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What Reddit Got Wrong

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Re: What Reddit Got Wrong

#171

Post by nitwit005 »

mvdtnz wrote: post #135
MostlyStable wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) Compared to what? It's really important to compare those reddit results to elsewhere and not the hypothetical "best" answer. Yeah, reddit answers are often not great, but in my experience, the rest of google search has, over the past 10 years, gone to complete and utter shit. If I don't already know where to look (and just want google to get me there faster), 99% of my results are going to be useless blogspam. 2)…

1) As always it depends on the query. For categories like cars/engines, gardening/landscaping and DIY stuff I've found that a Bing search often outperforms Google because it returns a dedicated section for internet discussions that isn't focused completely on Reddit. Here's an example of that section from a search about manifolds for an old engine[0]. There is a TON of (actually good) community discussion on such top…

For a subject like pesticides that is both emotionally fraught, and the subject of multi-billion dollar lawsuits, I'm genuinely not sure you can find accurate information anywhere. People are careful to say things like "not supported by credible science", because the industry has paid for some of the research.

Re: What Reddit Got Wrong

#172

Post by hotpotamus »

trts wrote: post #129
mvdtnz wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The amount of mindless "me too!" and "here's how that works /confidentlyincorrect" This is what gets me about all the people lately claiming that the only way to get good Google results is to append site:reddit.com - I have spent enough time looking at Reddit threads to know I would never trust them for important information. People who post on Reddit are very often just completely wrong, and often that wrongness b…

it's a fairly common and incredible experience for me to see people on reddit assert the most inane drivel that collect hundreds or thousands of upvotes and enthusiastic agreement. It makes me feel some combination of 1. Reddit is flooded with bots or brigades that seem to have cryptic agendas 2. My own reality is really far afield and the internet is bursting that bubble OR 3. The present young adult generation exis…

Number 3 just seems like a fancy way of saying that you're getting older. Not that I disagree; I'm also getting older.

Re: What Reddit Got Wrong

#173

Post by JohnFen »

MostlyStable wrote: post #124
mvdtnz wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The amount of mindless "me too!" and "here's how that works /confidentlyincorrect" This is what gets me about all the people lately claiming that the only way to get good Google results is to append site:reddit.com - I have spent enough time looking at Reddit threads to know I would never trust them for important information. People who post on Reddit are very often just completely wrong, and often that wrongness b…

1) Compared to what? It's really important to compare those reddit results to elsewhere and not the hypothetical "best" answer. Yeah, reddit answers are often not great, but in my experience, the rest of google search has, over the past 10 years, gone to complete and utter shit. If I don't already know where to look (and just want google to get me there faster), 99% of my results are going to be useless blogspam. 2)…

> reddit answers are often not great, but in my experience, the rest of google search has, over the past 10 years, gone to complete and utter shit.

Fascinating.

I've read so many comments here about how people search reddit specifically in order to get better results, but I've never understood this. I don't find reddit to be better enough for that sort of thing to be worth going to reddit as a first choice.

Perhaps this explains it? I stopped using Google search a few years back because I find it hard to get to useful sites using it.

Are people comparing reddit-specific searches to general Google search results? That would be the explanation, because if I had to chose between the two, I'd go with a reddit-first approach, too.

Re: What Reddit Got Wrong

#174

Post by wvenable »

incomingpain wrote: post #11

There are a dozen better reasons to quit reddit. The only reason people are protesting api pricing is because they want to protest. The actual concern here isn't what they are protesting. They want to quit but they can't. They likely even realize they are addicted. They likely even realize the content they view is censored and curated to manipulate them. Just quit reddit already and be happy.

I'm purposely avoiding reddit right now even though several niche communities only exist there. I've been using 3rd party apps for maybe 15 years now (Alien Blue first and now Relay for 10 years). I'm directly affected by this and I think they handled it poorly.

Re: What Reddit Got Wrong

#176

Post by raverbashing »

ravenstine wrote: post #136
dale_glass wrote: post #3

I think the idea put out by some people here that Reddit might be in the process of radically changing tracks is plausible. Reddit was always very hands-off. They had lots of very unpleasant and controversial content until their hand was forced. Overall they seem to want a site that runs itself as much as possible and over time content that required interaction and management (eg, AMAs, Secret Santa) got de-prioritiz…

All you have to do is look at what every other social media platform has done, which is devolve into an infinite scroll of the following: - Kitty/puppy videos - Exotic street food - girls with shorts/leggings showing buttcrack or cameltoe acting oblivious or holding a product (i.e. using ambiguous sexuality to sell something) - Someone doing some kind of weird elaborate craft as a form of spectacle - Twerking or faux…

You're right about people eating this shit up of course

But the question is if people will willingly remain on a Reddit which is just like Tiktok or YT shorts or Instagram, etc and has no differentiator

Especially with their lousy mobile experience

Re: What Reddit Got Wrong

#177

Post by tootie »

chaosjevil wrote: post #33

The main problem with this article is that it's only handling the current events, without taking into account that Reddit has a long-standing history of user-hostile decisions. For example... let's talk about The_Donald, shall we? (inb4: I'm not from USA, "Trump" and "Biden" for me are just "some leaders from some tacoland", so I'm not emotionally attached into this matter.) Some users were protesting that The_Donald…

You know who handled this really well and got pilloried for it? Ellen Pao. She took a solid stand on the right side of the issue and got shredded by the user base for it. I think she was very forward thinking in how the problem could spiral and that the business was predicated on being an enjoyable environment with absolutely no obligation to dangerous or hurtful users.

If it was possible to uphold every fundamental human right and be commercially successful at the same time, we wouldn't need a government.

Re: What Reddit Got Wrong

#178

Post by stevenhubertron »

satvikpendem wrote: post #10
a2tech wrote: post #2

Basically they forgot they built a site built on community and then tried to sell those communities like inanimate objects. No surprise it blew up in there face.

> We have not seen any significant revenue impact so far and we will continue to monitor. From Steve Huffman, Reddit CEO: https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/13/23759559/reddit-internal-... Nothing blew up in their face. It's almost as if the vast majority of users simply don't care about this kind of drama.

Perhaps there was no revenue impact because Reddit has not revenue to speak of and the monthly true up with their advertisers hadn't yet happened?

Re: What Reddit Got Wrong

#179

Post by shmatt »

guerrilla wrote: post #109
mvdtnz wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Like you really think people are so power hungry they'd sign up to do this for free while being restricted to using only one finger to do all of the work or something absurd like that? Isn't that exactly what people have been doing for well over a decade?

No, third parties made tools for them (and some automated things themselves.) Now those tools are being taken away from them. They would basically have to pay to be mods to continue doing things the way they were being done. That's my understanding of the situation anyway.

then resigning would have been the way to go. shutting off access to the knowledge base others contributed to is a power play

if you volunteer at a dog shelter, and find you don't agree with some of their practices anymore. do you stop volunteering? or do you just set all the dogs free

Re: What Reddit Got Wrong

#180

Post by hgs3 »

WalterBright wrote: post #21

> Reddit is transparent about the fact that the company is not profitable. There's the fundamental problem. The bills need to be paid.

> The bills need to be paid.

Could Reddit not have gone the 501(c)(3) route like the Wikimedia Foundation? Wikipedia has an immense amount of content, moderation, high traffic, open API, and they manage to keep the lights on.

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