[wsb_mod2]

Great writeup.

A subreddit getting co-opted by the masses to change its intentions is a story as old as reddit. See my username for how I know that to be true.

Hopefully more subreddits will wake up and realize that being included in high activity feeds (r/all, popular) is not necessarily a good thing. We have.

> Speaking of unflattering stereotypes, let’s be blunt for a moment: Most of what you read on the internet is written by insane people.

I wholeheartedly agree with this.

[dilippkumar]

I’d love to hear your thoughts on wsb.

[wsb_mod2]

What do you want to know?

I think r/wallstreetbets is still a fantastic place and more or less true to its purpose of finding interesting and novel trades.

Much of the discussion has expanded, to discord (600K users, the limit) as well as the daily reddit talks (Think clubhouse but for reddit).

The daily thread is still fantastic for a very quick list of interesting topics, which you can jump into and have a conversation with anyone.

There still remains a decent sense of camraderie, but there are definitely fewer recognizable names amongst the volume of comments. More time being invested into handing out unique flairs will help with this

Weekday meme restrictions over the past week has largely undone all the damage to the main feed and brought back a larger array of high quality discussion.

Predictions add an interesting dimension to the subreddit where all users can participate regardless of personal wealth.

---

So overall, I'd say it's going very well. There seems to be a significant amount of misconceptions both in the general population, as well as even our regular users, but as long as we continue to do the right thing and protect discussion quality, people will slowly but surely see the light.

[kilroy123]

I preferred it before GME and all that craziness. So before 2020.

Just not the same anymore.

[wsb_mod2]

2020 was marked by a 10x increase in comment volume, largely coming from both incredible, pandemic driven, market volatility as well as stimulus checks and stay at home orders.

It is very unlikely (I hope) that this environment will happen again.

Nonetheless, can you express exactly what it is that "just [isn't] the same anymore"?

[ryeights]

Not OP, but IMO WSB used to be interesting because it represented a small contrarian movement within the highly structured world of finance; a ‘secret club,’ if you will. I always browsed WSB primarily because it was fun, not because I expected to get mega-rich; after the GME blowup/meme-ification/massive media coverage, now everybody and their grandma trades OTM options (and now penny stocks and cryptos and NFTs etc etc) and it just isn’t cool anymore.

[wsb_mod2]

I agree, I think there's definitely been a large cultural shift when it comes to retail investing. Lots of people these days want to find the one play that gets them to retirement.

That culture shift extends well beyond WSB, but I think its at least somewhat less obvious here. In my experience, most of the time when people throw out price targets, at most they're predicting a 20%, 25% move, and not the 10x, 100x, or 10,000x you see elsewhere.

I don't think there's really a way, from a moderation perspective at least, to take the dreamers out of the equation... other then waiting and letting them get blown up by their high risk plays.

And just a note, r/wallstreetbets hasn't allowed penny stocks, crypto, or NFTs for many years. (NFTs never)

[city41]

> but there are definitely fewer recognizable names amongst the volume of comments

I find this interesting because to me one of the biggest attractions to Reddit (and HN for that matter) is how deemphasized the user is. I almost never read usernames and rarely remember who anyone is.

[wsb_mod2]

That's a good point. The situation definitely has it's pros and cons.

For example, in the voice chats, its great when users follow up with one another on their trades, or know each other's specialties so they can call them to provide insight.

On the other hand, deemphasizing the user makes it more about the content and less about the person creating that content, which at best avoids bandwagoning and the whole "I called $foo, so listen to me when I say buy $bar".

[Miner49er]

How long have you been a mod? Since the start?

[wsb_mod2]

Nearly 7 years now, a casual before then. (For context, the sub just celebrated its 10th birthday last week)

[cinntaile]

I think this is where that phrase comes from. https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/9rvroo/most...

[brodouevencode]

Reddit, WSB excepting of course, is a cesspool. (This comment written with diamond hands.)