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by manuelmoreale 153 days ago
The moment you insert algorithmic curation it stops being “just” a forum IMO. The moment you add gamification on top (karma points, likes, rewards) it stops being just a forum.

Reddit is definitely not a forum the same way old-school forums were forums. And I don’t believe you can, with a straight face, say that they’re the same.

Also, “Forums are platforms where the main purpose is to discuss the topic of any given thread”. That’s a very broad definition. Depending on how loose you want to enforce that you can convince me that Twitter and YouTube are forums.

Plus, “discuss the topic of any given thread” you say this in a thread about TikTok collecting more data while you’re clearly talking about something unrelated to that.

These definitions are blurry. If I told you “we should set up a forum” you’d not instinctively think we’re creating Reddit, and for good reasons.

But I’ll agree that HN is probably the more forum than social media if we were to place it on a scale. And that’s how these platforms should be judged imo: on a scale.
1 comments
reactordev 153 days ago
I remember a time when Reddit didn’t exist. When phpBB and vBulletin were the hottest ways to build a community around a theme. I remember when they would get so large that you would need volunteers to help moderate.

Now, karma and all that came from a way of making it so that the admins of this site have to do less moderation and let the best participants of this site have that power. It’s ultimate democracy.

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direwolf20 153 days ago
Democracy is extremely vulnerable to manipulation, especially if you don't verify identity.
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reactordev 153 days ago
Except karma is tracked by your user…? I fail to see where you’re going with this. I’m not talking about political elections.
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direwolf20 152 days ago
How much does it cost to create a user?
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reactordev 152 days ago
In the case of online voting, you can’t buy one. In order to create one, one would tie it to the existing identification systems they have (for example, ssa.gov).

Then your argument will be “what’s stopping someone from using someone else’s identity?” in which case we have laws for that. I don’t have all the answers but we can definitely do better.

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