Announcing /s/DidIt: I thought this sub should exist, so I made it, and it's here now for anyone who wants to use it.

perpetual_nightlight · 2020-07-06T21:36:44+00:00

Apologies for the late rely.

It's meant to provide an environment that forces participants to engage in a productive way. So, maybe somewhat similar?

I did not mean it to be a place to come for inspiration, to see what other people did. The idea is not that it's a place to post accomplishments you're proud of, but rather a place to force productive engagement. If you post something, it should be because a) posting it will help others and so you want them to see it, or b) you are looking for help with a step in something you are actively doing. (Or if it's a comment, because you're providing actionable advice.)

It's kindof a play on "saidit". Kindof along the lines of "talk is cheap". Well if we have a place to say things (not necessarily productive), what if we had a place to do things? So: "didit".

Maybe my comment here helps clarify if the above text is still unclear.

perpetual_nightlight · 2020-07-06T21:28:50+00:00

Apologies for the late reply.

So, for example, you would post a picture of a garden bed you dug and planted, and that would open up the conversations for other people to try doing the same thing? Or a cake you baked, or a corner of a room you cleaned,a trail you hiked etc just to encourage people to go out and DO instead of getting stuck in a loop of talking and hypotheticals?

More like, "I have a garden bed dug with X, Y dimensions and I'm looking for advice about what to plant in Y climate." Or "I made a garden bed with this design, and I planted these plants. I am in climate Y. I've included my design and the reasons for my decisions below, as this design could easily be used by someone else in my climate." Or "I made a list of all hiking trails in my area that I believe others will find useful. X-posted to <locale> sub."

It's not so much a "see, you could be doing stuff too!" kind of thing. But more setting up the rules of the sub to facilitate effective action and to not facilitate pleasant but ultimately unproductive conversation. Personally I have an easy time getting caught up in conversation on these sorts of platforms. It seems like it's sometimes designed to trap one in unproductive conversation. Ideas that are too abstract, "we should get 'someone' to do X," things are just complaints, things aren't well-organized enough. The idea is to stick to using the sub to force myself to participate in the site in only productive ways. If I can't fit the sub rules, I shouldn't post it -- not on there, and not on the rest of SaidIt either, because ultimately it would be a distraction.

However, while I think a lot of people on social media have a similar problem to me, some people are already happy with the way they're engaging with social media. They don't have a problem feeling like they're engaging in unproductive ways. They'd be welcome to contribute of course, but they may not have as much of a need for that kind of space.

That was my idea, I hope that makes it clearer. Again apologies for the late reply.

perpetual_nightlight · 2020-06-30T04:17:26+00:00

Well the idea is not that the entire sub is about one particular project in specific, but that anybody can use it to engage with SaidIt in a more action-driven way. I intended it to be for anyone and any kind of anything, really.

The idea is that, instead of coming to social media to chill and talk to people, you don't talk unless you have something to say about something you actually did because you expect it to help other people with something they're actually doing. Personally I have a bit of a problem, sometimes, getting caught up in just talking about stuff. Like you said in OP, it seems like social media was almost designed this way, to keep people engaged but not to support effective use to accomplish worthwhile things. I was thinking the sub could be a way to keep people focused on productive engagement with the site.

perpetual_nightlight · 2020-06-30T02:03:48+00:00

I made a sub /s/DidIt that I think fits with this somewhat. It's meant to keep things focused on productive action. I am hoping it will help us avoid the phenomenon of feeling like we're accomplishing things when we're really just talking about them. The idea is to only post things when you've actually done or completed something.

perpetual_nightlight