OK, so I'm not entirely sure this is even possible with the way the site is made, but it seems like a really good idea in my head.
I think there should be an ability to create subverses within subverses. The idea would be to have a top level subverse, like gaming, and then more specific subverses under it, like gaming/gifs, gaming/news, gaming/memes, etc. If you just went to /v/gaming, you would see everything from all of the other nested subverses, but if you went to /v/gaming/news, you would only see stuff in /v/gaming/news. For any subverses that have a sub-subverse, selecting a sub-subverse should be mandatory.
This would allow for a higher degree of self-moderation within subverses. As the site grows, the major subs are inevitably going to have to deal with the deluge of content they receive, and it is going to create a wide array of content that gets submitted to a single subverse. Having the sub-subverses already in place will both allow the subverses to grow and prosper without segmenting the community, while also allowing users to see the specific content they want to see.
You can see how detrimental not having a system like this in place has been to reddit. You have subs like gaming, games, pcgaming, etc. Each of those communities are completely separated from each other, and no one will find the more specific ones unless they are actually looking for them.
Now, I realize that this idea can also be realized with filters, and building those into the default subverse options could work too, but I think it would be less effective. Most users probably wouldn't use them, or even know they were there. That might be the case with sub-subverses too, but to me being able to go directly to /v/gaming/news would be a lot easier than going to /v/gaming, going to a filters section, selecting news, then loading up a filtered page, then having to go back into my filters and undo them all to get a top level view again.
So, just my idea that I'm not even sure is possible.
Edit:
Just to clarify, the motivation behind this idea is prevent sub-groups from splintering off from the main group once it gets too popular. So, like in my example of /r/gaming, eventually it just became a bunch of memes and "DAE like this extremely popular game? :D", which drowned out all of the gaming related news. This led to the creation of /r/games, which focuses almost entirely on news.
But this creates a problem for both /r/gaming and /r/games. First of all, /r/games is much smaller than /r/gaming, so there is less discussion, and generally just less content. At the same time, it removes all of the news related posts from /r/gaming, as they are now being posted to /r/games, which only increases the amount of memes and things on /r/gaming, which creates a cycle that feeds on itself and worsens over time.
If voat doesn't have a system in place to combat things like that happening, (and it happens on pretty much every large sub), then it is going to run into the same problem, and the quality of content will go down as the user base grows.
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[–] Ylatten 0 points 4 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago
I like the idea, and it would certainly help with the redundancy that is prevalent in Reddit. Like you said, though, who knows if it can be put in place.
[–] veniveniveni 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago
http://i.imgur.com/ZLgIW.jpg
[–] hairynip 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago
It's easy enough to do within the current framework by setting up a set of tags that are stated and searchable in the sidebar of what would be your top level subverse. So tag news posts with [news] then you can search gaming for news related posts.
[–] Sextron [S] 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
But again, that puts more work on the user and forces more steps on them to go to a subvert, click in the search box, type out what they want, then search and hope they got what they wanted.
[–] 654456 ago
Not really moderators can link the flair search in the sidebar. It could also automatically be added by Voat. The big thing would be getting people to use it. So I would suggest being able to flair your post of the submit page and if the subverse has flair in abled make it required, if the mod wants to.
[–] user1 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
I actually think this is a bad idea. While you might think it will help organize, it will actually make it very confusing and you'll have conflicting sub-subs. Like there will be a /v/gaming/dota and a /v/dota, so the content will be split.
I think the best idea is to simple allow a post to be part of multiple subs. So more like a tagging system - similar to the way Stackexchange works.
[–] TheyKeepOnRising 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago (edited ago)
Voat has a feature called "sets" in which people can create a public playlist of sorts for subverses. The popular sets will be easy for anyone to sub to, and instantly have all the /v/gaming subverses shown. Click "my sets" above to see it in action.
[–] Sextron [S] 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
I saw those yesterday, but I think that is kind of the opposite side of the problem. Sets take a bunch of things that are kind of related, and groups them together, whereas I'm thinking of something that would take things that are more closely related and break them down into smaller parts, while still maintaining the bigger whole.
[–] tazmanian 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
That is great idea and it make a lot of sense but I have a question. Have you thought who would the mods be? Would they have to approve the sub-subverses?
And to build on your idea, content could belong to more than one sub-subverse when you were unsure where to submit it.
[–] MrPim ago
To ride on your voattails, I think this idea would give the Mods of the top Verse too much power. Either they have to be Mods of the Sub-Verses, or they'll have to approve those Mods of the Sub-Verses. I don't think I like this idea, it creats power Mods very quickly.
[–] Sextron [S] ago
How is that any different from a mod in a popular sub that gets a bunch of varying content submitted to it by default, like /v/pics, /v/funny, etc. Those mods are going to have a ton of power, with or without sub-subverses.
[–] Sextron [S] ago
Sub-subverses would be mod created, or need mod approval.
Being able to submit things to multiple sub-subverses would make more sense in the case of not being sure, but then there would need to be a way to handle duplicates in the main subverse.
[–] Vordea 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Well the gaming one has had that problem stopped immediately, as dank memes and low quality posts are banned on /v/gaming.
[–] Sextron [S] 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago (edited ago)
Yeah, but some people like those things, and they are related to gaming. Why make them scuttle of somewhere else to post them? By banning those things, you are making the community smaller and promoting the fragmentation that I think should be avoided.
[–] [deleted] 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago (edited ago)
[–] Sextron [S] ago
That would run into the same problem as the filters though. It's definitely a viable solution, it just seems like more work for the user to me.