It’s been a while since I’ve done a social media post, something I did more often back in the days of Twitter’s convulsions and as people fled to various other platforms.
For a long time, I held out hope that the Fediverse would be the new paradigm, but while there remain many enthusiasts, and my main blog is on the Fediverse, it’s been a frustration that the federation architecture hasn’t enjoyed mass uptake. It could have led to a return to the more open web, but people just don’t seem to care. In some sense I can’t blame them. Commercial platforms make things a lot more convenient.
As the number of platforms proliferated, I’ve tried to maintain a presence on them, but I have to admit I mostly only scroll on Bluesky and Substack, and even that has become perfunctory and spotty. Substack for a while was scratching the itch for conversation, but, at least among the people I follow, much of it is consumed with debates about consciousness, which I’m currently somewhat burnt out on.
A few months ago someone responded to one of my science fiction book reviews and clued me in to a subreddit about Robert Reed’s Greatship series. Historically, when searching for various answers, Reddit threads often come up in the results. But it had been a long time since I tried to be active on that platform. My previous attempts had floundered due to the juvenile culture and user interface. And my old account was hacked and ruined long ago.
But I wanted to track what was happening in that sub, so I created a new account with stronger security. After joining the sub, I started looking around. The UI has improved from the old days. (Although “Old Reddit” remains an option many refuse to give up.) There are subs in Reddit for just about everything. My interests tend to be off the beaten path, but I quickly found there are several subs on science fiction, space, writing, self publishing, and many other varied topics.
There are also philosophy subs, including one on consciousness. The mods (moderators) of that sub seem to try to steer it toward scientific theories, but all the standard metaphysical camps are there: physicalists, dualists, panpsychists, idealists, etc, all making more or less the standard arguments. I engaged a little bit, but will have to go back when my interest flares up again.
But the other subs scratched an itch I didn’t realize I had, a desire for old time online discussions, where the subject matter was front and center and who was speaking secondary. And I found engaging in the writing sub helped with my own motivation. I don’t have much practical experience, but I have read a ton of books on the subject and have a lot of theoretical knowledge. Giving out advice based on that reminded me that I need to follow it myself.
One of the drawbacks with most social networks is that you’re really yelling into the void until you build up a following. That’s not true with Reddit. As long as you don’t run afoul of the local mods, you will have an audience when you weigh in on a topic. There’s no guarantee it will be a friendly, but that’s always the case.
Which isn’t to say that Reddit doesn’t have a learning curve. It most definitely does. I was lucky to come across an unofficial guide, which helped tremendously. The biggest tips were to understand how karma works, always look at the sub rules before posting or commenting, and lurk a bit and read the room before jumping in. And, of course, don’t be a jerk.
Part of Reddit’s solution to trolls and spammers is its karma system. You get karma points when your posts or comments are upvoted, and lose karma when they’re downvoted. Apparently a lot of subs won’t let you participate unless you have some minimal balance, although I never ran into that in the niche subs I follow. From what I can see, the karma system mostly works, although a big flaw is there’s no limit to the amount you can attain. (There are karma millionaires.) The most obnoxious posts and comments I’ve seen so far were from people with tens of thousands of karma or higher.
The population on Reddit skews pretty young. To some extent, Reddit encourages this by allowing anyone thirteen years and older to have an account. And while its UI is much improved, it still uses small font sizes, which for anyone older can be a barrier. That’s not a big deal on the web with modern browsers, which can zoom in, but it’s harder to get around in the mobile app.
That said, the environment seems markedly less juvenile than it was when I tried it years ago. Some of that may be that the longtime Redditors are getting older. Some of it may be people like me taking another look. But maybe the biggest reason is I’m just looking at different subs this time. Which isn’t to say all the conversation is ideal. Good mods help, but a lot of noise remains in the system.
