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Sunsetting Secret Santa and Reddit Gifts

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Re: Sunsetting Secret Santa and Reddit Gifts

#91

Post by parafactual »

LightG wrote: post #74
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…

[flagged]

Most of Reddit is left-of-center though, and prevailing opinions on Reddit can be pushed pretty forcefully. I don't think it's part of a broader problem of "orthodox leftist thought" but of Reddit being a place like no other for cultivating orthodoxy.

Maybe they found subreddits that were less left-leaning to either be even worse or too inactive.

Re: Sunsetting Secret Santa and Reddit Gifts

#92

Post by woutr_be »

myrandomcomment wrote: post #33

Dropped Reddit in general a few years ago. Much happier. I sometimes read the tech stuff that friends link but otherwise done.

I just see Reddit as a directory/RSS feed, it's great to quickly go through news articles and see what's happening. However once I get into the comments or user generated content, I quickly get annoyed and close it again.

Re: Sunsetting Secret Santa and Reddit Gifts

#93

Post by LightG »

parafactual wrote: post #91
LightG wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Most of Reddit is left-of-center though, and prevailing opinions on Reddit can be pushed pretty forcefully. I don't think it's part of a broader problem of "orthodox leftist thought" but of Reddit being a place like no other for cultivating orthodoxy. Maybe they found subreddits that were less left-leaning to either be even worse or too inactive.

Are you seriously telling me that there are not areas on Reddit where people like the OP can ... how can I put this politely ... salve themselves with the gentle, safe caress of their desired echo chamber?

I don't buy it.

Re: Sunsetting Secret Santa and Reddit Gifts

#95

Post by mattalex »

bob1029 wrote: post #80
Aardwolf wrote: post #78

"We made the difficult decision to shut down Reddit Gifts and put more focus on enhancing the user experience on Reddit" Oh, enhancing user experience sounds good: so they'll reinstate the old reddit UI back as the default, the one that doesn't block viewing threads in a mobile browser half the time?

Stories like reddit are why I keep telling our executive staff that I am completely against a buyout. We have one angel investor and all the control we could ever hope for. Our customers love us. Why the fuck do people screw these things up? Are they that hooked on other people's money? I feel like reddit was managing to pay the bills before the series of sellouts and poor product choices...

You can only do that if you can afford it: I'm pretty sure reddit never made money and was bleeding it quite profusely. At some point you have to start making money, but reddit (and most other internet/digital companies) valued growth at all cost. Now they are probably billions in the hole and they have to look for outside investment.

You also make the strong assumption that executive staff/founders actually care about the survival of the company or the product: If they cash out at some point, they still win in the transaction.

The cycle is always predictably the same:

1. Found the company

2. Get an initial round of investment

3. make it seem valuable (i.e. growth at all cost)

4. Second investment round (people now have FOMO "this could be the next Facebook!")

5. Continue growing (by now initial investors and founders have cashed out with profit)

6. Another investment round/sell/go public.

7. After going public, people notice that you don't make any money and have no way of ever making money (think WeWork)

8. Company's stock tanks/Company goes bankrupt.

At no point in that process has the product or the company ever mattered: As long as you can make it seem like it works, you can make a profit.

This is why venture capital is almost always a red flag: The investors make money not through quality product, but through growth. They can sell a great product that nobody knows about or they can sell well marketed crap that grows fast and makes them billions. By chance one or two of these companies will survive despite this and have a lasting impact, which breeds even more hype for the next round.

Re: Sunsetting Secret Santa and Reddit Gifts

#96

Post by bb123 »

Traster wrote: post #61
kiawe_fire wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I think it’s missing the point to say it’s alt-left. In the Uk side of things it was always true r uk was left and r ukpolitics was right, and then there was a fascinating shift in various ways during election times. But either way the core of the issue was just that whatever the prevailing view is drives out disagreements. Twitter is bad because bubbles form and then they collide causing fights. Reddit solves this b…

I'm interested in your personal experience with r/uk vs r/ukpolitics. I've stopped reading either as to me it seemed that they both had a pretty strong auth-left bias. I felt this was more pronounced in r/uk - to the point that it was/is a continuous stream of Twitter style hot takes. Although I suspect most of the readership/commenters are edgy 16 year olds so it's probably an unfair expectation that any of the discussion would be particularly nuanced. UK based threads on HN seem far more level headed.

Re: Sunsetting Secret Santa and Reddit Gifts

#97

Post by mcherm »

beervirus wrote: post #87
Traster wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it’s missing the point to say it’s alt-left. In the Uk side of things it was always true r uk was left and r ukpolitics was right, and then there was a fascinating shift in various ways during election times. But either way the core of the issue was just that whatever the prevailing view is drives out disagreements. Twitter is bad because bubbles form and then they collide causing fights. Reddit solves this b…

And then banning the bubbles that engage in wrongthink.

Honestly, I think there has been very little banning of bubbles for "wrongthink", it's mostly been banning of bubbles for "wrongbehavior".

Re: Sunsetting Secret Santa and Reddit Gifts

#98

Post by Miner49er »

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…

This comment was much more accurate when it said liberal. I consider myself on the left politically and I also hate it's rigorous enforcement of liberal thought. Reddit has banned and ruined leftist subs too you know.

Or maybe it's not a political thing, maybe it's the weird elitist culture they have where they think they know better and are better then everyone else.

Re: Sunsetting Secret Santa and Reddit Gifts

#99

Post by dkarras »

felipemesquita wrote: post #83
Aardwolf wrote: post #78

"We made the difficult decision to shut down Reddit Gifts and put more focus on enhancing the user experience on Reddit" Oh, enhancing user experience sounds good: so they'll reinstate the old reddit UI back as the default, the one that doesn't block viewing threads in a mobile browser half the time?

Replace www with old: https://old.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/nw2hs6/sunse...

Yes, but they will probably sunset it one day with an announcement like this one.

Re: Sunsetting Secret Santa and Reddit Gifts

#100

Post by dkarras »

ehsankia wrote: post #29
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.

They are trying so hard not to have that Digg moment but we'll see if it succeeds when they sunset old.reddit.com...
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