Reddit vs Forums?

[Moab]

I've been on reddit for years. Everyone raves about it.

But can someone explain its structural functions that rival a classic forum?

I honestly don't get it.

I don't see well organized information. Like a list of sticky threads at the top of a section. That includes well vetted information. By long standing, large post count, members on a given subject.

The layout in a thread is terrible. Its hard to keep track of who has said what about what. There seems to be no consensus on the value of anyones shared information. Each question gets a laundry list of answers with little to no credibility. Other than "this is the opinion I like!".

The layout of each subreddit is so confusing. I can't tell which end is up. Or how to find relevant threads on a given subject. Its like a confusing paper notebook someone has passed around a loosely held meeting. And everyone has just scrawled an answer to whatever question or comment they came upon.

How is this better than a forum? And why is everyone talking about the death of forums? And how bad they are?

I have not seen a better system for discussing information and cataloging it on the internet than a forum.

So what gives? I'm completely confused.

[12_Gauge_Chimp]

Reddit looks like one giant chat thread to me with various little sub threads.

I've never used it, but others here have. I briefly used Discord when the old ZS forum went dark and I hated it.

I'm much more used to the forum style of message boards since I've been on various ones for the past 20-ish years.

[EBuff75]

For how-to or informational threads, I much prefer forums.  They're easier to search and tend to have specific information in individual threads.  For me, a huge loss of accumulated data was when the old Tahoe & Suburban Z71 forum went bust a couple of years ago.  Nearly 20 years worth of threads where people had put up detailed posts about how they'd done specific mods, or how to fix common issues.  Fortunately, I'd copied a few of those and had local copies, ubt it was still a lot like burning down a library that housed one-of-a-kind books.  A lot of that info is just gone forever now.

I've used Discord with a few different organizations that I belong to, but that's really just for chatting, and not for information / retrieval.  I don't hang out on, or post on Reddit, but I will use results on it, or on Quora, when I'm researching flashlights, odd car issues, etc., just to see what I can find.  But unless you're in a very specific topic area, where all of the posts are of interest to you, even those can be hard to find things in.  If I want results from one of those, I use Google and restrict the search to one of the sites. 

[Anianna]

Reddit is a conglomeration of what are essentially forums that are called subreddits.  Think of it like a shopping mall and each storefront is a forum.  Reddit is forums, it's just a lot of forums.  If you don't find the sub/forum you want, you can start and run one yourself for free. 

The caveat is that each sub/forum is not divided into sections itself.

[NT2C]

Let me see if I can explain it.  With Reddit, each subreddit is its own community, but without subforums of their own.  Similar to how many of our categories work they have moderators specific to that area.  Subreddits can and do have stickied posts but the preferred way of doing things there is with "flair" (ie: a tag displayed on the thread title).

[Moab]

I understand how reddit works. I just think its terrible as a means of collecting and sharing information. Forums seem far superior to me. Yet there seems to be this attitude that they are dead for that purpose. 

The current shift seems to be towards reddit and discord type platforms. Which seem to be more like online chat threads. Than anything that could effectively vet and organize information. 

Not to mention reddit seems to not be nearly as user friendly. It just seems like a mess to me. 

[Anianna]

I do like forums better, but Reddit comes in second for me.  It's a different thing, though.  To me a forum is a collection of information while Reddit is a stream of information.  I can come back to the forum and probably find something I read before.  If I want to come back to something on Reddit, it's better to save or bookmark it because I'm probably not going to find it again. 

[Moab]

I do like forums better, but Reddit comes in second for me.  It's a different thing, though.  To me a forum is a collection of information while Reddit is a stream of information.  I can come back to the forum and probably find something I read before.  If I want to come back to something on Reddit, it's better to save or bookmark it because I'm probably not going to find it again. 

My thoughts exactly. Great way of putting it.

But why would anyone choose to spend so much time sharing information when it can be catalogued with little to no additional effort? Thats what I don't get.

It just seems like a step backwards. And a really stupid way of sharing information. I hate posting on reddit. As it just seems like a sink hole. 

[12_Gauge_Chimp]

Only social media places I've got accounts is Facebook and here.

I've got a YouTube account, but that's less social media in the usual sense and more me watching knife and gun reviews (as long as YouTube will allow them. Porn and child abuse is fine, but apparently gun reviews aren't according to them. )

[NT2C]

I'm like Ani in that I prefer forums, with Reddit in second place (and Imgur a very distant third).  The latter two are mostly to have a safe outlet for my inner asshole where whatever my transgression it will generally blow over in a day or two and be forgotten about.

[Moab]

I'm like Ani in that I prefer forums, with Reddit in second place (and Imgur a very distant third).  The latter two are mostly to have a safe outlet for my inner asshole where whatever my transgression it will generally blow over in a day or two and be forgotten about.

Lmao!!! Love that dude!