First off, I need to say that I know I’ve let a lot of you down (if not all). I know I’ve not met your expectations of an admin or a leader. I have no excuses as even I feel this way about myself. I won’t make attempts for empathy, I will only acknowledge the truth, and it is such.
Life is full of surprises. You can be rich one minute and living out of your car the next. You can be healthy one year and a regular in the doctor’s office the following. You can have life figured out only to discover you know nothing in the end. The only constant in life is change.
My life is not the same it was when I first met @Atko and started working on Voat. I have much less time, I have a bit less fight in me (getting old does this), I have a bit more struggle in life. These life changes have forced me to put Voat on the back burner (which hurts me).
Let’s get real
When it comes to “Free Speech” sites, I once believed that people cared enough about the value of free speech to make “clone” sites like Voat (or gab) successful. I’ve come to realize, and have said before, that this single factor isn’t enough. People simply do not value this right enough to make a “clone” successful.
You can see this with Voat. A majority of Voat users still use Reddit. People use Reddit for posting and interacting when it comes to PC topics (4 wheel drive subs, movie subs, book subs, etc.). They use Voat to post the things they can’t post on Reddit. This creates an imbalance where Voat becomes increasingly un-PC, while Reddit gets the neutral content (I know even the most hardened ideologue has a level of civility). The end result is this imbalance drives people away as people wear out when confronted by content like this over the long run.
I don’t know the solution to this, and I am not attempting to pass blame, I am simply stating a truth that has to considered.
What makes a clone not a clone?
Why I mention this in the first place is that I know a “clone” site will not become sustainable based on Freedom of Speech so I’ve tried to revolutionize the “community” aspect of Voat by providing a way the community itself can “vote” on policy (rules, mods, anything actually). It's the future capability of this feature-set that is appealing. A community can become self-sustaining and self-manageable through this new technology. After all, the draw of sites like Voat or Reddit is that it is community-oriented vs. self-oriented.
And I’m going to finish it. I’m going to finish it for me. I’m going to finish it for you. I’m going to finish it for Voat. I’m going to finish it for Freedom of Speech (because I still believe in this ideal).
I’m going to finish it because a “clone” site with no differentiation but policy will never succeed.
So Voat, please forgive me for my shortcomings if you can, and expect my work to continue on making Voat a truly unique website.
Soon.
P.S. Downtime today was because of a full disk (Thanks @derram for letting me know). We had an issue from about a year ago that inflated some files to crazy sizes and I took the time today to deal with this. So the next downtime should be something completely different! Yay!
https://voat.co/v/announcements/1330806
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ExpertShitposter ago
You've never let me down @puttitout. And my opinion is the most important. I am the GUN. @peaceseeker give this man "the list" you compiled a few months ago.
And most of us still believe in freedom of speech. As for voats "success". Well....what is your definition of success? X number of users? Profitability? Positive zero cost sustainability?
Most goats want voat to grow bigger because a lot of good people who aren't interested in politics have left. But almost no goats want voat to be reddit sized. We like knowing each-other. Reddit size and speed is horseshit. One improvement i would suggest is algorithm improvement. An option for people to reduce the content of a sub on their front page, v/news and v/politics for example, without having to actually fully block it.
As far as i'm concerned, voat is a success, as it holds the title of "the most free site on the internet". I am regularly banned even from places like 4chan. 8chan bans, various "nazi" sites ban, gab bans, phuks bans. ONLY voat does not ban. You made something, that is No 1. in the world at one particular thing. And that's no small thing.
Kind of like how i am the world champion at wearing cargo pants. Proof: https://voat.co/v/ShitpostersTavern/2580975
cynicaloldfart ago
I guess you didn't notice PS deleted his account a few days ago. Wonder what that says?
Nadeshda ago
I see @PieceSeeker is modding v/onetrueputt so maybe him ? Name change? @ExpertShitposter
cynicaloldfart ago
I wondered about that. Piece was created 7 months ago so maybe it was a backup/reserve. I still wonder why he felt he needed to nuke one of the most important knowledge links on Voat. A class act who always treated people decently and actually knew what he was talking about. If he's seeing this, we have lost a vital person here who will be sorely missed and always have my utmost respect.
MadWorld ago
Not nuking, just anonymizing comments, as a precaution to prevent doxxing by other users. He will be back to main account in 3 months.
CrewExpendable ago
He might be waiting longer than 3 months. There's a problem with account recovery, at least for me there is. Today marks month 6 of my waiting. Though I know Putt has a hell of a lot to get to so I try not to let it get to me too much.
MadWorld ago
Strange, I don't see a tombstone on your account. Were you able to eventually revive your account?
CrewExpendable ago
This is my back up account actually. I deleted this account once and recovered it last year before these problems happened which is why I don't have the tombstone and most of my comments don't show up (they were anoned). I could PM you my main account name if you care to check.
MadWorld ago
You are right, it's 6 months now. I think you should submit a bug report to /v/voatdev. If this bug is never reported, it is unlikely ever fixed any time soon. I think it's best to submit this report, just to keep it on the record.
Edit: thank you!!
CrewExpendable ago
I thought about reporting it but I've pmed Putt about it already a few months back. He messaged me back and said that he will look into it though I fear he may have forgotten. I've sent a couple reminders but don't want to be too pushy about it. I believe it may be tied to the account deletion bug which has already been reported.
MadWorld ago
Yeah he probably has forgotten about it. That's why it's good to put it on record in a relevant subverse.
cynicaloldfart ago
We'll see. He would be sorely missed if gone for good.
MadWorld ago
You can PM him and he will point you to a more concrete proof :-)