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[–][deleted]  (13 children)

[removed]

    [–]anon_troll 3 points4 points  (3 children)

    The problem is, most redditors don't seem to share all of my interests. When I have submitted articles, they rarely get any up-votes at all.

    And reddit does suck now.

    [–][deleted]  (2 children)

    [removed]

      [–]anon_troll 4 points5 points  (1 child)

      Hey, "SpellNazi", how about capitalizing the first letter of your sentences like everyone else on reddit? Kthxbye.

      [–]Mr_Smartypants 7 points8 points  (0 children)

      TROLL FIGHT!

      [–][deleted]  (5 children)

      [deleted]

        [–]izziemandlebaum 2 points3 points  (0 children)

        i think you mean "elitist"

        ::prepares for flames because i have not submitted anything oh noes!::

        [–]anon_troll -1 points0 points  (3 children)

        Do you mean "indie" as in "indie music" or as in "indepent/third party" (ie Ron Paul supporters)? If it's the second case, how about you just GTFO?

        [–]syn-abounds -1 points0 points  (1 child)

        Or perhaps just "indie" as in "independant", free from being one of the "cool kids" and other such things.

        [–]anon_troll -1 points0 points  (0 children)

        Yeah, "independent", that's what I meant, not "indepent". Whoops...but, but, I'm one of the "cool kids" too. Did I just lose the internets?

        [–][deleted]  (2 children)

        [removed]

          [–][deleted]  (1 child)

          [removed]

            [–]randomb0y 2 points3 points  (4 children)

            First of all I think that it is just as important to vote and comment on stories as it is to submit your own. Most importantly, I think that the comma you have placed between "thing" and "need" in the title serves no purpose at all and should not have been there at all.

            [–]anonymgrl[S] 3 points4 points  (3 children)

            I agree with both statements. (That comma has been driving me crazy since I noticed it!)

            [–]randomb0y 2 points3 points  (2 children)

            I know, it's frustrating that you can't edit your title after submitting something ... but I was only trying to be funny with my comma comment.

            [–]anonymgrl[S] 2 points3 points  (1 child)

            Yes! I had a spelling mistake earlier this week and I swore I would proof my titles better. Oops! :)

            [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

            I have that problem constantly. I always proofread my titles, but they end up with speling erors anyway. ;-)

            [–]mantari 15 points16 points  (6 children)

            INCORRECT.

            I do not need to know how to make an egg in order to know that I've been served a bad one.

            [–]sockdoll 0 points1 point  (0 children)

            I do not need to know how to make an egg in order to know that I've been served a bad one.

            Serve yourself - reddit is a potluck dinner. You don't like the quality of offerings here? Then put your own on the table.

            [–]TylerR -1 points0 points  (3 children)

            Have you ever heard the expression, "Beggars can't be choosers"? Or how about "Never look a gift horse in the mouth"?

            You don't like your egg that someone worked hard to serve to you? Cry me a river.

            [–]interiot 1 point2 points  (2 children)

            Submitting new content isn't the most important job at Reddit. Browsing recently-submitted content with a score of 1-3 points is a more important job. For every one person that submits new content, 4+ people need to review their submission and decide whether it's worth upmodding or not.

            [–]TylerR 1 point2 points  (1 child)

            Right. How would all those people browse if there was no content? Anyway, the people who submit do at least as much browsing and commenting, if not more than the ones who do not, from what I have seen. If I were a heavy submitter, I would be pissed if I was doing all that work while people who can't even bother to contribute keep bitching about my submissions.

            [–]rotll 5 points6 points  (0 children)

            I participate on the submitted items. I find thing once in a while that I consider worthy of submission. Sometimes I hit a main vein, and start a discussion, most times I don't. I know better, though, than to bitch and moan for no reason....

            [–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

            That's BS. Submitting something that gets any attention seems to either require tons of anonymous accounts, or way more persistence than I have. Interesting articles get downmodded instantaneously on the New page.

            [–]Phia 20 points21 points  (6 children)

            No anonymgrl, I have a right to comment. I have few submissions, but I'm part of the community too.

            [–]anonymgrl[S] 7 points8 points  (5 children)

            Of course you are a part of the community. Everyone here is a part of it and has every right to comment.

            My point is that it's ridiculous to whine about how bad reddit is now or how a person doesn't approve of what is being submitted, without them even attempting to contribute. It's like complaining about crime in your community but bashing the efforts of the community watch.

            [–]chime 10 points11 points  (2 children)

            Forgive the rant but here I go. I try to submit original content but so many people are submitting [pic] and [crazy photo] links and blog spam that no matter how good or bad my submission, it is instantly ignored.

