Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

751–760 of 877 posts

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

#751

Post by TH3R3LL1K »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #573
mort96 wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their mobile website has also started literally animating the "get the app" button; every minute or so, the button pulses for a bit in a deliberate (and in my case, consistently successful) attempt to make your attention move to the button they want you to click instead of the content you want to read. The reddit community is great, but the company seems to not care about their users at all.

It would be interesting to know how much more a user is worth to them when they install the app; it must be quite significant.

Im wondering if they are able to get more information on user when they use reddit on the app then on the browser

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

#752

Post by cco »

saagarjha wrote: post #354
epistasis wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The degradation seems to directly correlate with the modern-feel of the page. I'm not sure if that's intentional. It seems that modern front end fashion is a huge step backwards from earlier fashions in web development.

It's completely possible to have a "modern" page that is also nice to use; it's just that with Reddit modernness and horribleness have been conflated together and it seems like they go together.

Can you cite a few? I'm generally of the same opinion to the comment you replied to but I'm always happy to be wrong.

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

#753

Post by Thlom »

rsync wrote: post #393
RankingMember wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. Another more recent example is Venmo. Since Paypal acquired them, they've been steadily removing functionality from the website to force users onto the app.

Another good example is Sonos ... they are slowly letting their desktop application die to force users onto iOS or android apps. In the case of Sonos, it is much darker and user hostile because there is no danger of "web consumers being siphoned off by google" - you have to buy the Sonos components anyway. In this case it is all about metadata and traffic and user profiling.

I barely ever use the Sonos app on either iOS or desktop. I just use Spotify or Apple Music and route music to Sonos from there, so not sure if you are correct. With AirPlay2 I only use the app to set up new speakers. So not sure if you are correct.

e: Most likely the desktop app has seen declining usage the last decade, which is why Sonos doesn't prioritize it.

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

#754

Post by twelvechairs »

_t2kx wrote: post #621
rjbwork wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never seen that happen. I only see it when I'm logged out on computer.

It happens to me frequently. Sometimes they just log me out for no reason.

Its been an accepted 'bug' for a long time but they never seem to properly be able to fix it

https://www.reddit.com/r/redesign/comments/adxv7b

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

#755

Post by tarjei »

joefkelley wrote: post #521
nostromo wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The worst dark patten in my view is 1) growing an online community around a set of values 2) growing so big you eclipse all competitors 3) suddenly changing your values to appeal to advertisers. Reddit is in good company here, notably with YouTube and Twitter.

I agree that this process sucks. Do you think it's possible to do 1 and 2 without 3? How could a business that remains focused on benefiting free users compete/profit?

There is a difference between earning huge profits and earning a good living.

I would posit that it is possible for Reddit to finance itself and it's operation without going as far as they are doing now.

However, that would imply forgoing possible megaprofits that VCs wants - as well as probably reducing growth in headcounts and interesting internal projects. So there are both internal and external forces pushing in the direction of more monetization.

I think Basecamp is a nice example of forgoing profit for a better product.

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

#756

Post by kowdermeister »

porpoisely wrote: post #222
brettgriffin wrote: post #5

I've given up most social media but have become obsessed with Reddit. No matter how much I use it, I'm constantly amazed that I can be immediately connected with the most knowledgeable and enthusiastic people on virtually any subject I care about. I'm not a fan of the redesign or their push to look at other social media platforms, but I understand the direction they have to go to build revenue.

You are describing reddit 8 years ago. Reddit today is a mess of political propaganda and fake content. Hardly anything knowledgable or interesting. Certainly the only "enthusiastic" people are the hordes of democratic party employees and trump supporters. Every else is just exhausted by it.

Then you are clearly subbed to the wrong subreddits. I find too much fun content there covering all my interests.

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

#757

Post by vmednis »

bduerst wrote: post #57
gfwhuuku wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that new banner is so much better than the old one, though. https://i.imgur.com/PF3Zc8R.jpg

It's still bad. They should cookie the choice so it doesn't always pop up every time.

You can do that, it's just a bit hidden away. https://i.imgur.com/qIDu7q3.jpg

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

#758

Post by diffuse_l »

minimaxir wrote: post #16

I've been a fan of Reddit for a very long time (as the amount of data science work I've done with their data can attest to), but lately it seems like the incentives between Reddit as a business and Reddit as a community leader are not aligned, and that is a problem. The increasing amount of dark patterns Reddit has been employing lately is concerning. (recent example: Reddit now gates content in mobile Safari to push…

I only use the webapp, and the "Use the app messages" was very annoying, until I found that you can actually turn these messages off using some obscure setting (which, of course, I can't find right now...)

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

#759

Post by hrktb »

wolco wrote: post #613
hrktb wrote: post #512

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GP’s comment should be taken into context: the CEO is not just a cool dude, he does stupid stuff like rewriting in DB user comments making fun of him. Why can the CEO even technically get access to the data ? Same with communities, a lot of them get banned. Basically every week I hear about some community get canned, it’s pretty usual, and often justified. Yet these “other points of view” subreddits that are pretty f…

I understand banning of subreddits is evil. I think no subreddit should be banned but the press previously were critical of reddit labeling it a jock-boy hangout who group together and attack gay female online users and dox them. They decided to change things their image to please that group. It made it a worse experience for many but stopped the bad press now a year later they are raising at 3b. Would not be possibl…

I am in line with extremely corrosive (as you say harrasment, bullying etc.) or straight illegal subreddits to get banned.

The strange situation for most of us is that while doing the window dressing they left a spiked bat and a swastica flag in the corner and pushed the poop bucket in a closet instead of just getting rid of it. And then have to defend not getting rid of it when publicly asked by their users (the CEO himself gets involved in these back and forth with the community, so it’s not just them ignoring the problems)

It could be just some weird bit that has no impact on how the company works internaly. As you say, content policy has no direct relation with work environment.

But I can’t stop myself from thinking, would that same CEO abuse his position to get rid of unconveniences internaly ? How do they handle gender balance or diversity topics ?

Looking at Ellen Pao’s shitshow (and she did a ton of that “window dressing”), it’s difficult to imagine the internal state is that much better than the external one.

Post reply on HN