Reddit just passed Facebook as #3 most popular website in US • Hacker News Board

Re: Reddit just passed Facebook as #3 most popular website in US

#271

Post by Cookiesaurusbex » Wed, May 30, 2018, 9:03 PM UTC

paulcole wrote: post #257

fein wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And for the majority of the large subs for a specific interest, they are astroturfed to hell and back. Much of the content you see on /r/all is likely corporate shilling with sock puppets controlling the promotion of the item and the comments within. There should be Moore's/ Poe's law for the correlation of the size and influence of a site to the amount of corporate influence on said site. As the natural user base gr…

>they are astroturfed to hell and back. Much of the content you see on /r/all is likely corporate shilling with sock puppets controlling the promotion of the item and the comments within. Is there any actual evidence of this as a widespread phenomenon? The /r/hailcorporate people are among the most annoying on Reddit.

I bet the people who run astroturfing campaigns on Reddit have plenty of data on how effective it is. Wither that data is publicly available...

Re: Reddit just passed Facebook as #3 most popular website in US

#272

Post by rb808 » Wed, May 30, 2018, 9:07 PM UTC

_seemethere wrote: post #161

Why doesn't reddit try to roll out an enterprise product? I'm sure a lot of companies would be willing to pay to have an interface like reddit internally. Most current solutions for this problem aren't very good and I feel like reddit could be a good alternative. (not the redesign though, loading times on that would make it basically unusable)

https://www.discourse.org is good

Re: Reddit just passed Facebook as #3 most popular website in US

#273

Post by draw_down » Wed, May 30, 2018, 9:08 PM UTC

dageshi wrote: post #160

to_bpr wrote: post #58

As a long, long time user of Reddit, it has been quite saddening to see its descent into the shallow, ultra-toxic husk of a corporate entity that it is today. I'm not surprised by its popularity; it's a headline-surfers paradise, one in which you get feel good points for displays of virtue or shitposting easily digested content in an era of unparalleled narcissism and shortened attention spans. All is not lost though…

I am also a long time reddit user, 10 or so years at this point. It's not obvious to me that reddit is particularly different than it was in the past. There's just more of it now.

Yes, that's my feeling as well.

Re: Reddit just passed Facebook as #3 most popular website in US

#274

Post by ouid » Wed, May 30, 2018, 9:08 PM UTC

Spivak wrote: post #218

manfredo wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So there's no debate to be had on affirmative action, and everyone who supports it is racist and wrong? Plenty of people I know consider it racist. The reality is, how people and groups define terms like racism, bigotry, and misogyny is often very politicized.

Sure? You'll find tons of /relatively/ civil and non-toxic discussions of the issue on places like CMV. Toxicity comes into play when the trust that all parties are having an honest discussion break down and everyone believes everyone else is speaking with the two sides of their mouth.

I feel like CMV is overrated.

Re: Reddit just passed Facebook as #3 most popular website in US

#275

Post by iblaine » Wed, May 30, 2018, 9:08 PM UTC

But which site gets more traffic from Russian bots, facebook or reddit?

Re: Reddit just passed Facebook as #3 most popular website in US

#276

Post by Karrot_Kream » Wed, May 30, 2018, 9:08 PM UTC

dbasedweeb wrote: post #262

Karrot_Kream wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree. I think many people want ad-free, untracked experiences. Censorship is a value that different communities have different opinions on, but for some reason often drowns the debate on alternative communities.

The alternative communities often speak for themselves, while the popularity of the mainstream does as well. For a perfect example, look no further than here at Hacker News. The moderation is very active, but here we are enjoying civil conversation because of that moderation. To go back to my previous example, look at Voat, it’s just the worst place to be. I don’t love Reddit, but it has its upsides, such as science,…

I think you missed the point of my post. Attitudes about censorship are orthogonal to the desire for ad-free, tracking-free communities. I get it that censorship is the hot-button issue and everyone has an opinion on it, but it is its own separate, complicated issue. I'm strong in my desire to have an ad-free, tracking-free community and I have friends on the Fediverse and other new social networks who echo my belief, and this belief is orthogonal to moderation.

