Although I don’t fully agree with the sentiment expressed by this thread, it did get me thinking about leaning even further into contributing to an environment I’d like to participate in. I personally much prefer dedicated discussion threads to discussing news stories myself and reading through the comments it seems like there is a huge desire among many for exactly that. In this thread I’d like to brainstorm with y’all about the conversations we wouldn’t risk trying to have on reddit, conversations you don’t have people around willing to engage in but would work well here, community vibe checks, or something I’m not considering. I would also like to explore what obstacles others see for why this hasn’t happened already despite the apparent desire so any solutions we experiment with can avoid issues which we are already aware of.
My response to my own question will be in the comments.
I don’t think this is the right way to answer the thread you are referencing. Instead, you should start a post in this community talking about something you think might be interesting to discuss. What you’ve done, whether on purpose or not, is create a thread in which people can hide themselves. Instead of creating a new post in this community, they just say in a comment stream what they wish they could have the courage to make a new post about. What you’ve done is create a sub-community within the community. People put in this thread what they’d like to talk about out loud, yet feel better about saying it here because it’s buried. I don’t think you had this in mind by design when you created this post, but this is what has happened. People are posting a response to you with things that they didn’t create a post about. Are you all that afraid of creating a new post? I’m not. I’m trying to figure out a post to create here, independently of this thread, to contribute to this community. I have nothing right now of interest to discuss because I live a hugely dull and boring life. Just as soon as a bird shits on my head when I’m walking under a tree, y’all are getting yourselves a post in chat about it I created. Because that’s pretty much all I can possibly have right now. If you’re smart and take a look at the lay of the land, you have nothing to lose actually starting a new post here that maybe you felt like you couldn’t post on Reddit. Nobody here is going to rip you a new one. You have to be nice. Remember what that was like in society, when you actually felt like being nice? Maybe if you are nice and just accept the fact that people here are nice, you won’t feel the need to do this. I’m super fucking nice. Are you super fucking nice? I swear, this place needs a new motto. “Are you super fucking nice? Be(e) super fucking nice.” I am so into this beehaw thing you have no idea. Make a new chat post about your life that you think might be interesting. I’m at a huge loss. This community is the first to fucking know as soon as something unusual happens to me. I’m making a new post in here. And everyone is going to be nice to me so much I’m going to die from all the love. That’s what make this place the place. I love it!