There are two parts to this question. One on the online community, one in the real life observations.
Online:
This is a problem I've been having with the Voat community. Everyone seems so passionate about arbitrary things, and yet, I see hardly anything being done to create, or amend the issues. We're not technically a community; in fact, it's a strange crossroads of communities that happen to all be residing in the same space.
I got here three months (well lurking, I think my profile says 1) ago. When I joined, I felt like I found home. People would argue with each other, reach a compromise, all without downvoating. I met some great friends, all of us passionate about writing. And now, a good majority of them have left due to the culture change.
Instead of discussion, I find more and more "Fuck you faggot you SJW cocksucker" sort of deals. They didn't like this. They left. I took a hiatus for awhile. But I notice more and more this mindset of witchhunting, hive minded anger, without any solution but to ban users (Not in Particular @She but also many, many others). I feel like we could be better at open discussion, without the name-calling. It weakens arguments --- granted, I've seen several good arguments going on, but it all revolves around downvoats instead of null debate.
In Real Life:
More and more, people get angry. They're angry about everything. And They offer no solutions, not feasible ones anyway. I'm pretty laid back. I try to not get angry these days, though sometimes something gets under my skin, but everyone seems to make it a black and white issues (sometimes literally) without ever seeing the facts.
My question to you, voat, is that.....
How do we take our passion and make it into something constructive? How do we regain control, and instead of only being angry and passionate, we become motivated and passionate?
I apologize for rambling. I'm getting fed up with anger with no constructive direction.
EDIT: This discussion is amazing! I haven't read through everything yet, but I'm so happy you all are really getting into this! thanks!
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[–] diggy 0 points 5 points 5 points (+5|-0) ago
I agree with you on the topics of debate and the negative effects of name calling on civil discussion. I think a lot of people who do that are just really young or are purposely wording things in such a way to make it seem like an ironic caricature of internet speech in general. This sort of thing can be entertaining to some people, but can also be frustrating for others.
I don't quite understand where you're coming from in regards to wether or not voat is a community. I feel like voat is as much a community as a town or a state is. Just like in a town you have people rich and poor content or angry, liberal or conservative all living next to each other. Just like a town though the individual members do not necessarily have any influence on each other unless the right circumstances are met (common hobby for example). Perhaps this is a cultural difference between where you live and where I live, though? I do not know.
In regards to being constructive, I would suggest to people to keep studying even if not formally,(edx,udemy,coursera are great) so they can develop their own solutions to perceived problems. Voat itself is this, I believe. All the image hosting sites brought up in response to voat needing one is this. I see a future where many passionate gamers become passionate game developers, where many nitpicky commenters become lawyers, and maybe even a few people become doctors to help fight obesity. There is hope and time. A large portion of the community is in its 20s or younger. I would say that witnessing problems that seem outside our control is an incredibly frustrating experience, but when you can figure out your own solutions to these sorts of things it feels amazing.
It is now well past midnight as I type this and I have to apologize that I too have a tendency to ramble.
[–] OllieQueen [S] 0 points 4 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago
Diggy, I honestly love your well thought out reply to the community aspect.
In my city there is the "City" that everyone loves, but within it, there are "subsections" and each competes. Like "This one road is better than this other road" --- now, each area of town has its own community, but under the ame city name, so that's how I see voat.
[–] Classified ago
Your post reminds me of this comic.