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Reddit is raising a huge round near a $3B valuation

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Re: Reddit is raising a huge round near a $3B valuation

#661

Earlier quoted context omitted.

/r/all potentially could have anything pop up, no?

I could be wrong but it always (in my recollection, so only going back a few years) excluded nsfw? When I last visited even going to a fully nsfw subreddit all the media was blurred out, so you might have NSFL titles .. but if you're that timid then probably any site with UGC is going to be a struggle.

The binary SFW/NSFW designation is also a problem. First there is the difference between NSFW text and NSFW visuals. You will see plenty of text posts on Reddit labeled as NSFW because they include a dirty joke, talk about sex, or includes something incredibly un-PC.

When it comes to visuals, there is a big difference with how comfortable people are with sex vs violence (NSFW/NSFL). Some people would be happy to see one but want to stay away from the other. Then you have the difference within those categories. A picture of a person in skimpy underwear is not the same thing as hardcore porn. Similarly a video of an athlete hyperextending their knee on a sports subreddit is different than the type of gore that you might see on the watchpeopledie subreddit mentioned above.

Maybe you should be able to indicate the severity and category of the NSFW-ness. Potentially something similar to MPAA ratings were you can have PG-13, R, X with an indication if it is for sex, violence, or something else. However that puts even more work on the users/moderators which is probably why Reddit would never implement it.

Re: Reddit is raising a huge round near a $3B valuation

#662

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They've totally broken "quarantined" subreddits as well. I used to occasionally visit /r/watchpeopledie as a reminder of my own mortality and some of the horrors of the world, but apparently NSFW wasn't enough for people visiting "watchpeopledie" to realize they might see something bad. So they "quarantined" it, which actually means totally breaking it, in my browser at least. RIP. Discussion by others here [0] "I'm…

I haven't visited that subreddit on a long time, so I'm knowing this from you. What a pity. I visited on a similar reason to yours: to know how my own life can be taken suddenly, without notice or warning. Since I move around exclusively by bicycle, I paid particular attention to the videos where cyclists met their untimely fate. I've learned a lot watching those videos, since it gave me a more clear perspective on h…

Getting off topic but I always ask folks what are some more examples of unexpected things to look out for?

I’ve become a bit disillusioned with cycling after 2 fairly bad crashes in about 6 months.

I didn’t have a fear of metal drawbridges, having gone over a variety of them numerous times. Then I hit one that was slick from rain earlier in the day. Tires swerved like I was on ice and I did not fall gracefully. Broke my elbow, nose, and needed many many stitches.

Recently I did all the “right” things- riding in daylight, in a bike lane, in bright clothing with a helmet, and still got right hooked by a careless driver. Walked that one off but limped for a week. after.

Re: Reddit is raising a huge round near a $3B valuation

#663

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Allow me to send a request parameter “?stfu=Y”

Which breaks on search result and referral traffic, forcing users to install third party extensions to maintain, thus creating new security vectors. Why not just load your own css and set the div to "display:none;" then?

This is what I do on browsers that have greasemonkey. The downside is that I have to be aware of their div and other things they make to try to make me switch to mobile.

Specifying a parameter of reddit’s specification allows me to work with them as a user to follow their parameter. If their users don’t like certain features (like nag popups) then it helps them to proactively solve this problem before their users leave.

Re: Reddit is raising a huge round near a $3B valuation

#664
The single thing keeping me on Reddit is the existence of “old.reddit.com”.

There has not been one compelling change to the site in years. Quite the opposite, every change seems to be made by someone hell-bent on driving every potential visitor away, and frustrating the rest.

It’s frustrating, too, because content shouldn’t be hamstrung by the way you reach it but that’s the “modern” web. User interaction is a crucial part of any product.

