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Reddit is still in turmoil

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Re: Reddit is still in turmoil

#181

Post by adrianN »

brokenmachine wrote: post #71
twblalock wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think so. Actions toward others have a much larger societal impact than privately held beliefs. For example, if someone has racist beliefs which do not affect his actions in any way, his effect on other people in society would be exactly the same as it would be if he did not have racist beliefs. In other words, beliefs that are not acted on or expressed have no effect on society. There may be some social benefit to…

I can't imagine a situation where someone has beliefs that do not affect his actions in any way. I would agree that unexpressed values would propagate less.

There are probably many people who are sexually attracted to children but don't act on these feelings in any way.

Re: Reddit is still in turmoil

#182

Post by vintermann »

a_small_island wrote: post #130
cerrelio wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see why they want to create their own curated content. A friend of mine has created and run several user-generated content sites and he said: "user generated content is worthless; largely racism and porn." It's driven by the lowest common denominator. As long as content is hosted on company-controlled servers where ad revenue is the model for survival, you're going to see slow declines and eventual busts like Digg.…

>"The future is probably something where people pay a small amount to access a forum that's somehow distributed on their machines (phones, PCs, etc) and not controlled by any organization. Data transfer (even mobile) and storage are getting cheaper. It'll be like bitcoin, but for discussions." No. The future is the next Digg, the next Reddit, etc. Just like a torrent site, when one goes down (for whatever reason), th…

I'm not exactly proud of it, but I've paid more for hosting my own stuff (or really, having a server that I do almost nothing with) than I have paid in patreon-like subscriptions and flattr. So I don't think the "on your own machines" model is entirely impossible.

Re: Reddit is still in turmoil

#183

Post by genericacct »

bane wrote: post #39

Why the hell is Reddit trying to make their own content when the entire point of the site is for the users to create the content? Don't make a Reddit podcast, make Reddit a podcast hosting network. Don't make a Reddit video show, make Reddit a video hosting site. Don't make a Reddit magazine, make Reddit a source for anybody to publish their own magazines. Why does Reddit have writers and editors and creative directo…

I suspect that being owned by a traditional publishing operation is making them behave like one.

Re: Reddit is still in turmoil

#184

Post by tamana »

mbesto wrote: post #94
LA_Banker wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not. Reddit could easily sell targeted ads based on subreddits (e.g. inking a deal with Uniqlo to advertise on /r/malefashionadvice or /r/femalefashionadvice). It chooses to pursue other monetization means to preserve the Reddit experience. We'll see if it's able to stumble onto another sustainable business model.

> It's not. Reddit could easily sell targeted ads based on subreddits Except Redditors are explicitly anti-advertising. You can't have both - the current community/culture and billions in revenue.

Ad-haters at quite capable of running adblockers, and they aren't all of Reddit. Most people tolerate tasteful ads

Re: Reddit is still in turmoil

#185

Post by jonathankoren »

tamana wrote: post #174
empath75 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit's main problem is that they spent years building their user base as a site to find 'jailbait' porn (it was by far the largest search result that brought people to Reddit for a long time). That created a toxic culture, which allowed stormfront and similar groups to use it as a recruitment ground for racists. Reddit still refuses to do anything about it. The 'quarantined' a bunch of truly vile subreddits but all…

Reddit was mostly fine until they shut down the hate subs which pushed the hate crowd into the other subs.

I thought that a lot of them went to Voat and 4chan and 8chan

Edit: oh please mods. Voat got tons of users apecifically to host /r/coontown , /r/fatpeoplehate and the like

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voat

Re: Reddit is still in turmoil

#186

Post by TeMPOraL »

lazaroclapp wrote: post #170
Animats wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much does it really cost to run a forum system? Even a big one? Look at 4chan.

