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The Reddit Front Page Is Not a Meritocracy

toddwschneider.com

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Re: The Reddit Front Page Is Not a Meritocracy

#31

Post by Pxtl »

mrfusion wrote: post #3

Dumb question but what is the reddit front page? Isn't it customized for everyone depending on what you're subscribed to? Or are there a ton of users that never log in? It seems like you wouldn't get much value out of reddit if you just view the front page without logging in?

The default front page is also the default set of reddits you're assigned when you create a new account. There is tremendous inertia there so the "front page" is still a useful concept.

Also, there's /r/all, which tends to closely mirror the front-page since non-default subreddits rarely climb in /r/all

Re: The Reddit Front Page Is Not a Meritocracy

#32

Post by sigmar »

Guvante wrote: post #11
selmnoo wrote: post #4

One thing I'm interested in knowing is whether Reddit manipulates the votes on its own submissions. See, for example, r/blog: http://www.reddit.com/r/blog/new/ Every submission made there went to the frontpage. What are the chances? I mean, it's hard to believe that mainstream Redditors at this point are so interested in Reddit news that they keep sending every Reddit announcement to the top. What's more likely, to m…

1500 people hitting up arrow because the poster is an admin is believable to me given Reddit's size.

This seems likely to me as the same thing seems to occur when a moderator on a small subreddit makes a post (even without making it stickied). Users seem to take it upon themselves to upvote out of reverence.

Re: The Reddit Front Page Is Not a Meritocracy

#33

Post by skwirl »

mrfusion wrote: post #13
ThomPete wrote: post #7

I left reddit years ago (and found HN) because although I agree with mostly liberal views it became too much of an echo-chamber for liberal views the frontpage is the extreme example of that. There are many great sub-reddits of course but it's not a place for politicial discussions (in fact I am still looking for a good place to have political discussions) Edit: Why does my personal experience get downvoted?

It's odd the Ron Paul was popular on Reddit for a while though. How do you explain that?

Ron Paul was "popular" on almost every website on the internet because his fanatical supporters flooded the web with an endless barrage of Ron Paul support. Reddit, newspaper comments, other discussion boards, polls, you name it, they were there to tell the world about Ron Paul. They were a very loud minority.

Re: The Reddit Front Page Is Not a Meritocracy

#34

Post by phillmv »

This is a gorgeous post and I shiver at the thought of how much work went into this! Thoughtful, detailed and chock full of great visualizations of the data. I'd be interested in a similar analysis of HN, as I'm interested in the editorial intent thus revealed.

On tangential note, though, I was a bit surprised by the hypothesis. 'Meritocracy' to begin with is a dubious fiction, but especially so when mapped on to the vote distribution of a given post in a semi-decentralized human-moderated environment that is constantly being gamed. "Merit" just seems like a big value judgement over such a noisy channel.

Re: The Reddit Front Page Is Not a Meritocracy

#35

Post by vuldin »

This is an interesting study into how Reddit works, but I have to say that I'm fine with the fact that Reddit is neither a meritocracy or democracy when it comes to how posts make it to the front page. I'd rather not see any more funny or aww posts on the front page than are already there (I can go to their subreddits directly when I want to).

In fact, I'd rather see a variety of posts from subreddits I don't usually go to or usually follow. I want to see thing I don't already follow. Most posts I end up liking are ones I find in the subreddits I visit. I'd like my front page to give me posts from other unsubscribed subreddits so that I may end up expanding which subreddits I'm subscribed to.

Re: The Reddit Front Page Is Not a Meritocracy

#36

Post by rkuykendall-com »

selmnoo wrote: post #4

One thing I'm interested in knowing is whether Reddit manipulates the votes on its own submissions. See, for example, r/blog: http://www.reddit.com/r/blog/new/ Every submission made there went to the frontpage. What are the chances? I mean, it's hard to believe that mainstream Redditors at this point are so interested in Reddit news that they keep sending every Reddit announcement to the top. What's more likely, to m…

> it's hard to believe that mainstream Redditors at this point are so interested in Reddit news that they keep sending every Reddit announcement to the top.

"Mainstream Redditors" don't decide what is on the homepage because they don't vote. Only about 20% of redditors vote, and only about 20% of voters comment [1].

If you still find it hard to believe, just read the 900+ comments written in less than a day on their most recent post, which announced nothing and was just about how it's nice to be nice to people.

[1] http://www.quora.com/reddit-website/What-percent-of-Redditor...

Re: The Reddit Front Page Is Not a Meritocracy

#37

Post by Alex3917 »

mrfusion wrote: post #13
ThomPete wrote: post #7

I left reddit years ago (and found HN) because although I agree with mostly liberal views it became too much of an echo-chamber for liberal views the frontpage is the extreme example of that. There are many great sub-reddits of course but it's not a place for politicial discussions (in fact I am still looking for a good place to have political discussions) Edit: Why does my personal experience get downvoted?

It's odd the Ron Paul was popular on Reddit for a while though. How do you explain that?

Because there were no liberals running for the Republican nomination, so many/most liberals would rather support a libertarian than a conservative.

Re: The Reddit Front Page Is Not a Meritocracy

#38

Post by tomphoolery »

vuldin wrote: post #35

This is an interesting study into how Reddit works, but I have to say that I'm fine with the fact that Reddit is neither a meritocracy or democracy when it comes to how posts make it to the front page. I'd rather not see any more funny or aww posts on the front page than are already there (I can go to their subreddits directly when I want to). In fact, I'd rather see a variety of posts from subreddits I don't usually…

> In fact, I'd rather see a variety of posts from subreddits I don't usually go to or usually follow.

There is a little line of text on the top of the reddit front page called "trending subreddits"...I've found a bunch of cool stuff that way http://imgur.com/okDu5AN

But of course, the best way to find new subreddits is to read the first 5 or so comments on a weird gif or picture. Someone will link to either subreddit that it came from, or a subreddit where it could have been posted.

Re: The Reddit Front Page Is Not a Meritocracy

#39

Post by [deleted] »

vuldin wrote: post #35

This is an interesting study into how Reddit works, but I have to say that I'm fine with the fact that Reddit is neither a meritocracy or democracy when it comes to how posts make it to the front page. I'd rather not see any more funny or aww posts on the front page than are already there (I can go to their subreddits directly when I want to). In fact, I'd rather see a variety of posts from subreddits I don't usually…

[deleted]

Re: The Reddit Front Page Is Not a Meritocracy

#40

Post by Guvante »

ehmorris wrote: post #30
Guvante wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1500 people hitting up arrow because the poster is an admin is believable to me given Reddit's size.

The score does not correlate directly w/ number of upvotes

It is close enough, especially for content that is not likely to be down voted.
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