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So how can we fix the system? The best way to fix the system is to prioritize websites that are there to share knowledge
OK, so append Reddit to the google search, got it.
This is exactly right: if Reddit ever decided to build a search engine they'd wind up destroying their site, because everyone would try to game the results and fill Reddit with crap to do it. The point it is that search engines are adversarial: people who are skilled and determined are actively trying to replace good results with their results.
Their site has been thoroughly trashed already. It's an absolute cesspool of bots and groupthink. When I joined back in 2007, it was a completely different site full of actual discussion and not just cringey self deprecating nerd jokes and memes. It's a shame, but that's how things go. Once a thing gets that big, it gets its soul sucked out.
Prior to that I checked digg out every once in a while and got immediately annoyed of all the "cringey self deprecating nerd jokes and memes". And suddenly they were everywhere on reddit.
> I was too young to use Google when it first got started, but according to many, in the beginning, Google had better or more accurate search results. One reason for this was the fact that most of the sites back then were indie websites, which did not care about SEO and money and created websites for sharing information. > But I think all can agree that Google results reduced when people started to game the algorithm…
> It is only more recently that they seem to have given up. They haven't given up; the OP has a point. The "sites" you are hoping for Google to return _don't exist_. Any website online right now that doesn't exist to drive ad revenue is exceedingly rare. In 2001, there were way more websites that existed just for fun; any tom, dick and harry could open up note pad and get a website online. That doesn't exist anymore.…
Still lots of great content still out there, often times the target of my original Google query.
> Reddit posts are good because the people who create these posts or make comments > are doing it to share their knowledge. And there is no financial incentive > associated with it. They know that do it to share their knowledge.
Ok, that's why people are Googling for "xyz reddit"...
> However, once Reddit creates a search engine, and once people get to know that > there is an opportunity to game the system and create a financial opportunity, > people will abuse that system and we will be back to the place where we are > now. SEO stuffed websites.
There's nothing in this article explaining how the existence of better search on Reddit would provide different incentives than the very popular search engine for Reddit that is being used today (Google). What is this "financial opportunity" that doesn't already exist that will spell doom?
> I was too young to use Google when it first got started, but according to many, in the beginning, Google had better or more accurate search results. One reason for this was the fact that most of the sites back then were indie websites, which did not care about SEO and money and created websites for sharing information. > But I think all can agree that Google results reduced when people started to game the algorithm…
I could go into a bit more philosophical angle with reterritorialization done by capital, but I think it's much simpler to consider the following: between politics (where once any division in population is found, it becomes valuable instantly), classical business marketing (where once anyone makes purchasing decision informed by something, it becomes valuable), capital markets (where once anything can be used to predict anything about any company or asset class, it becomes valuable) and more personal scams (where once you figure out someone's niche interest, it becomes valuable) there just isn't anything left. Go ahead, try to find something.
Reddit is being constantly targeted. I still use it, because what else?, but if the method isn't obvious, here's what you do: you are hired by/own small company making niche potato chips dip sold via Amazon. You go to google keywords and check 'potato chips dip', you google all you can find there and some of your ideas, you write down all top10 results and check every now and then (well, your SEO monitoring app does it for you). Whatever you find that allows for user input, you generate that input - accounts are cheap - and maybe do some external SEO (thus beating 99,9% of social media results online).
That's it, it's easy. What Reddit (and any mildly aware SM company) does, is they try to offer marketers access to audience for a price that's lower than cost of what I just described. There will be edge cases, especially on international markets where value of time for various business owners differs vastly, which will lead to sites slowly getting more clogged up with ads, but that's the general gist. If you can imagine using similar method to get in front of your eyes when you're looking for something, then it would just be quite weird if nobody ever did it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It is only more recently that they seem to have given up. They haven't given up; the OP has a point. The "sites" you are hoping for Google to return _don't exist_. Any website online right now that doesn't exist to drive ad revenue is exceedingly rare. In 2001, there were way more websites that existed just for fun; any tom, dick and harry could open up note pad and get a website online. That doesn't exist anymore.…
No. There still are forums on lots of topics. But search how to fix X and instead of prioritizing a forum site with answers you get 5 top results trying to sell you the parts to fix X. The answers are always way down the list.
What is Reddit if not the largest forum in the world? You have the same gripe; you are looking for a web where people share things for free (like in forum); and when Google first existed most of the web is like that.
And if google were to prioritize forums; then SEO blackhats would do everything in their power to make every website look like a forum; and then you are back to square one. The problem is the profit motive, not Google's algorithms.
I help run a Reddit website and open source project for managing scheduled posts [1] and we see a lot of garbage there, sadly. Over the years the site has processed nearly half a million posts and has tens of thousands of registered Redditors. In the early days it was pretty cool, we had a lot of individual users with various interesting projects. I remember early on there were some musicians using it and a few book authors that would release their books one chapter at a time - using our service to schedule the posts so they didn't have to do it manually.
But, as time went on, the entire platform has been just swamped with mostly live sex workers and people shilling bullshit products. I'm not judging the sex workers or saying they shouldn't be allowed on the platform and we don't ban them, but I would say now literally 99/100 of new users are just trying to push their Only Fans accounts to porn subreddits. Regarding the weird product shills, we've seen a few really odd campaigns. There was one guy who would post to various left-leaning and "green" oriented subreddits on the terrible nature of plastics while also promoting his own metal straw sales. Again, none of it is illegal and I'm not even sure if any of it is unethical or immoral since it really depends on if you think people are doing these things in bad faith, etc.
Either way, the project has for sure taken a backseat for us. If the server stays up and everything works, cool, if not, that's fine too. I have no interest in trying to monetize the service anymore whereas in the early days we took donations.
My point is the world of gamifying and commercializing Reddit content is already very very well established and there are large players doing it at a very large scale. If you measure it the porn industry is virtually all of it, but if you exclude them and look a bit harder you'll find other industries that have also carved out their niche in exploiting the platform.
[1]: https://cronnit.com
This is exactly right: if Reddit ever decided to build a search engine they'd wind up destroying their site, because everyone would try to game the results and fill Reddit with crap to do it. The point it is that search engines are adversarial: people who are skilled and determined are actively trying to replace good results with their results.
Their site has been thoroughly trashed already. It's an absolute cesspool of bots and groupthink. When I joined back in 2007, it was a completely different site full of actual discussion and not just cringey self deprecating nerd jokes and memes. It's a shame, but that's how things go. Once a thing gets that big, it gets its soul sucked out.
This is exactly right: if Reddit ever decided to build a search engine they'd wind up destroying their site, because everyone would try to game the results and fill Reddit with crap to do it. The point it is that search engines are adversarial: people who are skilled and determined are actively trying to replace good results with their results.
Their site has been thoroughly trashed already. It's an absolute cesspool of bots and groupthink. When I joined back in 2007, it was a completely different site full of actual discussion and not just cringey self deprecating nerd jokes and memes. It's a shame, but that's how things go. Once a thing gets that big, it gets its soul sucked out.