Betaworks has acquired the core assets of Digg • Hacker News Board

Re: Betaworks has acquired the core assets of Digg

#131

Post by obtu » Fri, Jul 13, 2012, 10:18 AM UTC

Gormo wrote: post #108

citricsquid wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The replies you'll get are "you make your own reddit, just remove the popular subreddits!" but you're right. reddit is usable for hardcore users that want to invest real time into their experience, it's atrocious for casual users (that don't care for the meme spam). There is a large hole that (new) Digg could fill.

I'm not sure that 'hardcore' is the right requirement for Reddit usability. It takes all of 5 minutes for a new user to register an account, then customize their subreddit subscriptions. That said, it's the default front page that provides new users with their first Reddit experience, and sets the tone for their overall impression of the site, and when they've got r/pics, r/WTF, r/politics, and r/atheism on the defau…

What else could the defaults be, though? The good communities are smaller and better moderated, but they don't have the resources to police anyone who signs up for an account. As it is they get the users who bother to change their subscriptions from the default, and that's an useful filter.

Nudging the participants in some of the big communities into better commenting behaviour seems achievable (less users go vote in comment threads, most communities manage being self-policing), but driving out the meme generators isn't achievable from votes only. They are what the lowest-common denominator of the user base wants to see, and what they upvote.

On the other hand some of the smaller communities would benefit from more recruitment, particularly of dedicated users, but that doesn't have to come from the frontpage. Tapping into other social networks, via things like twitter sharing and per-subreddit twitter accounts (like StackExchange does), would be a good avenue for that.

Re: Betaworks has acquired the core assets of Digg

#132

Post by stcredzero » Fri, Jul 13, 2012, 10:57 AM UTC

thaumaturgy wrote: post #96

citricsquid wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The replies you'll get are "you make your own reddit, just remove the popular subreddits!" but you're right. reddit is usable for hardcore users that want to invest real time into their experience, it's atrocious for casual users (that don't care for the meme spam). There is a large hole that (new) Digg could fill.

I agree, but I think that Reddit is only usable for a specific subset of hardcore users. Unfortunately, Reddit's admins chose to take a hands-off approach to policing bad behavior in the community. As a result, Reddit regulars have to guard themselves against providing enough information in their comments to attract the attention of a diligent troll. I had a 5-year-old account on Reddit, and had been active on there…

I had a 5-year-old account on Reddit, and had been active on there from just about the beginning. I had hand-picked subreddits and the like. But, ultimately, it was better just to delete my account entirely and become a casual reader.

Wow, could you fill us in on exactly what happened?

Re: Betaworks has acquired the core assets of Digg

#133

Post by marknutter » Fri, Jul 13, 2012, 4:49 PM UTC

codexon wrote: post #113

marknutter wrote: post #50

This is a case of a company having delusions of grandeur. Instead of humming along with 10 or so employees raking in cash hand-over fist, they tried to grow as fast and as large as possible to try to revolutionize news. Instead, Reddit did the former and is stable and profitable; it never pretends to be something it's not. Not all companies are going to change the world, nor should they. I see Facebook and Twitter ma…

As someone who used Digg and Reddit from their infancy I have been able to observe when and how Digg fell from #1. I don't think they failed because they were having delusions of grandeur. The 1st mistake that Digg made was the introduction of power users. As a power user your stories were artificially boosted to the front page. After this happened, I noticed a huge decline in quality where the front page became most…

Please; power users were controlling the content on the site long before they turned 3.0 on. It was a well known fact that a small minority of users controlled the vast majority of the front page content (mrbabyman, for instance).

Re: Betaworks has acquired the core assets of Digg

#134

Post by reefoctopus » Fri, Jul 13, 2012, 4:50 PM UTC

citricsquid wrote: post #69

blhack wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it doesn't. Go to the front page of reddit right now and try to find me a piece of news. I see 2 items out of 25 links. One of them is a [linkbait title] story about wikileaks winning a case against VISA (in iceland). The other is about a Canadian supreme court ruling.

The replies you'll get are "you make your own reddit, just remove the popular subreddits!" but you're right. reddit is usable for hardcore users that want to invest real time into their experience, it's atrocious for casual users (that don't care for the meme spam). There is a large hole that (new) Digg could fill.

You can still find news on reddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/truereddit

Re: Betaworks has acquired the core assets of Digg

#135

Post by codexon » Fri, Jul 13, 2012, 8:08 PM UTC

marknutter wrote: post #133

codexon wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who used Digg and Reddit from their infancy I have been able to observe when and how Digg fell from #1. I don't think they failed because they were having delusions of grandeur. The 1st mistake that Digg made was the introduction of power users. As a power user your stories were artificially boosted to the front page. After this happened, I noticed a huge decline in quality where the front page became most…

Please; power users were controlling the content on the site long before they turned 3.0 on. It was a well known fact that a small minority of users controlled the vast majority of the front page content (mrbabyman, for instance).

I know this. I was just quoting someone else.

I remember when power users came out far before v3. That was when I started browsing Reddit more often.

Re: Betaworks has acquired the core assets of Digg

#136

Post by gosu » Sat, Jul 14, 2012, 8:55 PM UTC

citricsquid wrote: post #69

blhack wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it doesn't. Go to the front page of reddit right now and try to find me a piece of news. I see 2 items out of 25 links. One of them is a [linkbait title] story about wikileaks winning a case against VISA (in iceland). The other is about a Canadian supreme court ruling.

The replies you'll get are "you make your own reddit, just remove the popular subreddits!" but you're right. reddit is usable for hardcore users that want to invest real time into their experience, it's atrocious for casual users (that don't care for the meme spam). There is a large hole that (new) Digg could fill.

I've been on Reddit for four years, and I don't think that it's usable for even hardcore users. The people attracted by the front page invariably find their way to the subreddits too. And the overall mood of the place encourages even the best users to be goofy.

There are still good submissions in very small and highly technical subreddits, but those get very few posts.

I visit reddit because I'm honest-to-god addicted, but at some point my self respect is going to win out.

Re: Betaworks has acquired the core assets of Digg

#137

Post by GFischer » Mon, Jul 16, 2012, 12:40 PM UTC

alaskamiller wrote: post #107

justincormack wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No thats not the case. Reddit is not that important. But Digg is dead.

Reddit is a newer version of big board community. Have you participated in an online community? To a segment of people, http://www.big-boards.com/ , it is their life.

Any kind of community can become very addictive, especially to people that are going through a lonely period with a lot of free time.

I know of somebody that's deeply engrossed with Skyscraper City even though she isn't an architect, just because it has an encouraging community and she has a 4 hour commute and works in multiple cities (which makes it very hard to get into an offline community)