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What causes online communities to lose quality discussion as they grow? (piefed.zip)

submitted 18 hours ago by MindfulMaverick@piefed.zip to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I've noticed a pattern where once a subreddit or Lemmy community reaches a certain size, the front page becomes mostly memes, recycled jokes, and lowest common denominator content. Genuine discussion gets pushed out unless the community is extremely strictly moderated for it.

What do you think causes this shift? Is it inevitable with the upvote/downvote system rewarding quick, agreeable content over nuanced takes? Or are there platforms or moderation approaches that successfully scale discussion without turning into an echo chamber?

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[–] mr_anny@sopuli.xyz 7 points 16 hours ago

Take three people. One is A one is B and one is Z a troll/flamer or whatever wildcard.

A and B have opposing views and are having civilized conversation about a topic. Then the Z tries to come in between with some shitty statement or troll comment or whatnot. A and B can still ignore the stupidity and stay with the topic.

Now multiply then by 100. You will see variations of each group and their micro-/macro inclinations towards others. One or many of the Z's or A/B inclined to Z can get in between A and B and due to inclinations, there will be more breeding ground for the shittyness. A and B can't ignore the multitude of sitty comments spamming around the convo. Their only option is to steer away. What is left? Bunch of monkeys in a shit throwing contest. Be it hate, memes, trolling, flaming...

Now I like memes if they really are funny and have a point and if they even evolve as they used to. But I still prefer knowledge content. And no. I do not produce high quality comments. They're all flawed somehow. An imprint of me.

But basically it's about variations in masses.