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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

#121
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'd be surprised if they implement a change as jarring as it sounds like they're considering. We'll see though.

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

#122
post #18
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…

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

People have been saying this since the very first day comments were enabled on reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/17913/reddit_no...

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

#123

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...

As far as I know, they reversed their decision on getting rid of CSS. A bunch of subreddits decided to rebel against it and they changed their mind.

https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/6auyq9/reddit_is_p...

They're going to work with mods and make sure CSS still works.

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

#124

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.

Snapchat has an entire generation of Americans spending a large portion of their day in their video entertainment ecosystem. Reddit is basically a bunch of circlejerk communities and some funny pics. Facebook is dead for this upcoming generation, Snapchat is used to communicate with anyone.

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

#125
Reddit, after the great Digg exodus:

> You chose to grow with venture capital and you’ve no doubt (I hope) taken some money off the table in your Series C round. I say this because this new version of digg reeks of VC meddling. It’s cobbling together features from more popular sites and departing from the core of digg, which was to “give the power back to the people.”

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

#126
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I really appreciate the spartan quality to the UI. IT simply lists the topics, be they link submissions or text-posts, with a score and a comment count. I also really like the Reddit forum / discussion UI. It makes it very easy to see who is replying to what, and let's you easily hide or collapse away whole uninteresting side-conversations. I fear any "Facebook-style" visual embellishments will actually make it…

The whole appeal of reddit for me is the conversation - similar to HN. I don't want a flashy link aggregator, I want bare bones design with a link/img and discussion. That's it. Anything that tries to model its UX/design on Facebook loses my interest immediately.

I don't like flashy Facebook/Twitter UI either but I wouldn't mind as long as they had an option to switch to "simple/text only UI" or something similar.

"Please select the interface you want: New flashy Facebook-like mode® or Boring text mode®."

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

#127
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…

Maybe direct profitability is a red herring and the investors actually see the site as a propaganda and public sentiment modification engine.

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

#128

Seen a few comments focus on the "redesign" and comparisons to Digg, and wanted to add a few comments: 1. People may forget, but Reddit was a (the?) major winner in the Digg exodus. 2. I don't think Digg every got the subreddit style discussion boards down. I think the reddit "homepage experience" vs. the typical subreddit experience to be very different. Should be interesting to see which way they slide for the rede…

There is a common misconception that Digg's failure was what pushed Reddit into the mainstream, but the truth is that Digg was on the decline and reddit on the rise long before the redesign. https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2005-06-01%202...

True, but your data also supports the view that the redesign hastened Digg's death, and seems to correlate with increased growth at Reddit.

I.e., Reddit was doing something right, and Digg was shrinking. The Digg redesign fiasco accelerated both trends.

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

#129
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree but I find that they are pretty quickly downvoted and therefore greyed out, or sit as a parent only comment without any discussion.

HN is protected a bit better with its karma requirements. But I feel like recently I've been getting way more upvotes than I feel I "deserve" for some comments, which scares me a bit.

It's easy to get massive upvotes on anything that jibes with the HN groupthink. It can also be instructive to "troll" with anything that the groupthink will be appalled by no matter how true or rational it may be. That's the surest way to compensate for undeserved karma.

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

#130
post #76

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 find the resistance to even a little humor to be hilarious

There is no resistance to humour. Funny comments get upvotes.

There is a resistance to unfunny comments, and most attempts at humour are just bad.

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