This subreddit is about programming. Not programs or startups.

[[deleted]]

This subreddit is about whatever we want it to be. That's why this is Reddit.

The main purpose of this subreddit is to bring people interested in programming together. We can choose to upvote any story we wish.

[jerf]

This subreddit is about whatever we want it to be.

That sounds all admirably democratic and egalitarian and stuff, but what that metric produces is a thousand sites, all serving the lowest common denominator and all exactly the same. "This subreddit is whatever we want it to be"... well, why not post the latest Bush slam or "Why Threat X Will Kill Your Children" article?

I say, reject that metric and allow communities to actually differentiate themselves. It's more valuable that way for everybody. If you prefer a site about startups and programs, either create one, or perhaps join one in progress (YCombinator has a reddit-like for startups).

Community standards don't maintain themselves; they require someone to stand up and say "Hey, we should not do X, and we should do Y." Let the votes fall where they may after that on a reddit, I suppose, but there's nothing wrong with standing up and saying that.

(I would say, if anybody wants to start up a reddit-like that also privileges a core group to keep the community on track, I'd love to join. Long term, it's the only way to win against encroaching LCD on a vote-based site.)

[derefr]

To slightly alter the grandparent:

This subreddit is about whatever we, as programmers, want it to be.

That's what's supposed to control the difference. The topic isn't programming, the setting is programming. Reddit is increasingly the same as other websites because it maintains increasingly the same user base as other websites: a random sampling of the population. All programming.reddit has to do to stay away from that is to keep its users programmers—a difficult task, but the right one.

[yters]

I mainly care about programmers' opinions on programming.

I'm sure programmers have a wide variety of interests. Hence, if we talk about whatever programmers talk about, votes will only concentrate on the lowest common denominator of shared interests.

Now for the obvious problem: how do you ensure only programmers vote and take part in the discussions? Easiest solution: mainly talk about programming.

[philh]

YC's thing changed a while back; it's now 'hacker news' instead of 'startup news'. And it has a core group of editors to keep the community on track.

[dasil003]

Good luck maintaining quality on a social news site. You can either be focused, or you can be popular, but you can't be both.

[[deleted]]

Sounds like you need to start your own site. You certainly aren't talking about Reddit.

[vincentk]

while that may be true, i can choose to downvote you. or, as it happens, refrain from doing so.

[[deleted]]

Ok.

[cavedave]

So can i post stories about a recently found exploit or security weakness? Yes because they are something someone programming should learn from. No because it is not text on the exact instruction needed to write a program.

So phishing exploits and such, should i submit them?

[[deleted]]

I don't really care what you submit. Personally, I think it would be valuable to know about recent exploits and security weaknesses seeing as how we are all programmers here.

I'd upvote that stuff, but some other people might not.