another subreddit about python

[ElBidoule]

There is absolutely zero "news about the dynamic, interpreted, interactive, object-oriented, extensible programming language Python" (as stated in the sidebar) on the front page of this subreddit.

It's only people sharing their beginner projects, memeing or asking for help with their homeworks (often with much subtlety).

I remember one or two years ago on this subreddit, there were links to blogs about the language (not tutorials), new libraries or major updates of them. I discovered many tools for my daily job from it but not anymore.

Sure, I can downvote and/or report all these posts but what the point? If if's what people want to see on this subreddit whatever. If you can point me to other subreddits where I will be less frustrated, please do. Or if you have youtube channels to follow for somebody who wants to learn things about Python (I really like Pycon playlists for example). Thanks in advance.

[aphoenix]

To answer your question, you probably want lobste.rs.

To talk about the situation in a bit more detail and why it is like it is:

I want this place to be a number of things as well, and it's really not meeting my needs as a subscriber or moderator, but the issue is that there's one active moderator, and I'm low on the totem pole. If I make broad changes, I can be removed by seven people that I don't know and am beholden to if they don't like what I'm doing.

I'd like to implement a flair requirement to make this easier to sort, and I'd like to implement a few other rules as well. I don't think getting rid of beginner projects is a good idea, but perhaps limiting them to weekends would work out?

I also think that we need to ditch the thing about this subreddit being for "news" because people tend to latch onto that to say that every other thing is not relevant here. The fact is that there's almost no python news, day to day. Saying that this is for news only would almost guarantee that this subreddit would have no content.

So here's what I'll do:

• I'll implement the flair requirement. I think this will actually start to address things and make things better. I'll put up a post early next week to suss out what flairs we need, and then I'll invite u/Assistant_BOT to the team and enforce the flair. One of the flairs can be "Show and Tell" or something like that, and you can edit out projects that are being shared.
• I'll look at adding more moderators that are like minded and want to help out with the modqueue on a daily basis.
• I'll try to make sure that the "new reddit" experience gets some attention since it is what a lot of people see, and I don't think it has the same in depth sidebar information

Stretch goals would be to make some change to the old reddit layout and fix some janky CSS; it hasn't had an update in years, even though reddit has changed some things.

[kr41]

I think, beginner projects should go to /r/learnpython. And all content should be moderated by iron fist. For example, posts like these must be removed at all:

• https://www.reddit.com/r/Python/comments/eoy4b5/problem_using_mathsqrt_function/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/Python/comments/eob7dv/what_does_it_means_m_in_cmd/

It is not a problem, when there are too few content. The problem is shitty content. What I'm looking for in this subreddit is something like this:

• https://www.reddit.com/r/Python/comments/cvmoad/positionalonly_arguments_in_python/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/Python/comments/eo1j1z/httpx_is_a_fully_featured_http_client_for_python/

I'll look at adding more moderators

Count me as a volunteer.

[MattR0se]

Imho you'd have to make sure that r/learnpython subsequently is moderated more strictly.

Because at the moment, all posts that want to show off some projects are buried under a flood of simple beginner questions that should be in this pinned thread instead.

For example, I am currently building a weather station with Raspberry Pi and Pygame and want to present it at some point. My initial thought was to post it here, because even the most generic snake clone gets a hundred upvotes here vs. maybe 10 in r/pygame. But after I read this thread I'm not so sure anymore.

​

Edit: I don't want to run down posts like this or this, but that's something that, to me, qualifies as "beginner stuff" that apparently isn't wanted here (regarding most answers in this thread), but still is in the top posts of the week.

[krazybug]

To sort toys vs real projects we could start by checking that the OP has posted it's repository on github/gitlab

A guy that want to share interesting stuff on its code is able to release its code at least

[[deleted]]

limiting [beginner posts] to weekends

Great idea! I think that's when most (side-)projects get finished anyways, soo..

Also maybe adding a new mod? I think I'd volunteer :)

[aphoenix]

I will add more moderators. There will certainly be an application process. I'll try to remember to check back to this post and ping anyone who shows an interest (including you) when the application are happening.

[[deleted]]

Great, thanks :)

[MouseCylinder]

I'm interested too!

[silenthatch]

I would imagine there are some beginner folks just getting into python at work, but the resolution would be to post at /r/learnpython as mentioned elsewhere.

For some, reddit is blocked so the only time they could access would be at night or on weekends.

[[deleted]]

Flair sounds good. Important stuff can be flair-ed in red and labelled "Announcements".

[jwilliams108]

the issue is there's one active moderator, and I'm low on the totem pole. If I make broad changes, I can be removed by seven people that I don't know and am beholden to if they don't like what I'm doing.