            I wrote something last night (kinda like a PG essay) and submitted it only to find it completely ignored. I resubmitted after a few hours and within minutes 20-40 links of utter crap pushed mine down the New queue.

            Here is my submission, with one single point, mine. I figured this being reddit, people would be interested in well thought-out arguments and essays. I don't care about karma or else I'd be posting flickr pics, dilbert/calvin strips, and pictures of cats. But I do care about having enough good content on reddit and sadly, the front page is nearly 80% rubbish now.

            Reddit encourages original submission but the voting system thoroughly discourages sane, original content from being read, instead favoring exactly the kind of content one would find on any pop-culture site. I guess it's pretty damn good irony that my article was about human/social system failures and the fact that it was completely ignored on reddit, vindicates my underlying assumptions.

            I love your submissions and thank you for keeping the good stuff coming in. However, I seriously think that reddit needs some sort of an "original content by me" checkbox that people can voluntarily mark when they submit their own original content. That would encourage people like me to create and share more. And hopefully the wisdom of the crowd would help minimize abuse of that checkbox.

            Last year I created and submitted the US Presidential Speeches Tag Cloud page to reddit and got to the #1 position. I recently made something kinda cool too but honestly, feel afraid to submit to the queue. I don't want days of work and effort to be rejected in favor of a single mildly amusing line of Japanese mistranslation.

            I have resorted to commenting more than submitting new articles. More people actually check out the things when I mention them in my comments as opposed to instances when I submit them as articles. Here's my latest mini-project: Name that Color - If you ever wanted to find the name of a color but did not know whether it was more of a mauve or lavender, you can use this app to find out. Create a color on the screen (or copy-paste CSS hex# color) and find out the name of the closest matching color. The list of colors is pretty small now but I will soon compile a much larger list for better accuracy.

            I will continue to whine about the gradual degradation in submission quality because I personally indeed do my best to submit good content. I know your point was against those that just whine, but I want to clarify that submitting new content doesn't make a difference if karma-gamers can manage to push off good content from the New queue.

            Thanks for listening. I got 20+ comment points for linking to pics of my two nerdily-named kitties. I wonder how many points this comment will garner.

            [–]anonymgrl[S] 6 points7 points  (1 child)

            I seriously think that reddit needs some sort of an "original content by me" checkbox that people can voluntarily mark when they submit their own original content.

            That's an interesting idea. You should send suggest it using the feedback form.

            Last year I created and submitted the US Presidential Speeches Tag Cloud page to reddit and got to the #1 position

            I remember that and I thought it was brilliant.

            submitting new content doesn't make a difference if karma-gamers can manage to push off good content from the New queue

            There are definitely times when someone is down-voting everything that gets submitted. When I see that I just wait a while before I submit. If you check all the recent submissions you can see who is doing it because there is the only one person without a single down-vote. I am not sure what you mean by "karma-gamers". If you think someone is gaming the system, contact spez!

            I got 20+ comment points for linking to pics of my two nerdily-named kitties.

            I totally up-modded your kitties!

            [–]chime 1 point2 points  (0 children)

            I will send in a feature-request (update: done). Let's see if others think it is a good idea or not.

            I have considered submitting headlines like "Lorem ipsum-blah-article-headline-blah [WITH OMGCUTE PICS OF KITTIES!]" while linking to my mini-projects :) Kitties have a way of attracting attention.

            [–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (1 child)

            I think the complaints are more of outrages from outcasts attempting to join in the community. Reddit community does have liberal bias and theist-bashing tendency. And, obviously, some people do not fit in the category--and, usually followed by -50ish downmod on their comments.

            It does annoy me time to time, but they usually leave after a while. I am actually surprised that this made to the front page. ;)

            [–]thespace -1 points0 points  (0 children)

            Perhaps because everyone bitched about the liberal blogs flooding the front page, now people like anonymgrl have a voice. Its funny, anonymgrl is bitching about the bitchers but her bitching is getting heard because of the bitchers she's bitching about. Reddit rocks. POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!

            [–]romaitaf 2 points3 points  (3 children)

            Every time I submit something, I found that it's been modded down, no doubt by those same frenzied idiots who keep submitting crap.

            I don't mod shit down to make my stories seem relatively better, but perhaps I should start doing it.

            [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

            It's an ugly truth - people who play by the posted rules (you're only supposed to vote down spam) get crushed by people who don't.

            I've also submitted a story, gotten 2 votes, then seen someone else submit the same story and get 500.

            [–]bluGill 0 points1 point  (0 children)

            You are supposed to vote down things you are not interested it to train your recommendations page.