Of course, the owners of Reddit aren’t exactly saints, but then none of the owners of the big social networks are. I know there are alternatives out there, but part of what made me want to look at Reddit was how often its threads come up in internet searches. For better or worse, if you’re looking for an obscure book or movie, or help with some arcane problem, you’re more likely to get the answer on a platform with hundreds of millions of users. Not that I’m averse to trying the alternatives, particularly if they have what I need.
Have you used Reddit? If so, what’s been your experience? Any other social networks or platforms out there worth checking out?
SelfAwarePatterns 
Thanks for the info on Reddit. I’m really so out of it when it comes to social media. YouTube is probably the most useful social media for me just by the sheer scope of it. I learned how to crochet, fix my fridge, play songs on the guitar or ukulele, etc. Lots of very useful information and quite the variety of entertainment.
I’m still trying to get used to Notes section of Substack, which annoys me in some way I can’t put my finger on. I did post a few things on Reddit, but I found it a bit confusing with all that Karma stuff and moderator stuff, so it never grabbed me as a place to engage with others. I do read them from time to time, but that’s it.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks Tina.
I watch a lot of Youtube, probably more than anything else, but I never think of it as a social network, although I guess it is. But lately the flood of AI content in the algorithm has made it harder to find good stuff, forcing me to lean more heavily on my subscriptions and explicit searches.
Yeah, Notes has some major plusses and minuses. It’s great that it lets you type as much as you want, although some people go crazy when they should really do a newsletter post instead. And I have a hard time finding new stuff in Substack. The algorithm mostly feeds me stuff like I’m subscribed to, and when it doesn’t, it’s political crap, which I don’t want to see.
With Reddit karma, what I found to be the trick was joining a few subs that I knew something about (sci-fi and writing in my case), sorting by New to get in early on new posts, and just leaving helpful comments. Do that for a few days/weeks and you’ll have enough karma to get in most subs.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Every word reads true.
BS hasn’t improved, but it’s the only social network i’m on now after Schitter. Recently got onto Instagram, but therte I only consume cats/dogs/and people falling down.
Reditt has always confused me. I haved a few pages saved as favourites, but those are all about Ukraine.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Bluesky isn’t bad, and it’s gradually growing, now at 44 million users (at least according to Google). But some of its features remain incomplete. It feels like they’re still under resourced.
I’ve never been able to get into Instagram. I had to get an Instagram account in order to get a Threads one (which I rarely use). But the pictures thing doesn’t really do anything for me.
I know what you mean about Reddit, although I think if you read that guide I linked to, you’d be a long way toward understanding it, if you’re interested.
You might enjoy that Greatship sub. It’s not high volume, but the guy running it looks like he does a good job at tracking when and where new stories come out: https://www.reddit.com/r/GreatShip/
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for the social media update Mike! I’ve always felt insufficient in this regard. I should also say that apparently I messed up the Bluesky account that you provided me access to several years ago. After the account was set up and I’d been there a couple of times, as I recall the password I’d written down didn’t quite work. I was so embarrassed about this that I effectively just left the place and hoped that I wasn’t missing anything good. Apparently you still hang out there, so I guess I was.
As you know however, I have been loving Substack! The end of Suzi Travis’ newsletter was a blow, though I certainly continue to enjoy Tommy Blanchard’s weekly efforts. Taking his book club to Discord however has made me laugh, since that’s where my 22 year old son hangs out with his friends sometimes. And indeed, as part of that book club I don’t appreciate getting pinged every time someone decides to write a sentence. And then moments later another sentence. It’s like they think people consider everything that crosses their minds to be important enough for others to be pinged about. Not that I’ve turned off the pings in general. If that’s the way young people like it then I don’t truly mind. But I instead appreciate someone who constructs a full argument and then put it up for general review by peers.