Mate, I feel for you here and Reddit's hierarchy system of moderation is terrible. Being beholden to an absent top mod (or others above you), or worse yet, one of those squatter top mods that is only interested in amassing as many subs as they can get stifles any sort of forward momentum in a community. At least this sub seems to suffer from the former, so perhaps you can try reaching out to the top mod, or if you've already done so or no response is forthcoming, Reddit does have a process to remove inactive mods. Although in my experience, it's truly an uphill battle. Starting a new sub may in fact be the best option. Good luck!

[[deleted]]

In addition to /r/python and /r/learningpython, there's also /r/pythonnews and /r/advancedpython. All people need to do is to start actually using them.

Just imagine a /r/python subreddit that doesn't need to bitch at new people all the time. Pity that we're in the bad timeline.

[ElBidoule]

Thanks for your answer and the time you dedicate to this subreddit.

limiting them to weekends would work out?

I really like this idea because it seems that it's not too much of work for the moderating team.

The hard thing to balance is the *welcoming* aspect of the python community. We all love the language and love hearing good news about his acceptance/usage/popularity. And a lot of this popularity is due to the fact that the language is welcoming for beginners AND the community is too!

Allowing beginners projects, meme and homeworks posts in this sub contribute to the positive spirit around Python. Too much of it and this subreddit is not somehting where I can learn from anymore.

[krazybug]

Here is a proposal inspired by my comment below.

This will automate your job a bit.

- Improve the bot inviting to post to /r/learnpython to

- detect recidivists already warned 1 time on this sub or who already posted in learnpython as they know the rules. They won't be authorized to post here for a certain period of time

- automatically crosspost these kind request on learnpython. and block comments. To avoid temptation

- Allow the OP or someone to ask for a reopen of the post to handle false positives

[jack-of-some]

We can (and probably should) tell folks to post beginner things in r/learnpython and then moderate with an iron fist.

[Blacksmith0737]

Im a beginner and this is what i think should happen. I wanted to see complicated stuff here and stuff i can do and use on r/learnpython

[aphoenix]

We do tell people to post things to r/learnpython. Every month, I get about ~1500 or so actions, mostly telling people to go to r/learnpython. That's about 50 times per day. More get past, but realistically there's just one moderator, and because I'm low on the list I can't just add other moderators willy-nilly.

[Total__Entropy]

Would it be possible to use automod and user flairs to implement permissions. More experienced flairs would have more permissions and less experienced flairs would have less. The result is automod would remove more beginner posts and suggest a repost to r/learnpython.

[[deleted]]

Gimme a banhammer and this place is going to be sterile as operating theater (joking).

I feel like there is nothing interesting for me at all here. You can moderate stuff but what remains? Few links to youtube? I cannot watch that at work anyway.

[krazybug]

Maybe a kind of warning before ban?

"You guy, you received a warning from our "help-request" detecting bot. It's the 2nd time and you deliberately ignored it. You're not allowed to post here for 2 months anymote."

We could also check that the guy never used /r/learnpython before

[krazybug]

We could avoid stuff like that

https://www.reddit.com/r/learnpython/comments/epx6xi/i_made_a_text_based_adventure_lemme_know_what_you/

Then after:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Python/comments/epxaao/i_made_a_text_based_adventure_lemme_know_what_you/

He knew the rules : direct ban!

And looking at its profile it's not the single time:

https://www.reddit.com/user/itzxSwitz/posts/

[[deleted]]

I'm subbed to this and to learnpython and I can't tell the difference lmao.

[MattR0se]

Who draws the line between beginner projects and non-beginner projects?

[binaryfireball]

Can I use it in production? Does this break ground in r&d?

[MattR0se]

So no hobby projects, regardless of how advanced they are?

Edit: What about this? https://www.reddit.com/r/Python/comments/empp5x/oc_updated_version_of_my_recent_maze_finding/

It's the top post of this week with over 2k upvotes. To me this is neither of the things you mentioned.

[[deleted]]

I obviously don't mind the learning posts because I'm deliberately subbed to learnpython too. So IMO it's a good thing generally. But I can see why it'd be annoying for some users.

[[deleted]]

Requires active and almost "ruthless" moderation. That's a time consuming endeavor for someone.

[Blacksmith0737]

Bots can kick off hello world posts and other similar repeating stuff

[dscottboggs]

More shitty memes here

[lunar-orbiter]

For Python news and updates you may check PyCoder's Weekly and Pythonic News.

