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by iheartpotatoes 2613 days ago
Twitter is the literal opposite of community-building, like usenet used to be.

Not that I'm nostalgic, usenet simply could not scale to the number of users we see online today.

I think Reddit is closer to usenet in its DNA, but usenet groups were TINY compared even the smallest popular subreddits. reddit isn't perfect by any means, no one has solved the scalability issue, but if it weren't for mods, reddit would be even worse than it is right now.
1 comments
snarf21 2613 days ago
I would disagree. It is community building in a different construct. There is no /r/X or group structure built in. I am only Twitter because I design board games. I only interact with board game community accounts and posts. The community is diverse, varied and thriving. If I was trying to get 100K followers to argue about politics maybe I'd have a bad time. I'm just trying to say that there is a lot of community building but it is self-directed not controlled by the platform.
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iheartpotatoes 2613 days ago
>> It is community building in a different construct

Yeah that's a good point, but it is more of a broadcast mechanism, isn't it? Like, I follow people I'm interested in on twitter like Adam Savage and Simone Giertz. But they would never reply to a post to them b/c they get flooded by their legions of followers.

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snarf21 2612 days ago
Yes and no. There are several medium sized publishers that run their own accounts and are active participants in the conversations. It is a slightly different structure because you can meet and talk with them at conventions too but in the end it is a marketing tool to build their audience. Some of the most famous game designers in the world actively communicate with other members all the time. There are also sub-communities of just people who design games or people who follow popular game reviewers, etc. I was just trying to make the point that there are some communities on Twitter but they are self organizing. There are sites like boardgamegeek that are popular too but some of the reddit communities have weird rules like not being able to post that you have a new game coming out.
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