In lieu of the Hypebeast forum post, I wanted to start a structured discussion on how to up the quality of the content on this sub. But with that, we also have to develop some actual plans to implement those changes.First off, I agree with the Hypebeast post (to an extent). I've been on here for a minute, and the overall quality goes up and down with time, but right now it’s preeetttyy bad. There's way too much low-effort and repetitive content. The sub is growing really fast, so it’s better now than ever to figure out and agree on exactly what direction and personality this sub should have moving forward.This is just my opinion as one guy on this sub. So read it, digest it, agree or disagree, and give me your thoughts.So I'm gonna begin with my personal thoughts.First, let's talk demographics. I'm only 22 and I'm way older than most of you. Almost everyone on here is a teenage suburban kid with some cash to blow, who discovered streetwear, thought it was cool and wanted to get into it. Streetwear is appealing to the masses like it never has in the past, and I like it. But with that comes a lot of people having no idea what they're doing and strictly looking to others for approval.I have a defined personal style, and it's something I've developed over years of interest in streetwear fashion. I didn't browse Instagram or a subreddit to cultivate my style. It happened organically with taking risks, buying shit I shouldn't have and maturing my taste over time. This isn't something you can rush. It'll take time to be able to distinguish between what you like and what you think you like, and to be able to confidently say "even though others don't like this, I do."It may sound pretentious, but often I feel like I'm mentoring a lot of you in streetwear like little brothers (and sisters). I enjoy that. I'm by far the minority in terms of my age and taste, but I have a lot to contribute opinion wise. If you feel the same, you can choose to be snobby and negative, flaming people with no taste, complaining about hypebeasts, blah blah, or you can help the community and provide high quality content.This subreddit is never going to be a super high-quality fashion subreddit with in-depth criticisms and daily innovative fits. I don't think it should be. /r/streetwear is a place where you can learn about streetwear, talk about it, develop your own personal style, and have fun while doing it.Now for my proposal.Make /r/streetwear Great Again.For the ModsMore support for startup brands & designsPeople love startup brands it's as simple as that. That’s been affirmed over and over again. Limited releases, unique graphics, affordable price points, etc. etc. In the past, we’ve been pretty lenient on self-advertising, but the mods have begun to crack down on it because of the influx of inactive users strictly posting adverts. That was a good move, but in turn, it’s limited the active Redditors with brands from posting.My recommendations:Partnering with /r/streetwearstartup to have bi-weekly/monthly discussions or spotlights here on startup brands. Whether it be highlighting a new release, a cool shirt design in progress, launch statuses, or any relevant, somewhat interesting information really. This will incentivize Redditors with brands to offer more high quality content in order to be “chosen” to be highlighted, then they're rewarded with exposure. Right now /r/streetwearstartup is a dead zone for feedback. As a result, we get a lot of design ideas posted on this sub instead just to get some actual feedback (and sadly a lot of them are bad). This would clean up the posts a bit on here, give some more traffic to the partner sub, incentivize higher quality posting on the partner sub, and organize/showcase that quality content on the main sub.Consistent brand spotlights/discussions for startups. This includes both criticism and praise, and the owner of the brand can choose to interact with people and answer questions/take feedback.Maybe some sort of /r/streetwear design bank for people who make one-of designs but aren't interested in making a full-blown brand. We could eventually get like a catalog of user-generated designs that people like and streamline the production/selling process. Cool idea in theory imo, but idk about the actual implementation. Could use more thoughts on this.Low effort contentAgain, referring to the demographics here. A lot of the people on here are teenagers, so naturally we have memes, jokes and lighthearted roasts. That's an integral part of the sub, I'm not really referring to that. But I think there needs to be more guidelines and cracking down on super low-quality content. Like, some of the posts we have on here were so obviously written in 30 seconds they even have spelling errors in the whole post. Or maybe this should just be dictated by user downvotes? Not sure on this one.Some sort of PSA on Google reverse image searchSeriously, this would negate like a fourth of all ID posts.Make this the banner so no one ever asks about it againhttp://i.imgur.com/Z3Ue1My.jpgAs you can see, I couldn't think of much the mods can do or should do. That's because the direction and content of a sub is almost entirely dictated by its USERS. We outnumber the mods by the truckload. We're the ones posting, upvoting and commenting.For /r/streetwearIf you want high quality content, contribute high quality content.This doesn't mean everyone go save Tumblr images and make a lookbook. High quality content can be anything if you put enough work into it. What I personally think we need more of are high quality discussion posts, bringing forth relevant topics that people can actually talk about. (I've actually already seen an influx of good discussion posts, so kudos on that. 👌) But we need people to contribute to those conversations as well.With that in mind, you guys need to start putting some actual effort into your comments. You don't have to do it all the time, but seriously how many threads asking for criticism have like a hundred comments with one sentence. Put some thought into the post and offer up your unique perspective. And on the flip side, if you see people HAVE put work into their post and they make a good point, upvote it.Downvote stupid shit, upvote high quality shit. This will incentivize people to actually put work into their posts and comments.Upvoting is not for agreement. It's an acknowledgement of a solid contribution and/or high quality content. Even if you don't agree with what's been said, even if you personally don't have anything to contribute, if you feel it has potential to have good discussion you should upvote it.Have a dialogue with people. Offer opinions and constructive criticism.This is the biggest issue I see with the users on this sub. Everyone is too afraid of having the wrong/an unpopular opinion on anything. Again, this ties back to people using this sub to learn about streetwear and develop their style. A lot of people don't feel confident in their perspective.Let me say this: When people have already figured out their style, it's because they've already gone through the awkward phase of trying to figure out what they like. They've copied things they've seen, gotten praise for dumb shit, gotten roasted for what they thought was cool, all of that. If you're really into streetwear, then you've gotta embrace that part of it. It's like a rites of passage. It's part of the fun.But in order for that to work, people have to give more constructive criticism and not rip on people for their tastes. If we can learn how to do this respectfully, we'll organically start to get more varied fits and see more experimentation. If something is out of the ordinary, don't immediately flame it/downvote it. Think about it. Is this cool? How could this be better? Guys, not everything needs to be minimal and layered. I'm really tired of the same Kanye clones everywhere.Lastly: "mature" streetwear people: contribute unique content and offer legitimate feedbackVery few people who are "mature" in streetwear are going to frequent this sub. Most of these people won't be too enamored by the community/posts on here, plus they're older/working full-time. I lurk/post here because I love you guys and I slack off at work. Don't just post your fits in the WDYWT and soak in all the karma to boost your ego. Contribute to the conversations. Offer feedback. Use your insight and perspective to grow the community.Now, this is nowhere near comprehensive. And this is all based on my personal perception of how the sub can be improved. So I'm looking for both mods' and Redditors' perspectives on the community and how you think it can be improved. If this gets enough traction I can edit the main post to keep track of all of the ideas.SO POST AND GET YOUR OPINION OUT THERE.That was a lot of typing and I'm hella tired.Goodnight fam. via /r/streetwear http://ift.tt/2aOD6H4
