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Listen to Steve Huffman tell the story of how Reddit got started

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Re: Listen to Steve Huffman tell the story of how Reddit got started

#191

Post by theGnuMe »

grogenaut wrote: post #163
courgette wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> hacker news just coffee shops and bars Ok, I really follow you on the rest and the overall point. But this one … hacker news is how : delicio.us/Reddit/digg/slashdot used to be, before the network effect. I rarely talk about BRNF at bars and I don’t use drugs while reading HN.

What was hacker news before delicious/reddit/digg/slashdot... before the web bassed internet... before bbs's... what's the analog version of these? Also I've talked about SQL, made an adobe flash joke, ML, and many other tech things at bars in the last month, with randos. Had a good hour discussion about ChatGPT with an NFL journalist from the local paper.

Dr. Dobbs, early computer magazines. Then there was email and usenet.

Re: Listen to Steve Huffman tell the story of how Reddit got started

#192

Post by theGnuMe »

benatkin wrote: post #88
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To my recollection Aaron Swartz was anti-establishment; the reddit he was part of was grass-roots, laissez-faire, no holds barred, ... whilst reddit today is part of the media establishment, much more top-down, heavily modded and censored. Reddit in the post digg-exodus days seemed like a veneer of 'news' covering one of _the_ seedy underbellies of the web. Not only, but to a large extent a hive of scum and villainy…

He was only there for a few months, so I don't think the reddit community changed much and drove him off that way. It was like it was when it started for several years. kn0thing and spez seem like they have a lot in common with Elon politically. Aaronsw not so much. Sorry I can't seem to explain how I perceive their political differences at the moment and instead am just giving an example.

Libertarian?

Re: Listen to Steve Huffman tell the story of how Reddit got started

#193

Post by benatkin »

theGnuMe wrote: post #192
benatkin wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He was only there for a few months, so I don't think the reddit community changed much and drove him off that way. It was like it was when it started for several years. kn0thing and spez seem like they have a lot in common with Elon politically. Aaronsw not so much. Sorry I can't seem to explain how I perceive their political differences at the moment and instead am just giving an example.

Libertarian?

Who?

Aaronsw definitely not IMO.

He cofounded this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demand_Progress

Re: Listen to Steve Huffman tell the story of how Reddit got started

#194

Post by fairity »

I’ve often wondered how the Reddit cofounders feel about selling so early. At the time they cashed out, they made single digit millions. If they had held out, they would have made 100-1000x.

Edit: After googling, the short answer is they regret it. Both founders do mental gymnastics to try to manage their regret, but it's apparent they regret it. Sources below.

My personal takeaway is to try to hold on to some percentage even when selling out e.g. rolling over 30% of your shares into the new entity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6qlUG3EbtU https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/03/alexis-ohanian-reflects-on-s...

Re: Listen to Steve Huffman tell the story of how Reddit got started

#195

Post by SilverBirch »

jefftk wrote: post #137
notatoad wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

reddit basically became everything the founders mocked when they first started it. https://sp.reddit.com/reddit2.html

But modern reddit isn't really very similar to what they're mocking? Here's the joke mockup: https://sp.reddit.com/reddit2mockup.jpg Open reddit now and there's no silly unusable tag clouds, no top-of-page ads, no 3rd-party ad serving, no gradients, no overdone logo, no tagline, no allcaps headings, no giant voting arrows...

The specifics are different but the trend is the same. Most HN posts from Reddit are old.Reddit.com, you try and view a Reddit page on mobile? Screw you, download the app.they’re doing the exact same thing digg did, the trends are just a decade later.

Re: Listen to Steve Huffman tell the story of how Reddit got started

#196

Post by samstave »

doodlebugging wrote: post #20
samstave wrote: post #8

[flagged]

As a long time redditor I wonder too about some of this. I wrote it off a long time ago as probably part of their attempts to drive eyeballs to the site, any eyeballs so that they could demonstrate growth in a market dominated at the time by Digg and Fark. They always made a point of claiming that speech was free, no subjects were off limits, anything goes. That allowed posters like violentacrez to post his shit and…

>>MaxwellHill managed to position themselves as a knowledgeable source of information. This was something that reddit needed and set her up to be a prominent mod"

-

This (no offense to you, personally) is such a disgusting thought if true.

--

Aaron was not going after papers, he was going to expose some people.

Re: Listen to Steve Huffman tell the story of how Reddit got started

#198

Post by croutonwagon »

hayst4ck wrote: post #87
noir_lord wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Used Reddit for 14 years as a registered member and longer since before I signed up. The day old.reddit.com stops working is the day I stop using reddit completely, I detest their new UI so much that it’s essentially unusable for me.

I agree completely. I've used Reddit since at least 2008. I quit Facebook over what they did to WhatsApp and will never use another Meta product. Reddit is getting dangerously close. It's very clear there is not an adult at reddit who can tell the people in power NO .

Same. My account is some 16y 10m old.

I use Reddit less and less YoY and even day to day. But the day old goes I’m out.

Frankly I only use it for fairly niche subreddits and even then it’s more like 10 minutes a day.

I’m also not a core demographic at this point anymore.

Re: Listen to Steve Huffman tell the story of how Reddit got started

#199

Post by divbzero »

nextmove wrote: post #170

I didn't listen to the entire podcast, but I'm sure he didn't mention a single thing about Aaron Swartz one of the co-founders. Edit: at the 34:00 minute mark he mentions him.

Yes, he mentions and talks about Aaron through the 39:00 minute mark.

Re: Listen to Steve Huffman tell the story of how Reddit got started

#200

Post by langfan »

capableweb wrote: post #180
langfan wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, unfortunately :) [1] Just an actual anecdote. [1] ”The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” -Mark Twain

:) Reading my comment after a good nights sleep, it might seem slight snappish and/or brusque, that wasn't my intention and I'm sorry if that's the case. I'm glad you shared it, thank you!

Oh no, it didn't feel that way to me :)

Anyway, glad you liked it, and thank you too, for clarifying your intent.

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