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Storming Reddit's Moat

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Re: Storming Reddit's Moat

#91

Post by prox »

abcdjdjd wrote: post #68
detaro wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plenty of high-quality subreddits are high-quality because they do moderate and don't succumb to the lowest common denominator of more mainstream subs. You'd be killing the IMHO most valuable parts of reddit with that rule.

Sorry, but this argument is the same reason that dictatorships fails endlessly throughout history. Sure, you can make an argument that maybe the leaders (in this case mods) will be benevolent and lead fairly and for the betterment of all efficiently. After all, dictatorships are more "efficient" at getting stuff done than democracy (note, not saying GOOD is done, just more efficient when you don't have to consider ot…

[citation needed] on the most subreddits pushing agenda part.

Re: Storming Reddit's Moat

#92

Post by lovegoblin »

dageshi wrote: post #65
antihero wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree, for small subreddits, mods should have all the power they want to curate and garden and develop their community in the way they see fit. The great thing about Reddit is that if a mod is abusive and most users agree, there's absolutely nothing preventing you starting a new subreddit. Perhaps larger less niche subreddits should have a greater amount of accountability, though, because something like /r/canad…

Large subs like your r/canada example can and do split. r/unitedkingdom has basically been replaced by r/casualuk in size because a substantial part of its userbase was tired of its constant misery and moaning.

> because something like /r/canada can't easily be replaced.

Yeah. As it became more and more clear that /r/canada was modded by reactionary bigots, a lot of people started moving to /r/canadapolitics and /r/onguardforthee.

Re: Storming Reddit's Moat

#93

Post by majormajor »

abcdjdjd wrote: post #68
detaro wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plenty of high-quality subreddits are high-quality because they do moderate and don't succumb to the lowest common denominator of more mainstream subs. You'd be killing the IMHO most valuable parts of reddit with that rule.

Sorry, but this argument is the same reason that dictatorships fails endlessly throughout history. Sure, you can make an argument that maybe the leaders (in this case mods) will be benevolent and lead fairly and for the betterment of all efficiently. After all, dictatorships are more "efficient" at getting stuff done than democracy (note, not saying GOOD is done, just more efficient when you don't have to consider ot…

This comparison is silly since you have a lot more power to leave a subreddit than to leave a country.

If you think most subreddit is being mis-moderated in the same way, across all those different moderators... is it possible the problem lies on your end?

And even then, there seems to be easy recourse: start your own subreddit?

Re: Storming Reddit's Moat

#94

Post by frenchy »

paxys wrote: post #34
nostromo wrote: post #24

"Social network envy" will eventually be Reddit's undoing. The fact that they have been trying to position themselves as a social network, unsuccessfully, for several years and they still haven't given up on it is alarming. If Google can't even pull it off with all of their resources and properties (including giants like YouTube and Gmail), I don't see how Reddit will either. The "me too" features, like the TikTok cl…

I noticed this recently when they redesigned the comments view to make the user's profile picture a prominent part of the design. Except after the last few weeks of scrolling through comments, I have come across less than 10 users sitewide who have actually set a picture. It's now just a sea of default icons and a ton of wasted space. I can't imagine people use the chat function either. It seems like they are priorit…

> I can't imagine people use the chat function either.

Spammers do.

Re: Storming Reddit's Moat

#95

Post by inopinatus »

dageshi wrote: post #65
antihero wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree, for small subreddits, mods should have all the power they want to curate and garden and develop their community in the way they see fit. The great thing about Reddit is that if a mod is abusive and most users agree, there's absolutely nothing preventing you starting a new subreddit. Perhaps larger less niche subreddits should have a greater amount of accountability, though, because something like /r/canad…

Large subs like your r/canada example can and do split. r/unitedkingdom has basically been replaced by r/casualuk in size because a substantial part of its userbase was tired of its constant misery and moaning.

> tired of its constant misery and moaning

This reason to depart the UK predates the existence of Reddit by some centuries.

Re: Storming Reddit's Moat

#96

Post by buro9 »

> Because Reddit’s social graph is based on interest rather than friends, it can’t be recreated anywhere else in exactly the same way

This is the recipe for taking on Reddit... interest first.

Re: Storming Reddit's Moat

#97

Post by [deleted] »

abcdjdjd wrote: post #29
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #15

Many popular subreddits are quietly operated by moderators with industry connections. Some of this occurs naturally. People who were deep enough into a niche to become moderators of a subreddit in the late 2000s and early 2010s are also likely to end up working in that industry or starting business in that industry. However, many companies have realized that being in the good graces of subreddit moderators can be ver…

>Moderators have a lot of power to influence conversations on Reddit in non-obvious ways. You had the above quote when I was commenting on your post, but may have edited it out. But I think this line right here is also why reddit is becoming unusable and going downhill fast. Basically, moderators are given way too much power and users have no recourse against mod abuse really. Users can't vote a moderator out for exa…

[deleted]

Re: Storming Reddit's Moat

#98

Post by rozab »

cblconfederate wrote: post #51

I don't think reddit is that unique. The main problem is that forums are no longer monetizable, so people don't have an interest in maintaining and moderating separate websites, so not unbundling. My use of reddit, and what i observe in general (by looking at other people's post history) is to visit a few specific subreddits often, not the homepage, not r/all. It seems there used to be a time when everyone was there…

Reddit is unique in that it allows you to find and connect to a community with very little friction. The other day I was thinking about buying a mini PC. I googled 'mini PC reddit' and immediately find r/MiniPCs and r/sffpc. Now I can sort by top all time and see the lay of the land in the community, see which devices are popular, etc. I can ask questions and get a quick response.

If these communities were on traditional forums, I wouldn't be able to do any of this. I would never bother to make an account specifically for that forum. Some communities benefit from keeping out tourists like me, but not commercially.

Re: Storming Reddit's Moat

#99

Post by madrox »

I have a lot of admiration for Reddit. They're the only place I can still go to in 2021 that doesn't feel like getting a window into the dumpster fire that is other social networks like Twitter. The author is also quite right that they shut down viral pathways, which prevents the worst offenders. If I don't want to see politics on Reddit, I'll never see politics on Reddit.

That said, I kinda scoff at the author's casual diss of Craigslist and assessment of their advantages. Craigslist has 50 total employees, nearly a billion in revenue, and a strong mission. It's not like people haven't tried to take them on before. Reddit will not be the next Craigslist any more than r/CMV will be the next Reddit. People go to Reddit because it's easy to see good content and not see bad content. I 100% attribute that to the ability to mod, downvote, and have community-based subscriptions. The author has a pretty good sense of what makes Reddit good, but has a horrible sense of what makes Craigslist bad.

Re: Storming Reddit's Moat

#100

Post by ndiddy »

The only successful examples I've seen of Reddit "unbundling" come from communities that were banned from Reddit. This is because of a quirk of how Reddit handles subreddit bans, where if a subreddit is banned and a new one is created with a completely different moderation team, different rules, etc. it will still get banned for being a "ban evasion" subreddit. This means that banning a subreddit effectively bans any hypothetical future subreddit dedicated to the same topic. Because of this, if the community cares enough to start a new website for the topic it's highly likely that most of the users will move over there.
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