Re: Reddit is raising a huge round near a $3B valuation

#665

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> As far as I can see in the USA and in most of Europe it’s way more socially acceptable to declare to be atheists, rather than observing Christians. I can't speak for Europe, but as of 2015, at least, about three-quarters of Americans identified as Christian. There are still large swaths of this country where being relatively outspoken about your atheism is, if not out-and-out dangerous, likely to have a negative im…

My experience is that there's rarely a time that is appropriate for it to come up in polite conversation. People talk about it all the time within their social communities as the social communities are more likely to be in line with their beliefs, but not really in "public" IE work, etc. The guy running around talking about "god is dead" at work is just as much of a jerk and treated as such as someone who loudly proc…

The two things go hand in hand. People strike a more defiant attitude when they anticipate punishment. They can seem clueless and overly confrontational when they cop that attitude in a context where it isn't warranted.

Also, religion comes up routinely, though perhaps not frequently, in contexts where religious belief is assumed. In an ordinary conversation about the right way to handle a situation, people will ask you, "Do you think God wants me to ______?" It's just a manner of speaking, but it forces you to either pretend belief or out yourself and face their judgment. It's only in "mixed company" where people avoid the topic.

Re: Reddit is raising a huge round near a $3B valuation

#666

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find this sort of slightly gloating incredulity at just how "obvious" the things a company ought to be working on are to be surprising. You have almost none of the information required to make informed judgements about whether or not Reddit's product team is incompetent (maybe they're doing way better than they should be under the circumstances?), or whether they're focusing on the right things. There are definitel…

It's hard to understand, as a programmer, how some website bugs that are obviously visible can remain unfixed for months and months. Presumably, the developers encounter these bugs themselves when using the site (assuming the developers use the site).

For me it's easier to understand as a working programmer, since my priorities are all set by management so I don't feel right working on things that bug me. Also little things I'd fix on my own in a second have lots of process around them.

Re: Reddit is raising a huge round near a $3B valuation

#667
post #561

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I think the killer app would be to keep the community somewhat exclusive but also have a great breadth of niche, expert content. There was a time when Reddit hit this sweet spot (although there were also very large subs that attracted the worst users). One of the main issues with reddit is that a lot of niche interest subreddits are 90-99% non-practitioners or extreme amateurs, even when weighted in terms of contribu…

r/haskell has been much more helpful than StackOverflow for me.

Previous comment says: "a lot of niche interest subreddits". Not "all of".

Re: Reddit is raising a huge round near a $3B valuation

#668

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It seems crazy to me that Reddit can't figure out a way to become profitable. Facebook is hilariously profitable on a fairly similar business model for example. It's not like Reddit is without ads, nor are they lacking in data they could sell (albeit not as high of quality as Facebook or Google). They even sell "Reddit gold" for real money. Maybe they have exceptionally high operating costs? Or are they just really b…

Consider a few cases. - you want to advertise B2B software to small/medium business owners. - you want to advertise expensive fashion items to 20-35 y.o. women in NY/CT. Will you pick FB or reddit? And then yes, lack of brand safety for non-targeted ads.

> you want to advertise expensive fashion items to 20-35 y.o. women in NY/CT

Instagram, every day of the week.

Re: Reddit is raising a huge round near a $3B valuation

#670
post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of subs are full of edgelords. The sub was quarantined because they need to make Reddit more palatable to investors and advertisers.

A lot of subreddits had that happen to them. It's sad because they are choosing who can speak and who cannot.

It's sad that people conflate posting on reddit with "speaking".

From the American perspective: our love of and support for free speech means you can make your own website or newspaper and say what you want. (And people have the freedom, conversely, to tell you your content sucks and f you)

But we never envisioned a world where some private newspaper would be forced to print the speech of those they didn't want to, or disagreed with.

Considering the content of the VAST MAJORITY of quarantined subs (holocaust denial, virulent and shocking racism, white nationalism), it's actually shocking that Reddit allows this content to continue without banning.

You say it's sad they are choosing who can speak and who cannot, but I can point you to objectively evil and noxious speech on reddit today that isn't going anywhere...

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