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Ask HN: What Happened to Reddit?

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Re: Ask HN: What Happened to Reddit?

#101

Post by hunter2_ »

jandrese wrote: post #22
Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #11

> Terrible UX If you're browsing on a desktop, configure your account to always use the old reddit experience. If you lurk without an account, use old.reddit.com. If you can, install RES, it's a game-changer. If you're browsing on mobile, don't use the official reddit app. It's garbage. Use one of the many 3rd party apps. Personally, I use Bacon Reader. Don't bother ever browsing /r/all. Tailor your subscriptions to…

I do worry a bit that I'm carefully building my own personal echo chamber when I make a custom feed the same way that everybody on Twitter does. I really do wish that the default feed wasn't such a burning trash pile.

If you're looking to sample the whole world, as should be the case for someone who uses reddit as their main source of news and/or general socializing, it's important to avoid tailoring it to your preferences lest you buildan echo chamber. But if you're looking to meet more specific goals, as should be the case for someone who uses reddit to dive into particular interests, by all means, tailor it.

Re: Ask HN: What Happened to Reddit?

#102

Post by Tostino »

kelseyfrog wrote: post #55
parineum wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Mobile users fundamentally engage with the platform in different ways. For one, they form a different demographic segment than older users, and secondly the mobile app frames and filters content in uniquely mobile ways. High-signal content is much more difficult to craft on a mobile device so more mobile use represents a greater proportion of content noise. I'd argue the only thing that really matters about mobile…

Maybe? I guess I'm speaking from personal experience here when I say writing in-depth sourced and edited comments[higher quality] is more difficult for me on a mobile device. But perhaps, my experience not the norm. Is it different for others?

The proportion of users on mobile devices could explain some of the sliding quality. I know if I am using a mobile device, it's primarily for content consumption. I can't quickly reply in any depth with a mobile keyboard, so that waits until I am at a full PC, which is a smaller and smaller proportion of the time I am actually using Reddit in recent years.

Re: Ask HN: What Happened to Reddit?

#103

Post by SoftTalker »

joshstrange wrote: post #56

Sounds like another instance of the Eternal September [0]. Reddit has grown and larger communities are harder to moderate. Of course, each subreddit is its own world. There are some that are well moderated (size factors in here for sure) that are quite enjoyable to participate in. As for UI I think we all agree, it's horrible. That's what old.reddit.com is for, it's still a sane UI overall. On Mobile I use Apollo (iO…

Yeah I think it's the ultimate end of all social media, excepting forums that are aggressively moderated to stay on topic. I'm on a few email lists that are moderated this way. Any tangents into politics and memes are killed immediately, even neutral off-topic stuff is discouraged.

Usenet is dead. Reddit, Facebook, Twitter are dying. Something will take their place, become popular, and it will eventually die for the same reasons.

Re: Ask HN: What Happened to Reddit?

#104

Post by kelseyfrog »

GekkePrutser wrote: post #80
kelseyfrog wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe? I guess I'm speaking from personal experience here when I say writing in-depth sourced and edited comments[higher quality] is more difficult for me on a mobile device. But perhaps, my experience not the norm. Is it different for others?

Engagement isn't about how much time you spend in the editor writing insightful comments. It's how much you scroll through the feed laced with ads. Sadly.

For sure. Optimizing for MAUs disincentives quality content.

Re: Ask HN: What Happened to Reddit?

#105

Post by pixl97 »

xhrpost wrote: post #81

I find searching reddit for niche things to be at least useful enough to point me in the right direction on some topics. But wow, discussion, even the small subs can be pretty toxic. It's sad as I'd love to have better discussion around various topics but every post feels like I'm walking on egg shells. My theory is just that if anyone can join, and everything is anonymous and there is no barrier to entry [1], qualit…

HN is easy to join, but is heavily moderated and doesn't put up with much crap. And manages to avoid most the toxicity. Probably because most political discussion is avoided.

Re: Ask HN: What Happened to Reddit?

#106

Post by gralx »

The turning point for me was when they canned Victoria from r/ama. My experience with it got progressively worse thereafter. I might sign in to it once a year now (using old.reddit.com when I do). When I read posts there, I first convert the link to teddit.net.

Re: Ask HN: What Happened to Reddit?

#108

Post by pixl97 »

enumjorge wrote: post #70

It’s troubling that Reddit doesn’t really have a lot of competition, and the new user hostile UI on mobile shows their leadership knows it. I still remember when Digg made those big changes that caused a bunch of people to migrate over. But there isn’t a credible alternative to Reddit. It feels like most of them focus on anti-censorship or little moderation which means they get taken over by fringe groups. We have ol…

No competition because in general it's a gigantic money pit to finance via ads alone.

Those that do find financing always seem to bring up the question of "Why is X group giving them Y millions of dollars, what are they going to get out of it and what are they asking for".

Re: Ask HN: What Happened to Reddit?

#109

Post by pixl97 »

ternaryoperator wrote: post #71

All really good forums, in my experience, have attentive and firm moderators. (HN for example.) A few years ago, I moderated a developer forum (not on Reddit) and by posting clear rules and enforcing them consistently without being a jerk about it, the forum was indeed evolved into a useful place for conversations. But it took constant attention; and I think most Reddit moderators don't have the inclination to do tha…

It may not even be the inclination, it may be the absolute mass of posts involved.

Just a few people with bots can make your moderating job absolute hell, especially from a non-admin level where you can block things at a lower level.

Re: Ask HN: What Happened to Reddit?

#110

Post by ajmurmann »

xhrpost wrote: post #81

I find searching reddit for niche things to be at least useful enough to point me in the right direction on some topics. But wow, discussion, even the small subs can be pretty toxic. It's sad as I'd love to have better discussion around various topics but every post feels like I'm walking on egg shells. My theory is just that if anyone can join, and everything is anonymous and there is no barrier to entry [1], qualit…

I am curious on what type of smaller subreddits you've seen toxicity. I find that smaller, hobby-related communities are really great and I rarely to never see toxicity. Looking at anything that has potential to be even remotely be related to politics immediately turns hostile. For example r/f1 usually is quite friendly, but when the topic shifts to how races should take place in different countries, it gets a lot more hostile (e.g. "don't race in Jeddah because human right!" - "Well, let's skip USA as well, because human right then"...)
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