Tencent has a meaningful ownership of American youth.
12% Snap
7.5% Spotify
40% Epic Games
100% Riot Games
100% Supercell
5% Reddit
Hollywood has also been moving in this direction, with a lot of Chinese investment in the studios, and blockbusters adding special scenes with Chinese actors and locations.
What does it mean for America when it's no longer the owner or creator of culture? It's historically one of our largest (and most important) exports. I'm not sure if that claim to fame is a net positive for the world, but the changing of this guard will certainly have a local impact.
I'm just not yet totally sure what it means, broadly.
Waiting for the API to be turned off to force use of the official app. I am subscribed to lots of niche subreddits and love browsing reddit from my app of choice, but when the day comes that they force me to use the reddit app, I will abandon ship.
They won't care, because they probably make no money off of me.
I've seen Reddit degrade painfully over last 8-10 years. It was full of intelligent comments, insight and unique perspective from people all over the world. Browsing the front page and reading the comments makes me sad that instead of intellectual discourse, we have a 3 billion dollar meme making machine.
I wish to keep HN away from the masses as much as I'd like a broader perspective in the light of how things go with typical social networks. There is no lack of funny things on the internet. Even witty jokes have no place here because slowly and surely it will erode away why HN is a gem of the internet.
...except for the post editor. It is an improvement. If they put the new editor in as an option in the old UI, I'd be quite happy.
But the rest of the new UI? I seriously do not get it. It't not just the look, which is a matter of taste [1]. It just does some weird things that make absolutely no sense to me.
For example, when you go to the comments for a post, it puts them in some kind of overlay window, with the post listing under it. I suppose this is great for quickly getting back to the post listing, as you just have to hit the close X up in the corner and it goes away and you are instantly back.
However, since the post list is still there while reading the comments, if you do a search within the page in the browser (well...in Firefox...I haven't tried in other browsers) it finds hits on the "hidden" post list too.
The good news is that if you open comments, and get this overlay window view, all you have to do is hit refresh. When the page refreshes it gives you a more normal comment view, without it being an overlay on the post list view. So now searching works like you'd expect.
Also, on Edge, scrolling is messed up in the overlay view. Apparently they are handling it themselves in JavaScript for some reason, and it doesn't match native browser scrolling making it feel awkward at best and hard to use at worst. So refreshing to get out of overlay mode also gets you a properly scrolling comment view.
But WHY would they have these two different ways to view comments? It makes no sense to me to have it come up one way, and then have refreshing change it to another way. (My guess is that the first way--the terrible one--is what it is supposed to be all the time, and the refresh thing is a bug).
[1] That doesn't mean I like it...the colors, fonts, styles, etc., of the post list make it hard for me to read efficiently. At first I thought maybe I was just used to the old style, and so to give it a chance I've stuck with the new UI for months and nope, not getting any better.
For anyone interested, I'm making an open source clone of reddit that is federated using activityPub. Everybody can host it's own server and each server can talk to eachother so you can interact with threads and comment from other servers.
The project is in very early stage, but it's usable and lind of cute.
I’m done with Reddit. It was a nice ride, but now it’s officially over. They’ve been trying to turn reddit into Facebook, a personal data vacuum, but now it’s going to get ugly.
Considering the valuation, remaining as an unpaid moderator for a reddit sub, is absolutely crazy. Hopefully all the mods up and leave, nothing like letting others get rich from your free efforts.
While I think this is a little extreme, I understand fully the sentiment behind it.
It's lamentable considering how simple the site is but there exist currently, no good alternatives! I suppose we can attribute that at least partly to the Network Effect. I've been tired of it since the front-end redesign; I grew weary of the dark patterns, the constant nagging to use their app when on mobile, the fact that my back button took me to the top of the page and (most of all, in fact) the overall quality of the threads, so my usage has decreased dramatically over the last 3 months. I suspect I we are no longer longer Reddit's target audience and they will do very well going forward but it's a shame for me at least, that something I've been using for over a decade is fading into background noise.
I also decided it's as good a time as any to rip reddit out of my daily life, after using it for the better part of the last 10 years.
Between the crushing "download our tracking riddled app" / "switch to our shitty new redesign" push recently and massive amount of engineered sponsored content, instead of paid-for advertisement, there's nothing there keeping me interested. This most recent funding round is just icing on the cake.
It's only a matter of time before they go down the twitter path and outright ban third party apps.
