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Reeddit - Minimalist, elastic and read-only web app client for Reddit

berbaquero.github.com

51–60 of 99 posts

Re: Reeddit - Minimalist, elastic and read-only web app client for Reddit

#51
post #4

Looks good. I'm always looking for better ways to read reddit. I don't like their UI. I've been experimenting with the best way to read reddit. My first idea was a specialized browser that has 5 tabs open. When you close one tab, another automatically opens with the next unread story from the current subreddit. That way, as fast as you could smack Ctrl+W, you'd get the the next unread story, already loaded. It worked…

The biggest problems with reddit aren't so much how to read it, but rather what can be read there. Most of the major subreddits are no longer worth following, unless you're interested in hipsterism or curious about the meme-of-the-hour. The smaller subreddits generally have limited traffic, resulting in very slow discussion. Email mailing lists are far superior for discussions with this size of a community. Censorshi…

>Censorship has become an issue within some subreddits, too. It's not about getting rid of blatant spammers any more. Far too often we've seen contributing, albeit unorthodox, members of these communities banned for expressing views that may be controversial, but still worth expressing.

Reddit's problem has never been spam. In fact, you alluded to it earlier in your post: it's quality.

"Censorship", aka moderation, is necessary to promote quality content. Wikipedia, /., and SO are all heavily moderated. So, too, is HN. Without moderation (censorship, in your words), content regresses to the LCD. This is bad, and worth preventing. Moderation achieves that.

Re: Reeddit - Minimalist, elastic and read-only web app client for Reddit

#52
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>That's not a legitimate way of thinking about the problem, though. Some of the communities in question are very large and powerful places; making a popular comment there can have a large impact on a huge number of people's lives. Perspective, please. I believe you seriously overstate the impact of having a popular post on an internet discussion board. In any case, that doesn't really change my point. >And many of th…

> Perspective, please. I believe you seriously overstate the impact of having a popular post on an internet discussion board. Really? Well, first, tens of thousands of people clicked on Obama's link and filled out the voting information on Election day. Sure, that's an extreme and rare example, but a popular link can influence democracy. More realistically, though: my life has been dramatically altered and formed by…

> I cannot enjoy using a site where hundreds of thousands of people will read 'climate change is fake!!! scientists are liars!!' with no rebuttal, while I'm off participating in a thread about pythonisms.

You could say the exact same thing about the internet. All the stupid things people are saying out on the internet doesn't seem to stop you from using it.

Re: Reeddit - Minimalist, elastic and read-only web app client for Reddit

#53
post #42

Honestly IMO the biggest problem with reddit's subreddit UX is that you can't choose the ratio of which subreddits are most important to you. Unfortunately you're not really fixing that... I think that would be more powerful than showing groups of subreddits. In other words, I should be able to say "I want 30% of my links to come from r/worldnews, 10% from r/science, 5% each from r/biology, r/programming, r/chemistry…

"I want 30% of my links to come from r/worldnews, 10% from r/science, 5% each from r/biology, r/programming, r/chemistry, r/physics, r/neuro, 20% from r/foodforthought, and 20% from r/truereddit."

Huh. That's a really good idea.

Re: Reeddit - Minimalist, elastic and read-only web app client for Reddit

#55
post #42

Honestly IMO the biggest problem with reddit's subreddit UX is that you can't choose the ratio of which subreddits are most important to you. Unfortunately you're not really fixing that... I think that would be more powerful than showing groups of subreddits. In other words, I should be able to say "I want 30% of my links to come from r/worldnews, 10% from r/science, 5% each from r/biology, r/programming, r/chemistry…

"I want 30% of my links to come from r/worldnews, 10% from r/science, 5% each from r/biology, r/programming, r/chemistry, r/physics, r/neuro, 20% from r/foodforthought, and 20% from r/truereddit." Huh. That's a really good idea.

It is, but I think it's tough to do well. Google+ implements this thing where you tell it how much of each circle to show, but then you have to do these weights up front.

Ideally system would try to figure out what you like by measuring time spent reading threads, upvotes, link clicks, etc and automatically set those weights for you. This doesn't preclude giving users the options manually setting weights, which could be another useful signal.

Re: Reeddit - Minimalist, elastic and read-only web app client for Reddit

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest problems with reddit aren't so much how to read it, but rather what can be read there. Most of the major subreddits are no longer worth following, unless you're interested in hipsterism or curious about the meme-of-the-hour. The smaller subreddits generally have limited traffic, resulting in very slow discussion. Email mailing lists are far superior for discussions with this size of a community. Censorshi…

>Censorship has become an issue within some subreddits, too. It's not about getting rid of blatant spammers any more. Far too often we've seen contributing, albeit unorthodox, members of these communities banned for expressing views that may be controversial, but still worth expressing. Reddit's problem has never been spam. In fact, you alluded to it earlier in your post: it's quality. "Censorship", aka moderation, i…

Moderation on the basis of ideological purity does not produce "quality content," just an artificial ideological uniformity.

Re: Reeddit - Minimalist, elastic and read-only web app client for Reddit

#59
post #40
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is a good thing. No, it's not. The moderators of r/conservative think that climate change is a hoax. If you write an on-topic, polite comment that even suggests that climate change is real, you will be banned . This is a terrible, terrible way to run a community. The conservatives on reddit live in a bubble where all science is banned. It's not a positive state of affairs. (Edit: I'm not conservative, but I fr…

That's their right, though. The same process that allows a teen to invade a subreddit and fill it with memes is the same thing that allows anyone to invade a subreddit and fill it with their opinions. No matter how valid that opinion is, it's still disruptive to a community. If subreddits are to be self-policing, they can't be obligated to not live in a bubble, however unfortunate that bubble may be, if that is what…

It's their right to make their own site and run it as they please, but that doesn't mean it's a good way to design a site like Reddit.

SA moderation works because of the cost of admission

Re: Reeddit - Minimalist, elastic and read-only web app client for Reddit

#60
post #42

Honestly IMO the biggest problem with reddit's subreddit UX is that you can't choose the ratio of which subreddits are most important to you. Unfortunately you're not really fixing that... I think that would be more powerful than showing groups of subreddits. In other words, I should be able to say "I want 30% of my links to come from r/worldnews, 10% from r/science, 5% each from r/biology, r/programming, r/chemistry…

Also that r/atheism keeps up-voting itself. As a Atheist from birth I find them obnoxious and repetitive.
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