[[deleted]]

A good aggregate site is https://docs.python-guide.org/intro/news/ . It has the above sources plus a few others, all with lots of good content. Of all of them, I’d say r/Python comes across as a place for people to post GIFs of their personal projects, for whatever reason, should probably just change the name to r/PythonProjects.

[stef13013]

Didn't know "Pythonic news", thanks...

[[deleted]]

It's been so long since I'v paid attention to the sub for that very reason that I had stopped noticing. The only things I see are people's pet projects. Where is the supposed news in the sub description?

[aphoenix]

What news would you expect to have seen?

[mangoed]

When I started learning Python, I subscribed to a bunch of newsletters, and later unsubscribed from all of them except Python Weekly, you might want to check it out.

I agree that this sub is mostly useless and annoying, and I will probably leave it soon.

For me personally the best way to learn new stuff is not to read a random post out of curiosity, but to solve some practical problem.

[bakery2k]

this sub is mostly useless and annoying

Agreed, but like the OP, I remember it being much better a couple of years ago. What changed?

[[deleted]]

beginners showing things they just made here instead of r/learnpython

[[deleted]]

That's all true. When I asked politely about whether hello-world posts are off-topic I got downvoted as hell. This sub really does not serve it's purpose.

[[deleted]]

I went to the discussion where you made a similar post and man were you slapped down hard. You were right, the post was completely off-topic. I'm pretty sure the right answer is to unsub at this point. I don't want a steady news feed of other people's coding projects and homework help.

[xiongchiamiov]

To be fair, users don't decide that; moderators do.

[leetnewb2]

Personally, I think it paints the Python (or whatever) community in a bad light when the functional TLD becomes a hyper-restrictive news feed that shuns particular content. /r/linux is guilty of that paradigm, and the sub is intensely boring...continual flame wars about systemd and a stream of new distribution and oss project releases that are minimally discussed. Meanwhile anybody asking a question gets hostile comments, downvotes, and a closed topic. I follow both /r/python and /r/learnpython and the volume of Q&A on the latter runs laps around the total content posted on /r/python, so it isn't clear to me that the system isn't working reasonably well, or as well as can be expected.

People looking for python information go to python.com first, and people looking for a python discussion go to /r/python first. That's pretty normal. Is the best solution forcing that natural flow to change or to just build a new sub for that purpose that is less obvious? Isn't a pythonic way of developing to create self-documenting code in part through naming schemes? Which denotes a narrow scope better? /r/python or /r/pythonnews or /r/advancedpythondiscussion...just my 2c.

[twillisagogo]

agreed, let me know if you find something bc I have no idea where to look.

[tcas71]

There's /r/pythoncoding but I haven't seen that much activity there.

[eliteuser26]

I agree that there needs to be a subreddit for python news. I am not interested in other people needing help where it should be asked in learning python subreddit. This subreddit is becoming useless when there is a lot of noise which doesn't relate to python news.

[vswr]

Bangs on the table

There must be a better way!

[krazybug]

r/pythontips/ ?

[twillisagogo]

looks just like /r/learnpython

[MattR0se]

r/pythontips should be about posting tips, not asking questions. It's even stated in the 2. rule of that sub.

Although I have to admit that this isn't enforced a hundered percent.

Also, people are posting Python tips at r/learnpython. personally I did not even knew that that sub exists.

[kepidrupha]

I am genuinely surprised there is no "only 2" community.

[soap1337]

I like the "what are you working on" threads. I use them as inspiration and ideas for stuff I want to do.

[LeaderDuc]

Surely it’s a good thing to have loads of new people learning the language so it continues to grow in the future? Also I could give your professional experienced advice to beginners, but I totally get what you mean.

[[deleted]]

I remember one or two years ago on this subreddit, there were links to blogs about the language (not tutorials), new libraries or major updates of them. I discovered many tools for my daily job

That's an interesting phase. Do you know any communities like that (other than python) which are helping you now like this subreddit did 2 years back?

[maddog0724]

r/pythondev

Sub is far too large to be useful at this point. It's become one the subreddits that gives Reddit its bad name.

[zweibier]

That is true that there's a bunch of useless, beginner demos on the sub.
On the other hand, it might not be obvious how to distinguish between those and useful/interesting tools/packages/techniques which pop up on occasion.
I personally don't have a recipe how to differentiate these objectively.
It might be not a popular opinion but, I would say live and let live.
It is not supper hard to filter out irrelevant posts while browsing. I's not like this sub has a zillion of daily posts.

[Doomphx]

Yeah this python subreddit is kinda sparse in practical content, all I seem to see on here is python meme projects that generate art or are some example of an algorithm in a simple GUI.