Sunsetting Secret Santa and Reddit Gifts • Hacker News Board

Re: Sunsetting Secret Santa and Reddit Gifts

#141

Post by willis936 » Thu, Jun 10, 2021, 1:35 PM UTC

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #130

willis936 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>mobile inherently discourages longform text and encourages images As I read on a site on with no images or video and entirely in the form of thoughtful responses via mobile device.

HN, as its name indicates, do not aim at a universal demographic. The demographic it does cater to is also very likely to use a keyboard heavily during the day, and so retains some good habits of longform discourse even when contributing via mobile.

Right so then the bad habits are not tied to mobile but is rather a cousin issue. Most people use mobile and, independently, longform discourse does not have mass appeal.

Re: Sunsetting Secret Santa and Reddit Gifts

#142

Post by bob1029 » Thu, Jun 10, 2021, 1:53 PM UTC

mywacaday wrote: post #109

bob1029 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stories like reddit are why I keep telling our executive staff that I am completely against a buyout. We have one angel investor and all the control we could ever hope for. Our customers love us. Why the fuck do people screw these things up? Are they that hooked on other people's money? I feel like reddit was managing to pay the bills before the series of sellouts and poor product choices...

I fear you are the minority, the vast majority of startups are founded and funded with the hope that there will be a large cash out for the founders and investors at some point.

Yeah but to me the fuck up is when priorities went from this:

  1. Innovate and make nice things
  2. Get paid tons of money

to this:

  1. Get paid tons of money
  2. Innovate and make nice things

In my opinion, you will grow wealthy faster if you focus on product over money.

Re: Sunsetting Secret Santa and Reddit Gifts

#143

Post by dude187 » Thu, Jun 10, 2021, 2:25 PM UTC

mcherm wrote: post #97

beervirus wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And then banning the bubbles that engage in wrongthink.

Honestly, I think there has been very little banning of bubbles for "wrongthink", it's mostly been banning of bubbles for "wrongbehavior".

That's not really a fair depiction though. They ban based on "wrongthink", because active disagreement of many things is considered "wrongbehavior". The end result is a reinforcement loop of the echo chamber, with a widening of what is considered "wrong"

Re: Sunsetting Secret Santa and Reddit Gifts

#144

Post by soylentcola » Thu, Jun 10, 2021, 2:33 PM UTC

mjevans wrote: post #73

schmookeeg wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heh. Funny -- I participated in reddit secretsanta years ago, and never got anything in return. First and last secret santa from me. It's like I got scammed by one of those indian grandma-targeting call centers, but only out of like 50 bucks instead of a few grand in iTunes cards. I haven't thought about that in a long time.

If it's a gift like that and it fails, you should consider it charity. Probably charity to someone less well off. Though it still sucks, and hopefully whomever got that charity can grow from it and eventually 'pay it forward'. Which should make the change from Reddit even worse :(

Yeah, I did a few (several years ago) and got "stiffed" once.

I always just looked at it as a gift - something given freely and willingly without any demand for anything in return.

Sure, I was bummed because I love seeing what people send me, but I didn't get bent out of shape over it. I signed up because at the time I was financially stable and wanted to do something nice and fun for someone. Mission success.

Re: Sunsetting Secret Santa and Reddit Gifts

#145

Post by soylentcola » Thu, Jun 10, 2021, 2:35 PM UTC

ValentinPearce wrote: post #115

pasabagi wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing I find weird is that they essentially paid money to degrade the user experience to the extent that large parts of previously OK functionality don't work anymore, and subreddit mods typically advise people to use the 'old' UI. I mean, the new UI is not to my taste, but it is also just really buggy, slow, and full of things that straightforwardly don't work (videos, search, etc). Now, I'm not an MBA, but I do…

My guess would be that newer users that decide to stay move to the app on mobile where they can't have an ad blocker

My system-wide adblocker works fine on the mobile app. I just hate having a dedicated app with related permissions/notifications to manage just to access a website.

