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hardtofindagoodname t1_iyylneh wrote

Reply to comment by Bacon1884 in I made a website which features positive/inspiring news stories with no ads! by happydazenews

I second this. Reddit and most social media is just rife with lots of negative stuff. Even seemingly innocuous subreddits like r/AskReddit are terrible for this ("What your worst experience..?", "What annoys you the most about..?" etc. One of the biggest drawbacks with the official Reddit app is that you cannot unsubscribe from negative subreddits as far as I know. So if you click on one of these subs and participate, you will start getting them in your feed causing a feedback loop.

Some subreddits I subscribe to are: r/MadeMeSmile, r/UpliftingNews, r/GetMotivated. If anyone knows more, please add in a reply!

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Octopuns t1_iyyphe1 wrote

I actually nearly dismissed this website completely because I was expecting the kind of "positive" stories to be similar to the ones on r/UpliftingNews. I'm so so glad they're not. I've now added Happy Daze to my home screen as the quality seems different.

As you said, Reddit is rife with negative stuff - and the "uplifting" subreddits are honestly no better. Every bit of "positive" news is based on the foundation of the dystopian nightmare we call society. So many of those stories are like "all of our forests are being destroyed but oh, at least we stopped one company from destroying this one bit of land... for now". "Basic healthcare is prohibitively expensive but oh, at least one company said they're looking into transparent pricing". etc

Of course, you can apply that logic to any feel good news if you're pessimistic enough - but just a warning to be very careful what you're consuming - especially if it "claims" to be uplifting. Positive news doesn't generally drive clicks and upvotes so I often find there's an undercurrent of negativity/sadness in those posts.

When I'm looking for a positive experience, I get the hell off Reddit and I honestly just scroll Pinterest and look at illustrations - it's one of the only algorithms that feels like it isn't trying to anger me into engaging with it. It's just showing me stuff I like to see.

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hardtofindagoodname t1_iyyqjjq wrote

Totally agree with what you're saying. The subreddits I mentioned are hit and miss but I haven't found anything with sufficient articles that could satiate my desire to read positive, real stories on a daily basis.

Looking at OP's website at the moment, I saw lots of medical-related articles which don't particularly interest me in general. What I would like to see is a mix of r/humansbeingbros, r/funny, r/UpliftingNews and r/getmotivated but without any negative backstory to it (eg. . Guy on the street who gets $50 that will last him for 1 day, Person survives Stage 4 Cancer, etc). Many stories are billed as "positive" but get you thinking of struggles people are going through... And when you're in that mindset, you're not in a position to help anyone else.

So, basically there needs to a site with all the news that nourish your mind and keep it in a light-hearted state so you're in a good frame of mind for your day.

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happydazenews OP t1_iyyxizw wrote

You are so right. I struggle with those types of "good news" stories as well. There was one I saw that stuck in my mind where the mom couldn't afford to buy her kids presents and their neighbors found out and went and bought them gifts. Like I understand the neighbors did a great thing but overall the story doesn't make me feel good.

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