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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

#81

Post by snvzz »

twostorytower wrote: post #45
qwertox wrote: post #38

I ask myself on a weekly basis when old.reddit.com will disappear. And there is nothing more cruel than the new Reddit, UI-wise. Even Twitter's "threading" of conversations appears to make more sense, even though I have still not figured out how it works.

I know some people at Reddit and sadly it's definitely going to happen.

I have mentally prepared myself to say goodbye to Reddit once it happens.

Complete with deleting my account for closure. This is what I recommend. It's pretty much facebook, pure dark UX at that point.

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

#82

Post by snvzz »

m348e912 wrote: post #59
qwertox wrote: post #38

I ask myself on a weekly basis when old.reddit.com will disappear. And there is nothing more cruel than the new Reddit, UI-wise. Even Twitter's "threading" of conversations appears to make more sense, even though I have still not figured out how it works.

old.reddit.com and it's imminent disappearance underscores that there is a still need for a user-centric web browser designed to combat user-hostile web ui. Here are some features I think the browser should have by default (without plugins) Short feature list: - Overwrite website code and display a user-hostile UI of popular sites like reddit/Facebook (this warrants a whole list in itself) - offer a reader view of an…

There's some appeal on doing this client side, but I do not hate the Nitter approach.

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

#83

Post by maister »

dangus wrote: post #72
earthscienceman wrote: post #7

This is a nice time to remind everyone that Aaron Swartz died while fighting for a freer internet and a freer world. He is, by Paul Graham, considered a founder of reddit but is rarely mentioned in these stories. Instead of trying to go for broke and grind till he could cash out, Aaron put his skin in the game for what the internet should become. Which gets more relevant everyday that the internet megacorps consolida…

Well, that's what sort of happened. He broke in to an MIT networking closet (he was never a student there, and MIT is not a public university) and connected his equipment to the network. https://www.wired.com/2013/12/swartz-video/ There are a lot of much more legal ways to make the Internet freer. He was a smart guy and knew what he was doing was highly illegal. It goes without saying that it's very tragic that he de…

> He broke in to an MIT networking closet (he was never a student there) and connected his equipment to the network.

The closet was unlocked and he used a regular guest access to the MIT network. Also he was downloading documents that were created by using public funds.

> There are a lot of much more legal ways to make the Internet freer. He was a smart guy and knew what he was doing was highly illegal.

There are always other and more effective ways to everything. With this kind of argumentation one always must come to the conclusion that it is best to do nothing. Also let's not forget that he did much more than downloading documents at MIT.

> think that this is the major issue with martyrdom. Aaron is remembered for "fighting the man" but the real story is a significantly muddier than that. A martyr's death makes it seem like the martyr did nothing wrong even if they did.

That's a definition for martyrdom I have not heard before. Usually a martyr is simply defined as a person who is willing to suffer or even die for a cause, belief, or principle that they consider to be of great importance.

> Sorry, I know this is kind of a dumb and not so productive soap box. Oh well.

I will simply never understand why people will argument so strongly against their self interests.

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

#84

Post by hayst4ck »

twostorytower wrote: post #45
qwertox wrote: post #38

I ask myself on a weekly basis when old.reddit.com will disappear. And there is nothing more cruel than the new Reddit, UI-wise. Even Twitter's "threading" of conversations appears to make more sense, even though I have still not figured out how it works.

I know some people at Reddit and sadly it's definitely going to happen.

That is the day I will quit reddit and never look back. 6 months ago I rarely used old.reddit.com, but now I run into more and more dark patterns all the time. They tried to TikTok my feed and it was an awful experience. I frequently default to it now instead of using it only when I get sick of the dark patterns.

Reddit got popular because Digg screwed up their comment threading. It's sad to see reddit is starting to make anti-user mistakes like digg. Maybe they think they can force it because there isn't a competent competitor.

The problem with all of these sites is they start to service the lowest common denominator in the name of next quarters profits. As their websites become more hostile to the educated, the quality of content drops and profit goes up, but the golden goose is slowly being strangled.

Reddit was fantastic around the time of digg because the average user appeared to be college educated or greater. Celebrities like Randall Monroe were submitting high quality content. It was common for a literal expert to write a well thought out post. Now it's an "Americas funniest home videos" feed of fart jokes with your liberal aunt and conservative uncle having an argument in the background.

It seems so clear to me that billionaires mean we can't have nice things. Twitter and Reddit both promoted a "truth to power" free speech ideology, and now billionaires are coercing these companies into becoming cess pits that reflect the worst parts of humanity. Power doesn't like to be threatened so they will destroy the weapon.

I still can't decide if these companies are being destroyed because they promote a "no more billionaires" ideology, or if it is simply capitalistic greed and the search for next quarters profits.

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

#85

Post by hayst4ck »

When looking up Digg on wikipedia I found this gem:

  Alexis Ohanian, founder of rival site Reddit, said in an open letter to Rose:

    this new version of digg reeks of VC meddling. It's cobbling
    together features from more popular sites and departing from
    the core of digg, which was to "give the power back to the people."
Apparently nobody can resist the allure of VC meddling.

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

#86

Post by snvzz »

culopatin wrote: post #31
EasyTiger_ wrote: post #10

Congratulations on the most toxic, astroturfed site on the internet I guess

It’s not 4chan

4chan is actually among the less toxic discussion sites, and definitely better than Reddit.

This is mostly owed to the quality of its moderation team.

4chan's infamy is largely undeserved.

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

#87

Post by hayst4ck »

noir_lord wrote: post #79
twostorytower wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know some people at Reddit and sadly it's definitely going to happen.

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.

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

#88

Post by benatkin »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #66
kodah wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It'd be nice if they'd stop trying erase Aaron's work on Reddit but that's been underway for some time, and I'm not even really sure why. I can't fathom an end-goal where marginalizing Aaron's contributions is a benefit to them.

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.

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

#89

Post by birken »

kodah wrote: post #22
earthscienceman wrote: post #7

This is a nice time to remind everyone that Aaron Swartz died while fighting for a freer internet and a freer world. He is, by Paul Graham, considered a founder of reddit but is rarely mentioned in these stories. Instead of trying to go for broke and grind till he could cash out, Aaron put his skin in the game for what the internet should become. Which gets more relevant everyday that the internet megacorps consolida…

It'd be nice if they'd stop trying erase Aaron's work on Reddit but that's been underway for some time, and I'm not even really sure why. I can't fathom an end-goal where marginalizing Aaron's contributions is a benefit to them.

If I had to guess as to why his contributions are marginalized, it would be that his contributions were ~16 years ago to a version of the website that is vastly different in scope and scale to the one that exists today. Founders are important entities for companies, but just having the title of "founder" doesn't also magically mean whatever contributions and decisions you made have to be memorialized and defended forever after so many things have changed.

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

#90

Post by [deleted] »

birken wrote: post #89
kodah wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It'd be nice if they'd stop trying erase Aaron's work on Reddit but that's been underway for some time, and I'm not even really sure why. I can't fathom an end-goal where marginalizing Aaron's contributions is a benefit to them.

If I had to guess as to why his contributions are marginalized, it would be that his contributions were ~16 years ago to a version of the website that is vastly different in scope and scale to the one that exists today. Founders are important entities for companies, but just having the title of "founder" doesn't also magically mean whatever contributions and decisions you made have to be memorialized and defended for…

[deleted]
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