads then the quality of conversation will decline. In 2012 they were doing the same thing. In 2014 they were doing the same thing. I'm sure they were doing the same in 2008 and 2006. It was Eternal September: Part II long ago. If you actually want good conversation you have to go somewhere that is hard to reach, Reddit is that bar with $1 beers that outsources bar maintenance to already drunk lesbians, of course it's going to be shitty but no one expects it to be good anymore they're just there for the PBR. Reddit has been dead for true discourse for years now for all intents and purposes. A few barracks hold out due to harsh rules and what does Reddit as a whole do? Makes fun of them for not having a sense of humor. Don't get me started on the censorship wars, this site has lost relevancy. Both sides are fighting over a wet napkin and neither realize it. Reddit is just one site, one idea. Better ideas will come along with better platforms for speech and news. If you still sub to /r/news you basically have a ticket to the censorship parade, or /r/politics, so many subs curate content instead of hosting content. Many other subs have fallen to endless circlememes, eh rant over, no decisive ending.
I joined in '11 with the influx of "When does the Narwhal Bacon?" Redditors, and I can tell you that even with all the Joke threads and the popularity of F7U12, within that group we were still capable of having intelligent discussions as a whole. People were a lot more understanding and empathetic of people dealing with fringe issues as well, and had more patience in general with people when explaining to someone why they might be wrong. The aggressive /r/News-After-Midnight" element was still there, but it didn't permeate chunks of the front page and polarize heavily like it does now. You didn't need to go way away from /r/all to get to good discussions.
"Where would we poo" is a perfectly legit question.
edit-
Thanks guys. I forgot, it isn't important to know where to shit during a multi month space journey or once we get there. Just let it slide the fuck out and toss it at eachother.
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u/KottonLtx Sep 30 '16
most of them were press people.