Recently, a post went up asking what should be the next sub to go up on Stacker.news
I noticed two things immediately.
1.) The desire to expand
2.) Disagreement on how
Quick Summary
My proposal suggests a shift from subreddit-style content organization to a more flexible and user-friendly label and "label-chain" system. This system would improve content discovery and discussion by enabling users to navigate from general to specific topics seamlessly. Each post would be assigned a root label, with additional labels forming a labelchain for greater specificity. Users could follow, blacklist, or create their own labelchains to customize their feed. The creation of new labels would be crowd-controlled, preventing unnecessary label duplication and fragmentation. Lastly, this system would allow users to share their personal "labelchain" lists, fostering community engagement and offering diverse perspectives.
WHY
When I think of subs, I think of fragmentation. To create a sub, you are inherently splintering a part of the community off from the rest to "focus" on that particular topic, whether it be happens to be Bitcoin, Nostr, Privacy, Technology, or AI, or Health, or Fitness, or Sports, etc. but when we add a privacy sub, where is the discussion about bitcoin privacy and coinjoins supposed to go? What about discussions about a new AI powered Health technology? How about Private Nostr sport betting future markets development using PSBTs?
My point is... The various topics we discuss and multimedia we share are interoperable and have tons of crossover, and having us splinter off into our own little narrow corners of the website only stands to segregate discussion and spam the website with duplicate posts.
I suggest we find a way to ditch the sub system all together and naturally create a network of interoperable labels that are designated in a couple of different ways... I view them as ROOT labels, which are designated as PARENTS, CHILDREN, or SIBLINGs to other labels, and there would be a variety of PREFIX and SUFFIX labels to accompany the ROOTs. Stick with me!
Instead of posting IN a sub, Posts would just require (at minimum), a 'Root label' designation, and then it would just be posted here, on Stacker News. Even Right now, I'm posting this in the bitcoin sub, but this has nothing to do with bitcoin and everything to do with stacker news... it just happens to be that [Bitcoin] is the homepage of stacker news so where else should it even go?
If I was able to use my own system to label this post, It would not be in [Bitcoin], but it exist as a post on Stacker News labeled with [StackerNews]+[Discussion].
(It's worth noting that these chains that I'm writing out are more "backend-looking" than I would present them on the front end, this is obviously for demonstration purposes)
ROOT LABELS
Root Labels would effectively be the 'Subs' as you know them, but they are not locations with moderators, they are designations for different kinds of posts. A root label would be required to post. I have more thoughts on the specifics of posting and their costs, but I will stay on point for now.
Examples
Technology, Science, Politics, Sports, Art, Literature, Music, Film, Games, Food, Health, Travel, Education, Business, Economics, Environment, Fashion, DIY, Photography, Religion, Philosophy.
Instead of me Posting something IN the Sports sub, or the Science sub, or the Music sub, I would just be posting a post that is defined as a [Sports] post, or a [Science] post, or a [Technology] post, and those who follow those labels will be procured popular threads of that designation.
The difference between subs and this label system would lie in how labels could be chained together to create even more specific "sub" like areas, but still managing to reduce cross-posting and encourage the community to stick together instead of splintering off.
PARENT, CHILD, and SIBLING
I propose a system where the labels are defined based on their family trees, and their relationships between each other should be defined as PARENT, SIBLING, or CHILD. To explain, [Sports] would be a parent of [Hockey], and [Football], and [Basketball], and [Baseball] would be children of [Sports] but siblings to one another. These designations will be important because when I'm searching [Sports], I should be able to view all popular child threads of posts labelled with [Sports]...
Hockey is always sports, but sports is not always hockey, so having a hierarchy is necessary. All NHL is hockey, but not all Hockey is NHL. [BostonBruins] always pertains to [NHL] which always pertains to [IceHockey] which always pertains to [Sports] which always pertains to [Entertainment].
Below are some example Children Labels to some of the above mentioned Root labels (independent), which would act as parents to their children (dependent), who are siblings to each other (equals)
[Technology] -> [AI], [Bitcoin], [Hardware], [Software], [Cybersecurity]
[Science] -> [Biology], [Physics], [Chemistry], [QuantumMechanics]
[Art] -> [PerformanceArt], [GraphicDesign], [Painting], [Photography], [Graffiti]
[Food] -> [Vegan], [Keto], [BBQ], [Soul], [Seafood], [Desserts]
[Health] -> [Mental Health], [Nutrition], [Exercise], [Meditation]
Business -> [Entrepreneur], [Marketing], [Finance], [Leadership]
[Photography] -> [Portrait], [Landscape], [Street], [Wildlife], [Macro]
Each Child is a subset to their parent. This way, instead of browsing a dozen photography subs, if you're searching by [Photography], you would see all trending posts from any post labelled with [photography] or any of its dependents.
PREFIX & SUFFIX SYSTEM
Hopefully you're still with me. When I visualize these labels, I kind of visualize the parents as North, Children as South, Siblings are equals under their parents, and the Prefix / suffix complement the root labels.
