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Please change the text on the 'create your own reddit' button to say 'create your own community' (self.ideasfortheadmins)

submitted ago by Code contributor.violentacrez

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The admins have been leaning towards calling reddits 'communities' for some time. Since our recent influx of new users, we've had an increase in reddits like this one. It's understandable how a new user might be confused about the meaning of 'reddit', especially since it's used in multiple contexts.

Changing the button would only take a few minutes (assuming you have the original ai/xcf/whatever handy).

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[–]ex reddit adminraldi 11 points12 points ago

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I'll do you one better: the label's been changed, and we now won't show it to anyone who signed up in the last 30 days. (Of course, they'll still be able to do it if someone links them to the creation page. That's a feature.)

[–][deleted] 5 points6 points ago

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... Well played, sir. *tips hat*

[–]Helpful redditor.krispykrackers 2 points3 points ago

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Um... Most of the people in this thread supported keeping the terminology "subreddit" rather than "community"...?

[–]ex reddit adminraldi 3 points4 points ago

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I don't think we've ever used the word "subreddit" in a label on the site; it's confusing and awkward. We've always just used "reddit", which admittedly is also pretty confusing and awkward. "Community" is a natural word whose meaning is immediately obvious.

[–]avnerd 2 points3 points ago

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I'm really sorry to be soooo late to the discussion but "community" reeks of corporate.

And I'm with krispy - it's been subreddit for most of the people for a very long time.

[–]Helpful redditor.krispykrackers 5 points6 points ago

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Every single user on this site refers to the "communities" as subreddits. I have never once seen someone refer to it as a community. The term "subreddit" is not confusing or awkward at all- it's what we've always used, and its meaning is special to the users here because it's ours. No other community can refer to their sub-communities as subreddits, and I think the changing it devalues what it means, here, to be a community.

[–]ex reddit adminraldi 3 points4 points ago

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Every single user on this site refers to the "communities" as subreddits.

Sorry, but that's not true. The most common term, by far, is "reddit". For example:

That's why the place to discuss new reddits is /r/newreddits, not /r/newsubreddits.

I think you're extrapolating from your own usage and projecting it onto the entire site. It's like how I totally thought the "r" in "reddit" was capitalized, until the other guys pointed out that it wasn't. I said, "But it's capitalized everywhere! I never see anyone refer to it with a lowercase r!"

But then I started looking, and lo and behold, they were right. And now that I've corrected my own usage, I realize that I see "Reddit" so infrequently that the sight of it is disturbing, like when someone spells "ridiculous" with an e, or "lose" with two o's.

[–]Helpful redditor.krispykrackers 8 points9 points ago

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Using google isn't proof! All that proves is that the term "reddit" is more popular than the term "subreddit", which I already knew.

Try using a more user-focused search:

  • The term "subreddit" - thousands of posts using that term to describe them.

  • The term "community" - thousands of posts, mostly non-related, but in this context, people refer to the entire site (be it reddit, or Digg, or wherever) in general as a "community" (except for va's post, of course).

People see us all as one big community, not as thousands of separate ones.

(<3 the search function)

[–]Code contributor.violentacrez[S] 2 points3 points ago

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The problem we're addressing is not the people who know better, but what the people who don't know better. Yes, everyone who understands what that button does, calls it a "subreddit". But they're not the ones who have created hundreds of reddits in the last few days, thinking they were creating posts. This change is addressing the people who are new to reddit, and who do not understand what a 'reddit' or a 'subreddit' are. To the new user, 'community' describes exactly what the button does.

[–]Helpful redditor.krispykrackers 1 point2 points ago

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There are much, much better ways to solve that problem than to take away our precious terminology.

[–]DEADB33F 0 points1 point ago

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I'd say removing the button for the users first 30 days and maybe placing it below the ad box would have been enough.

It's rare enough that you'd want to click it that giving it a large area in a prominent location at the top of the page is unwarranted anyway.

[–]DEADB33F 3 points4 points ago* 

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As a counterpoint to your argument....

Open this post and count the number of times the word 'subreddit' is used in relation to a subreddit/reddit/community, then count the number of times they are referred to using the word 'reddit', or 'community'.

To save you the time, I already did it...

