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Reddit is taking over Google

businessinsider.com

211–220 of 349 posts

Re: Reddit is taking over Google

#211
post #8

> Responding to a post on X, Google search liaison Danny Sullivan said users not only like seeing "forum content" but that they "proactively seek it out." Nothing cures my imposter syndrome more than seeing so many Google employees completely fail to understand what is happening here. People aren’t tacking Reddit to queries because they particularly like Reddit or because they want to see user generated content, it’s…

>They’re applying a bandaid to their rapidly deteriorating search, but championing it as giving the people what they want.

You can't expect them to come out and say what you expect them to say here. Of course they are going to sell it like this.

Re: Reddit is taking over Google

#212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Niche subreddits are still good, but above a certain size they all seem to become awful. Moderation is a major problem - not just the unpaid nature of it, but because so many of the moderators are terrible at their jobs or just sold out to some other cause. I've found myself drifting away from Reddit in the past year and now actually spend more time on dedicated forums (I was surprised by how many are still out there…

The biggest problem with mods is that normal people do not have the interest nor energy to moderate a subreddit past a certain point, so they end up getting muscled out by weirdos as a sub grows.

I briefly modded a subreddit (before deleted my account in the blackout).

It was neat at fist, but then it basically became people getting uptight about everything. “Your rules don’t say we can’t posted obvious spam”, “you need a transparent process for appealing things”, “mod suck here”.

Like, I don’t care enough to provide a service for a multi-billion dollar company. If you don’t like it, start your own sub.

Re: Reddit is taking over Google

#213
post #16

I still prefer reddit most of the time. Front page (default) subs are highly manipulated (especially anything news, politics, current things etc.) but for hobbies, video games, and sports it's still the best site. Video game discusssions especially because unlike Discord every tip, guide, and walkthrough is archived and searchable. And for sports mostly because it's _insane_ how quickly you get highlights and videos.…

The /r/Netherlands subreddit has been taken over by hostile expats years ago. They ban any discussion in Dutch, forcing everyone to speak English, and will delete everything that doesn't have "international appeal"

You might want to have another look. I don't visit there often, but when I look right now it's all in Dutch.

Re: Reddit is taking over Google

#214

I've said this before and I'll say it again. As companies realize how much people like reddit as a trusted source of information, they will learn how to optimize reddit. Then it will slowly degrade just like google has.

They've been learning for a long time. Lest we forget reddit was sold to a mass media company in 2006. They didn't buy it to host a charity forum for the good of the internet community. Smart people work in ads and media and they understand the value of propaganda.

Re: Reddit is taking over Google

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's got to be Reddit's biggest challenge. The default subreddits are ultra-useless, ultra-high noise. Quality of discussion is on par with YouTube comments (ie abyssmal) A lot of the individual, smaller, focused subreddits are extremely valuable. But, nobody would know it at first glance.

> The default subreddits are ultra-useless, ultra-high noise I have a really, really, really hard time believing that the ultra-uselessness of the default subreddits is anything other than a _deliberate_ attempt on the part of the reddit admins to make them that way. Or, to be more direct - I do not believe at _all_ that the political slant of reddit's main subs is organic.

Always remember, they make up the rules for whats a default sub and how posts are weighted on the front page. This is a table they have set themselves.

Re: Reddit is taking over Google

#216
post #16

I still prefer reddit most of the time. Front page (default) subs are highly manipulated (especially anything news, politics, current things etc.) but for hobbies, video games, and sports it's still the best site. Video game discusssions especially because unlike Discord every tip, guide, and walkthrough is archived and searchable. And for sports mostly because it's _insane_ how quickly you get highlights and videos.…

Who are you proposing pays for content moderation then? Reddit clearly can’t afford it

Reddit has demonstrated that its moderation system is not stable and results in garbage. Try some different systems, for example:

1 -- The moderators pay for the privilege of moderating.

or

2 -- No moderators at all. Let me decide what I want to see via some kind of interface to an "AI thingie".

Re: Reddit is taking over Google

#217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The default subreddits are ultra-useless, ultra-high noise I have a really, really, really hard time believing that the ultra-uselessness of the default subreddits is anything other than a _deliberate_ attempt on the part of the reddit admins to make them that way. Or, to be more direct - I do not believe at _all_ that the political slant of reddit's main subs is organic.

I've seen too many forums degrade into political shitfighting to think that reddit's political bent in the popular forums has to be manipulated. Like, it might be, but it honestly takes effort to not have something like that form into a big political pile.

It definitely is manipulated and the evidence is there if you start digging into post histories. Normal people don't go posting the exact same article of political fodder to three dozen subreddits a day. Thats a bot trying to establish a narrative in a community.

Re: Reddit is taking over Google

#218
post #119

Do not worry, Reddit just had a IPO (or is having?), so soon enough it will be just as useless as Google. Once old.reddit is gone, I am gone too. Not to mention google has a head start with dejanews. Reddit is just an over-glorified USENET. When google purchased dejanews all the did wzs ruin it instead of using it for decent information. FWIW I am seeing more posts on USENET these days and many providers are blocking…

Can someone explain to me why the reddit leaders want the new interface? Is it because the old one can't track users as well or what? Why don't they just add trackers to the old interface? Or what's the reason?

From the outside it looks like only the new interface is actually in development anymore. When hitting the new interface on mobile you get often stuck on a page forcing you to use the app. The whole new interface feels like a big sales page for their app. Can't imagine that the bugs in old reddit are unknown or unfixable and I have the impression they are deliberately there to annoy users.

I guess the goal of maximizing app usage is related to ads and tracking and also adblocking and probably fraud prevention.

Pure speculation on my side but it's what everyone else seems to be doing. Lock your users into your walled garden and avoid bots, scrapers, click-fraud while improving some metrics regarding ads, as ads on mobile are probably easier to target and reddit earns more on them. No idea if you can advertise specifically on mobile.

Additionally the new interface seems to require more clicks = impressions.

If someone has any real info and not only wild guesses for their reasons please share :)

Re: Reddit is taking over Google

#219

Just last night I was looking to jailbreak an old phone. I did a few googles and everything I found seemed really dodgy. Added reddit to the query. Got exactly the info I needed. Moved on with my life. Google has become useless. (Jail break to use frida to mitm some cert pinned apps. That tool chain is amazing these days)

> Google has become useless

Yet you found it through ..... Google

(I get your drift, but it's got a little "What have the Romans ever done for us" vibe. )

Re: Reddit is taking over Google

#220
post #119

Do not worry, Reddit just had a IPO (or is having?), so soon enough it will be just as useless as Google. Once old.reddit is gone, I am gone too. Not to mention google has a head start with dejanews. Reddit is just an over-glorified USENET. When google purchased dejanews all the did wzs ruin it instead of using it for decent information. FWIW I am seeing more posts on USENET these days and many providers are blocking…

Can someone explain to me why the reddit leaders want the new interface? Is it because the old one can't track users as well or what? Why don't they just add trackers to the old interface? Or what's the reason?

they need to get you to use the mobile app for better ad targeting
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