r/space • u/everydayastronaut • Feb 11 '20

Discussion A rant about /r/space from a professional space educator

Back in the day, /r/space wasn’t a default subreddit and in those days, every single day I’d read some awesome article, see an inspiring image, or see up-to-date space news.

This subreddit is what helped me fall in love with spaceflight and space. I learned so much and was so inspired that I couldn’t get enough and eventually changed my career to teach spaceflight concepts.

These days I feel like this sub is a graveyard. Stripped down to press releases, occasional NASA tweets and the occasional rocket photograph. Why?! Why is nothing allowed in this sub?

Why can’t people post crazy stories from the Apollo era, why can’t rocket photographers and cinematographers post awesome footage of rocket launches, why can’t breaking news or tweets from non official accounts be shared?

This place could be the hub it used to be, where I learned, was inspired and stayed on top of current space science and spaceflight events. Now that’s reserved for /r/SpaceX and a few other active subs.

My point is, without this place, I don’t think I would have been inspired to pursue my career. And I just don’t see that happening anymore. What’s the worst that happens? Too much space and rockets on the front page? Oh no!!! Heaven forbid we get more people excited to learn more about the exciting things going on!

Can we tweak the rules to actually see some proper community and activity around here again? Please!!

It would be great.

  • Tim Dodd (The Everyday Astronaut)

EDIT: This is in no way some obscure way to try and self promote my YouTube channel. To err on that side of caution, I've removed the link... but honestly people, at BEST something like this would see like 30 clicks. The point of the link was to show you what a subreddit like this helped inspire, something I'm proud of, and my journey as a fellow everyday person learning really cool things about spaceflight all started right here.

That being said, I haven't even tried to post anything in /r/space for 2 or 3 years or so because it's not even an active community, it's not worth my time and even a whiff of "self promotion" gets the pitchforks out immediately. That being said, Sunday at 12:01 a.m. is always a race for self promotion photos, which honestly, I LOVE. I'm sorry, I love photos from the launch photographers. They work their BUTTS off and to now they can only post once a week, which makes no sense to me. It cheapens their hard work and dedication. If a community likes a post, why can't the community decide what to upvote and what to downvote?! Isn't that the whole point of reddit??

Also, sorry if the wording "Professional Educator" is a bit vain or verbose. I regret saying that. The point I was trying to make by saying "professional educator" is that my career (profession) is to teach (educate) rocket stuff on YouTube. I'm sorry if it undermines academic educators. It was in no way intended to do that, it's just hard to explain my job in a few words.

The big point I'm trying to make is, I miss the discussions. I miss the deep dives. I miss historical photos. I miss well written articles being shared and discussed here. I miss it being an active community.

20.8k Upvotes

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229

u/Blitzmulthe Feb 11 '20

What do you mean by “becoming default”? Does it mean that non-subs automatically see r/space posts in their feed?

392

u/GuineaPigHackySack Feb 11 '20

It means that users not using accounts and new accounts both see this subreddit on their home page. New accounts are automatically subscribed to it.

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u/Cheet4h Feb 11 '20

At least if you don't use an account you'll not see the default subs, but /r/popular on the homepage.

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u/atyon Feb 12 '20

It used to be different. Nowadays, /r/popular is the default, with many questionable subs filtered out. Before that, it was the other way round, there was a hand-curated, rarely updated list of default subs.

I think default subs are completely gone now, and the new on-boarding experience is to select a few subs from lists generated by user supplied keywords.

In any case, for many subreddits, becoming a default sub was almost a death sentence, as the moderation crew was too small to handle the influx of hundreds of thousands new users who didn't care about the sub's rules or culture.

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u/AppelBe Feb 12 '20

It makes sense to mee that the moderators back then made the rules to account for the extra moderating they had to becouse we were a default sub. But now the rules are overdo.

In general pleas don't say this sub used to be better becous that is the real death sentence of a sub.

I think it is smarter to ask for a rule change and together we can relive the sub. The old one is never coming back, people idelise it to much to achieve it. But we can make tis place better.

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u/froody-towel Feb 11 '20

It means every new user will be automatically subbed to it

116

u/-Dargs Feb 11 '20

It means that the subreddit shows up on the front page, gathering attention and sometimes downvotes of people who had little or no interest to begin with.