  • 'subreddit' - 72
  • 'reddit' - 7
  • 'community' - 1

NB. I didn't expand any comment trees or click any 'load more comments' links.

The term 'subreddit' is wildly more popular (in this thread at least) at a ratio of over 10:1.

edit:

What I would vote in favour of though is renaming the [ + frontpage ] / [ - frontpage ] links to [ + subscribe ] and [ - unsubscribe ] respectively.

[–]Code contributor.violentacrez[S] 2 points3 points ago

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They said no. :(

[–]cptsmidge 4 points5 points ago

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Boooooooooo.

[–]Code contributor.violentacrez[S] 3 points4 points ago

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The "senior programmer" made that call.

[–]cptsmidge 3 points4 points ago

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There are like 5 of them, why do they have to hide behind these nebulous titles.

[–]DEADB33F 0 points1 point ago

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Any reasons given?

[–]Code contributor.violentacrez[S] 0 points1 point ago

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Specifically, people will bitch too much.

[–]Code contributor.violentacrez[S] 2 points3 points ago

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What I would vote in favour of though is renaming the [ + frontpage ] / [ - frontpage ] links to [ + subscribe ] and [ - unsubscribe ] respectively.

OH MY GOD YES

I have answered and explained that issue more in the last week than in the last year.

[–]britishben 1 point2 points ago

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I always thought that "reddit" referred to a "community"/"subreddit", whereas "Reddit" referred to the site as a whole.

[–]ex reddit adminraldi 0 points1 point ago

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Me too. Turns out we were both wrong. :)

[–]BowieSwindle 3 points4 points ago

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Oh yea, when it's violentacrez who has a suggestion...

(Just kidding, I didn't have a suggestion and think his is a good one)

[–]doug 4 points5 points ago

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Subreddit, dude. At least use the terminology we've been throwing around.

[–]Helpful redditor.krispykrackers 9 points10 points ago

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I think I'd rather see "Create your own subreddit" more, I think of them more like separate buildings all in one neighborhood rather than different neighborhoods altogether (or if that's too abstract, different subreddits in one big community rather than separate communities).

And shouldn't "Submit a link" be changed to "Submit a post"? Or something? Some people get confused when trying to submit self posts because those aren't external links.

[–]lukemcr 5 points6 points ago

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Totally agree with "Create your own subreddit". I think of each individual /r/whatever as a subreddit. When I think of "a reddit", I think of someone who downloaded reddit's source code and has their own install on their own server, with their own subreddits. A separate reddit installation is "a reddit". Communities within a reddit are called subreddits.

[–]Helpful redditor.masta 2 points3 points ago

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I agree .... create sub-reddit

[–]DEADB33F 2 points3 points ago

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Yeah, Pretty sure I prefer 'subreddit' over 'community' or 'reddit' when referring to r/{whatever}.

[–]avnerd 2 points3 points ago

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I really wish I had seen this a week ago. I would have been as vocal as you were.

[–]ReaverXai 9 points10 points ago

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Also change the EDIT THIS REDDIT button to EDIT YOUR REDDITS or EDIT YOUR FRONTPAGE.

It annoys me to no end since you are not editing anything about that subreddit, but rather you are handling your subscriptions.

[–]Code contributor.violentacrez[S] 2 points3 points ago

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They also changed that to 'EDIT SUBSCRIPTIONS'. Are they awesome or what?

[–]PhilxBefore 5 points6 points ago

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Better yet just delete the 'Create Your Own Reddit' button entirely because I think violentacrez has already claimed them all.

Think of the kids!

[–]Gimli_The_Dwarf 11 points12 points ago

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Oh he is...

[–]PhilxBefore 6 points7 points ago

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ಠ_ಠ

[–]Helpful redditor.warnerrr 0 points1 point ago

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Ō_ō

[–]yammerant 3 points4 points ago

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I personally like that they're called "reddits" or "subreddits". Sorry violentacrez, I'm going to cast my vote in the "no" box on this one.

Please don't post nude pictures of me.

[–]DEADB33F 2 points3 points ago

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I think it's mainly for new users who may find the term 'create your own reddit' confusing when referring to creating subreddits.

I'd agree with renaming 'reddits' to 'subreddits' though, it's far less ambiguous but still retains a level of uniqueness which is lost when referring to the using the generic term 'communitites'.

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