Well, I imagine Reddit costs far more than 4chan to run, not just because they store the content at perpetuity, but also because Reddit has actual employees, not just volunteers working out of the g... evil of their hearts. But, more importantly, how much Reddit costs to run , at their current scale, is immaterial. Reddit has raised $50 million in VC money and is valued at $500 million, that means that half a billion…

Sites like Reddit should not be businesses in the first place. There's a conflict of interest right there, between the very idea of community site and the needs of a business. They've been handling it somewhat gracefully to date, but business pressures increase...

Normally I'd suggest they start another business doing some honest work (i.e. not ad revenue). Say, a hosting service, since they have experience with that already. Reddit then could become a marketing expense for them - something they'd run for the sole ability to say "Yes, we're the ones who're running the Front Page of the Internet! As you can see, we have some experience!".

But, as you said, they took VC money. It changes the picture significantly. I'm not sure they can be helped.

In every get-rich-quick scheme there's a catch. In startups, the catch is that if you care about your product then taking VC money is a difficult decision because it means surrendering your business to the whims of people who absolutely don't care about your product.

Re: Reddit is still in turmoil

#187

Post by wvenable »

jeiting wrote: post #31

Since Alexis and Huffman returned I've seen more happen with the brand than in the several years preceding. I don't know who made their mobile app but it is damn good. I resisted at first but am now using it as my primary means for consuming content on Reddit.

Did you use an app before or did you use the mobile site? I've used mobile apps to browse reddit for years and it's always been a good experience. Sadly they bought the best iOS client (Alienblue) and then killed it off -- replacing it with the current app which is actually much worse.

Re: Reddit is still in turmoil

#188

Post by vintermann »

Razengan wrote: post #149
bane wrote: post #39

Why the hell is Reddit trying to make their own content when the entire point of the site is for the users to create the content? Don't make a Reddit podcast, make Reddit a podcast hosting network. Don't make a Reddit video show, make Reddit a video hosting site. Don't make a Reddit magazine, make Reddit a source for anybody to publish their own magazines. Why does Reddit have writers and editors and creative directo…

> Give a cut of advertising revenue to the mods of successful, high quality subs. No, oh no. Why mods? Cuts should go to users posting the content. Maybe make it so that OC is rewarded [more], karma "farming" is discouraged, echo chambers don't become the only places with activity, and make sure that hiveminds do not drown out all other discussion. Otherwise Reddit just becomes the online cousin of mainstream media,…

Do you want clickbait? Because that's how you get clickbait.

There's a big difference between how you think when you ask "Do I want this?" versus when you ask "Will people want this?". You shouldn't confuse these.

A lot of scams are based on confusing people about what they want vs. what they think others will want. First and foremost MLM-schemes. You convince yourself the product is good, because you hope to make money from it. Then you convince yourself you will make money from it because the product is so good, in a vicious circle.

> echo chambers don't become the only places with activity, and make sure that hiveminds do not drown out all other discussion

And do you have a proposal for how to achieve this, beyond the old "putting the right people in charge"?

Re: Reddit is still in turmoil

#189

Post by gaius »

im4w1l wrote: post #172
beefsack wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If there is a lesson in this, it is that online communities which plan to implement anti-harassment policies ought to do so from the beginning, and develop the expectation among the users that such policies exist, and will continue to exist. A few relatively popular programming languages have begun publishing official community code of conduct documents[1][2]. While initially I thought it was a bit overreaching, I…

The Rust leadership tolerates harassment and threats as long as its against the right wing. One of Rust's top people wants to violently purge the tech community. https://archive.is/BtDaA

If you see a threat of violence on Twitter, report it.

Re: Reddit is still in turmoil

#190

Post by afarrell »

bloaf wrote: post #114
brokenmachine wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't imagine a situation where someone has beliefs that do not affect his actions in any way. I would agree that unexpressed values would propagate less.

Imagine that he never came into contact or communication with a person that he was racist against. E.g. a racist hermit.

If a racist hermit never interacts directly with anyone, sure that is harmless. But if she actually just racially isolates herself (which is pretty hard to do in many parts of America), then she still has influence over the institutions around her. If someone then wants to join her racist gardening club, then her racism ends up affecting things.
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