A lot of the replacement sites are trying to do things differently, but honestly at this point a straight clone that does nothing/only the very few most obvious things might just be what's needed, if only because the next company will get a clean(er) slate to work with.
Reddit was outraged when the users heard that Reddit was going to take $150M from Tencent but now there is not a single mention of it on the frontpage even after they took double the earlier reported amount.
I cannot help but think if it's the Reddit's censorship is in play here.
Or people don't mind THAT much that a Chinese company has a stake in Reddit. It is probably not going to change much, if not increase relationships between the US and China.
Could it be that this generation of new programmers will never see their new tech invention become meaningful?
If someone creates a new idea and it takes off they either get huge offers from existing companies to buy it or those companies use their huge resources to build a bigger and better version.
In the age of the start of facebook and reddit there were no mega corps taking interest or possessing the talent in these areas.
Technology companies matured into consumer hostile mammoths, no room for small competition anymore. Build something just good enough to sell off to a big guy and move on. It would be impossible for the events leading to myspace/facebook/reddit to happen again today.
Im a CS undergrad right now and in need of a side project... I'll start right now :)
But for real, the idea of Reddit seems perfect to me its just way to popular now. Maybe a platform where you need to pass some sort of quiz created by the mods of the different communities in order to post/comment? I could see this having lots of issues though.
Also I don't really mind reddit going to shit ever since I found HN a few years ago.
Is there a good alternative to Reddit? I've been a pretty heavy user for almost a decade but they have been disappointing these past couple of years. I hate how their "principles" aren't consistent. They ban certain subreddit for certain violation while keeping others that fit the same exact category. They never provide an answer to the commuity either. Where do I go to now?! HN is my only safe haven left...
I'm still on half a dozen different forums. A few general chat ones, and a few specific to hobbies/interests.
If anything, the quality of them has gone up since most of the "I just want lulz" people went to reddit. The software is better than ever too, with Discourse and XenForo adding modern web features.
There's also a few "new reddits" like Tildes which are quite good.
No single one of the above replaces reddit as a whole, but combined I find it much more enjoyable than reddit these days.
As a site that derives the vast majority of its value from the contribution of its users it is a shame that they didn't open at least some level of participation in this round of funding to its users.
Tencent is part owned by Naspers, originally a local South African media company who by some accounts have played a big part in the Tencent's success
Quote from Reuters
Founded in 1915, Naspers has transformed itself from an apartheid-era newspaper publisher into a 1.5 trillion rand ($127 billion) multinational with private equity-style investments in e-commerce platforms that also include OLX, the biggest classified sites in India and Brazil, and Russia’s Mail.ru.
Sorry but I don’t understand some of these arguments here! Not talking about this particular case, but I saw the same arguments many times.
A lot of businesses in EU and Asia are owned or invested by US companies in many different industries. Why are people so offensive when it is other way around?
I’ve worked with Chinese! Let’s not blame all Chinese because of what their government is doing.
Honestly, as an Asian American, I actually prefer the villain characters as opposed to the new “sidekick/background” character trope.
Hollywood writers and producers still know how to marginalize these new Chinese characters and unfortunately, it seems the Chinese audience is still naive to it.
At least the villains had agency. These new Chinese sidekicks only purpose is to serve the “American” hero.
[+] [-] theNJR|7 years ago|reply
12% Snap 7.5% Spotify 40% Epic Games 100% Riot Games 100% Supercell 5% Reddit
Hollywood has also been moving in this direction, with a lot of Chinese investment in the studios, and blockbusters adding special scenes with Chinese actors and locations.
What does it mean for America when it's no longer the owner or creator of culture? It's historically one of our largest (and most important) exports. I'm not sure if that claim to fame is a net positive for the world, but the changing of this guard will certainly have a local impact.
I'm just not yet totally sure what it means, broadly.
[+] [-] steve19|7 years ago|reply
They won't care, because they probably make no money off of me.
[+] [-] fermienrico|7 years ago|reply
I wish to keep HN away from the masses as much as I'd like a broader perspective in the light of how things go with typical social networks. There is no lack of funny things on the internet. Even witty jokes have no place here because slowly and surely it will erode away why HN is a gem of the internet.
[+] [-] curiousDog|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tzs|7 years ago|reply
But the rest of the new UI? I seriously do not get it. It't not just the look, which is a matter of taste [1]. It just does some weird things that make absolutely no sense to me.
