Arguments against auto-subscribing all new users to all subs

submitted by Stoner from (self.SaidIt)

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[–]cmdrrockawesome 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

I was wondering about this too. There are a number of subs that have 5000+ subscribers (practically the entire user base) that just boggle my mind.Things like s/conspiracyundone, s/The_Donald, s/LateStageCapitalism all have over 5000 subs. s/antipsychiatry has almost 5000 subs. Auto subscribing people to every sub certainly makes the user base here seem to lean in a certain direction.

[–]Stoner[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Good points. IMO the best way to go about this is to reset all subscriptions. It's the only way to truly reflect saidits community and be fair towards newly created subs.

The sooner the better before /s/ gets a ton of users and subcreators to complain about the reset.

/u/d3rr /u/magnora7

[–]magnora7 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

It's just an artifact that the oldest subs have the most subscribers, that's all it is. We have no plans to change people's existing subscriptions, but we might make new users not be subscribed to everything.

[–]Stoner[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

EDIT: D3rr have offered a possible technical solution I'm very happy about. Thank you for your time.

It's just an artifact

No doubt, but not doing anything will:

An example would be /s/Archeology. It's currently inactive (1 post last 3 monts), yet it's one of the top 3 subs and will continue to be so until you change the mechanics of auto-subscribe and current subscrictions OR somebody starts shitposting to the point where people unsub en masse.

might make new users not be subscribed to everything.

considerthefollowing.jpg:

If you stop auto-subscribing for new users, there will a 5270 subscriber difference between a new sub and the oldest, inactive sub. I believe a common way new users from reddit-like site finds new subs is to sort by subscriber count and pick as you go down until you reach a personal threshold size.

This is unfortunate in two ways, it stifles the growth of small subs and users who subscribe (or alternatively 'don't unsub from') /r/Archeology will find a ghost town with 5000+ inhabitants.

We have no plans to change people's existing subscriptions

If it's possible from database info, how about autosubscribe all users to subs created after account creation and keep auto-subscribe then? It won't have to change the current system, yet will reflect the actual community posting grounds?

[–]magnora7 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

If it's possible from database info, how about autosubscribe all users to subs created after account creation and keep auto-subscribe then?

This is a feature we plan on developing, it's in the pipeline. So I guess we're in agreement now :)