Growth and community questions

I really do, but given the choice, I'll take the civil over the wild west.

Do you consider Poal to be an extension of that Wild West? To me, Poal is gaining the users I actually tried to avoid on voat.

[–] Owlchemy 6 points (+6|-0)

Maybe wild west is a bit harsh ... but my feeling too. Yet it's too early to tell, so I'll give it a chance. I do have the feeling it will devolve as Voat did though, which is why I prefer Phuks, if I had to choose one. The TOS here may limit speech slightly ... but even the US Constitution recognizes there are legitimate limits and lines that shouldn't be crossed. Voat's downfall is not imposing any limits, which may lead to the same for Poal.

[–] TheTrigger 2 points (+2|-0)

Voat's downfall is not imposing any limits

This, unfortunately, is a lesson that is showing to be hard-learnt. Although, those limits don't have to be overbearing. For example, enforcing sub rules, should be taken more seriously, to avoid cancerous run-off from spilling over. Making sure people have all the tools for self-censorship, would be a goal to keep in mind. As well as maybe sanitizing the front page. Leave "NSFW" topics hidden, unless you specifically log in and tick a, "show NSFW content" option.

I'd say to put all this effort in to allowing "hateful" content, while quarantining it from the "main" content, because a lot of those people would most likely still partake and contribute to other, unrelated, parts of the site. This is what, IMHO, allows the chans to keep going and remain so popular. You can go to /pol/ and talk all day about "the JQ" and "niggers". But none of that flies in any other spot, like /wg/ or /fit/; even though there's most-definitely overlap in the user base. But be strict about maintaining boundaries, so that everyone has a place where they can spend time— unperturbed by other factions.

[–] Owlchemy 1 points (+1|-0)

I definitely agree. In fact, the vast majority of my time at Voat was pleasant and I enjoyed the people and the content. I thought I'd never walk away. Back when it was easy to avoid the negative, there were unwritten rules and those who wished to shitpost or rant about nigger this, or jew generally stayed in their spheres and shied away from spilling over into the other subs. That changed. Wave after wave of new Reddit castaways found Voat and due to it's 'have your say' mantra, took it as a free pass to run rampant across the whole of the site.

Suddenly you couldn't post an archeological or science link without some kid (and I'm guessing kid, because the maturity level was so low) interjecting the hate crap into idiotic comments. Now I generally ignore such things and never lose sleep over them, but after awhile, it wears ya down ... it became like it was some badge of honor for new Redditors showing up to prove they were Goats now to spread their faggotry, jew hate, niggerisms around everywhere, like giddy middle schoolers. Then that crap began to become Voat's focus. Childish crap and those arriving who decided they'd chase everyone but their little clicks off. Like I said, I generally ignore such things, but after awhile it all adds up and it's time to let them have it and find another home.

That's kinda why I like Phuks, they try to filter out the hate crap and are also less political. So all in all, it's more comfortable here now, than it was after Voat got co-opted.

[–] pmyb2 2 points (+2|-0)

I think the limit is where your “speech” ie votes are used to silence others. Brigading I think is what really happened to voat I’m going to try and prevent it from happening to poal. Not saying I will succeed for sure but I’ll give it my best shot.

[–] KillBill 1 points (+1|-0)

Edited

There really were people there with tons of accounts each. Not just 5 or 6 but 20-30 and more in some cases. Most of the attacks on other subs on Voat were with one person talking to themselves with multiple accounts.

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[–] Hitchens [OP] 1 points (+1|-0)

Voat's downfall is not imposing any limits, which may lead to the same for Poal.

Very much agree with your sentiments. Putts hands off approach to managing was not what voat needed.

[–] Owlchemy 2 points (+2|-0)

And thankfully both Phuks and Poal have active admins willing to help. There isn't seem the Putt type problem of total dictatorship by any one admin on either. If anything, I feel sad for atko who gave the keys to Voat, his baby, away and it is now going down because of that.

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Growth and community questions

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/s/Whatever