Part 1, April 9 2009
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25036088@N06/3424896427/sizes/o...
Part 2, Dec 9 2009
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25036088@N06/4192738180/sizes/o...
Part 3, Jan 5 2012
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25036088@N06/6642064613/sizes/o...
"Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it."
- Edmund Burke
I didn't tag it at all - I don't wish to participate with tags that don't go two ways. The way tags currently exist, for the original poster to tag something he or she must consciously think to himself "who am i going to piss off by posting this? And how can I go out of my way to not offend them?" Note that it should properly be tagged #digg, not #reddit... but it could just as easily be tagged #comics or #history or #beentheredonethat. I only get one and the only reason I have to apply it is to deliberately shelter my followers from it. The system, in that regard, is broken.
Note however that someone - you? - tagged it #reddit after I tagged it. As such if you'd been patient you wouldn't have had to look at it at all. The system, in that regard, is functional.
Also note that now that it's been tagged #reddit, I can never un-tag it. Had someone tagged it #rddit or #reddt by mistake, we'd be stuck with it and someone else would have to notice.
I think a lot of functionality was destroyed when tags went away - for example, the structure of Hubski now requires power users, who were essentially the downfall of Digg. As I'm just one step below Kevin Rose in this analogy, I hope I have some credibility when I say that in my opinion, the ability to ignore tags without the ability to follow tags is a big step backward in fluidity and diversity.
- Note however that someone - you? - tagged it #reddit after I tagged it.
I think that the tag system is still evolving. It certainly isn't at its endpoint, and mk is always willing to implement suggested changes. And there need to be some more changes. (For example, the poster should always have full control over what their post is tagged, if they can control who is going to post on it.)
the poster does have the control to implement one of the tags. Kleinbl00 is a conscientious objector. The tag conversation has been around for some time.
- Had someone tagged it #rddit or #reddt by mistake, we'd be stuck with it and someone else would have to notice.
- the poster does have the control to implement one of the tags.
I have now confused myself, probably. But I'll go ahead and believe you.
Every post can have 2 tags. One by the person making the post and one by the community. KB chose to not tag the post. He's right that if someone from the community tagged it rddit by mistake we'd be stuck with it unless someone from the community changed it. Once you get a badge, you'll see a +# symbol indicating that you can suggest a tag to a post you didn't author. If multiple members of the community suggest tags then the most popular suggestion prevails.
So, if I tagged kb's post #somethinginappropriate, he himself couldn't change/remove it? He'd have to wait for someone else to come along and suggest something better?
That seems to go against the control function that mk is ultimately working toward wherein posters can control what happens in the discussion on their post.
if it was #somethinginappropriate, it would more than likely get changed relatively quickly. But, you do raise a valid point. I think it's worth making sure that someone you ignore cannot community-tag your posts. mk.
It is interesting to see how sort of dated this has become. I think if it was written today there would be more reference to reddit mods instead of admins, and there would probably be more written about the differences between subreddits (army divisions perhaps?).
Wow I remember when this originally came out! The first one really hit a nerve, and I thought it was both entertaining and interesting commentary.
Now, after the death and resurection of digg.com I have to say that I actually quite like it. It doesn't have a lot of super high quality content, but it is entertaining and it is a great, focused product.
Looking forward, I wonder what will be written? Maybe nothing?
I think 4Chan is important enough it deserved a place in all of this.
4chan would be some nomadic army, always invading and never ruling.
To be honest, I really didn't catch the meaning of the reference. Would you mind explaining some more?
Not sure how intentional it was; much of the comic is dead references and stale memes that were once funny and topical but in looking back read like "parts is parts" or "where's the beef." "4chanistan" was a phrase that was bandied about backintheday.
That said, it is an interesting analogy in that Afghanistan has long been known as "the graveyard of empires" because the last European power to hold it for any length of time was Alexander the Great and it was the death of his empire (and of his person). Britain crumbled upon its exit from Afghanistan, as did the Soviet Union. Western culture, on the other hand, pretty much owes its existence to the indo-Iranian tribes that came off the steppes of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and, to a lesser extent, Afghanistan; they were the original "Aryans" and looked a lot more like Dolph Lundgren than Muhammed Karzai (the current ethnic makeup of the region is due to Ghengis Khan and Tamerlane, much as the ethnic makeup of Spain and Italy is due to the Moorish conquests and the ethnic makeup of Mexico is due to the Spanish invasion).
Something Astral may not be aware of is the fact that "-istan" simply means "land" and that the region was never national (nationalism being an outcome of Enlightenment europe, where the notions of "countries" took precedence over "peoples"). Much as Pakistan isn't a name, it's an acronym (Punjabistan, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Sindh and BaluchISTAN) "/b/" is not one big homogeneous mess of "foreigners" it's a diverse and historic ecosystem. And, much like large portions of the Arab world don't give the first shit about our culture, vast swaths of 4chan don't give a fuck about Reddit or Digg (or whatever follows).
Nonetheless, there is a pretty much continual line of diaspora through most of the major online communities. It's not commonly known, but much of the growth in /r/fffffffuuuuuuuuuuuu is directly attributable to /b/. Reddit's structure simply lends itself better to communication via rage comic than 4chan's does. Is f7u12 "patient zero" for the 4chanization of Reddit? Who can say? The point being, analogies can be drawn between foreign policy and online message boards, and if you use floral language and lots of tangential references, people will even believe them.