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Scaling Reddit from 1 Million to 1 Billion – Pitfalls and Lessons [video]

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Re: Scaling Reddit from 1 Million to 1 Billion – Pitfalls and Lessons [video]

#61

Post by gargoiler00 »

RyanZAG wrote: post #38
OGC wrote: post #11

Reddit's not profitable though..

Profitable is not that big a deal with something on the size and important of Reddit though. Firstly, as with Wikipedia, if Reddit were forced to close because of money issues, Reddit could simply post a 'donate now or reddit shuts down' post and they would likely be rolling in millions of dollars. Second, simply because reddit itself is not profitable does not mean people are not making a lot of money off reddit. Th…

It's ironic that the alternative to advertising, is to splash big "DONATE NOW" adverts over a website.

Re: Scaling Reddit from 1 Million to 1 Billion – Pitfalls and Lessons [video]

#62

Post by dragonwriter »

gargoiler00 wrote: post #61
RyanZAG wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Profitable is not that big a deal with something on the size and important of Reddit though. Firstly, as with Wikipedia, if Reddit were forced to close because of money issues, Reddit could simply post a 'donate now or reddit shuts down' post and they would likely be rolling in millions of dollars. Second, simply because reddit itself is not profitable does not mean people are not making a lot of money off reddit. Th…

It's ironic that the alternative to advertising, is to splash big "DONATE NOW" adverts over a website.

Its not the alternative to advertising (it is advertising), its the alternative to soliciting and displaying third-party advertisements.

Re: Scaling Reddit from 1 Million to 1 Billion – Pitfalls and Lessons [video]

#63

Post by gargoiler00 »

lazyjones wrote: post #51
marvin wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would find it incredibly strange if reddit is never able to make money. I don't think they are really trying at the moment. Reddit is an incredibly valuable service. Maybe a lot of people on Hacker News don't see this, but reddit has basically become the Geocities of online discussion communities. The subreddit system has eliminated the "eternal september" problem, since all non-casual users will trickle into the c…

> * I don't think they are really trying at the moment.* I can - sort of - confirm they are not trying hard. Last time I tried to advertise on Reddit, I failed because they could not accept CC payments from mainland Europe ... Just think of all the ad revenue they are losing.

Advertising on Reddit is not the same as advertising in general.

If you advertise on Reddit, you're advertising to a violently anti-corporate anti-advertising audience, who may love you, but very well may hate you. You could be subject to a witch hunt at the drop of a hat.

I very much doubt advertisers would be lining up to advertise to that crowd. They're hardly big spenders either.

Re: Scaling Reddit from 1 Million to 1 Billion – Pitfalls and Lessons [video]

#64

Post by mrhazel »

gargoiler00 wrote: post #21
chroem wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there is one lesson that HN needs to learn, it's that profitable is not the same thing as important.

Look back in time. Read up on other things that had a massive userbase, but were unsustainable. Checkup alladvantage - they paid people to surf. Had millions of users, but ultimately failed because their "business model" was idiotic. Getting millions of users is pretty easy if you pay them to be a user. Someday though, it's only worthwhile if you can build a sustainable business which at least doesn't lose money hand…

AllAdvantage was great for free money as a teenager. It only took a few minutes to slap together a VB application to move the mouse a few pixels every minute. I made a few hundred dollars from them while I slept.

Re: Scaling Reddit from 1 Million to 1 Billion – Pitfalls and Lessons [video]

#65

Post by gargoiler00 »

dragonwriter wrote: post #62
gargoiler00 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's ironic that the alternative to advertising, is to splash big "DONATE NOW" adverts over a website.

Its not the alternative to advertising (it is advertising), its the alternative to soliciting and displaying third-party advertisements.

For me personally, it ends up being far more annoying. I really wish wikipedia would just put small unobtrusive text adverts on each page rather than the massive intrusive banners begging for money.

Re: Scaling Reddit from 1 Million to 1 Billion – Pitfalls and Lessons [video]

#66

Post by mdellabitta »

mrhazel wrote: post #64
gargoiler00 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look back in time. Read up on other things that had a massive userbase, but were unsustainable. Checkup alladvantage - they paid people to surf. Had millions of users, but ultimately failed because their "business model" was idiotic. Getting millions of users is pretty easy if you pay them to be a user. Someday though, it's only worthwhile if you can build a sustainable business which at least doesn't lose money hand…

AllAdvantage was great for free money as a teenager. It only took a few minutes to slap together a VB application to move the mouse a few pixels every minute. I made a few hundred dollars from them while I slept.

I guess I didn't have my act together enough as a teenager to commit fraud over the Internet while I slept.

Re: Scaling Reddit from 1 Million to 1 Billion – Pitfalls and Lessons [video]

#67

Post by SnydenBitchy »

raldi wrote: post #59
gargoiler00 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That wouldn't address the lack of a sustainable business model. Being a forum where low wage/students/anti-corporate/anti-advertising types go and share memes is the elephant in the room problem.

Just because reddit has a lot of anticorporate types doesn't mean they don't also have a lot of pro-corporate types, too. For example, I wouldn't be surprised if the Internet's largest right-wing community turned out to be one of the subreddits.

/r/all is the internet’s largest right-wing community, on any manner of subjects from race relations in America, to multiculturalism in Europe, to feminism and women’s rights anywhere. Last time I visited was around the Zimmerman verdict, and I couldn’t decide whether the conversation on reddit more closely resembled Free Republic or Stormfront—the major difference being that neither of those other right-wing communities can match redditors in their hatred and fear of women.

Re: Scaling Reddit from 1 Million to 1 Billion – Pitfalls and Lessons [video]

#68

Post by marvin »

gargoiler00 wrote: post #63
lazyjones wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> * I don't think they are really trying at the moment.* I can - sort of - confirm they are not trying hard. Last time I tried to advertise on Reddit, I failed because they could not accept CC payments from mainland Europe ... Just think of all the ad revenue they are losing.

Advertising on Reddit is not the same as advertising in general. If you advertise on Reddit, you're advertising to a violently anti-corporate anti-advertising audience, who may love you, but very well may hate you. You could be subject to a witch hunt at the drop of a hat. I very much doubt advertisers would be lining up to advertise to that crowd. They're hardly big spenders either.

This is an unsubstantiated claim. Some of reddit's communities are like this, but most are not. If you're just viewing the front page, you are viewing the lowest common denominator, which could give you this impression. But reddit is a very heterogenuous community.

Re: Scaling Reddit from 1 Million to 1 Billion – Pitfalls and Lessons [video]

#69

Post by dragonwriter »

gargoiler00 wrote: post #65
dragonwriter wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not the alternative to advertising (it is advertising), its the alternative to soliciting and displaying third-party advertisements.

For me personally, it ends up being far more annoying. I really wish wikipedia would just put small unobtrusive text adverts on each page rather than the massive intrusive banners begging for money.

There is an issue of who calls the shots -- if you solicit donations from your users, that's who you are beholden to and need to serve to get money. If you are soliciting third party advertisements, that's who you are beholden to (and if you are using a third-party ad placement service, you are beholden to them as well as, perhaps more than, the actual advertisers.)

Re: Scaling Reddit from 1 Million to 1 Billion – Pitfalls and Lessons [video]

#70

Post by russelluresti »

Disappointment in the HN community has reached a new high today.

So, instead of discussing the topics in the video, the majority of commenters here are discussing the flaws of the website it's hosted on or debating whether or not reddit is profitable. Neither of which has ANYTHING to do with scaling.

I expected better, people. Seriously.

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