The Growth of Reddit • Hacker News Board

Re: The Growth of Reddit

#161

Post by screye » Tue, Oct 30, 2018, 6:21 AM UTC

naravara wrote: post #75

propogandist wrote: post #36

Reddit was great, many years ago, although there are many sub-reddits that are still excellent today. Moves they've made in the recent years, like hiding vote counts, were to improve growth, but it has also enabled more astroturfing and censorship (widespread). More recently, they started injected tracking into outbound link clicks and introduced the terrible redesign to help with growth/monetization also. As they've…

it never occurred to me before, but seeing it in a chart like this it really seems like Reddit has basically just turned into Gamers and their side interests, politics, and a few vestiges of old Reddit, like AskReddit, which at this point might as well be their own separate site for what all they have to do with the main demographic. The Video Game sphere takes up a huge chunk of it. Then many of the other subs are b…

Interestingly enough, I almost completely ignore the gamer side of reddit.(DotA being the exception)

To me, Reddit's the last bastion to find good conversation for people with many niche interests without going too crazy. (4chan is a bit too eccentric for my tastes)

I frequent the soccer, manga, headphones, metal, male fashion, thrifting, cooking and fitness subreddits.

No other forum let's me feel like a part of such a wide array of topics with discussion being the core focus. To be able to maintain anonymity while nuturing a community is incredibly hard, and Reddit had somehow managed it. The communities in Reddit are second to none. From meta jokes to entire sagas, Reddit in some ways reminded me of the times when I played Mmorpgs and joined guilds.

The removal of custom subreddit themes was where to me it started going wrong. I didn't care what they did with the popular subreddits and r/all, as long as they left the niche subreddits alone. But no, they had to interfere.

Reddit's forced UI change is to me a symptom of a greater problem. The idea that a company never stops growing. Sometimes you hit gold and the best decision is to stick with it.

I don't think any website offers the product Reddit does, and allows easily migration for entire communities without compromises. Thus, if the current web landscape stays the same, Reddit isn't going anywhere. But, it took weeks for Digg to die once Reddit came alive, and the introduction of a well moderated website for discussion may be all it takes for the Reddit exodus.

It is no surprise, that I find myself on HN typing this comment. An HN clone may just be where Reddit refugees find their calling.

Re: The Growth of Reddit

#162

Post by mattpk » Tue, Oct 30, 2018, 7:11 AM UTC

HiroshiSan wrote: post #109

propogandist wrote: post #36

Reddit was great, many years ago, although there are many sub-reddits that are still excellent today. Moves they've made in the recent years, like hiding vote counts, were to improve growth, but it has also enabled more astroturfing and censorship (widespread). More recently, they started injected tracking into outbound link clicks and introduced the terrible redesign to help with growth/monetization also. As they've…

Not to mention their dark patterns to get you to install the mobile app while browsing on mobile.

They've recently added javascript that mimics system UI asking you if you want to open the content in the app or in the browser. I'm also almost certain that the loading bars on mobile web are artificial sleeps.

Re: The Growth of Reddit

#163

Post by StudentStuff » Tue, Oct 30, 2018, 7:18 AM UTC

chrisco255 wrote: post #160

StudentStuff wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not sure what violence in Seattle have to do with whether you need to get politically involved. Violence against minorities has significantly increased as the extreme right has gained power across the USA. > There are lots of reasons why people get assaulted most of them have nothing to do with sexual orientation. We're talking about growing threats here, the rate of assaults and murders against LGBTQ+ and numerous…

Do you have any cited evidence to support your assertions about rising violence? And are you sure that "violence against minorities" is not just a general trend? Everything I've read by the way shows that overall violence is way down but it certainly seems like mass shootings are up (but that started with Virginia Tech shooting in 2007 and has been on the rise since). I can't name a single demographic that hasn't bee…

> Do you have any cited evidence to support your assertions about rising violence?

https://www.seattle.gov/police/information-and-data/bias-cri...

50% increase between Q1 and Q3 2018, looking at historical data we're seeing double the number of hate crimes as any quarter in 2016.

> By and large gays have equal rights under the law.

Please stop calling us gays, its disrespectful & dehumanizing. We are people just like you!

We do not have equal rights under the law, and there is a patchwork of laws in select states with varying degrees of protection that cover discrimination, nevermind how most of these protections are being rolled back or fought by the federal government right now: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_the_United_Stat...

> The fear of lynching is greatly exaggerated.

Tell that to the dead gay men in Orlando, or the multiple people who've been attacked and murdered this year for being non-straight. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando_nightclub_shooting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_violence_against_LG...

> There's ignorant people in the world...but what can be done to prevent these people from being radicalized? I think that's not a political thing but a community thing.

