
Voat: What Went Wrong - djsumdog
https://battlepenguin.com/tech/voat-what-went-wrong/
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Crinus
IMO what _really_ went wrong with Voat was that it was simply not very
different from Reddit - the same issues Reddit has with the way it works and
the way discussions are handled exist with Voat. The main difference between
the two is the people but outside of that they're practically the same
centralized, voting-based, hierarchical discussion subforums where discussions
are (for all practical purposes) arbitrarily moved up and down and over time
away from the viewers' eyes (unlike, e.g., a traditional forum where a thread
can be active for months or even years - though that has issues of its own if
you are not an active participant).

So at the end of the day it all came down to the people. When Voat first came
out i made an account there to see if things will be better, but of course
nobody outside those who were forced out of Reddit went to Voat and those were
a tiny minority.

"Everyone" was (and is) still on Reddit, so i just stick to where "everyone"
is to see new stuff and read what "everyone" things about matters. I remember
being out with a friend and Voat was brought up - he also made an account and
he also had the same thoughts: "nobody" was on Voat, so he stayed with Reddit.

Often when it comes to Voat and similar sites people point out the hate
communities, etc, but really those only happen because most people who are on
Reddit simply see no reason to move anywhere else. If everyone (or at least
the large majority) moved (or also participated) on Voat then the hate groups
would be the same tiny minority that they were on Reddit.

But they did not move because there was no reason to move, Voat simply didn't
provide much of a difference to Reddit.

(and no i do not think that being decentralized or whatever antithesis to the
comparisons i made at the beginning of this comment would be a reason for
everyone on Reddit to move - i don't know what would make people do such a
move. If i knew i'd build it and be a millionaire).

