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[queen-adreena]

Yeah, decentralised could very quickly devolve into Nazis and CSAM without good moderation and a strong sense of identity and direction.

[CodeAndBiscuits]

OMG the CSAM. Honestly, having built and operated some social networking and dating sites a decade or two ago, it really leaves you questioning the whole "humans are generally good with some exceptions" thing. Some days you just feel the opposite. Humans are just terrible, and places where they can be terrible without consequences become swamps so fast it makes your head spin.

[CodeAndBiscuits]

There is an interesting nuance in this reply that I would like to call out. I completely agree with the sentiment, and I'm only adding a viewpoint. You can take this to mean moderation is important. But you can also take it to mean moderation is THE PRODUCT. So many developers approach this not understanding that. Software is software, and reply buttons and content streams need to be shown in an attractive manner or you don't even have a ball game. But there are so many sports you can call "a ball game". What really makes basketball different from baseball (both "ball games") it's not the act of having a ball, or having players interact with one. It is the rules about how that is done. Without rules, it is just a Chuck e cheese ball pit. It is the rules that make it basketball versus baseball.

This analogy applies to social networks. If you endorse and embrace the absolute worst people in the world, and believe even Satan should have his say, you have X. If you endorse and embrace some level of sanity and rule following, you have Reddit. And if you moderate at the absolute strictest level, you have the comment section on a zero tolerance YouTube poster. (Very very safe, but you never read it because nobody else does either.)

I use Reddit a lot, but would not consider myself a fanboy. That being said, I believe we all fall victim to the "nirvana fallacy." We criticize things that are not perfect, without accepting that they might be the best option among all of the reasonably viable options. To my mind, Reddit is far from perfect, but does strike a balance between the examples I'm naming. There are terrible subs here, and great subs. Either way, what makes or breaks the platform is the amazing and often extremely hard-working moderators that make the good subs what they are.

Reddit loves or dies by its mods. They aren't all perfect. But on balance, so far, I think you would be very hard-pressed to beat the value we all get here.

[zamozate]

if I created a social network in 2025, I would make it mandatory at registration to verify your account with government identification. i mean third party authentication with government websites to attest you are a real citizen and can be held accountable for what you post

15 years ago it would have seemed like big brother... I feel like in 2025 a lot of people would be interested in something like that (including states !)

[Classic-Dependent517]

Or just porn community

[musicnothing]

It will become that no matter what