Reddit raises $410M in new funding • Hacker News Board

Re: Reddit raises $410M in new funding

#201

Post by bserge » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 10:01 PM UTC

kiba wrote: post #101

paulpauper wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the mods are even worse than admins in many respects. mods for popular subs have considerable control over what is allowed or not. Many subs have enormous blacklists of users,domains,and even words. As well as stupid, arbitrary content guidelines pertaining to length, the title, the body, and other stuff. Reddit admins have the most power but they tend to not get involved unless a sitewide rule is broken.

That's what make reddit great. Certain reddit are heavily moderated and you get great content. If you don't like how moderation done, go start your own reddit.

No no no, first you need to find several admins. Otherwise you'll get banned along with your subreddit lmao

Re: Reddit raises $410M in new funding

#202

Post by imnotreallynew » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 10:03 PM UTC

Something that hasn’t been brought up in this thread is the massive problem Reddit has regarding large scale bot networks.

Reddit allows for unlimited account creation and has extremely poor, if any, detection algorithms. Additionally, its trivial to stream and analyze the entirety of Reddit comments and posts in real time (check out PRAW if you like Python).

Networks pushing COVID narratives and crypto frauds are probably the worst offenders. Here’s an example I just came across in /r/miami: https://reddit.com/r/Miami/comments/p1z6a7/have_you_guys_see.... The networks pushing certain COVID narratives are evening more troubling as, unlike crypto, im not sure what the end game is or who is controlling those networks.

Re: Reddit raises $410M in new funding

#203

Post by underwater » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 10:03 PM UTC

pageandrew wrote: post #117

paulpauper wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the mods are even worse than admins in many respects. mods for popular subs have considerable control over what is allowed or not. Many subs have enormous blacklists of users,domains,and even words. As well as stupid, arbitrary content guidelines pertaining to length, the title, the body, and other stuff. Reddit admins have the most power but they tend to not get involved unless a sitewide rule is broken.

I've been permanently banned from almost all of the top COVID related subs for daring to discuss disallowed topics, like the Wuhan lab, as well as expressing anti-lockdown sentiments. My appeals have been instantly denied as well. I understand the idea that subreddits are user-run communities and should be able to self-moderate, but there are a couple problems with this: 1. Reddit claims to be the "front page of the…

Giving fringe viewpoints a megaphone and that kind of validation is a terrible idea. We have seen it be abused and fail us consistently over the last decade in both mainstream and social media.

Re: Reddit raises $410M in new funding

#204

Post by allochthon » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 10:04 PM UTC

closeparen wrote: post #191

themanmaran wrote: post #7

I'm honestly surprised to learn that Reddit is still VC dependant. Seems strange to me that a 16 year old company still isn't self sustaining.

Reddit's user base is poor and disaffected young men. Those might be valuable eyeballs to a warlord or a revolutionary but corporate America isn't buying.

I used to have a similar impression. Gradually my view has changed. I now see it as one of the best sources of information on the internet on specific topics.

Re: Reddit raises $410M in new funding

#205

Post by ltbarcly3 » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 10:05 PM UTC

Reddit is 16 years old. It's one of the largest sites on the internet by views, users, time on site, any metric you would care about. They have something like 500 FTE's, which is tiny compared to lots of other sites with far less traffic.

It's basically the perfect combination of high traffic and low costs, and they have raised close to a billion dollars in funding. If they aren't profitable now, they are very unlikely to ever be profitable. I think it's likely they will sell to one of the big players (I would guess FB) in the next 5 years or so. If that goes the 'usual way', whoever acquires them will immediately let the site fall apart and eventually shut it down, and in the meantime a new hot reddit/digg/slashdot like site will emerge to take it's place almost overnight.

Re: Reddit raises $410M in new funding

#206

Post by xfitm3 » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 10:05 PM UTC

pageandrew wrote: post #117

paulpauper wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the mods are even worse than admins in many respects. mods for popular subs have considerable control over what is allowed or not. Many subs have enormous blacklists of users,domains,and even words. As well as stupid, arbitrary content guidelines pertaining to length, the title, the body, and other stuff. Reddit admins have the most power but they tend to not get involved unless a sitewide rule is broken.

I've been permanently banned from almost all of the top COVID related subs for daring to discuss disallowed topics, like the Wuhan lab, as well as expressing anti-lockdown sentiments. My appeals have been instantly denied as well. I understand the idea that subreddits are user-run communities and should be able to self-moderate, but there are a couple problems with this: 1. Reddit claims to be the "front page of the…

Reddit was a bastion of free speech but it's suffered a steep decline in quality and content. It's a toxic place with heavy handed dark UI patterns: they've lost their minds over there.

Re: Reddit raises $410M in new funding

#207

Post by MuffinFlavored » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 10:06 PM UTC

imnotreallynew wrote: post #202

Something that hasn’t been brought up in this thread is the massive problem Reddit has regarding large scale bot networks. Reddit allows for unlimited account creation and has extremely poor, if any, detection algorithms. Additionally, its trivial to stream and analyze the entirety of Reddit comments and posts in real time (check out PRAW if you like Python). Networks pushing COVID narratives and crypto frauds are pr…

> Reddit allows for unlimited account creation and has extremely poor, if any, detection algorithms.

Why don't they put some CAPTCHAs? They have no CAPTCHAs anywhere in account creation + post first time comment + first time thread + first time direct message?

Re: Reddit raises $410M in new funding

#208

Post by handmodel » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 10:08 PM UTC

imnotreallynew wrote: post #202

Something that hasn’t been brought up in this thread is the massive problem Reddit has regarding large scale bot networks. Reddit allows for unlimited account creation and has extremely poor, if any, detection algorithms. Additionally, its trivial to stream and analyze the entirety of Reddit comments and posts in real time (check out PRAW if you like Python). Networks pushing COVID narratives and crypto frauds are pr…

I wouldn't say this isn't a problem at all but the fact that subs have mods which have a lot of power seems to be very effective.

I don't spend that much time on reddit as a whole - but frequent about 5-7 subs every single day. These are mostly medium sized subs and none of them have a problem of spam. And I'm on them enough that it is by far the social media/news site I interact with the most.

Re: Reddit raises $410M in new funding

#209

Post by closeparen » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 10:09 PM UTC

allochthon wrote: post #204

closeparen wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit's user base is poor and disaffected young men. Those might be valuable eyeballs to a warlord or a revolutionary but corporate America isn't buying.

I used to have a similar impression. Gradually my view has changed. I now see it as one of the best sources of information on the internet on specific topics.

The question for an advertising business is how much do the people interested in those topics spend, and how hard are they to reach elsewhere.

Re: Reddit raises $410M in new funding

#210

Post by mFixman » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 10:09 PM UTC

fnord77 wrote: post #2

yet reddit feels like it is dying. non-political subs with very obvious political agendas. The illusion of popularity-based ranking of articles when in reality it is mostly curated Zero transparency on the moderators the big news and political subs Control freak moderators on special interest subs. Some big investors don't seem to be able to accurately gauge what an internet property is worth. Look at Verizon buying…

Every website or internet community that I've used for over a year feels to me like it's dying, including HN.

It's a natural reaction to change.

I've been on Reddit for 11 years, and all your comments could apply to 2010 Reddit as well as they apply to 2021 Reddit. At least edgy memes on /r/atheism aren't a core part of the site anymore.