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Lessons from Building and Scaling Reddit's Ad Serving Platform with Go

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Re: Lessons from Building and Scaling Reddit's Ad Serving Platform with Go

#111
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But for how long?

It's all but guaranteed that if Reddit removes old Reddit and forces new Reddit on everyone third party web clients with ads that generate money for someone else will pop up and fill the gap.

Sure until they change the api and/or api terms of service. See twitter.

Re: Lessons from Building and Scaling Reddit's Ad Serving Platform with Go

#112
post #42

Cool. Maybe these guys should get in touch with the redesign guys and get them fired. Also fire any executive that thought it was a good idea. Because all the hard work to serve ads more efficiently goes to waste when the site is a mess and unusable.

What are the actual complaints with the new design? I've been using it on and off and I can't say I've noticed any major issues. Though I'll admit most of my browsing is one on the mobile app these days.

For me whenever I visit the new reddit, the fan in my Macbook Pro spins up and sounds like it wants to launch into space.

The old reddit is buttery smooth in comparison. I really don't get it

Re: Lessons from Building and Scaling Reddit's Ad Serving Platform with Go

#113
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with Reddit ads isn't their tech, it's their people. The ad approval process is a farce - and human-managed. Oh, and those humans are assholes. You have to go through many denials - for no reason - submit a ticket to get another approver and approved - for no reason stated. It was the most upsetting process I've ever dealt with.

It seems odd that there's a stringent ad approval process when the site proudly lets Redditors post any garbage they want. I'd have expected anything SFW and not obviously fraudulent to be allowed.

It's obviously not very stringent. A lot of the ads they run lately are outright scams, including even advertising Scientology: https://i.redd.it/6cd1ricqc8j11.jpg

Re: Lessons from Building and Scaling Reddit's Ad Serving Platform with Go

#114
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The redesign is terrible for usability, but it does one thing very, very well: punish you for using an adblocker (sorry, "software blocker," lol). There are a few other dark patterns hidden in there too, all coincidentally pushing in a direction that's good for reddit. I suspect that's the real purpose of the redesign and that all complaints will fall on deaf ears until someone actually manages to disrupt reddit.

>I suspect that's the real purpose of the redesign I mean at this point I don't think there's any doubt whatsoever. Is there even a plausible other explanation? I only lurk on reddit but it's rather comical how bad it's become. And not just the interface, the content too, /r/all is basically Facebook with a slightly younger audience and you have to get deeper and deeper into niche subreddits to find worthwhile discus…

Reddit has just gotten too big. So much of the bigger subs are fluffed with surreptitious sponsored content, reputation management, etc. I would have thought that that was where Reddit made the real money, by providing a back-end to make ads look like organic content, by helping moneyed backers influence discussion toward their monetised and brand-building ends.

If Reddit isn't charging and managing those using their platform for that purpose -- not an insignificant number, surely -- they are fools.

Re: Lessons from Building and Scaling Reddit's Ad Serving Platform with Go

#115
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the actual complaints with the new design? I've been using it on and off and I can't say I've noticed any major issues. Though I'll admit most of my browsing is one on the mobile app these days.

I get obnoxious multi-second lag when entering text into a comment box on my phone, even on a thread that only has a couple comments. It's... befuddling how this made it to production and remains. And no, I don't want to use your stupid app. I'm not a fan of loading 1000's of shitty apps on my phone when a simple web page is sufficient.

Somehow the scrolling is also broken on their mobile site, and that can't be by accident. Is it some sort of javascript middle finger to urge users to move to their app? I've never experienced scrolling issues like that on any other site, ever.

That they make their mobile site intentionally unfriendly and frustrating is infuriating.

Re: Lessons from Building and Scaling Reddit's Ad Serving Platform with Go

#116

Ads on reddit are incredibly deceptive. I'm not sure why advertisers tolerate it. 98% of the ad clicks on mobile are surely fraudulent through being intentionally accidental. The ads are designed to look exactly the same as real posts at a glance, with a username, post date, upvote/downvote arrows, deceptive title meant to make it look like a real post, comment section, share link, and image thumbnail. Reddit users a…

I think splicing in ads that look like real posts is fine (this is what most social media companies do), but redirecting to another site is not fine.

Re: Lessons from Building and Scaling Reddit's Ad Serving Platform with Go

#117
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with Reddit ads isn't their tech, it's their people. The ad approval process is a farce - and human-managed. Oh, and those humans are assholes. You have to go through many denials - for no reason - submit a ticket to get another approver and approved - for no reason stated. It was the most upsetting process I've ever dealt with.

It seems odd that there's a stringent ad approval process when the site proudly lets Redditors post any garbage they want. I'd have expected anything SFW and not obviously fraudulent to be allowed.

It sounds bureaucratic, not stringent. Lots of forms to fill out, and a lot of order, and probably not even many requirements to meet (but a lot of different ways saying you did meet them) but lost its purpose a long ways back.

Re: Lessons from Building and Scaling Reddit's Ad Serving Platform with Go

#118
Half of the times it just sits there blank. Sometimes it loads in 2-3 seconds. Rest of the times it loads within 1 sec. Rarely, it also shows a default ad( I work in same industry, hence the term).

How is that great?

PS: Not talking about native ads.

Re: Lessons from Building and Scaling Reddit's Ad Serving Platform with Go

#119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey bflesch, a year ago we weren’t even running our own ad server and had just released an early v1 of our new ads management interface. It probably felt like the “worst ad management experience [you] have ever witnessed” because the other major ad management platforms have multiple years and hundreds of engineers/designers on us :) We’ve made substantial progress since then, I’d encourage you to not judge us too ear…

No remote? What is the justification for this?

reddit used to do a lot of remote work. Then they decided to ditch it all. Lost a bunch of good engineers that way.

Re: Lessons from Building and Scaling Reddit's Ad Serving Platform with Go

#120
post #3

> 12M posts per month, 2B posts per month Curious, which one is it? I suspect the former.

Liveblogger here. This post was best-effort liveblogged while the talk was going on, so this typo was my fault. I've fixed it to say "2B votes per month", which reflects what was on the speaker's slides.
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