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How Alexis Ohanian Built a Front Page of the Internet

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Re: How Alexis Ohanian Built a Front Page of the Internet

#81

Post by graeme »

peterwwillis wrote: post #5

What the front page of the internet looks like today: * Image with overlayed snarky text * Another image * Another image... * The Daily Show clip * Another image * Another image * News article about Julian Assange * Another image * News article about guy doing something strange (which is actually really old) * Reddit question thread about Tarantino films * Youtube clip * "Ask Me Anything" request thread * Story on mo…

The subreddits are the real story. Took me a while to realize that, but now I'm hooked. I've learned so much the past few weeks from various communities.

Reddit allows subreddits a lot of freedom in creating local cultures. There is so much potential.

I may be over-excited about this because I just became the moderator of the subreddit in my niche. Previously I was building up a blog on my own, with some traffic, but little engagement or feedback.

Now www.reddit.com/r/LSAT instantly has 125 readers, and tons of engagement and trust. I'm so excited to think about what I can build it into.

Re: How Alexis Ohanian Built a Front Page of the Internet

#82

Post by dageshi »

peterwwillis wrote: post #73
dageshi wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it depressing when holier than thou hipsters pop up to whine about how depressing popular things are... which seems to occur with increasing frequency on HN nowadays.

I'm 27. I stopped getting mad at popular things around 22, when I realized popularity is just a side-effect of the target market appeal of a thing and does not in itself constitute something negative. However, when you have a site with completely user-generated and user-upvoted content, the product is made by the people. So if the product is crap, it's actually because the people are crap. Combine this with the idea…

My view is that it isn't the nature of the people on that site it's the nature of the frame of mind those people are in on that site. There's a link that was posted here a while ago which I think explains it.

http://jeff-vogel.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/whittling-part-of-b...

"The human brain just seems to have a need for resting, for passing some time in a low-energy state. Computer role-playing games are perfect for that. When I fight fifty basically identical combats against darkspawn in Dragon Age or spend five hours finally getting my level 13 druid in World of Warcraft to level 14 or piled a hundred bricks on top of other bricks in Minecraft, I’ve done more than waste my time. I’ve given by brain rest that, for reasons I can’t begin to understand, it craved."

This rings incredibly true to me and I think many of the people who are reading this comment and who have read reddit & HN today are doing exactly this, they're putting their brain into a low(ish) energy state to give it a rest. I'm not implying that we're in that state all the time, if something of particular interest pops up we can be jolted out of it into something much more productive but for the most part people are grazing over the news and seeing what's going on in the particular corner of the internet they're interested in. All while not having to think too hard.

So what irritates me is people who look down on others because they like to watch reality tv, or read bad vampire romance novels or play video games when actually they themselves do similar but different "low energy" activities, only they've convinced themselves that their activities are better and more worthy and that everyone else is just wasting their time.

Re: How Alexis Ohanian Built a Front Page of the Internet

#83

Post by planetguy »

awj wrote: post #64
planetguy wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you go by the default it's got the most mass market appeal Well, not really "mass market" appeal, just appeal to the incredibly narrow and apparently homogeneous subslice of the world's population that fits into the reddit demographic. If you're not aged 15-25, college-educated (or college-bound), left-wing, atheist, obsessively interested in every one of the typical geeky pursuits, and already intimately familiar…

...do you actually use reddit, or is this just something you believe? As someone who only really fits one of your criteria (college education), I evidently don't exist, as I have a good experience on reddit. They have large communities for not-stereotypical-geekery like fitness[1], martial arts[2], and home brewing[3]. Yes, the uncustomized "homepage of the internet" is a giant wad of time-wasting activity. To be hon…

not-stereotypical-geekery like ... martial arts[2]

lol?

Re: How Alexis Ohanian Built a Front Page of the Internet

#84

Post by moultano »

kn0thing wrote: post #25
tylermenezes wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can log in and customize it. The default set of subreddits is bound to be low-quality.

I cannot upvote this enough. Thanks. edit, with bonus explanation! We need to do a better job helping new(and old) redditors realize the thousands of communities they could be joining for a diverse blend of content that interests them. When Steve and I started reddit, we had no categories because it was simple -- and Steve loves simple. Now that we've got scores of vibrant communities discussing links about things ra…

Communities are a great start, but I feel like reddit is missing out on central observations about how things get upvoted: Things that you can upvote quickly get upvoted more.

Suppose there are two links of equal quality. (Whatever that means.) One is a photograph that I can digest in 10 seconds of wow. One is an article that I can read in half an hour of wow.

The photograph I upvote immediately because I'm done and move on. The article I read for half an hour, return to my redditing shell shocked and amazed, and upvote.