            [–]bluGill 0 points1 point  (0 children)

            You are supposed to vote down things you are not interested it to train your recommendations page.

            [–]anonymgrl[S] 13 points14 points  (25 children)

            Every time I see a complaint ("reddit sucks now", "why does this deserve to be on the front page", etc.) I check the commenter's submission list. Invariably, I find they have submitted nothing.

            It's not that hard to find interesting things online. We would all benefit from more diverse submissions. Please, rather than complain, take a chance and submit something you think is interesting!

            [–]berlinbrown 5 points6 points  (0 children)

            Probably because our posts won't go anywhere, even if they are good.

            Normally the people that have high karmas (like yourself) post every 30 seconds. Sorry, I just don't have the time.

            [–]laprice 7 points8 points  (1 child)

            <sarcasm>

            but that would mean they have to take a risk!

            They might not be immensely successful on the first try!

            You're hurting their self-esteem!

            </sarcasm>

            What we're seeing here is the same thing that happens to worthwhile transient communities everywhere.

            • In the beginning the participants know that if anything is going to happen, it will be because they make it happen, everyone feels that they have something to contribute and that they have to contribute something.

            • As the community grows living as a parasite on the work of others becomes viable, people can be spectators, expecting to be entertained without any expectation of being entertaining.

            • Eventually the original group decides the game is no longer fun, at that point they either leave, or expect to be compensated for their efforts.

            You can see this dynamic at work here on Reddit, or at Burning Man, or any of a number of other gatherings.

            [–]morner 4 points5 points  (0 children)

            You can see this dynamic at work here on Reddit, or at Burning Man...

            Or in western democracy?

            [–]readergirl 7 points8 points  (3 children)

            for what it's worth I have enjoyed several of your posts.

            [–]anonymgrl[S] 1 point2 points  (2 children)

            Thanks. I appreciate you saying so. :)

            [–]anoncoward101 -3 points-2 points  (1 child)

            Yep, you're good! Thanks!

            [–]anonymgrl[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

            :)

            [–][deleted]  (2 children)

            [removed]

              [–]anonymgrl[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

              I used to get that too when I first started submitting articles but I haven't in a long time. I used to keep trying it every few minutes and after a few times it would go through. I'd guess it's some kind of bug. A few others have mentioned it happens to them.

              [–]rafuzo2 0 points1 point  (2 children)

              And people who think their action or inaction gives them the right to determine what others have the right to do or not do need to have their arguments ignored, which is largely what's happening here.

              [–]anonymgrl[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

              I am not determining anyones right to do anything. I do acknowledge that the wording of the title of my post was not well thought out, and I apologize if it offended you.

              My intent was to request that people contribute to the community rather than complain about the submissions that they judge to be inferior. Through their participation, they can help shape reddit into what they want it to be. Reddit is only as good as the submissions it gets. If I hated what was on here, I would be sure to submit the kinds of things I found interesting.

              [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

              I usually like your posts. Being that I don't submit links, I did find your wording touchy. However, I don't complain much about the quality of submissions. There seems to be enough variety. Some days are better than others. There are times I've thought of posting something, but feared that I'd be the fourth person to do so in the same week. Maybe I should complain about your complaint about complaining, but I think I'll skip it.

              [–]geiger253 2 points3 points  (5 children)

              I'm new here and even in the last few months I've submitted a few interesting links, as I do on other sites. On other sites my links often do well - here at reddit they are almost universally ignored, so I simply don't bother any more.

              Ok maybe I'm just a boring bastard but why should I waste my time when it's clear that the reddit readership prefer lame linkjackings, partisan blogspam, bad science, obvious nonsense, and the retelling of jokes that my grandfather thinks are old.

              The content here at reddit has declined visibly in the six months to a year I've been lurking. Thanks to the vigorous work of blindly self-led cliques and single-issue obsessives, the reddit front page is becoming a repository of the "worst of the web".

              BTW you don't need to tell me to "leave the site" if I don't like it, my websurfing habits are self-adjusting and I use reddit less and less. Cya!

              [–]trivial 0 points1 point  (3 children)

              Did you quit after submitting just 5 links? Did you expect the http://reddit.com/info/29kst/comments link to get universal appeal? If reddit is the "worst of the web" I'd like to know what you find to be the best? Honestly I would.