Prefix labels could be based on:
Time: [Retro], [Modern], [Futuristic], [19th-Century],
example chains: [Retro]+[Gaming], [Futuristic]+[Technology], [Modern]+[InteriorDesign], [Retro]+[Interior]+[Design]
Mood: [Funny], [Serious], [Sad], [Controversial]
examples chains: [Funny]+[Videos], [Serious]+[Political]+[Discussion], [Controversial]+[Modern]+[Art]
Affiliation: [Conservative], [Liberal], [Libertarian]
example chains: [Conservative]+[Politics]+[News], [Libertarian]+[Politics]+[Newsletter]
Location: [American], [Brazilian], [Mexican], [Swedish], [Global]
example chains: {[American]+[Football]}, {[Mexican]+[Food]}, {[Swedish]+[IceHockey]}, {[Global]+[Politics]}
Skill level: [Beginner], [Intermediate], [Expert]
example chains: {[Beginner]+[Guitar]+[Tutorial]}, {[Advanced]+[Economic]+[Report]}, {[Beginner]+[Indian]+[Recipe]+[Video]+[Tutorial]}
Platform (for multimedia): [PC], [Playstation], [VR] [Xbox]
example chains: {[Playstation]+[Games]+[Trailer]}, {[Xbox]+[Gaming]+[Review]}, {[PC]+[Developer]+[AMA]}
As you see, the user would be able to make a post about retro gaming without the necessity of a sub specifically called RetroGaming. There also wouldn't be a need for FuturisticTechnology, ModernInteriorDesign, FunnyVideos, SeriousPoliticalDiscussion, ControversialModernArt, ConservativePoliticalDiscussion, etc etc.
Suffixes could Include: [Review], [Discussion], [Tutorial], [Interview], [Livestream], [Infographic], [Podcast], [Blogpost], [NewsArticle], [AMA], [Premiere], [Q&A], [Poll], [Debate], [Contest], [Sale].
These are just some starter examples to get the mental juices flowing and help you see how I would be able to post a single post that would be aggregated to anyone searching any of the relevant labels on that post. One post about Private Bitcoin Transactions based on Sports Futures Betting markets over Nostr, discoverable by anyone following the labels [Bitcoin], [Privacy] [SportsBetting] [Nostr] where participants from four different communities can seamless congregate and discuss within
Conclusions
These Labels almost act as their own respective "subs", but these Labels aren't actually places, but are designations that are much more modular and interoperable than your typical subreddit system. With the Label system, If I was actively searching [Mexican], Instead of going to a place like the sub r/mexico where I would only find posts submitted to that particular sub, I would see posts with labelchains including the following and more:
{[Mexican]+[Culture]}
{[Mexican]+[Travel]}
{[Mexican]+[Food]+[Recipes]}
{[Mexican]+[Conservative]+[Politics]}
{[Mexican]+[Sports]} (and thereby {[Mexican]+[Football]} and {[Mexican]+[Baseball]} since all kinds of sports are is children to the sports label).
The idea is to aggregate the all trending topics that pertain to [Mexico] instead of there being a subs called 1.)Mexico, 2.)MexicanFood, 3.)MexicanTravel, 4.)MexicanFoodRecipes, 5.)MexicanSports, 6.)MexicanFootball, 7.)MexicanBaseball etc etc.
From my perspective, these don't need to be distinct separate places. They just need to be properly labeled so they can be properly facilitated to those who would be interested in it. This way, I don't need to go to a sub called [MexicanFood]..
I can search [Food] and see trending posts labelled as {[Mexican]+[Food]} and {[Soul]+[Food]+[Recipes]} and {[Swedish]+[Food]} and {[Chicago]+[Restaurant]+[Review]} etc. When I see a combination of Labels I like, I 'follow' them similarly to subscribing to a subreddit... but I'm not becoming a member of a "nation state", I am becoming a subscriber of a particular designation of post, notifying the algorithm that I enjoy posts with following combination in the future.
If I follow the [Travel] and [Food] label, and I'm searching [Mexican], I'd be more likely to be aggregated a trending post with those combinations than {[Mexican]+[Basketball]} If I wasn't following the [Basketball] label.
When I click [Travel], I'm brought to posts including {[Mexican]+[Travel]} like we saw earlier when we were searching [Mexican] but also {[European]+[Travel]} and {[Frugal]+[Travel]+[Discussion]} and {[Ultralight]+[Backpacking]+[Gear]+[Review]} and {[Solo]+[Travel]+[Drone]+[Videos]}
The new system is built off of splintering the post designations while aggregating search results instead of splintering the SN community off into a million different ultraspecific "nation states" that require rulers.
Users should be able to choose to share their different lists of followed labels and label-chains so if your feed is feeling stale, you could jump over and browse the site as someone else does.
Unlike a tag system for the submission of post today, This wouldn't be like attaching a hashtag to a tweet. Labels would need to be determined and community driven. I suggest that a label proposal should require a deposit and would require community consensus through a voting mechanism and a cap on growth to encourage thoughtful and natural growth instead of expanding too much too fast.
This whole concept has been banging around in my head since that thread came up and I really do think there is something here to build off of. Hopefully this can help inspire the future vision of the expansion of Stacker News so that we can aggregate the best of our relevant topics to those who want to see them, while reducing friction and fragmentation of the community/discussion and thereby causing the necessity of the duplications into the cross-relevant topic domains.
In the "what sub should we add next?" thread, I tried explaining my idea as if I were a new user joining this system once it's been fleshed out. I will include this as a comment below.