Seems you missed what I said in the last comment. This demographic feels emboldened to hate by the current political climate. To prevent things from getting worse, we can't completely block out politics.

Re: The Growth of Reddit

#164

Post by Rainymood » Tue, Oct 30, 2018, 7:31 AM UTC

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Re: The Growth of Reddit

#165

Post by baq » Tue, Oct 30, 2018, 8:06 AM UTC

austincheney wrote: post #139

propogandist wrote: post #36

Reddit was great, many years ago, although there are many sub-reddits that are still excellent today. Moves they've made in the recent years, like hiding vote counts, were to improve growth, but it has also enabled more astroturfing and censorship (widespread). More recently, they started injected tracking into outbound link clicks and introduced the terrible redesign to help with growth/monetization also. As they've…

I deleted my account out of frustration early this year. Discussion is simply not important. Demonizing opposing opinions is very important though. Very much an anti libertarian echo chamber.

Basic group dynamics in absence of sufficient moderation. Usenet went through the same process.

Re: The Growth of Reddit

#166

Post by chrisco255 » Tue, Oct 30, 2018, 8:50 AM UTC

naravara wrote: post #81

rolleiflex wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are still some of us that are trying to keep the old internet alive. (Shameless plug: https://beta.getaether.net )

One of the cool thing, basically THE cool thing about the old internet was the exposure to a giant wide world with all different kinds of people and interests from all walks of life. It skewed technical, because you had to be technical to figure out how to work it. But once people got over an initial barrier it was cool, and it's not like there was anywhere else they could go if they wanted to reach whatever communit…

I feel like you can have good UX and still preserve aspects of the freedom of expression, interest-based discussion, two-way dialogue, and the feeling of community and openness that the 90s internet had. But I agree that you do have to have these platforms compete with the giants and that's harder to do these days.

Re: The Growth of Reddit

#167

Post by nurino » Tue, Oct 30, 2018, 9:25 AM UTC

austincheney wrote: post #139

propogandist wrote: post #36

Reddit was great, many years ago, although there are many sub-reddits that are still excellent today. Moves they've made in the recent years, like hiding vote counts, were to improve growth, but it has also enabled more astroturfing and censorship (widespread). More recently, they started injected tracking into outbound link clicks and introduced the terrible redesign to help with growth/monetization also. As they've…

I deleted my account out of frustration early this year. Discussion is simply not important. Demonizing opposing opinions is very important though. Very much an anti libertarian echo chamber.

No offence but apart from HN I wonder what community takes libertarians seriously? In fact from my experience they are mostly non-existent outside of the US, so much that libertarians are a staple of the American culture for me.

Re: The Growth of Reddit

#168

Post by ThomPete » Tue, Oct 30, 2018, 9:53 AM UTC

Karunamon wrote: post #151

ThomPete wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Civic engagement happens in the real world, not by commenting on reddit, fb or Twitter.

Civic engagement happens wherever people discuss politics

That would be quite an exaggeration. You can already see in this thread how fast the conversation deteriorate into completely meningless quibbles.

Re: The Growth of Reddit

#169

Post by TeMPOraL » Tue, Oct 30, 2018, 9:55 AM UTC

retsibsi wrote: post #108

selestify wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would the technical bubble of the old internet be so interesting and diverse, but the technical bubble if today is so "one-note"?

The suggestion is that the old internet wasn't a pure technical bubble: although the barrier to entry made it more technical than average, it was still fairly diverse because the alternative to passing that barrier was staying off the internet entirely. Now, getting online is easy, and there are millions of alternatives to the techy corners of the internet. So nobody who isn't specifically interested in that stuff ha…

OTOH, today's "technical bubble" isn't really pure technical either - technology went from being nerds-only to full mainstream popularity, and there's plenty of both technologists with other side interests, and people from other walks of life with technology as their side interest.

Re: The Growth of Reddit

#170

Post by ThomPete » Tue, Oct 30, 2018, 9:57 AM UTC

StudentStuff wrote: post #163

chrisco255 wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any cited evidence to support your assertions about rising violence? And are you sure that "violence against minorities" is not just a general trend? Everything I've read by the way shows that overall violence is way down but it certainly seems like mass shootings are up (but that started with Virginia Tech shooting in 2007 and has been on the rise since). I can't name a single demographic that hasn't bee…

> Do you have any cited evidence to support your assertions about rising violence? https://www.seattle.gov/police/information-and-data/bias-cri... 50% increase between Q1 and Q3 2018, looking at historical data we're seeing double the number of hate crimes as any quarter in 2016. > By and large gays have equal rights under the law. Please stop calling us gays, its disrespectful & dehumanizing. We are people just like…

That does not show what you want it to show and it certainly does not back up the idea that there are only few places for lgbtq people to go which is the base of your argument for why some have no choice but to be in politics.