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Sunsetting Secret Santa and Reddit Gifts

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Re: Sunsetting Secret Santa and Reddit Gifts

#21

Post by xanaxagoras »

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…

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 there but are mostly disjoint sets. Even tech-adjacent subreddits have frequent fits of posturing for the in-crowd.

Some of that could be said about HN, but somehow it's different here. Probably because low effort posting is pretty well policed. I'm happy to leave reddit to the adult children stuck in time to talk about superheroes and congratulate each other on being a good person™. Every now and then I miss what it was.

Edit: said liberal, meant leftist

Re: Sunsetting Secret Santa and Reddit Gifts

#23

Post by cyanydeez »

xanaxagoras wrote: post #21
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…

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…

they were giving up when in 2015 they allowed bots to push the_donald to the front page consistenly leading to a steady diet of propaganda subs and hate fueled subs.

they were and still sre just as myopic is their tainting public discourse in pursuit of social media

Re: Sunsetting Secret Santa and Reddit Gifts

#24

Post by xtracto »

emodendroket wrote: post #14
brink wrote: post #7

Years ago I participated in this. Someone sent me a beautiful programming book, but I failed to purchase and send a gift for my recipient because I was a stupid, selfish kid. I still feel horrible about it to this day.

A succinct explanation of why I've never participated in any online secret Santa type of thing.

My wife participated for several years. Sometimes she got good gifts, other times they were not that good. Nevertheless most of the joy we had was in giving our gifts. We tried to go out of our way and it was exciting reading the reaction of people who received them.

The best gift my wife got (she is an avid dead tree book reader) was a book she had on her list. But the secret santa bought the book and illustrated it magnificently (using the book's empty pages) before sending it to her.

That's the type of gifts you just cant price.

Re: Sunsetting Secret Santa and Reddit Gifts

#25

Post by boomboomsubban »

legostormtroopr wrote: post #20
boomboomsubban wrote: post #9

Didn't the idea start on Something Awful or another site like it? Do they still run their secret Santa?

I don't think I'd want a goon from Something Awful sending me anything - or knowing my physical address.

Between the entry fee and the liberal use of banning, I'd rather they know my address than most internet sites. I don't remember thinking the users had a particularly bad reputation either.

Re: Sunsetting Secret Santa and Reddit Gifts

#26

Post by kiawe_fire »

xanaxagoras wrote: post #21
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…

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…

I started engaging with Reddit about 3 years ago, right on the verge of things going downhill.

So I’m not sure how much of this is normal over Reddit’s whole.

But I did notice a shift in the political boards to a mean-spirited alt-left attitude.

Whatever, politics are needlessly divisive right now.

But as I got more into other subreddits, the same attitude seems to be there too.

Make an objective statement even remotely pro-Apple in r/gaming (which I would reasonably assume to be platform-neutral)? Instant dozens of downvotes, with no replies, or if lucky, a reply calling me an Apple sheep.

Wander into a cutesy dog subreddit and someone posts a picture of a dog eating a hot dog? Too bad, that post will be downvoted to hell along with a lengthy post about the nitrate content of most hot dogs.

There’s just a weird pack mentality sweeping across boards that I would expect to be somewhat forgiving and neutral.

Re: Sunsetting Secret Santa and Reddit Gifts

#27

Post by kevinmchugh »

ALittleLight wrote: post #8
ProAm wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's literally how it started until they stole it. Same with reddit coins/reddit silver.

Everything of value related to reddit comes from the users. The users create the content, they organize by voting on it and creating subreddits, the users even moderate the content. Even good ideas come from the users. Reddit, meanwhile, just adds on more and more bizarre features. They have avatars now? How about a chat system that nobody uses? Want us to email you a hundred times a day? etc.

I'm pretty sure they expect subreddit mods to also moderate the chatrooms, despite the fact that we never asked for them and don't have any tooling for that.

Re: Sunsetting Secret Santa and Reddit Gifts

#29

Post by ehsankia »

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…

At least they have still kept old.reddit.com around, which thankfully doesn't have most of the new bullshit. The day they kill that is the day reddit will be truly dead.

Re: Sunsetting Secret Santa and Reddit Gifts

#30

Post by [deleted] »

kiawe_fire wrote: post #26
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…

I started engaging with Reddit about 3 years ago, right on the verge of things going downhill. So I’m not sure how much of this is normal over Reddit’s whole. But I did notice a shift in the political boards to a mean-spirited alt-left attitude. Whatever, politics are needlessly divisive right now. But as I got more into other subreddits, the same attitude seems to be there too. Make an objective statement even remot…

[deleted]
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