Is there any way to short this?
I would take a long-term short on it. I've been using Reddit for 12 years (just checked my badge), and it gets a little worse each year. I just don't see it being relevant in another 12.
Reddit valued at $6B on a $250M round
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Re: Reddit valued at $6B on a $250M round
#22[deleted]
Re: Reddit valued at $6B on a $250M round
#23Reddit seems even better than Facebook at owning your mind.
I have friends that are addicted to reddit and their world view is basically the reddit front page. There are many great subreddits, but the front page is completely gamed and owned by a small number of people. Even innocuous subs like pics or mildlyinteresting are coopted at a moments notice to push whatever the prevailing agenda is. There is almost no critical thought or countervailing opinions in discussion. A few years ago you could sort by controversial and see some interesting discussions. Nowadays if you do that there is nothing but toilet humor and other lewd content. I rarely use the site anymore as it is about as subtle as being hit over the head with a lead pipe.
Re: Reddit valued at $6B on a $250M round
#24I imagine a great deal of Reddit's value comes from the fact that its front page is essentially a mass viral advertising engine under the guise of original content.
I remember reading only a handful of moderators control all of reddit's most popular subreddits, the ones frequently hitting the front page. These I'm sure are just sock accounts for marketing firms to use when they mass promote content. I wonder how much of the front page is even "real" content these days, not just an advertisement.
The smaller niche communities are what make Reddit great for me. I guess a rigged front page is the price we pay to have so many quality smaller subreddits.
Re: Reddit valued at $6B on a $250M round
#25Seems quite expensive. Reddit doesn't make substantial revenues, so I'm not sure what investors will gain with yet another funding round.
Re: Reddit valued at $6B on a $250M round
#26Reddit seems even better than Facebook at owning your mind.
Considering the enormity of what you're saying, more details would be nice.
Reddit is a tool for promoting groupthink and is quite easily controlled. Some of it is organic where the mob mentality is grown through upvoting and downvoting independent thoughts and unpopular opinions. Some of it is brigading and bots from private organizations and governments aimed to shape that public opinion. And some it is from mods in a form of super powering that upvote and downvote.
I do not believe it is that controversial to suppose that most non-niche subreddits are being manipulated by one of more of the above.
Re: Reddit valued at $6B on a $250M round
#27Saddens me how far the site has fallen. The abysmal mobile experience shoehorning you into using their low quality app is frustrating. It makes sense, need to monetize and appeal to the average internet user, but it bums me out there isn't a great replacement as of now. Many small communities that I like, but one of my favorite search queries is "_________ reddit" Need to understand timeshares? Want the best rice coo…
I think a lot of that has to do with changes in the google search algorithm. Years goneby forum posts and discussion boards were frequently featured at the top of many searches. Nowadays you have to give google a hint as you suggest. I don’t know why it was changed, but I suspect that the reason is that very few forums have ads on them and google would prefer to send you to ad rich sites.
Re: Reddit valued at $6B on a $250M round
#28Saddens me how far the site has fallen. The abysmal mobile experience shoehorning you into using their low quality app is frustrating. It makes sense, need to monetize and appeal to the average internet user, but it bums me out there isn't a great replacement as of now. Many small communities that I like, but one of my favorite search queries is "_________ reddit" Need to understand timeshares? Want the best rice coo…
Reddit is great if you unsubscribe from all the default subreddits and subscribe to programming subreddits (I'm subscribed to apachespark, julia, python, rust, vim, etc.).
My Reddit feed now has more programming related articles than Hackernews.
Re: Reddit valued at $6B on a $250M round
#29Saddens me how far the site has fallen. The abysmal mobile experience shoehorning you into using their low quality app is frustrating. It makes sense, need to monetize and appeal to the average internet user, but it bums me out there isn't a great replacement as of now. Many small communities that I like, but one of my favorite search queries is "_________ reddit" Need to understand timeshares? Want the best rice coo…
Or use DDG and do !r ____.
Re: Reddit valued at $6B on a $250M round
#30Saddens me how far the site has fallen. The abysmal mobile experience shoehorning you into using their low quality app is frustrating. It makes sense, need to monetize and appeal to the average internet user, but it bums me out there isn't a great replacement as of now. Many small communities that I like, but one of my favorite search queries is "_________ reddit" Need to understand timeshares? Want the best rice coo…
I think the app works great. And the conversations are usually pretty good too as long as each side is willing to be civil. Particularly in my local city/community subs.
For example, my local city sub is like NextDoor only without the nut jobs and constant "my Pitbull got loose in the park again" posts.