I have an idea for a site with a UI modeled after the minimalism of Hacker News, but every user has their own syndication feed, and NO KARMA SYSTEM.
I cannot stress enough how toxic the karma system is. I believe online bullying is real, flag systems, and moderators are necessary. But Karma systems are often abused by punishing users for expressing opposing views. I believe this is part of what sculpts ecosystems into echo chambers. When someone gets downvoted, no matter the reason, they receive posting restrictions, bans, etc.
Why can’t there be a balance where users can post what they want as long as it isn’t bigoted?
Instead of a thousand sub Reddits, why not just 10 to 20 general boards. The user picks which of those boards they wish to subscribe to. No user generated boards so people can worship Elliott Smith and attack people who like Ed Sheeran.
Yes, my idea is basically 4chan minus the bigotry, plus user profiles. But also still focused on users posting links to articles as well as Ask posts like this one.
I cannot stress enough how toxic the karma system is. I believe online bullying is real, flag systems, and moderators are necessary. But Karma systems are often abused by punishing users for expressing opposing views. I believe this is part of what sculpts ecosystems into echo chambers. When someone gets downvoted, no matter the reason, they receive posting restrictions, bans, etc.
Why can’t there be a balance where users can post what they want as long as it isn’t bigoted?
Instead of a thousand sub Reddits, why not just 10 to 20 general boards. The user picks which of those boards they wish to subscribe to. No user generated boards so people can worship Elliott Smith and attack people who like Ed Sheeran.
Yes, my idea is basically 4chan minus the bigotry, plus user profiles. But also still focused on users posting links to articles as well as Ask posts like this one.