Reddit raises $200M at a $1.8B valuation • Hacker News Board

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

#181

Post by eridius » Mon, Jul 31, 2017, 8:22 PM UTC

provost wrote: post #175

pmoriarty wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 b…

I recall Digg did a complete redesign for version 4, even the backend systems and database. And the users abandoned it shortly after launch.

And that fueled Reddit's rise, because the Digg users flocked there.

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

#182

Post by monksy » Mon, Jul 31, 2017, 8:22 PM UTC

nameless912 wrote: post #27

uncoder0 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Voat ( https://voat.co/ ) is also an option I've heard of before but never used. However I just looked at their front page and the number 2 post is titled 'How to solve the Voat's antisemitism problem' and the image contains an antisemitic slur so that's not very promising.

Voat is a complete shithole these days unfortunately. It was very quickly overrun by disgruntled members of Reddit's alt-right fringe community.

I would say the "alt-right" rejects and anti-social people.

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

#183

Post by CM30 » Mon, Jul 31, 2017, 8:22 PM UTC

throwaway81122 wrote: post #36

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?

Like Craigslist and its downfall, the migration isnt going to be to one large community, but many smaller ones.

While you're getting downvoted for the Craigslist aspect, I suspect the rest of your comment is probably right here. There isn't going to be another big Reddit or Digg like community. The audience just seems too fractured for one to take off like it could have done years ago.

So stuff like Voat, the shut down Imzy, Hubski and Snapzu represent parts of what Reddit was, and the different aspects of the site that different communities either enjoyed or now want.

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

#184

Post by velobro » Mon, Jul 31, 2017, 8:23 PM UTC

metaphorm wrote: post #12

phatbyte wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still remember Digg. Great community, but once they changed the UX and some features, everything went downhill.

the UX changes weren't the real problem, though they exacerbated the real problem. the real problem was a dramatic change in the content promotion algorithm that de facto transformed the front page of the site (which was much less cuztomizable than reddit's) into a corporate sponsored content billboard.

There is tons of corporate sponsored content on Reddit but Reddit has learned from Digg's mistakes and made the ads appear like normal posts made by normal users.

Basically Reddit is what happens when product placement ads go to the extreme

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

#185

Post by Angostura » Mon, Jul 31, 2017, 8:24 PM UTC

provost wrote: post #175

pmoriarty wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 b…

I recall Digg did a complete redesign for version 4, even the backend systems and database. And the users abandoned it shortly after launch.

What killed Digg though, wasn't any change in look at feel, as much as a fundamental change in content policy. It went from 'users submit stuff and upvote it' to 'content publishers can automate a firehose of their stories into the system for a price' people didn't like that.

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

#186

Post by joools » Mon, Jul 31, 2017, 8:24 PM UTC

mrkrabo wrote: post #134

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…

If you click here (no need to be logged in) you get the HTML layout of the rewrite. https://www.reddit.com/profile-beta-confirmation https://www.reddit.com/user/kn0thing Seems to be JS-heavy.

"JS-heavy" says it all. Thing is slow as hell.

It's not quite as bad UI-wise as I thought it could be, but I'm not sure why all these sites are pushing in the direction they are.

I think the interest in static site generators and brutalist design says something...

I agree with others that Reddit will be in for a rude awakening if the performance doesn't get a lot better.

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

#187

Post by snowcrshd » Mon, Jul 31, 2017, 8:25 PM UTC

t0mbstone wrote: post #149

If you are going to re-design a site like reddit, your best bet is to keep the old version in place, but allow people to also view all of the same content in the "new" design. For example, release the new design on new.reddit.com and let viewers migrate over to it at their own pace. Once you have a lot of people using the new reddit instead of the old design, you can migrate the old reddit to old.reddit.com and put t…

I understand your point, but wouldn't doing what you suggest lead to the problem of maintaining two different code bases? This doesn't seem like a good idea at all.

I think a better approach would be to commit to their new design, and do some sort of A/B testing to hone down the new UI until it replaces the old one.

I don't think reddit will die because of the changes they propose. This is just silly. For starters, there are Google Chrome plugins to make reddit more Facebook feed-like.

I myself like the way reddit works right now and would not like it to change much. That said, Reddit the company has to move towards what will make them money. I don't have this data, but their user base might have changed in the past years. People that really enjoy infinite feeds, for example.

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

#188

Post by Angostura » Mon, Jul 31, 2017, 8:26 PM UTC

afro88 wrote: post #18

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…

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

Imzy was quite literally ahead of it's time, perhaps.

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

#189

Post by SirensOfTitan » Mon, Jul 31, 2017, 8:26 PM UTC

Within the context of redesigns I think there exists some value in looking at Facebook's failed card-based redesign back in 2013:

https://dcurt.is/facebooks-predicament

Essentially this big, beautiful design driven redesign ultimately never shipped because users spent less time on it. Certain design 'improvements' like increased padding between stories reduces density and as a result tends to reduce readership, for example. The internet as perceived by Engineers and Designers is quite different from the masses (even with Reddit's demographic differences from FB taken into account).

Reddit needs to be really careful with a redesign: data should lead the rollout efforts, not design. I think they are due for some UX improvements, perhaps around a gradual UI refresh; however, I have little faith in the product leadership at Reddit to pull this off. Huffman and crew need to be willing to can the entire redesign if user research and data come back negative.

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

#190

Post by ubernostrum » Mon, Jul 31, 2017, 8:27 PM UTC

praneshp wrote: post #161

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…

Also good luck selling a new design to the hive mind.

They already did -- the official reddit mobile app, and default mobile skin of the site, are already close to what's being described, and mobile use of reddit is pretty heavy. If it were going to cause a mass exodus, it would've already.