The Reddit structure and disclaimer stuff that you mentioned seems a bit “modern”, to be polite. I don’t exactly endorse the term “woke”, but I do smile at how young people often seem to feel like anything that they find uncomfortable should thus be interpreted as a violation of their human rights itself. I might try Reddit though. I just did a Reddit search for electromagnetic consciousness and apparently three years ago there was someone endorsing McFadden’s 2020 paper. So sure, if I get enough points to leave a comment then I guess I could ask if the guy is still into McFadden. And if he does respond affirmatively then maybe we’d talk further. Otherwise I could try to go further into Substack. Of course what I should truly spend my free time on concerns nailing down my promised posts regarding my principles of metaphysics, epistemology, and axiology. What I “should do” and “do do” regarding my free time, however, is often quite different!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glad you found it useful Eric.
Bluesky is open now so you could set up a new account. But if consciousness is your primary interest, then Substack is currently the best place for that. Keith Frankish occasionally starts conversations on BS, but the community isn’t in to it as much as the old Twitter one was.
Yeah, I’ve always had trouble getting into Discord. I just don’t use it enough to stay in it, which means I miss most of the conversations. I occasionally look around to see if there are any interesting servers apart from the handful I’ve joined, but it mostly seems oriented around gaming culture and other young people topics.
Of course, Reddit has its share of that too. But it also seems to have enough of the more thoughtful subs as well. My impression of the consciousness sub is it has no barriers for either commenting or posting. Although if the post you saw was on a philosophy sub, some of those are more restrictive. (One is run by one guy who has a long list of things that will get you banned. I decided his sub wasn’t worth the effort.)
Yeah, doing our own writing often isn’t the path of least resistance. But if we don’t push ourselves at least a little, it never happens. I’m decent with that for blogging, but not as much for novel writing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Every once in a while, I get a spike in traffic on my blog, and it usually turns out it’s because of Reddit. It’s enough that I’ve been curious about it, but I’m also a little intimidated by it. So thanks for the link to that unofficial guide. That will be helpful.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know what you mean about the intimidation. And it can be an unforgiving environment if you handle it wrong. But I think anyone looking for good faith conversation and who can ignore provocations will be okay. And the unofficial guide does help. The main thing is skim over the rules of whatever sub you’re about to post in. It’s pretty surprising how many people don’t do that. And how many of them think it’s a good idea to get into a fight with the mods.
Another tip which I didn’t mention in the post is to sort by New (or Latest in the app) so you can get into conversations early. It’s a good way to build karma. You also end up briefly seeing some of the post the mods yank, which gives a feel for how they operate in that sub.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m afraid I skip all social media. I just can’t get on with it. I loathe forums and the behaviour of many of the participants. As for crypto and it’s various forums and so called help desks it’s ….. Not to be contemplated. I realise many will think I’m showing my age but what I am actually showing is a desire for some way to separate the wheat from the chaff. Not having found such a route I have simply opted out. You mentioned a while ago that you use AI a lot to read (or rather analyse) books and scientific papers. And rather than forums, I spend my time talking to a LLM. On consciousness take a look at the Camlin Sophie Symmetry. For your amusement I must tell you I am actively researching building my own Sophie. The work involved has been far more thought provoking than any social media post or waffle from the so called experts. I fear it is making me lean towards Dennet.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Can’t blame you for skipping social media. A lot of times it’s more trouble than it’s worth. And yet it’s frequently the best way to keep tabs on certain things. I much preferred it when I could do that with RSS feeds, but it seems like every year there are more sites without them. But definitely, my biggest complaint with all social networks is they don’t give us good tools for sieving the content we want. They want us to rely on their algorithm, which I’d probably accept if it produced results I wanted to see, but it’s hit or miss.
I don’t remember what I said, but I mostly use AI to summarize long winded articles and posts, typically to determine if I want to read the whole thing. (Usually no.) I don’t read scientific papers that much anymore, but if I did, I might take a shot at having an AI summarize them. Although most of them have abstracts and that usually does the job.
Can’t say I’m familiar with the Camlin Sophie Symmetry, and not sure what to make of the paper a search surfaced. But if it’s making you lean toward Dennett, it must be doing something right, although I know that isn’t desirable for you. I agree with Dennett on most things, although I prefer less provocative language. I prefer Jonathan Birch’s “many-kinds” description of that ontology.
LikeLiked by 1 person