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Reddit in 2016

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61–70 of 122 posts

Re: Reddit in 2016

#61

I found this rather disturbing: > "Recently we built an A/B testing system, which allows us to test changes to individual features scientifically, and we are excited to put it through its paces. " Does this mean that Reddit made it all the way to 2016 without an A/B testing tool?!

I was really upset when they massively increased the font size from normal. It looks terrible and everything takes up so much more space. I think it was probably done from manual A/B tests showing the larger font had some impact on how long people stay on the site or something, which doesn't necessarily mean anything.

Re: Reddit in 2016

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The site would be better off with an outright ban on meta content. Aside from one or two outliers like DepthHub, most instances of someone on reddit linking to something on reddit are a variation on "Hey, look at this stupid thing this person did, let's all point and laugh at how stupid they are".

/r/bestof would disagree with you.

Only in name, rather than action. Bestof basically functions as a massive sanctioned voting brigade.

(and I did mention outliers)

Re: Reddit in 2016

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They didn't change the UX and tank their site. That was their innovation, if we are being honest.

That was a weird moment, Reddit's September as everyone flooded in. I'm maybe the one person who enjoys digg more today than before. I like the curation they do on videos, there's far less variation in quality than when it was all user submitted. Really no social interaction there anymore though. I think they killed something broken that a lot of people loved, and replaced it with something kind of neat for a complet…

Digg could have survived if it iterated I think.

Re: Reddit in 2016

#64
Some designers I know always bash Reddit for having an "ugly" design, but out of all the link aggregators out there, the links on Reddit "pop" out at me. I can comprehend the whole page by just glancing.

Other link aggregators like inbound.org or growth hackers are definitely prettier, but I have to focus and slow down to understand all the submissions.

Re: Reddit in 2016

#65
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And then you threatened legal action to get them to take down an image that you yourself posted? Why not? If he owned the rights to the image, it's use was contingent on his approval, absent any other agreement. The only reason it required a a legal notice is because they locked him out of the account he used that had rights to change it. This is no different than offering to let the office use your ping pong table…

> absent any other agreement The user agreement includes perpetual, irrevocable license to reproduce content you submit to Reddit.

Does that mean if you link to a website, they own that code?

Re: Reddit in 2016

#66
post #6

While I can understand the sentiment that spam and abuse threaten our communities I can't help but think - based on outside observations - that some of the biggest threat to the Reddit communities are people within Reddit communities. Though admirable and well-meaning, it's a flawed model at the core, at least this is what I've come to believe. In the most recent flare-ups, the "call is coming from inside the house!"…

What specifically leads you to conclude it's a "flawed model"? Is it the problem of private ownership of a semipublic community, through individual accounts "owning" a subreddit?

Everyone can upvote. Contrast this to HN where you need a comment karma score before you can start upvoting.. it's effectively a grandfathering network vs a democracy where new accounts cost 5 seconds with no email verification.

Re: Reddit in 2016

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Reddit is the worst. Reddit is the best. In fact, now when I'm searching for random terms or information, I'll often include "reddit" in the query, because I'm confident that on pretty much any subject there are bona fide experts or people who have already done the research willingly sharing their knowledge on Reddit, for free. Wonderful.

Can't tell if you're being sarcastic, but you should be weary of the information you read on Reddit. A lot of people simply rehash untrue statements they've heard on Reddit before. I'd say this is true anywhere but Reddit seems to be exceeding prevalent.

Anyone who believes something at face-value is asking to be deceived. I think reddit is truly great at playing to the common denominator. Whether that is good or bad, I do not know.

Re: Reddit in 2016

#68
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You tried to use their site to promote your site and they banned you? What is wrong with that? As long as your aren't spamming or trying to ruin the experience for others, why the fuck should it matter that you post your site to a subreddit that would be interested? Also, people do this literally all the time in subreddits. Like, ALL the time. Wonder what was different in this case.

As far as I know they try to deny self-promotion because it leads to a flood of people posting crappy content because it will make them money, rather than good content because it is good. It's definitely sometimes difficult to enforce & sometimes poorly enforced.

There was a case of theoatmeal.com a long time ago.

They supported the user submitting content even though it was his own.

Re: Reddit in 2016

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ya know, I'm on reddit daily, and I NEVER see any of these flare-ups. I just kind of hang out on the nerdy subs I guess.

I've always heard the reddit experience is far superior in the low-key, non-default, not-too-popular subs.

/r/gardening and /r/woodworking is where it's at.

Re: Reddit in 2016

#70
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Reddit is run by a bunch of leeches who rely on moderators to create content and never reward them. I think sites like Reddit emerged at a point where infrastructure for sharing was very valuable for users in its own right. It seems amazing now that the submit/upvote/downvote flow was so novel and we all lapped up the spirit of freedom. But actually the powerful feature of sites like Reddit and HN is the moderation…

> submit/upvote/downvote flow was so novel What was the timeline again... Slashdot emerged in 1997, it developed voting on several different criteria, you could filter for "funny" or "insightful" posts, and it had a pretty sophisticated meta-moderation system. Digg simplified that with up- and down-votes. Reddit borrowed digg's model. I'm not 100% sure what the innovation of reddit was at the time, but I feel like th…

Digg was great for bloggers around 2005. I created software to add hundreds of friends per day (I think the limit was 250..and the only way to do efficiently was with software).

I only had to post a link a few times a week and the friends on my list would up vote it automatically (I never had to ask them). This would hit critical mass at about 20 Diggs and I would get to the front page.

Front page at that time would get me about 50,000 unique visitors and a good percentage of other blogs picking up my articles and coming back regularly. The trick was to write good content, not just top 10 lists.

I was just a student at that time and didn't have much business experience, but I was able to sell some custom PHP scripts. I think I made about $1000/month for an entire year.

Eventually they cracked down on it, and I got a job and stopped updating my blog.

I wish I would have been able to capitalize on it a lot more. I probably could have turned it into a much longer-lasting business.

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