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

Re: Reddit raises $410M in new funding

#321

Post by pageandrew » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 1:10 AM UTC

le-mark wrote: post #319

pageandrew wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with the "private company" line that, yes, they're a private company, but censorship is definitely still bad! Free speech is a fundamentally protected right in the US. From the Founder's perspective, the greatest threat to that right was clearly and obviously government, because what other entity could possibly have that much reach into one's life? Up until the internet age, no one could imagine a private…

You post about free speech but appear to be quite ignorant about the topic. Example why is it considered a crime to yell “fire” in a crowded theater? Educate yourself and stop posting annoying banal rhetoric.

That’s all you have to say? The fire in a theater example (and you call me banal)? You really can’t think of any other form of speech that has been unfairly censored by social media sites?

Are you just not paying attention?

Re: Reddit raises $410M in new funding

#322

Post by kevinmchugh » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 1:14 AM UTC

tootie wrote: post #186

initplus wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing that they do not seem to be taking advantage of is how specialized many of their communities are. It seems primed for letting advertisers target to specific audiences, but as a user I don't really feel like the ads I get are targeted to what I read at all? Maybe I am uninformed but it seems like an advertising goldmine that hasn't been taken advantage of. If you are a PC components retailer, users of /r/bui…

I think the problem is that reddit culture is virulently anti-consumerist and throw a fit every time they see an ad. I'll bet they get terrible conversion rates.

There's a lot of redditors who sense a corporate conspiracy anytime a brand name is mentioned, but there's tons of subreddits entirely about consumption. Media, food, hobbies. I was active on r/homebrewing for years and people talk about products they want to buy all the time.

The trouble with those types is they all have very strong opinions and think most products are crap. They're not opposed to buying things, just shitty things.

Re: Reddit raises $410M in new funding

#323

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 1:14 AM UTC

1024core wrote: post #312

Reddit is on its way down. It's been overrun by power-tripping mods, and there's no way to appeal a perma-ban ! I've been banned from /r/india for just commenting on another sub (/r/chodi, which was recommended by the app itself!); banned from /r/worldnews for disagreeing with the herd. The moment a decent, democratic discussion forum comes along, I'll jump ship to it.

[deleted]

Re: Reddit raises $410M in new funding

#324

Post by kevinmchugh » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 1:18 AM UTC

NationalPark wrote: post #226

f6v wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not going to be Tumblr all over again if they choose to ban it. But I wonder how many people use Reddit just for nsfw.

I wonder if their problem is that the majority of their traffic is unregistered users looking at NSFW subreddits. So they may not actually have that many users they could monetize in the first place.

I thought they made NSFW require login a couple years ago

Re: Reddit raises $410M in new funding

#325

Post by le-mark » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 1:18 AM UTC

pageandrew wrote: post #321

le-mark wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You post about free speech but appear to be quite ignorant about the topic. Example why is it considered a crime to yell “fire” in a crowded theater? Educate yourself and stop posting annoying banal rhetoric.

That’s all you have to say? The fire in a theater example (and you call me banal)? You really can’t think of any other form of speech that has been unfairly censored by social media sites? Are you just not paying attention?

> you call me banal?

Your reading comprehension seems a bit lacking, casting doubt on your other statements. To be clear I am asserting that your claim censorship by private companies is unjust; that is banal, annoying, and ignorant.

Re: Reddit raises $410M in new funding

#326

Post by adzm » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 1:20 AM UTC

potatoman22 wrote: post #134

emodendroket wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So join a different community on Reddit whose rules you like better, or make one. Why does everyone have to allow everything?

I think that once a sub attracts a large amount of readers, it's unethical to block certain conversations. For large subs like /r/politics, a select few people get to control what's fed into the eyeballs of millions of people. And we don't even know what content wasn't allowed to be posted, how can we trust they're unbiased?

As a former mod of /r/politics the reality is quite mundane. The bias you see on the front page of that subreddit is pretty much entirely due to the users upvoting. The mod team is really careful to ensure nothing gets removed simply due to political differences and is internally transparent, and includes mods from a wide spectrum of political beliefs and backgrounds. Interestingly the mod team is simultaneously accused of being biased towards left and right wing politics at once!

Re: Reddit raises $410M in new funding

#327

Post by tech_tuna » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 1:20 AM UTC

jasondigitized wrote: post #293

Why does Reddit need funding? Legitimate question. What are they going to spend this money on? A direct ad sales team? I would assume it takes a somewhat small engineering and DevOps team to keep it running. Is there a huge roadmap of features that requiring $100m in engineering?

Hiring, they are on a hiring tear.

Re: Reddit raises $410M in new funding

#328

Post by uDontKnowMe » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 1:23 AM UTC

1024core wrote: post #312

Reddit is on its way down. It's been overrun by power-tripping mods, and there's no way to appeal a perma-ban ! I've been banned from /r/india for just commenting on another sub (/r/chodi, which was recommended by the app itself!); banned from /r/worldnews for disagreeing with the herd. The moment a decent, democratic discussion forum comes along, I'll jump ship to it.

What do you mean by democratic? Are you thinking of some kind of election system to replace mods, and if so have you seen such a mechanism work anywhere else on forums?

Re: Reddit raises $410M in new funding

#329

Post by tech_tuna » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 1:24 AM UTC

xeonoex wrote: post #21

weavie wrote: post #4

So, pretend you are in charge of spending $410 million dollars at Reddit. What would you spend it on? From my amateur perspective I've got, 2 web devs, 1 backend engineer, 3 devops. Pay them very generously and that's $1.2 million spent. I have no idea what I would do with the rest..

Employees cost more than just their salary, but I see your point. So far, their attempts to make reddit more profitable have made the user experience terrible. "New" reddit is way worse than old, and is full of nagging you to use the app on mobile, to the point where you can't even view the content. I've never used the official reddit app because I've heard it's terrible, and there are many great alternatives. I real…

I still use the "old reddit" mode. Cannot stand the narrow main page in the new view.

Re: Reddit raises $410M in new funding

#330

Post by jm20 » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 1:24 AM UTC

I'm so worried about what Reddit is doing to the world. Online communities like that only lend themselves to toxicity and echo chambers as they grow, and with most of us stuck at home during the pandemic those communities have become a primary source of human interaction - and not in any sort of healthy way. I sincerely think it is one of the top three factors (along with CNN and Fox News) in the dangerous level of polarization we're seeing between people in the United States.

Reddit develops it's own narratives, and those narratives end up being all that gets visibility (because of the comment upvote model). Ideas like 'all conservatives are MAGA losers, look at the idiots on /r/conservative', 'AOC and Bernie are God's gift to Earth' and 'minimum wage should be $45 and all student debt should be forgiven' are the only opinions upvoted. This directly leads to reactionary places like /r/The_Donald getting created. Then, when those communities get banned, it creates even more hostility and resentment. The best part of Donald Trump losing the election was that 80% of the front page wasn't articles shitting on him anymore.

I have to constantly remind myself that the people commenting on reddit are not an accurate representation of the real world, but I worry most people don't do that and legitimately believe people on the other side hate them. They react to this (inaccurate) belief with their own hostility and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If I had to put my conspiracy hat on - I think nurturing this hostility between ideologies would be the best way for a foreign power to destabilize the US; they're probably already doing it to some extent.

Honestly, I'd like to give it up entirely but it still remains one of the best resources of really useful, non-marketing knowledge on the internet.