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Reddit is raising a huge round near a $3B valuation

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Re: Reddit is raising a huge round near a $3B valuation

#161

Post by perishabledave »

komali2 wrote: post #39
minimaxir wrote: post #16

I've been a fan of Reddit for a very long time (as the amount of data science work I've done with their data can attest to), but lately it seems like the incentives between Reddit as a business and Reddit as a community leader are not aligned, and that is a problem. The increasing amount of dark patterns Reddit has been employing lately is concerning. (recent example: Reddit now gates content in mobile Safari to push…

Re: "Download the app!" gates, banners, etc. Medium does this too. Why? What's the business reason? What does a native app provide the business that a mobile website doesn't?

Aside from the other mentioned reasons, browsers can have ad blockers installed. The reddit mobile app ensures they can monetize.

[edit] now that I think of it, probably the same reason Twitch was pushing its desktop app.

Re: Reddit is raising a huge round near a $3B valuation

#162

Post by ForHackernews »

blotter_paper wrote: post #100
ppod wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always thought that the day they crossed the line was when they arbitrarily changed which subreddits were default, removing some (such as /r/atheism) with no real reason. At the very early days of reddit, discussing atheism positively was still kind of unusual in the news. Then, over time, it became a very popular position and advocacy case especially among developers, and new users found the stridency and repet…

Another clear red line was when spez started editing comments.[0] It was childish and non-consequential, but should have resulted in an immediate exodus from the platform. I'm not politically aligned with r/The_Donald, but I think this sort of petty power abuse should not be forgiven; the platform needs to die, as an example to other platforms. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/5ekdy9/the_admi...

Really? I thought it was a fantastic reminder to users: they hold all the cards, and pretending otherwise is just diluting yourself.

If only other online platforms were that honest! Imagine Google sending out misleading gmails in your name, or Facebook mining your private messages for incriminating secrets and offering to "share" them with all your friends.

There's nothing technical preventing any of these kinds of abuses, and the sooner average users understand that, the sooner we'll have support for strong legal protections to rein in big tech companies.

Re: Reddit is raising a huge round near a $3B valuation

#163

Post by penagwin »

scrooched_moose wrote: post #115
KindOne wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can disable the redesign. Its also somewhere in the preferences. http://old.reddit.com

But "somehow" it forgets my preference constantly and I have to 'opt-out of redesign' several times a day. And, if you follow any links, it sends you straight back to the new version.

I think there's an option in your account settings, you don't just click the "return to old site" banner, you have to toggle a setting.

Whenever I'm logged in it's always the old version. RES helps too!

Re: Reddit is raising a huge round near a $3B valuation

#164

Post by asdff »

binarysaurus wrote: post #129
dx87 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forcing people to use a native app means they can inject ads without having to worry about being blocked by a browser extension.

Many users who use mobile adblockers will use one across the entire device (easy on rooted Android) instead of just a browser extension.

Aren't the majority of users on iOS or unrooted android?

Re: Reddit is raising a huge round near a $3B valuation

#165

Post by vvillena »

collyw wrote: post #21
brettgriffin wrote: post #5

I've given up most social media but have become obsessed with Reddit. No matter how much I use it, I'm constantly amazed that I can be immediately connected with the most knowledgeable and enthusiastic people on virtually any subject I care about. I'm not a fan of the redesign or their push to look at other social media platforms, but I understand the direction they have to go to build revenue.

> I can be immediately connected with the most knowledgeable and enthusiastic people on virtually any subject I care about. Politics on Reddit seems to fall into either The_Donald or "Orange man bad" with very little objectivity in the middle in my experience.

Personally I've found lots of quality discussion outside the usual places. /r/europe tends to have nice debates every now and then. I'm sure other regions or subjects have nice communities where people discuss things without insulting each other.

Re: Reddit is raising a huge round near a $3B valuation

#166

Post by rwc »

lftl wrote: post #159
GordonS wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2 things about Reddit's "use our app instead!" buttons: 1. They cycle through a couple of different messages, and the buttons get switched around 2. The wording is such that you read it twice and still aren't sure which button will just take you to the damn website I don't mind them promoting their app, but these dark patterns truely rile me

I'm really amazed they still let the old mobile interface work for the most part. Just add ".compact" to any URL and browse almost annoyance free (newer features like video don't work, but that's not too surprising).

I've been switching the "www" in "www.reddit.com" to "old" with good results.

Re: Reddit is raising a huge round near a $3B valuation

#167

Post by bluedino »

TarpitCarnivore wrote: post #11
dswalter wrote: post #6

I expect this raise to result in a number of enhancements to the user experience which make it a more pleasant and enjoyab[Open this link in the Reddit App?]le place to discourse.

The abundance of AMP links in Google search results, and how they purposely block actions, feels like some cheap SEO hack ala Experts Exchange in 07/08 or Quora.

Who's fault is that? They're trying to get you to use Chrome or the Reddit app to view the AMP links so I wasn't sure who to blame.

Re: Reddit is raising a huge round near a $3B valuation

#168

Post by minimaxir »

aluminussoma wrote: post #34

Ever since the site redesign in May, popularity has been falling (source: Alexa Top Websites): https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/reddit.com I hope that affected the amount of money they raised. As a reddit fan, the site redesign has not been pleasant. The mobile experience, too.

I would actually be OK with the new site design if it didn't tank performance and have some really weird caching issues where I have to refresh the page to see updates.
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