Re: Sunsetting Secret Santa and Reddit Gifts

#146

Post by uDontKnowMe » Thu, Jun 10, 2021, 2:44 PM UTC

koheripbal wrote: post #119

pasabagi wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing I find weird is that they essentially paid money to degrade the user experience to the extent that large parts of previously OK functionality don't work anymore, and subreddit mods typically advise people to use the 'old' UI. I mean, the new UI is not to my taste, but it is also just really buggy, slow, and full of things that straightforwardly don't work (videos, search, etc). Now, I'm not an MBA, but I do…

Reddit is actively trying to reduce the average age of their userbase. The mobile app, and forcing kids to install the mobile app, is a big part of that effort. Getting teenagers in high school addicted to Reddit is a huge part of their strategy, and it's very evident in the way the front page content has shifted in the last decade. The bigger issue is that while a lot of older users remain in the niche subs, I find…

There are actually a fair number if you go looking, in my opinion Lemmy seems to be the best alternative these days and seems to get at least a bit of traffic.

Re: Sunsetting Secret Santa and Reddit Gifts

#147

Post by xanaxagoras » Thu, Jun 10, 2021, 3:43 PM UTC

jayd16 wrote: post #63

xanaxagoras wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me reddit lost sight of why I used the site about 3 years ago, or maybe that's just when it got bad enough that I no longer felt unsubscribing from all defaults was a suitable solution. There's really nowhere left to hide from the rigorous enforcement of orthodox leftist thought. It's mostly a mutual admiration society where the boundaries of allowed disagreement and interesting discussion may touch here and ther…

>There's really nowhere left to hide from the rigorous enforcement of orthodox leftist thought. Whats your thought on sites like voat that were seen as escapes but immediately turned into cesspools and then ghost towns?

I popped onto voat from time to time pretty much for its entire duration and I saw it become more and more of a cesspool. I think it and sites like it are a consequence of a mainstream internet culture that strictly enforces a toxic ideology on the opposite end of the spectrum. On the one hand it seems dangerous like a fringe radicalization factory of some sort. On the other hand, while it was easier to see on voat because of how shocking the language was, I don't think it was much different from the type of vitriol, hate and close mindedness one encounters daily on r/politics and other defaults.

Re: Sunsetting Secret Santa and Reddit Gifts

#148

Post by acoard » Thu, Jun 10, 2021, 3:56 PM UTC

pseudo0 wrote: post #34

Rebelgecko wrote: post #17

Maybe I'm not the typical user, but to me reddit seems to be losing sight of why people use the site. They're killing aspects of the community that people actually care about. In the meantime, most of the site's new features seem to be centered around avatars and selling cosmetic microtransactions. I can't blame them too much for trying to monetize, but I wish their strategies were more inclusive of the way I use red…

Their push for people to use the mobile app has gotten user-hostile to the point of ridiculousness. Some subreddits now just prompt you to either continue in the app or return to the homepage, there's no option to continue in the mobile browser.

I use Apollo on iOS, and recently discovered I can click the share button (at top right of new reddit design), and then select "Open with Apollo".

Yes, it'd be nice if I could auto-open reddit links in my client of choice, but it's like a two-or-three tap thing. I use it increasingly often.

Re: Sunsetting Secret Santa and Reddit Gifts

#149

Post by sneak » Thu, Jun 10, 2021, 4:12 PM UTC

ThePowerOfFuet wrote: post #71

sneak wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new Reddit web UI is literally unusable: many links simply pop a modal where the options are "go back" or "install the app".

98% of my reddit consumption is via Apollo on iOS, which is still an excellent experience.

Sadly, Apollo is spyware. :(

Re: Sunsetting Secret Santa and Reddit Gifts

#150

Post by ThePowerOfFuet » Thu, Jun 10, 2021, 4:15 PM UTC

sneak wrote: post #149

ThePowerOfFuet wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

98% of my reddit consumption is via Apollo on iOS, which is still an excellent experience.

Sadly, Apollo is spyware. :(

>Sadly, Apollo is spyware. :(

Their App Store privacy report, as well as the app developer's explicit privacy policy, directly contradicts you. Could you kindly back that up with some evidence, or is this more FUD from you?