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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s4lt3d ago
I came from Reddit due to the redesign to see what Voat was still like. I'm glad to see you're still around. I agree that this site has become very unfriendly. The majority of the posts on the front page are so offensive I wouldn't blame someone for not trying it. In it's current state I can't recommend anyone look at Voat as it would look bad on me. I hope that the site finds a way to become less offensive so that it becomes a site I can enjoy spending time on.
AOU ago
So you basically ask voat to become reddit.
Typical faggot.
s4lt3d ago
Well at least your reply reinforces and illustrates the point I made.
AOU ago
You're too late for the "let's fuck voat" party.
Putt doesn't care about its haemorrhaging loyal user base.
heygeorge ago
AOU, you are still so blackpilled about Voat. It's kind of sad. Yet you are still here all the time.
AOU ago
I’m not black pilled, I don’t see a reason to ~waste~ spend my time and money on a website owned by an ungrateful control freak who doesn’t trust anyone and ignores real issues.
You’ll eventually realize it and do like other loyal users who have been a huge help for this place, you’ll leave for an alternative that actually do listen to it’s user base.
Voat was initially a high school project and has become way too big for Putt. His silence towards his most loyal user base shows how much he cares.
heygeorge ago
Putt isn't silent, in my opinion. Nor do I agree with your other sentiments. So your assessments on my behavior, and the blame I would place for it on Putt, are incorrect despite your high level of confidence. Which site have you left Voat for?
AOU ago
Check his last comments and posts. How many posts in the past year he's made? Adding that he has totally been ignoring PM too.
Several loyal users (who have left since) and I came to the same conclusion: Putt is a control freak and it's a complete waste of time trying to help him. (his lack of support to janitors completely cancelled 3 years of spam reports)
His very last post is just about damage control mixed with passive-agressiveness because he's pissed to see voat user base haemorrhaging and clearly didn't expect that.
That's the reason why I'm done helping (time and money) someone who has no respect for the community.
I'm off to poal.co.
I have been added to the admin team after 3 weeks of helping with the dev, because that's how open-minded people create a real community (with talented mind in different fields) instead of trying to keep it to yourself like Putt did by being distrustful to anyone willing to help voat.
I'm sure we'll meet again.
heygeorge ago
I think Putts gets too swamped by PM. He hasn't been active (nearly at all!) on the main site, but during the port he was responsive and active on the test site. It has to just be a matter of volume. What do you do when you get 200 pings in 2 hours?
I didn't get the same read on his last post. I figure he just typed what he was thinking. But that's just me.
I'm sure I will see you around somewhere.
AOU ago
With all due respect, that argument doesn’t stand.
He can filter our PM from accounts. It’s very easy to implement that when you are the dev.
Damage Control. He never shows up to the community except when something is damaging voat (financially or technically).
Nothing ends well when it’s under the control of only one individual.
heygeorge ago
I think that is unimplemented. That's my assumption.
I thought Voat was keen on athoriantarism.
AOU ago
Explain me why he replies to some users' PM almost immediately?
heygeorge ago
He's probably buried under a mountain of insanegoat PM's and other imbecility. I find that you have to catch Putts at a specific time when he hasn't been bombarded, catch him when he's on just after posting, or catch him lurking/using the site (which is exceptionally rare these days).
Don your tinfoil hat for a moment: Why do you think the cast of site agitators/antagonizers attack SBBH? Because Putts demonstrated that he enjoyed the offbeat humour. They are trying to break him so he gives up, the site shuts down, and the userbase splinters. So long as Voat is around, you will not find that level of attack on Poal.
AOU ago
You are pulling a strawman here.
Putt's lack of interest in voat doesn't have anything to do with agitators. There were more people willing to help than trolls.
But because he's a control freak that doesn't trust anyone, he had to handle all the issues by himself, which is time and energy consuming. That's were the cool and fresh HS project became a burden.
heygeorge ago
I was just wondering if you had noticed. I've no interest in attempting to change your mind.
AOU ago
Ditto. I'm just explaining my point of view regarding that situation.