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Ask HN: Are you working on a Reddit replacement? What is it?

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Re: Ask HN: Are you working on a Reddit replacement? What is it?

#31

Post by xq »

zxcvcxz wrote: post #5
minimaxir wrote: post #2

Even despite Reddit's troubles, you probably do not want to make a Reddit clone as a business model to capitalize if you don't have one already. One or the reasons for the protest is bad tools.

Reddit is open source so is there any evidence that anything has been done or is planned to improve mod tools? Or have there been any community attempts to push code that was rejected?

> have there been any community attempts to push code that was rejected?

Apparently yes: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheoryOfReddit/comments/3bxrxj/lets...

> Another great example of how much reddit cares about their assets is reddit companion. Which at the time of writing has around 154,302 installations, is utterly broken and hasn't been updated since February 21, 2013, the most ridiculous thing? It isn't hard to fix people tried to do the work for reddit since it is open source but they simply have been ignoring those pull requests since 2013. Which is silly since those pull request effectively do fix companion, resulting in a perfectly working version.

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on a Reddit replacement? What is it?

#32

Post by danbolt »

I'm speaking as a bit of an armchair developer here, but I'd be very interested in seeing a more decentralized alternative to Reddit. A user of one Reddit-like site could post on another's through some sort of protocol, perhaps much like email.

It would certainly be more complicated than something centralized, but considering Reddit's attitude towards user-generated communities and moderation, I could see it being a good fit. There could be a lot of opportunities for black/whitelisting, paid/ad-supported servers, etc.

I'd be very keen to hear more discussion on the topic!

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on a Reddit replacement? What is it?

#33

Post by c_prompt »

Mahn wrote: post #13
billturner wrote: post #3

Although it does seem to be very slow to respond, https://voat.co/ seemed to have stepped in as a replacement at the last big upheaval. They seem to constantly have troubles staying up though.

They certainly seem to have momentum, despite having trouble handling the traffic. It's a pity that as it stands it's still pretty much a copy though, an alternative to reddit doesn't have to be, and probably shouldn't be, a 1:1 copy.

If you're looking for something different yet similar, I run valME.io which has a very different business model. And because of the business model, it will have significantly less spam and other undesirable content. But the concept it's not for everyone.

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on a Reddit replacement? What is it?

#35

Post by mingus68040 »

ljk wrote: post #29
mingus68040 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love to see a commenting site with strong, pseudonymous identity support, to create a greater barrier to the racist and misogynistic trolls who infest the default sub-reddits currently. Some options: 1. Register with a phone number (do some basic checks to avoid Google Voice, Twilio, etc.) 2. Accounts cost $1, payable either through Payal or credit card. Accounts are tied to the payment credentials. 3. Partic…

> 2. Accounts cost $1, payable either through Payal or credit card. Accounts are tied to the payment credentials. is that a good idea? If accounts are paid, then "richer" opinions have bigger impact on the site

Alright, let's say 10¢. Everyone with a personal Internet-enabled device can most certainly afford that. You could even refund them the money later, as the goal is to obtain the payment identity -- not the cash.

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on a Reddit replacement? What is it?

#36

Post by 15155 »

danbolt wrote: post #32

I'm speaking as a bit of an armchair developer here, but I'd be very interested in seeing a more decentralized alternative to Reddit. A user of one Reddit-like site could post on another's through some sort of protocol, perhaps much like email. It would certainly be more complicated than something centralized, but considering Reddit's attitude towards user-generated communities and moderation, I could see it being a…

It could be some kind of a network, perhaps, a network of users.

We could call it, "Usenet."

All jokes aside, what you're describing has existed for over 30 years.

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on a Reddit replacement? What is it?

#38

Post by Tenhundfeld »

mingus68040 wrote: post #16
akhilcacharya wrote: post #10

I've been toying with making one since I realized Reddit has been devolving into a reactionary, hate filled site. I was thinking about having a gimmick of graph based commenting to prevent the "top post guides discussion" effect. Not sure at how feasible or user friendly that could be.

I would love to see a commenting site with strong, pseudonymous identity support, to create a greater barrier to the racist and misogynistic trolls who infest the default sub-reddits currently. Some options: 1. Register with a phone number (do some basic checks to avoid Google Voice, Twilio, etc.) 2. Accounts cost $1, payable either through Payal or credit card. Accounts are tied to the payment credentials. 3. Partic…

I think MetaFilter tries to accomplish this goal, via #2 ($5 signup fee), right?

I don't entirely follow points #1 and #3.

Re #1: There are myriad ways to get a temporary phone number, beyond Google Voice, Twilio, etc. For example, I can just use an anonymous pay-as-you-go phone. What would this accomplish beyond creating some slight inconvenience?

Re #3: I get the need for strong security. You could require multi-factor auth. But what does disallowing participation through a web browser get you that 2FA doesn't?

These are sincere questions. I'm not trying to be snarky, just understand what you're saying, because I agree there's room for improvement in this area.

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on a Reddit replacement? What is it?

#39

Post by ci5er »

15155 wrote: post #36
danbolt wrote: post #32

I'm speaking as a bit of an armchair developer here, but I'd be very interested in seeing a more decentralized alternative to Reddit. A user of one Reddit-like site could post on another's through some sort of protocol, perhaps much like email. It would certainly be more complicated than something centralized, but considering Reddit's attitude towards user-generated communities and moderation, I could see it being a…

It could be some kind of a network, perhaps, a network of users. We could call it, "Usenet." All jokes aside, what you're describing has existed for over 30 years.

> We could call it, "Usenet."

You beat me to it by less than one minute. Dang!

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on a Reddit replacement? What is it?

#40

Post by 13throwaway »

danbolt wrote: post #32

I'm speaking as a bit of an armchair developer here, but I'd be very interested in seeing a more decentralized alternative to Reddit. A user of one Reddit-like site could post on another's through some sort of protocol, perhaps much like email. It would certainly be more complicated than something centralized, but considering Reddit's attitude towards user-generated communities and moderation, I could see it being a…

The problem you run into with a decentralized site is you have to mirror massive amounts of data. I think this is what killed usenet. Also spam is hard to fight.

I wonder if a federated Reddit would work. Different subreddits could be hosted on different servers but the accounts could all be connected.

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