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Ask HN: What Happened to Reddit?

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Re: Ask HN: What Happened to Reddit?

#201

Post by robotjosh »

NonNefarious wrote: post #138
butterfi wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also depends on what sub-reddit you're in. Some are really good, some are BS echo-chambers. It can't all be BS considering how many people are using Google Site search to get "better" answers from sub-reddits as opposed to generic google search results.

A lot of subs are useless because they're moderated by infantile admins who delete posts and ban users for no legitimate (or even stated) reason. I received a permanent ban for asking (politely) why a bunch of on-topic comments (most of them not mine) had been deleted in a thread discussing a technical topic. These asshole admins then followed me to another, related sub where they permanently banned me for answering…

This was my experience too. I got banned from my city’s subreddit for the stated reason “don’t move here” and then harassed across several local subreddits. Paid reddit admins determined that is not in fact harassment. Then later these admins banned me because they said being mean to racists is hate speech. Seems like racist assholes run the place from mods up to the paid admins.

Re: Ask HN: What Happened to Reddit?

#202

Post by robotjosh »

kordlessagain wrote: post #18
rockbruno wrote: post #6

There was a thread the other day about how every community is bound to lose its identity once it gets big enough, and it likely can be applied to this. Once Reddit caught the attention of the advertising world to the point where people with high karma were being asked to sell their accounts, the entire platform devolved into people reposting each other's content to farm karma. In the last couple of months people have…

Well, at least this place has the kind beatings into submission thing going for it. That's the advantage of having a paid moderator vs. group moderation. I think it builds a healthier culture.

Reddit hired more paid moderators, to whom being mean to racists and other people they like is “hate speech” while actual racists and nazis run amok being shitty to actual protected groups. Reddit is turning into the next stormfront.

Re: Ask HN: What Happened to Reddit?

#203

Post by marginalia_nu »

warrenm wrote: post #184
marginalia_nu wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What is terrible about the UX? It's been a few years now, and they still haven't fixed so you can copy and paste text in their text inputs.

I copy-paste all the time into Reddit ... what makes you think you can't ?

Whenever I do, the text box crashes and I need to switch to basic markdown mode.

Re: Ask HN: What Happened to Reddit?

#204

Post by Gustomaximus »

lvass wrote: post #57

Reddit was great for the brief period of time after internet search engines like Google nosedived in quality thanks to blogspam, and before companies realized people were relying on Reddit for reading honest opinions. Whenever there's some economic interest involved in a Reddit thread (like product recommendations), companies are now flooding it with disguised ads, which is low quality content like all ads.

I think its more than ads. The ability to have conversation has largely gone. It's seems so full of hatred and anger now vs people posting interesting information or politely joking about. While there were always toxic subs they tended to exist in their own universe for people that wanted that. I really miss the days of polite discussion, joking about bacon and grammar nazis.

While reddit still has great points, I feel there needs to be a new reddit that has its core rules based on courtesy and some kind of intelligence/knowledge test before people can comment, and have to repeat if they can't follow basic polite and value add conversation.

Re: Ask HN: What Happened to Reddit?

#205

Post by prepend »

It’s kind of the same thing that’s happened to the internet. Everyone is now there instead of self-selecting smart, hacker types.

It’s a balance between making things easier to use while also that letting in everyone. And the hoi polloi are just regular people.

Not to sound snobby, but different people like different things. And McDonalds is a $200B company for a reason.

So now they’re on Reddit just being interested in regular stuff and raging and whatnot.

With the masses comes company attention and fake accounts and SEO so the corporate content is low value but prevalent.

I still use Reddit for my subreddits and get good info. But it’s harder to weed out things.

Finally, I had a curious interaction with a company trying to take over my subreddit. I started /r/grass fed years ago when I was interested in this. Not a lot of activity. Some marketing company for an unnamed company petitioned to take it over as if it was abandoned. When I responded that it’s not abandoned, just not very active and that they were welcome to post as much as they like the sub stayed with me as a mod. But they didn’t post anything. Makes me wonder what kind of company wants to mod a sub in order to participate. And how common this is.

Re: Ask HN: What Happened to Reddit?

#206

Post by seydor »

TameAntelope wrote: post #13

You call it degradation, Reddit calls it "explosive growth". The UX redesign was hugely successful in attracting new users, users who could then be monetized. The "useless answers" are wildly popular responses because people generally prefer to meme, not solve problems. Your complaint essentially boils down to, "Why do people not behave how I want them to?" and that, my friend, is a question as old as time itself. Fr…

> The UX redesign was hugely successful in attracting new users

Is there evidence for that?

Re: Ask HN: What Happened to Reddit?

#207

Post by atrain101 »

GekkePrutser wrote: post #78
kelseyfrog wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UX redesign is also clearly part of a mobile-first strategy. The mobile site funnels users into the mobile app, and the desktop site clearly echos the mobile design principles. 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…

> The mobile site funnels users into the mobile app, and the desktop site clearly echos the mobile design principles. More like hoards them into the app with a cattle prod. You can't use the mobile site without constantly confirming that no, I really really really don't want to use the app like I said 20 seconds ago. This is beyond dark patterns. It's pure user hostility.

Agreed, the UX for the mobile web app is very hostile.

I use it anyways in Brave to limit how much tracking Reddit can do on me, but I feel like that's probably a fools errand at this point.

Re: Ask HN: What Happened to Reddit?

#208

Post by warrenm »

marginalia_nu wrote: post #203
warrenm wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I copy-paste all the time into Reddit ... what makes you think you can't ?

Whenever I do, the text box crashes and I need to switch to basic markdown mode.

Weird

In the 11+y I've been on Reddit, never seen that behavior

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