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Reddit raises $200M at a $1.8B valuation

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Re: Reddit raises $200M at a $1.8B valuation

#91

Post by untog »

stevenj wrote: post #3

>the company is literally re-writing all of its code Wow. >An early version of the new design, which we saw during our interview, looks similar to Facebook’s News Feed or Twitter’s Timeline: A never-ending feed of content broken up into “cards” with more visuals to lure people into the conversations hidden underneath. >“We want Reddit to be more visually appealing,” he explained, “so when new users come to Reddit the…

I too think that a major re-design will be a mistake. But on the other hand, it doesn't have to be. Everyone assumes it'll be awful because previous efforts have failed, but who knows?

Re: Reddit raises $200M at a $1.8B valuation

#92

Post by pmoriarty »

stevenj wrote: post #3

>the company is literally re-writing all of its code Wow. >An early version of the new design, which we saw during our interview, looks similar to Facebook’s News Feed or Twitter’s Timeline: A never-ending feed of content broken up into “cards” with more visuals to lure people into the conversations hidden underneath. >“We want Reddit to be more visually appealing,” he explained, “so when new users come to Reddit the…

I can't think of a single popular site redesign that actually made the site better. They're almost inevitably worse, usually much worse.

A common failing is trying to make the design more shiny and pretty while decreasing functionality, dumbing the site down, adding bloat, and slowing the site down to a crawl.

I really hope Reddit does not go down this road, because they really have a good thing going now. It would be a real shame to ruin it.

Re: Reddit raises $200M at a $1.8B valuation

#93

Post by turbinerneiter »

stevenj wrote: post #3

>the company is literally re-writing all of its code Wow. >An early version of the new design, which we saw during our interview, looks similar to Facebook’s News Feed or Twitter’s Timeline: A never-ending feed of content broken up into “cards” with more visuals to lure people into the conversations hidden underneath. >“We want Reddit to be more visually appealing,” he explained, “so when new users come to Reddit the…

"HN is designed similarly to Reddit and if HN ever tried to do a major re-design, I think I would visit it less."

Wait, are you saying there is people reading HN without custom CSS?

Re: Reddit raises $200M at a $1.8B valuation

#94

Post by vhost- »

virtualized wrote: post #55

But.. but I began to like Reddit. Now they want to take it away from me by destroying it. > It’s going on a hiring spree Ouch. > redesigning its website For no reason other than giving the unnecessary people from the hiring spree something to do. > Huffman would like to end 2017 with around 300 full-time staff The current number of 230 employees is already about ten times too many. What the hell do they need the addi…

> The current number of 230 employees is already about ten times too many. What the hell do they need the additional staff for?

how so?

> Doesn't need to be because it could be run by ten people living off of donations.

really? really?? how so?

Re: Reddit raises $200M at a $1.8B valuation

#95

Post by Chardok »

I am of the opinion that trying to turn a profit on something like Reddit is a catch 22.

The concept of Reddit, which is user generated content curated by users, doesn't have a lot of need for a middleman, more of just a few moderators and admins to keep everything running smoothly. The power of the website is solely in its users and their content generation.

Unfortunately these slow changes have been eroding what was Reddit's strengths of free speech and open dialogue by turning the site into "advertisement friendly". That means killing all subreddits that could sour potential buyers and altering vote-counts to favor specific messages.

Combine this with the fact that they are supplanting viral marketing disguised as user posts (One from today even! https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/6ql2tu/made_my_deli...), allowing blatant vote manipulations (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaymcgregor/2016/12/14/how-we-b...) or allowing entire takeovers (/r/politics during election cycle - hello CTR!) and you have a bloated replica of something that used to be an amazing social powered website.

Re: Reddit raises $200M at a $1.8B valuation

#96

Post by gk1 »

debacle wrote: post #85
koolba wrote: post #15

> Still, he says making money is “not our top priority,” estimating the company spends only about 20 percent of its resources on its advertising business. Huffman declined to share revenue totals. The company is also not profitable. I can't imagine giving $200M to a group of people who publicly say they're not focused on ensuring I get it back. Is this a VC investment or a charity? Also, have they not achieved profit…

A huge amount of reddit users (I think 70%+) use ad blockers.

Source?

Re: Reddit raises $200M at a $1.8B valuation

#97

Post by pmoriarty »

rthomas6 wrote: post #44
afro88 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So they're doing a Digg. End of an era. What's the "reddit" that everyone will migrate to when they change the UX?

Check out Hubski ( https://hubski.com ). It's got a great community, and a unique way displaying and moderating posts. Instead of subreddits, you follow users and tags. When you upvote posts, you share them with whoever follows you. It's sort of like a community web of trust. It works really well.

One thing that makes traditional forums and groups work is that if any one participant leaves, the group conversations will continue without them.

I'm not really sure how that would work in a site where the conversations are focused around specific users.

Re: Reddit raises $200M at a $1.8B valuation

#98

Post by chaostheory »

synunlimited wrote: post #87
chaostheory wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as reddit allows sub-reddits to display their feeds how they like, they should be fine. reddit's strength is allowing reddit to be tailored to every individual user.

Well the are already phasing out custom subreddit CSS so I don't think it will be part of the new design. https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/66q4is/the_web_red...

making reddit more homogeneous for everyone will probably be a mistake. customization was really what made everyone flock to reddit post digg

Re: Reddit raises $200M at a $1.8B valuation

#99

Post by pm90 »

sidlls wrote: post #76
celticninja wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it is starting to happen already. A few too many jokey comments appearing, puns and the like.

HN takes itself too seriously. This site isn't brimming with intellectuals having significant, deep discussions. It's a bunch of hackers, nerds, and interested people who aren't either of those things kibbitzing about things (sometimes only marginally) related to technology. I find the resistance to even a little humor to be hilarious (and embarrassing, for them).

I don't particularly think of HN as lacking humor. There is an extreme attitude against puns, jokes and such which I think is well deserved, since the conversation devolves into who can be most creative with them.

And I kinda disagree with your assertion that this site lacks intellectuals. There seem to be intellectuals from very diverse backgrounds (doctors, lawyers, even farmers). Sure, the discussion may not be as intellectual as, say, r/AskHistorians, but its still more intellectual than most other forums.

Re: Reddit raises $200M at a $1.8B valuation

#100

Post by mi100hael »

scierama wrote: post #72

I don't get why a company who keeps the entire Internet talking on a daily basis is only worth less than $2B but a company that lets teens take snaphots and share them is worth many billions.

Because companies are valued in dollars, not social utility units.
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