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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PM_ME_YOUR_BOOBS2 ago
I would like to preface this with the fact that @puttitout I still appreciate everything you have done for voat.
Considering the only alternatives to voat that are about freedom of speech is poal and notabug. I'm going to have to assume that clone stuff was pointed at https://poal.co and https://notabug.io
If thats the case being the person who founded poal let me respond. Freedom of Speech IS enough for a platform to stand on. Voat didn't have the issues it has because freedom of speech isn't enough, voat has the issues it has because you did not manage it. You cannot have a user base with no direction from the admin. You cannot manage a large community like this all alone. You cannot check out for a week and put no one in charge of making sure the site stays up. Voat is failing because you are not a system admin apparently, being a system administrator means dealing with users. At its core thats the job because no users with problems or needs then no job. You didn't deal with your users. You ignored their needs, wants, and opinions. Many have offered to help yet no one is allowed. In short, what did you think would happen? When this place disappeared for a week I decided I would make a place to go when it goes down for good. What exactly would you have me do? Trust you that voat isn't going to disappear one day? That already happened. You have lost the trust of many of your users. I'm sorry this freedom of speech fight is bigger than you or me or anyone person. You have shown you heart isn't in fighting it, mine is. I wish you all the best but I will say I'm disappointed I loved voat. I've been here since it was whoaverse(not on this account) I've watched everything thats happened and I always wished you would step in a little more often deal with the brigading, as thats what drove new users away. I'm sad to say this but you didn't really leave me much choice but to make something else because I believe one day voat will be gone.
In the event that you actually read this and make it this far down. If you do turn things around and voat gets better I'll still drop by from time to time. I'll support anywhere that is pro free speech. In the mean time if/when you do shut voat down. You are more than welcome to join us on poal.
Good Luck @PMYB2
Darl_Von_Kibble ago
I think you want to set up a site where you can micro-manage everybody and fuel your ego. No thanks - I'll take Voat all day every day, warts and all. And that's not in spite of Putt, it's because of him.
chronos ago
^ This 100%. Well said!
xXSanctumXx ago
Took the words right out of my mouth. Completely agree. I was not here at Whoaverse but just before the first wave. Everything else completely agree with. Gave suggestion after suggestion after suggestion & so did so many others.
Came back myself hence the new account but have nuked it & looking else where. Myself will drop by time to time but by the read of Putts post he seems done with Voat. If the wisdom was headed the burden could of been avoided.
It sucks the way things have gone but Wisdom was ignored & this is the result.