Let’s write up what we think so far…
Here’s some feedback from @bwheeler96 from another topic:
Is this purpose of this forum to improve governance process or to be the place actual governance issues are discussed. If it’s the later I would suggest that the format is inferior to Reddit.
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I’m interested in how reddit may be better. We can modify how this software functions with plugins so changes can be made in here.
The governance process involves communications, but the main discussions will be in person at “Councils”. How exactly individual decisions are reached is to be determined, but it will likely follow our proposed principle of rough consensus. We are planning on having our next in-person Council and around early July in Berlin.
I think the comment thread format of Reddit makes it easier to follow specific trails of inquiry and discussion. This is important when the level of participation is high, as it may be when contentious issues are discussed. Consider someone new coming to the EIP-999 thread. Are they expected to read through each comment? There is no ranking. Everyone wants to have their say and make their own points. In fact it’s like this even in the short thread I started myself. The ranking by vote that Reddit offers also helps to bring the better arguments to the top. Maybe it’s personal preference, or maybe if others appreciate it too, it’s something that plugins can be used to offer here. Another reason, though, is that Reddit is where many people already are. Why fight against that (with a new location) when participation should be valued?
We can also layer Ethereum functionality within the Reddit interface. I’m doing this, now, with a browser plugin. Currently it’s just rinkeby deployed but for many purposes actually that doesn’t matter. It identifies other users who have registered an Ethereum address with their Reddit username, allows direct tipping to them, up/down voting specific posts and comments (mirroring the reddit functionality), and staking in support or rejection of posts (posts are removed if the market is in rejection after 1 hour). These are just experiments. What I’d like to demonstrate is that we can Ethereum-ise the Reddit community. Maybe karma from Ethereum related subs can be used in some way, or the date of their first post in an Ethereum sub (these are record on-chain when they register).
Thanks you for the information regarding Councils. I hope this is a fruitful endeavour as I believe it’s crucially needed.
Edit. grammatical errors
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I think Discourse is a solid platform except when a very controversial proposal is discussed, then nothing works very well.
I think Discourse has better moderation and reputation features. It also has threading, though it isn’t as good as Reddit’s.
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One nice feature of discourse is that mods can actually move off-topic comments to an entirely new topic, which might make sense for the comments that initiated this thread.
I like it. I don’t agree that reddit is better for the types of discussions here, although moving discourse over there would give more people a voice (for better or worse).
The only thing I don’t like is the custom search bar which overrides my browser’s search (⌘ + F ). The custom search works, but I’m far more accustomed to my browser’s search which has some better functionality. Websites shouldn’t try to override a browser feature.
