An account is now required to read Reddit comment threads? • Hacker News Board

Re: An account is now required to read Reddit comment threads?

#121

Post by MentallyRetired » Fri, Dec 13, 2019, 2:51 PM UTC

jermaustin1 wrote: post #106

WhompingWindows wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish Reddit had gone the way of VLC -- keep your core product, the thing people liked, and stop chasing profits. Why do so many of these companies fall to the profit motive and lose their "soul"?

Paying staff? Hosting costs? Recouping money for the time they spent on it?

Right? It's almost as if they have expenses to pay for. They provide value and they're entitled to earn a profit off of it. As a small business owner myself, I'm surprised by the amount of people who expect everything to be free.

Re: An account is now required to read Reddit comment threads?

#122

Post by criddell » Fri, Dec 13, 2019, 2:51 PM UTC

WhompingWindows wrote: post #100

Someone1234 wrote: post #45

This is classic shortermism. Reddit is, in the short term, driving more external users towards creating user accounts while in the long term removing one of the major value funnels for why they would (i.e. the quality of comments, particularly in certain niche communities/about niche topics). This will give them a short term "bump" at the cost of the site's long term relevance (as it falls down Google's search result…

I wish Reddit had gone the way of VLC -- keep your core product, the thing people liked, and stop chasing profits. Why do so many of these companies fall to the profit motive and lose their "soul"?

I'm guessing profit was the motive from day one.

Re: An account is now required to read Reddit comment threads?

#123

Post by voxic11 » Fri, Dec 13, 2019, 2:52 PM UTC

jermaustin1 wrote: post #106

WhompingWindows wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish Reddit had gone the way of VLC -- keep your core product, the thing people liked, and stop chasing profits. Why do so many of these companies fall to the profit motive and lose their "soul"?

Paying staff? Hosting costs? Recouping money for the time they spent on it?

They already were keeping up with hosting costs at least with the old Reddit gold donations.

Also profits pay for non of the things you listed, profits pay for investors.

Re: An account is now required to read Reddit comment threads?

#124

Post by Cephalopterus » Fri, Dec 13, 2019, 2:52 PM UTC

jackcosgrove wrote: post #113

Someone1234 wrote: post #45

This is classic shortermism. Reddit is, in the short term, driving more external users towards creating user accounts while in the long term removing one of the major value funnels for why they would (i.e. the quality of comments, particularly in certain niche communities/about niche topics). This will give them a short term "bump" at the cost of the site's long term relevance (as it falls down Google's search result…

Nothing lasts forever. Reddit is 14 years old. They've had a good run. I think there is a general trend away from user-generated content as a business model, because that content can be a bit salty. Reddit might just be cashing out because the wave they rode has already crested.

> because that content can be a bit salty.

AKA the fate of every site that is a collection of usergenerated content with an ad based business model. If you want to get serious about monetization then you need to actively curtail any content that is not "advertiser friendly" which in most cases means alienating your core content generators, case in point, Tumblr.

Re: An account is now required to read Reddit comment threads?

#125

Post by BlueTemplar » Fri, Dec 13, 2019, 2:55 PM UTC

imglorp wrote: post #84

mietek wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

12 year club; charter member; already gone.

Similar, 65k, but still hanging on. I mod a couple small subs. My observation is the worst aspect of monetization is on the communities themselves. For the first half, say, it was standard spectrum: some trolls and schmucks but for the most part regular folks with something to say. April Fools projects from the admins wowed us year after year at the creativity and cordiality. Then came the ads and the apps, no picnic…

There are some things on Reddit that I thankfully rarely experience, but that drive me absolutely mad when I do : automatic thread locking after some time and shadow bans.

Both of these violate netiquette!

As a reminder, proper netiquette is to necropost instead of creating a duplicate thread.

And shadow banning is not a tool that most moderators should even have, and should only be used against the most horrible trolls!

Re: An account is now required to read Reddit comment threads?

#126

Post by erisinger » Fri, Dec 13, 2019, 2:56 PM UTC

jermaustin1 wrote: post #106

WhompingWindows wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish Reddit had gone the way of VLC -- keep your core product, the thing people liked, and stop chasing profits. Why do so many of these companies fall to the profit motive and lose their "soul"?

Paying staff? Hosting costs? Recouping money for the time they spent on it?

OP might like r/ChoosingBeggars...

Re: An account is now required to read Reddit comment threads?

#127

Post by bovermyer » Fri, Dec 13, 2019, 2:59 PM UTC

So, who's up for going back to forums with small but active communities?

Re: An account is now required to read Reddit comment threads?

#128

Post by beowulfey » Fri, Dec 13, 2019, 2:59 PM UTC

AJ007 wrote: post #80

mietek wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

12 year club; charter member; already gone.

What are you using now? I’ve been an active member of various communities and forums over the years (excluding reddit), and I never actively left one. It was always just a realization I hadn’t been to the site (or really aging myself, BBS) in a year. Most of them where daily habits at one point.

I use tildes now, although it’s still growing I like the community so far. Small site, very open to feedback, open source and (most importantly) it’s non-profit.

Re: An account is now required to read Reddit comment threads?

#129

Post by gherkinnn » Fri, Dec 13, 2019, 2:59 PM UTC

azangru wrote: post #118

gherkinnn wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently browsed reddit after years of abstinence. The “view discussion” and “view more comments” buttons are just utter, utter shite. It is near impossible to read all of the comments. It’s clearly designed to satisfy KPIs other than actually reading a post. More like superficially bouncing from one post to the next, dropping an upboat and off you go. I sincerely hope all these sign in-only forums with great SEO l…

> It’s clearly designed to satisfy KPIs other than actually reading a post I thought / heard from someone that the View more comments button is a technical solution for preventing overfetching or excessively deep queries. Never crossed my mind for a second to connect it to KPIs.

A sound solution one might think.

But then I’d expect a “load more” button to expand a new level, and fetch those comments, leaving the rest in tact. Not to go to a new page and only show a subset of the comments yo want to load and hide the comments it displayed just a click away.

Instead the new page is rather short and has a completely different post at the bottom. It’s all about engagement. And more ads. But I hide em, so no idea where these are.

Re: An account is now required to read Reddit comment threads?

#130

Post by kissickas » Fri, Dec 13, 2019, 3:01 PM UTC

lghh wrote: post #98

AJ007 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you using now? I’ve been an active member of various communities and forums over the years (excluding reddit), and I never actively left one. It was always just a realization I hadn’t been to the site (or really aging myself, BBS) in a year. Most of them where daily habits at one point.

I wonder if there is a market for a Reddit alternative that is somehow treads the line between being a cesspool like that one site that tried to replace Reddit when they banned a lot of fascist stuff was and that other site that infantilized everyone. Is there a middle ground? I feel like treading it would be useful.

The first one you're referencing is voat.co. I can't remember the name of the second, but I do remember cute-looking dinosaurs all over the place and I think that's the one you're talking about.

Side note - I thought Victoria Taylor (/u/chooter) left for that competitor, but it appears that she was at WeWork and now at LinkedIn (as of August - just in time!)