Now if something has to get a high volume of upvotes quickly to make it to the front page and linger, you're going to see a lot of quick content, and not a lot of slow content, because the click upvote cycle is just faster.

This feels like a social problem, but it's actual a technical problem. Long stuff gets upvotes slower than short stuff, and nothing in the system accounts for that. The social problem emerges from the technical problem.

Re: How Alexis Ohanian Built a Front Page of the Internet

#86

Post by awj »

planetguy wrote: post #83
awj wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...do you actually use reddit, or is this just something you believe? As someone who only really fits one of your criteria (college education), I evidently don't exist, as I have a good experience on reddit. They have large communities for not-stereotypical-geekery like fitness[1], martial arts[2], and home brewing[3]. Yes, the uncustomized "homepage of the internet" is a giant wad of time-wasting activity. To be hon…

not-stereotypical-geekery like ... martial arts[2] lol?

...is this what passes for "discussion" on HN?

Re: How Alexis Ohanian Built a Front Page of the Internet

#87

Post by borism »

peterwwillis wrote: post #5

What the front page of the internet looks like today: * Image with overlayed snarky text * Another image * Another image... * The Daily Show clip * Another image * Another image * News article about Julian Assange * Another image * News article about guy doing something strange (which is actually really old) * Reddit question thread about Tarantino films * Youtube clip * "Ask Me Anything" request thread * Story on mo…

I thought you were talking about your Facebook feed.

reddit is frontpage of the internet? for who?

Re: How Alexis Ohanian Built a Front Page of the Internet

#88

Post by peterwwillis »

dageshi wrote: post #82
peterwwillis wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm 27. I stopped getting mad at popular things around 22, when I realized popularity is just a side-effect of the target market appeal of a thing and does not in itself constitute something negative. However, when you have a site with completely user-generated and user-upvoted content, the product is made by the people. So if the product is crap, it's actually because the people are crap. Combine this with the idea…

My view is that it isn't the nature of the people on that site it's the nature of the frame of mind those people are in on that site. There's a link that was posted here a while ago which I think explains it. http://jeff-vogel.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/whittling-part-of-b... "The human brain just seems to have a need for resting, for passing some time in a low-energy state. Computer role-playing games are perfect for th…

I agree with you that hypocritically judging a form of entertainment is wrong. But I don't see Reddit as just a low-energy activity to pass the time. I see it as something that shapes the minds, personalities and interactions of people in ways which can become a negative if started at a young age or continued for a long period of time. The content being less than inspiring is only a small part of the problem.

The big problem is that this incredibly popular site basically breeds a time-sink ethic, much like Facebook or MySpace, where you can waste hours and hours and have less to show for it than if you were watching porn. Heck, even video games at least develop quick hand-eye reflex and possibly strategy. It's like the TV generation, where kids sat for hours and hours on end staring at the "boob tube" turning their minds slowly to mush and influencing them in perhaps imperceptible ways. Except now they have peers to encourage their Reddit-inspired thoughts and actions.

And finally, as just a general representation of the Internet, it looks like a big pile of useless shit and maybe one or two nuggets of titillating but otherwise unenlightening news clips. Culturally bankrupt and moronic with a kind of perpetual recycling machine for lame content. If this was what I saw when I first got to the internet, i'd unplug the modem and go back to trying to find something good on TV.

Re: How Alexis Ohanian Built a Front Page of the Internet

#89

Post by iskander »

peterwwillis wrote: post #5

What the front page of the internet looks like today: * Image with overlayed snarky text * Another image * Another image... * The Daily Show clip * Another image * Another image * News article about Julian Assange * Another image * News article about guy doing something strange (which is actually really old) * Reddit question thread about Tarantino films * Youtube clip * "Ask Me Anything" request thread * Story on mo…

The raw quantity of quality content on reddit is staggering. It just requires a little effort on your part to actually make an account and subscribe to good subreddits.

Re: How Alexis Ohanian Built a Front Page of the Internet

#90

Post by fghh45sdfhr3 »

peterwwillis wrote: post #5

What the front page of the internet looks like today: * Image with overlayed snarky text * Another image * Another image... * The Daily Show clip * Another image * Another image * News article about Julian Assange * Another image * News article about guy doing something strange (which is actually really old) * Reddit question thread about Tarantino films * Youtube clip * "Ask Me Anything" request thread * Story on mo…

It is only depressing if you don't know how to drop and add sub-reddits. Or maybe if you don't know math, and have no idea what the greatest common denominator is, or why people most often say lowest when they mean greatest.

The front page of reddit is a humanity GCD which means it is pretty darn low or shallow if you will. Unsubscribe from it. I also recommend unsubscribing from pics, politics, wtf, and yes even funny. Then add sub-reddits you are interested in, askscience is a good one.

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