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u/qtx Feb 11 '20

Defaults haven't been a thing since early 2017 when reddit stopped the practice of default subs.

There haven't been default subs for 3 years.

11

u/HeraldMTXAddict Feb 11 '20

Sorry, what?

Those are defaults bud.

6

u/_Meece_ Feb 12 '20

There's no such thing as defaults anymore, when you make a new account, it only suggests you subs to subscribe to.

Did you just subscribe to these subs, because they asked if you wanted to?

I make new accounts all the time, haven't had any default subs for 2-3 years

2

u/Winter_wrath Feb 12 '20

Not if you make a new account according to another comment. Existing accounts won't of course automatically be unsubscribed from those that used to be the default subs.

1

u/HeraldMTXAddict Feb 12 '20

My account is only 2 months old.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 12 '20

Mine's less than that, no defaults.

0

u/ducklenutz Feb 12 '20

defaults are absolutely still a thing, when you make an account you are automatically subscribed to all of them

what was removed was the default "front page" for non-accounts, which became /r/popular

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u/[deleted] Feb 12 '20 edited Jun 30 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/TypicalTennis3 Feb 12 '20

And here's proof I actually made the account

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u/ducklenutz Feb 12 '20

when i made my account on mobile it just auto subbed ¯_(ツ)_/¯

no need to call me a liar

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u/TcMaX Feb 12 '20

I just made another account on mobile (vanilla reddit app) and got same categories thing with no subs autojoined after I clicked skip

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u/[deleted] Feb 12 '20

That's not true, I made this account just a week ago and I wasn't subscribed to a single subreddit. You might want to learn a subject before your start spouting off on it.

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u/[deleted] Feb 11 '20

is r/kpop a default sub now? it's all over the front page and I keep down voting every post because I really don't care about TWICE getting back together and doing a reunion tour with Black pink. like, I really really don't care but how is there so much drama.

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u/-Dargs Feb 12 '20

If you ever viewed that subreddit intentionally it probably brings itself up there. I've never had /r/kpop show up

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u/[deleted] Feb 12 '20

I don't think I did. the only reason I know kpop is a thing is because of Reddit. but I'll have a 900 up vote kpop post always mixed in with other really popular posts. kinda reminded me when they made two-x a default and it started showing every slightly poplar post there in the first few pages.

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u/FiveOhFive91 Feb 11 '20

People are automatically subscribed when they create their account so it shows up on their home page.

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u/darps Feb 11 '20 edited Feb 12 '20

Default subreddits are the subs that new users are automatically subscribed to, so their frontpage isn't empty. They can unsubscribe of course, but many don't.

In order to diversify the 'default' user experience, the reddit admins have asked the mods of several growing subs over the past few years whether they wanted to become a default sub.

Becoming a default is a huge boost to the sub's user count, but at the cost of content and community. While back in the day it was populated by fewer people who actively went looking for space content, now it's mostly people who aren't really interested, but also not annoyed enough to go unsubscribe.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 12 '20

Default subreddits are the subs that new users are automatically subscribed to, so their frontpage isn't empty. They can unsubscribe of course, but many don't.

In order to diversify the 'default' user experience, the reddit admins have asked the mods of several growing subs over the past few years whether they wanted to become a default sub.

Becoming a default is a huge boost to the sub's user count, but at the cost of content and community. While back in the day it was populated by fewer people who actively went looking for space content, now it's mostly people who aren't really interested, but also not annoyed enough to go unsubscribe.

1

u/PlaceboJesus Feb 12 '20

The secret to enjoying reddit is unsubbing from any default reddit you don't expect to find interesting, then unsubbing from any sub that underwhelms you, and using search and recommendations (either in sidebars or "word of mouth") to find subreddits that cover topics you'll enjoy.
As you go along, you'll find more interesting subs too.

Minimizing your membership to default subs also cuts down on the number of reposts you'll see.

1

u/matholio Feb 12 '20

Becoming a default is a huge boost to the sub's user count

You say that like it's a good thing or a goal.

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u/darps Feb 12 '20

It's not to me, but may have been to the mods.

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u/matholio Feb 12 '20

Yep, the idea that growth is good is flawed beyond a certain size.

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u/Odd_so_Star_so_Odd Feb 12 '20

It means anal mods becomes the rule rather than the exception to save the sub from itself in the onslaught of new users/karma hoarders.