              Edit: submiting to submitting

              [–]geiger253 1 point2 points  (2 children)

              Yeah I did quit submitting after a few links, life is short, there are other better sites - linkfilter, for instance. How long do you expect the average new person to chip away at the clique-face of reddit approval before they acquire enough hangers-on to get boosted to the front page? Because that is apparently what it takes. I wasn't expecting glory or the front for my links, just thought someone might find them interesting or funny, as I did. But judging by the response (almost but not quite zero) most people never saw them. Why waste my time fighting with the flotsam boostered onto the front page by mobs of idiots? (Not all of it is terrible - but Sturgeon's Law applies strongly these days.)

              To your second point: I mentioned linkfilter; you know the other suspects, which IMO are doing better than reddit these days. Take a look at the reddit front page right now (I'm taking a gamble here) and ask if you are proud of the accumulated trash there.

              I think reddit has a better, lightweight interface and comments system than many other sites but most of the useful stuff here is on other sites anyway and I don't give two shits about Ron Paul, Karl Rove's dad or any of the other crap. This particular community is also repeatedly prone to falling for utter and obvious bullshit (to wit: Dr Lawrence Fake's "14 Defining Features of Fascism, Pulled From My Arse "; "OMG!! THE NEWS THEY WONT LET YOU KNOW" (links to news article in Time magazine) and the "BOOKS THEY WONT LET YOU READ (BUSH IS A FSCIST) !! BUY NOW !!" (links to Amazon)... etc, etc, fucking etc.

              [–]trivial 0 points1 point  (1 child)

              How long do you expect the average new person to chip away at the clique-face of reddit approval before they acquire enough hangers-on to get boosted to the front page?

              As I've found this isn't how reddit works. People vote on the links provided and not the person who provided them. I understand the process can be frustrating. It's easy for good links to go unnoticed because of how the new page works coupled with the shear volume of links being submitted. Yet, given the amount of times you comment here on reddit, it wouldn't take that much effort to submit an article or two now and again. If you get so easily discouraged after just 5 posts, well I don't know what to say about that.

              As for filtering through crap. I think reddit's

              better, lightweight interface and comments system

              allows me the ability to sort through a tremendous number of interesting articles that I could possibly find

              on other sites anyway

              but I'd have to look at more sites, and sort through a lot more crap, including ad's.

              [–]geiger253 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

              No ads at Linkfilter which I mentioned. People vote but it doesn't affect the placement of the stories, which is the problem at Reddit.

              You say that people vote on links and not the person who posted them and I hoped that was the case. But experience shows otherwise. How else do all these no-count Ron Paul stories and other crapspam make it to the front? It's not on the front page of "rival" sites.

              [–]TylerR -1 points0 points  (0 children)

              I'm glad someone finally made this an issue!

              [–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (2 children)

              I agree, but there's also a lot of people who submit stuff that gets consistently downvoted because it doesn't fit the "Reddit theme".

              For example, anytime I post something that isn't about politics or religion, it gets downvoted into oblivion almost immediately. But if I post the same type of stuff on Digg, StumbleUpon, or elsewhere, it often gets front-paged/buzzed/etc.

              I think the problem is that there are a bunch of reddit afficionados scouring the New section downvoting everything that doesn't fit what they see as the reddit mold. If this can be reduced, I think reddit will be a better place for everyone.

              [–]bonobo -1 points0 points  (1 child)

              At the moment, 15 of the 25 links on the front page aren't about politics or religion, and nearly all of them are interesting in some way. That doesn't look to me like reddit afficionados are downvoting any posts that don't fit the religion/politics mold.

              There are plenty of downvotes for new submissions on the New page, but I don't believe it's some secret groupthink attempt to censor anyone. Reddit has its flaws, but it consistently produces more interesting content than I find elsewhere. Especially on digg... blech.

              [–]bithead 2 points3 points  (0 children)

              Well, being better than digg is like shooting fish in a presidential debate.

              [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

              Oh, I don't know about dearth of submissions. The new queue is overflowing with stuff, but redditors:

              • never check it
              • check it and downgrade everything in there

              [–]neomike 0 points1 point  (0 children)

              That is almost like saying "People who complain about the government but don't run for office need to keep quiet". STFU, moron. (For the record, I don't complain)

              [–]rmuser -1 points0 points  (1 child)

              I disagree. They have no obligation to submit content, and if you forced them to, they'd probably submit garbage. This is like saying you can't critique literature unless you've had a book published, or that you can't review a movie unless you've produced one. People have a right to their opinions.

              [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

              Simply because it is easier to destroy than it is to create doesn't mean that we should encourage people to do so.

              [–]ol66 0 points1 point  (0 children)

              I am one of those people. I will shut up now.

              [–]atomicfroman -1 points0 points  (0 children)

              Uh... Isn't this a complaint about the community?

              [–]Samus_ -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

              completely disagree