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Reddit valued at $6B on a $250M round

reuters.com

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Re: Reddit valued at $6B on a $250M round

#371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Maybe, but... You're comparing it to facebook. There's whole countries for whom internet = facebook. Facebook could have very well been a major element in 2016 USA elections. It has a magnitude more users than reddit (although the number is gradually getting closer). It's much more opaque than reddit, who knows what really goes inside of it.

I mean, it's Facebook. If you're arguing that something has bigger reach than Facebook, you need more than those arguments.

Re: Reddit valued at $6B on a $250M round

#372

308 comments at the time of this writing, and no one has talked about the fact that -- given the relative user counts and traffic -- all of normal subs are just a legitimacy-conferring facade over the NSFW content? Reddit is the largest non-MindGeek porn site on the internet. I would guess that the revenue from this side is what makes the whole thing work.

What revenue? I'm pretty sure NSFW subs don't have ads.

Re: Reddit valued at $6B on a $250M round

#373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite reddit search result story: I asked a question once on Reddit, got no answer, figured it out on my own, then added my solution to the thread because I've been saved countless times by the guy that does that on the internet and I wanted to pay it forward. A couple years later, I have the same problem and remember solving it but don't remember how, search it and find my own answer. This distils down basical…

Unless it's a non-tech issue, I'd recommend Stack Exchange for those types of things. The issue with Reddit is that they lock all threads over a year old which makes them a poor mechanism to keep updated answers to questions.

Locking it in a year is better than locking it right away.

Re: Reddit valued at $6B on a $250M round

#374
My theory with Reddit is this:

1. The value of the _content_ goes up as the community gets bigger. r/BetterEveryLoop is great because of the content, not the silly comments.

2. The value of the _community_ goes up when the community is smaller. I'm into board games, and the various subreddits for specific games are useful and interesting. Same with some of the cooking subreddits. (This assumes the community is good intentioned)

Of course, that's a rule of thumb, and there are lots of exceptions in both directions. But in general, active and small communities tend to be the most truly useful parts of reddit.

Re: Reddit valued at $6B on a $250M round

#375
post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit has weathered countless dramas over the last years without noticeable negative after-effects. Basically, once or twice a year they get some outrage, shed the outermost layer of bullshit and that's it. And since it's almost always either far-right stuff (t_d, chimpire, incels, greatawakening, pizzagate), morally obscene stuff (jailbait, watchpeopledie, gore, deepfakes), discriminatory stuff (fph, gendercritical…

The fact that you can name that many controversies off the top of your head kinda proves my point though. Only a matter of time until they get hit with a big freak wave one, or they severely mishandle one

gotta admit, I cheated and copied the list from Wikipedia.

Anyway, they managed to get rid of the two largest threats to their business model (jailbait w/ all the issues that come with hosting borderline pedophilia content, and the entire t_d clusterfuck with the threat of an unhinged President looming) without any major issues other than a couple conservative talkshow people whining.

As long as Reddit flows with the "zeitgeist", there isn't much that can threaten them.

Re: Reddit valued at $6B on a $250M round

#376

Congrats to them big time. It seriously doesn't get the recognition it deserves as the most impactful social media platform. To me, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, and other social media today is less about connecting people and really about driving targeted and calculated impressions of X to audiences via a user's feed. This is astro-turfed to feel organic and botted to death by everyone because of how much influence it…

I don't get that valuation, though. I've been on reddit for 13 years (today!) and I have never once purchased anything I've seen advertised there - because I never see anything advertised there. I don't run ad blockers or anything. How do they justify a $6 billion valuation?

They still have a huge amount of your attention...that has to be valuable somehow. Maybe only in nefarious ways.

Re: Reddit valued at $6B on a $250M round

#377
post #63

Reddit is an intentionally designed dopamine machine with some areas of usefulness. There are pockets of great, high signal communities on Reddit that have not been unbundled. Discovery, however, is a mess. Some examples of some great subs: - HomeImprorvement is great for repair advice - Keto was helpful in my weight loss journey - Posture for, well, fixing my posture I've also bought and sold various digital and phy…

Reddit appified USENET.

Re: Reddit valued at $6B on a $250M round

#379
post #63

Reddit is an intentionally designed dopamine machine with some areas of usefulness. There are pockets of great, high signal communities on Reddit that have not been unbundled. Discovery, however, is a mess. Some examples of some great subs: - HomeImprorvement is great for repair advice - Keto was helpful in my weight loss journey - Posture for, well, fixing my posture I've also bought and sold various digital and phy…

> intentionally designed dopamine machine

Sounds nefarious, but can't you say the same thing about say music?

Re: Reddit valued at $6B on a $250M round

#380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget r/askhistorians One of the most well-moderated communities out there with clear and stringently enforced rules that cares about one topic only and allows no soap boxing, low quality comments or toxicity.

The issue with /r/askhistorians is that someone can make a well-sourced, high-quality answer, but if letters next to their name (for which you must submit verification for) don't match up well enough with the content of what you're answering, your comment is just deleted. I understand the appeal of getting answers "real" historians, but the reality is that the vast, vast majority of questions go unanswered.

Did this really happen? I thought they didn't care about credentials as long as you know your stuff, deliver a comprehensive answer and can provide sources.

Just don't cite "Hard Core History" or "Guns, Germs and Steel" as your source.

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