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Fark redesign is now live (2007)

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271–280 of 475 posts

Re: Fark redesign is now live (2007)

#271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

pg would tell him to push through this, get the IPO, cash out, and then leave Reddit to become an angel investor. Plus, pg would make money off the IPO. It’s a YC company after all.

pg has enough money. It’s not his primary motive.

Capitalist's only motive is money, everything else be damned.

Re: Fark redesign is now live (2007)

#272
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

at this point, there is only 1 way to save reddit, and it's so drastic that they wont do it because the ones who need to do it are too blind or too far away * fire spez * promise a clear committed roadmap of mod tools * promise to review 3rd party API pricing, and delay the current rollout It's literally the only way that will be accepted by the 1% that keep the site running (read the Ennui engine principle)

Or they can continue their failed attempts at using chatgpt to astroturf a counter-movement, lol: https://i.imgur.com/4e9jO7P.jpg Edit, some context: https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/146wn9s/commen... (spez / reddit ceo is a mod on r/programming, hence it still being up)

I don't know what happened with r/programming (I couldn't find the mod channel), but I just took it private, assuming the other mods just forgot about it.

Then again, it's spez's subreddit, so maybe he wants it public (in which case he can just flip it back).

Re: Fark redesign is now live (2007)

#273
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

at this point, there is only 1 way to save reddit, and it's so drastic that they wont do it because the ones who need to do it are too blind or too far away * fire spez * promise a clear committed roadmap of mod tools * promise to review 3rd party API pricing, and delay the current rollout It's literally the only way that will be accepted by the 1% that keep the site running (read the Ennui engine principle)

Is there any good reads wrt the blowback on cost of the API? I've only read that it costs $0.25 per 1000 calls which seems relatively cheap, but I haven't looked into how it affects use cases.

https://www.reddit.com/r/redditdev/comments/144l86y/takeaway...

Re: Fark redesign is now live (2007)

#274
post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotal feeling alert: I think some people won't need an alternate. I am just letting reddit go. I don't get enough value from it to care of it exists anymore. I let Twitter go after the free speech absolutists super sensitive filter flagged me for saying I hope Microsoft burns for what a nightmare they've made their os (trying to help a non savvy user use a local account), I did the automated appeal assuming conte…

I never used Reddit the way you describe. I use it as a forum for niche interests and it’s decent for that. Similar to php based forums but it’s one login and plenty of participants.

Tech can go elsewhere. The niche interests can't. At least not as easily.

The obvious competitor for those is still Facebook, but FB's algo is actively hostile to the long-list-of-active-forums UX that makes Reddit work so well.

Re: Fark redesign is now live (2007)

#276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There were times like this in the past (the changes when Pao became CEO and later the censorship through quarantining of multiple subreddits came to my mind, but there were others). I think the main reason there was no exodus similar to Digg's is not due to good policy on Reddit's side (it became increasingly worse over time) but the lack of a competitor that could quickly scale to receive a migration without going d…

I think this lack of competitor is the key. When. people talk about Digg dying, that was during the Reddit vs Digg period. Now it's Reddit vs what? Many people love a drama so will beef this event up, but I suspect they will be back to usual soon enough. At the same time I feel Reddit should respond to this with something positive for general goodwill as there is value in that for the day there is an alternative. Whi…

> Now it's Reddit vs what?

Nothing is an option. Separately from the API drama, I’ve been questioning whether Reddit is a net benefit in my life. Everyone can draw their own conclusion to that question, and I won’t try to convince anyone.

However, for myself, if I’m forced to use the official desktop or mobile app, I’m definitely not going to use Reddit at all, alternative or not.

Re: Fark redesign is now live (2007)

#277
post #71
post #12

I have a 14yo reddit account, and was a Digg user for years prior to that. While there were scandals like the HDDVD code stuff, ultimately the user-hostile Digg v4 redesign killed it for me- the day they forced it on everyone I never went back. Tonight watching all the subreddits go private is the first time I’ve ever felt like Reddit is the next to die. If anyone from reddit corporate is reading this, understand tha…

at this point, there is only 1 way to save reddit, and it's so drastic that they wont do it because the ones who need to do it are too blind or too far away * fire spez * promise a clear committed roadmap of mod tools * promise to review 3rd party API pricing, and delay the current rollout It's literally the only way that will be accepted by the 1% that keep the site running (read the Ennui engine principle)

Much as Elon Musk has not managed to kill Twitter, despite nationwide, breathless, reporting to that effect, I don’t think that the Reddit situation is anywhere nearly as drastic as people striking would like to believe. Yes, twitter users have fled and given Mastodon a day in the sun, and the site’s constituency has undoubtedly shifted, but its dominance still seems fairly secure.

Reddit is playing with fire, this could all go horribly wrong for them. I just don’t find it likely. Reddit is really, really big. Those 1% add a lot of value to the site but without it the site is still quite valuable. 1% of users can eventually be replaced and it won’t catch fire in the meantime.

The reddit user base is largely unaware of any of this and will forever remain passive users. I’m confident spez took one look at third party app user counts and said, “worth it.” If Reddit does IPO I expect it to become only more popular. Time will tell.

Re: Fark redesign is now live (2007)

#278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit won't die for the same reason Facebook won't... there's no real viable alternative for the majority of the users. It might become a bit shitter, it might lose a few users who are a bit more tech savvy or from the "old days of the internet" who'll find themselves fedi or forum based alternatives but the majority will keep getting what they want out of it without a reason to move - most users probably use the of…

I've seen UseNet die, so I'm not so sure. What Reddit does (and UseNet before it) is really niche. There aren't as many people on Reddit as there are on Facebook and Reddit isn't as entangled with people's 'real' life as much as social media is.

You are right with your last sentence, but reddit is anything but niche. It attracts even politicians and other celebrities, albeit typically only for Q&As. Arnold Schwarzenegger and William Shattner post there for fun with their real names, who knows how many post under pseudonyms. The beauty of reddit is that it attracts even non-technical people who share their insight in their domain (usually anonymous, so to be taken with a grain of salt - but it's usually plausible precisely because reddit is so popular).

Re: Fark redesign is now live (2007)

#279
post #85
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Current ads at Reddit are not that bad, it is nothing like youtube which is borderline unwatchable at the moment. But for Reddit general there is like lot of astroturfing currently and if Reddit could start capturing some value from that and same time show for regular user that this is commercial/pr account would be win-win for Reddit and regular users.

I would bet money that Reddit has the highest percentage of ad blocking users. Either by way of browser extension or third party apps. They just don't have enough impressions to cover the outlandish costs associated with running the site. Combined with lax content moderation policies, advertisers see more value going with third parties that can push a viral story about a product to the homepage. There is no one probl…

> I would bet money that Reddit has the highest percentage of ad blocking users.

And Reddit's response is to block web browsers almost entirely (on mobile), and try to force people to use the app.

Maybe their next step will be to force use of a desktop app and disappear from the web entirely...

Re: Fark redesign is now live (2007)

#280
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit is still not profitable.

If one of the most visited website/app in the world with highly cacheable and free content can't be profitable the internet is doomed. But did they try to be?

How is reddit highly cacheable? Maybe old/infrequently accessed discussions are cacheable, but the live set is too dynamic. So there probably isnt much of a win there.

The feeds are definitely not cacheable (except for maybe on a per user basis with a low ttl). Popular and all are never the same upon reload. And every user is going to have a different combination of subreddits. Those feeds have to be generated on the fly. Most of the data is too dynamic and ever-changing to cache effectively.

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