> or we can just look at what they do

I don't really want to debate censorship, but I will say that I think the issue is a lot more complicated than looking at what "they" "do".

Re: Reddit just passed Facebook as #3 most popular website in US

#277

Post by codingdave » Wed, May 30, 2018, 9:08 PM UTC

_seemethere wrote: post #161

Why doesn't reddit try to roll out an enterprise product? I'm sure a lot of companies would be willing to pay to have an interface like reddit internally. Most current solutions for this problem aren't very good and I feel like reddit could be a good alternative. (not the redesign though, loading times on that would make it basically unusable)

I can think of a couple reasons:

1) The actual app isn't complex, not if you are only scaling to an internal audience. Most Enterprise IT coders could whip out a clone. On a build vs. buy decision, this just isn't hard enough to be worth buying.

2) Discussion apps have been available as parts of various enterprise platforms since literally before the web. Sure, some are better than others, and none of them are great. But from a value prop perspective, putting up topical discussions just isn't a big pain point in enterprises. Even if it were, Slack tends to work just as well when we are talking about internal communications. Why would an enterprise pay for another discussion service, unless it solves a significant problem in their core busines?

Re: Reddit just passed Facebook as #3 most popular website in US

#278

Post by rootusrootus » Wed, May 30, 2018, 9:10 PM UTC

acdha wrote: post #196

TheForumTroll wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it quite amusing that you two see "reddit downvote conservative posts" and "/r/politics having a clearly left lean". I stopped using Reddit because of two things: Everything is extremely US-centric and everything is clearly right leaning. I guess it depends on your point of view. At least as a European I can't recognize the left-lean at all.

The use of “left” by American conservatives doesn’t have a meaning beyond “political opponent”. The absence of an organized movement means people just assume that everything they dislike is “left”.

At the risk of saying 'both sides are bad' I would point out that this behavior is not limited to American conservatives. Politics in the US is extremely tribal.

Re: Reddit just passed Facebook as #3 most popular website in US

#279

Post by slg » Wed, May 30, 2018, 9:10 PM UTC

manfredo wrote: post #132

slg wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The kind of toxic people we are talking about on Reddit are not toxic for their politics. Racism, bigotry, and misogyny are not political topics. It isn't like tax policy or any other topic that can be debated. There is one clear side that is wrong.

So there's no debate to be had on affirmative action, and everyone who supports it is racist and wrong? Plenty of people I know consider it racist. The reality is, how people and groups define terms like racism, bigotry, and misogyny is often very politicized.

It is possible to have a civil discussion about things like affirmative action or immigration policy. Many reasonable people can disagree on those issues (racists just happen to have very strong opinions on these issues). You are being naive if you think everything that is labeled as racist on Reddit is part of a normal civil discussion. Subreddits like /r/Coontown and the many-headed hydra that pop up whenever those subreddits are banned are not looking to civilly debate these policies. They are looking to spread hate. Hate is not a political opinion. Hate is not worth tolerating.

Re: Reddit just passed Facebook as #3 most popular website in US

#280

Post by actsasbuffoon » Wed, May 30, 2018, 9:11 PM UTC

undersuit wrote: post #162

Chathamization wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Let's say a new TV show starts airing, and you really like it and want to discuss it more. You can probably bet there's a subreddit for it, and in that community, a ton of people interested in it. Before someone could go to the IMDB forums and discuss it. I think they did the job a lot better - if you found a conversation about a particular episode and wanted to comment on it a few weeks after it was made, you coul…

I didn't know IMDB even had forums. And they're gone.

IMDB forums required signing up to even read threads, if memory serves. Every now and then I'd try to figure out where else I'd seen some actor, notice an interesting sounding topic at the bottom of the page, click on it, be told I had to register in order to read, and then get annoyed and leave.

Note to companies: Don't do crap like this. Let people lurk. If they like the content then they'll create an account. Forcing them to create an account before they're even allowed to read comments is is sure-fire way to fail.

I'm looking at you, Quora!