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I have been thinking about community growth and how the voat fracture has split several communities apart.

Compared to Reddit the userbase at voat was small. To grow a non political sub on voat took work and dedication. It really takes one to two very active and motivated mods to get a sub going and stay going. It’s extremely easy to get burnt out. Over the years the majority of communities on voat have disbanded and have tried to replicate their subs on several platforms. Non have really matched the spark that was voat in its prime (IMO).

I’m curious about how the future of poal and phuks relationship will work and how that relationship will effect community growth.

Phuks seems content on small growth with little to no advertising on other sites were Poal seems the opposite, very eager to gain users and growth. Voat got its growth from Reddit fucking up and Poal was created because Voat is fucking up. Seems fucking up is the growth strategy here.

There’s a lot of cross posts on all three sites. Does this hinder community growth?

Just running “whatever” thoughts I had this morning.

Happy Friday Phukers.

I have been thinking about community growth and how the voat fracture has split several communities apart. Compared to Reddit the userbase at voat was small. To grow a non political sub on voat took work and dedication. It really takes one to two very active and motivated mods to get a sub going and stay going. It’s extremely easy to get burnt out. Over the years the majority of communities on voat have disbanded and have tried to replicate their subs on several platforms. Non have really matched the spark that was voat in its prime (IMO). I’m curious about how the future of poal and phuks relationship will work and how that relationship will effect community growth. Phuks seems content on small growth with little to no advertising on other sites were Poal seems the opposite, very eager to gain users and growth. Voat got its growth from Reddit fucking up and Poal was created because Voat is fucking up. Seems fucking up is the growth strategy here. There’s a lot of cross posts on all three sites. Does this hinder community growth? Just running “whatever” thoughts I had this morning. Happy Friday Phukers.

52 comments

[–] InnocentBystander 8 points (+9|-1)

Puttitout couldn't be more wrong when he stated that what makes the site is the infrastructure and the community is irrelevant.
Voat changed as the old community left, and a new radicalized community moved in.
That's why Voat will always be a failure. The admins never understood that the community was the only value the site had. The actual code is really bad.

Phuks and Poal both understand this. But they have slightly differing goals.
Poal wants an "anything goes, no limits of speech" area, Phuks is trying for a mixed, non-partisan community. I am not sure of this, but I think Poal would be happy to become a new and better Voat. Phuks has a less mapped out future, and less desire to grow. Slow organic growth is generally preferred, since it rocks the community less. A large exodus can displace existing communities.

There is certainly some overlap, and I don't see that being a problem for anything.
[–] E-werd 7 points (+7|-0)

I am not sure of this, but I think Poal would be happy to become a new and better Voat.

That's my understanding. I don't have a problem with Poal, I consider it a sister site of sorts to Phuks. That said, you just won't find me there much for the same reasons I haven't really been around voat for a couple years. It's just not for me, and that's OK.

The slow growth is a double edge sword for me personally. Because I've got a shorter attention span and an addiction to novelty, I prefer a busy site--there's always something new to see. But after a certain size you can't know or recognize everybody, or in reddit's case anybody. I like recognizing and "knowing" people, I prefer that and it only comes with smallness. Sure, Phuks could advertise, but I've seen what happens.

I ran a Minecraft server, Werdcraft, after Voatcraft took the money and ran, just like Voat has gone the admins simply fell off the face of the earth and weren't participating in or running the server anymore. I felt the community deserved better so I just got some people aboard and did it. It went good, but eventually people got tired of playing Minecraft--it happens to everybody. The server basically died. Before it completely died, I tried to advertise and attract more people to 1) keep it interesting for who was left and 2) keep the community from dying completely. Well, the need to manage the community got a lot higher when people just came in to shit all over everything--it was a bad time, and totally backfired. Advertising actually accelerated the death of the community. Everybody left and I gave up and shut it down.

Any, I'm concerned about that happening from advertising: attracting too much attention too fast, causing too much work for admin staff and sub moderators, leading to everybody determine that it's just not fun anymore. I don't know what the best answer is, but the current track seems to be going pretty good I think.
[–] Hitchens [OP] 4 points (+4|-0)

I like recognizing and "knowing" people, I prefer that and it only comes with smallness.

I'm the same way.

[–] PMYA 6 points (+6|-0)

the actual code is really bad

I was looking at Alexa yesterday and noticed that their load speed is only better than 57% of other sites. Pretty poor for a site that needs multiple loads per minute whilst browsing.
[–] Hitchens [OP] 3 points (+3|-0)

Is Alexa a good source to see how a website it doing? I’ve heard conflicting things about it.

[–] PMYA 4 points (+4|-0)

Not really. Apparently they collect their data from people using toolbars/extensions and browsing sites, which I refuse to believe is their primary source of data.

It's unclear how they collect everything so it's hard to determine if it's accurate. Traffic increases and decreases for Phuks are generally accurate though.
[–] Hitchens [OP] 5 points (+5|-0)

Nail on head about community and Putts complete denial about that fact. I personally feel Atko understood this better but burnt out quicker.

There were more then a handful of very unique subs only on voat thriving during the prime. All community driven and now all lost to mismanagement of the admins.

[–] ScorpioGlitch 4 points (+4|-0)

The first thing PuttItOut should have done upon taking the admin role of the site was:

  1. Install a site monitoring service so he would know within 3 to 5 minutes if the site was down.

  2. Appointed a small group of people to make small to medium site decisions as well as enforce site-wide rules and perform specialized site tasks. As I recall, voat's "featured sub" is not entered via a console page but has to be entered manually and directly into the database.

  3. Initiated complete and constant transparency as to who admins, site trustees, and developers are. That point right there has been a constant, long-term, and permanent point of abuse.

  4. Not attacked users for pointing these things out.

As for what kind of community phuks will have, it will have to be up to the community itself. I think most people are completely burned out on political polarization. Of course, there are trolls who lie or spin, people who complain about the community not wanting specific behaviors, and other troll-like behavior. Those people should not be ignored or welcomed if (and only if) the community decides that they don't want that kind of growth. Those people should be made to feel as unwelcome as the nuisance the community perceives them to be but only because the tendency for political polarization to infiltrate sites is insane right now. In other words, those people spoiling for fights and arguments should not be made to feel welcome as it is old, tired, divisive, and contrary to growth. We have all seen or heard of these kinds of people on voat repeatedly and what they do to a community and should avoid the same mistakes voat made: allow them to continue with their nonsense.

Phuks has been and should continue to be a place without trolls.
[–] Hitchens [OP] 6 points (+6|-0)

Putt is a classic example of how a great worker doesn’t always make for a great manager. He had zero management skills and that lack of awareness killed the site.

Phuks has been and should continue to be a place without trolls.

They’re already migrating to Poal which makes me stay here at Phuks.

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