Hi all, as with most of you, I’m an immigrant from Reddit. I never used to go on to the NZ or regional subreddits because frankly, I felt very unwelcome and those places were extremely negative.
How then do we build a new community that is based on being positive and accepting, even of those with different points of view, political leanings, religious beliefs or lifestyles? Everyone deserves a voice, no one deserves to be shouted down or made to feel unwelcome or belittled because they have differing thoughts.
Even festering cunts like Brian Tamaki and his ilk, deserve a seat at the table. We live in a free country and that means everyone should get a voice. Everyone gets to speak their piece, even if you don’t like it.
How do we stop this community devolving into yet another online echo chamber?
Post things you like. Discuss things others post. Be nice. Its a small community users tend to keep each other in check. If users start to see the vibe shifting they can make discussion threads to introduce and set rules.
Useful rules are limiting repetitive topics/complains/rants to a weekly/monthly discussion thread. This is important as topics posted over and over affect people’s perception of how prevalent an issue actually is. A small handful of users can whip an entire subreddit up into a frenzy by posting the right topics.