For example, when you go to the comments for a post, it puts them in some kind of overlay window, with the post listing under it. I suppose this is great for quickly getting back to the post listing, as you just have to hit the close X up in the corner and it goes away and you are instantly back.
However, since the post list is still there while reading the comments, if you do a search within the page in the browser (well...in Firefox...I haven't tried in other browsers) it finds hits on the "hidden" post list too.
The good news is that if you open comments, and get this overlay window view, all you have to do is hit refresh. When the page refreshes it gives you a more normal comment view, without it being an overlay on the post list view. So now searching works like you'd expect.
Also, on Edge, scrolling is messed up in the overlay view. Apparently they are handling it themselves in JavaScript for some reason, and it doesn't match native browser scrolling making it feel awkward at best and hard to use at worst. So refreshing to get out of overlay mode also gets you a properly scrolling comment view.
But WHY would they have these two different ways to view comments? It makes no sense to me to have it come up one way, and then have refreshing change it to another way. (My guess is that the first way--the terrible one--is what it is supposed to be all the time, and the refresh thing is a bug).
[1] That doesn't mean I like it...the colors, fonts, styles, etc., of the post list make it hard for me to read efficiently. At first I thought maybe I was just used to the old style, and so to give it a chance I've stuck with the new UI for months and nope, not getting any better.
[+] [-] randlet|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nineteen999|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Simon_says|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] simook|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] faleidel|7 years ago|reply
The project is in very early stage, but it's usable and lind of cute.
https://moontreeproject.org
[+] [-] colordrops|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] farresito|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] adtac|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] carboy|7 years ago|reply
Considering the valuation, remaining as an unpaid moderator for a reddit sub, is absolutely crazy. Hopefully all the mods up and leave, nothing like letting others get rich from your free efforts.
[+] [-] 0xADEADBEE|7 years ago|reply
It's lamentable considering how simple the site is but there exist currently, no good alternatives! I suppose we can attribute that at least partly to the Network Effect. I've been tired of it since the front-end redesign; I grew weary of the dark patterns, the constant nagging to use their app when on mobile, the fact that my back button took me to the top of the page and (most of all, in fact) the overall quality of the threads, so my usage has decreased dramatically over the last 3 months. I suspect I we are no longer longer Reddit's target audience and they will do very well going forward but it's a shame for me at least, that something I've been using for over a decade is fading into background noise.
[+] [-] fortytw2|7 years ago|reply
Between the crushing "download our tracking riddled app" / "switch to our shitty new redesign" push recently and massive amount of engineered sponsored content, instead of paid-for advertisement, there's nothing there keeping me interested. This most recent funding round is just icing on the cake.
It's only a matter of time before they go down the twitter path and outright ban third party apps.
[+] [-] chrisper|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dymk|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] movedx|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bitxbitxbitcoin|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] diminoten|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] confounded|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] scottydelta|7 years ago|reply
I cannot help but think if it's the Reddit's censorship is in play here.
[+] [-] baby|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fru2013|7 years ago|reply
https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditMinusMods/
[+] [-] LeoPanthera|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gammateam|7 years ago|reply
Reddit used censorship, its super effective! +++++$300,000,000
[+] [-] dirtylowprofile|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bluetwo|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] baroffoos|7 years ago|reply
If someone creates a new idea and it takes off they either get huge offers from existing companies to buy it or those companies use their huge resources to build a bigger and better version.
In the age of the start of facebook and reddit there were no mega corps taking interest or possessing the talent in these areas.
[+] [-] asdff|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] arman_ashrafian|7 years ago|reply
But for real, the idea of Reddit seems perfect to me its just way to popular now. Maybe a platform where you need to pass some sort of quiz created by the mods of the different communities in order to post/comment? I could see this having lots of issues though.
Also I don't really mind reddit going to shit ever since I found HN a few years ago.
[+] [-] syntaxing|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Sendotsh|7 years ago|reply
If anything, the quality of them has gone up since most of the "I just want lulz" people went to reddit. The software is better than ever too, with Discourse and XenForo adding modern web features.
There's also a few "new reddits" like Tildes which are quite good.
No single one of the above replaces reddit as a whole, but combined I find it much more enjoyable than reddit these days.
[+] [-] anfilt|7 years ago|reply
Why do we need centralized forums anyways?
[+] [-] anaxag0ras|7 years ago|reply
https://blog.tildes.net/announcing-tildes
[+] [-] throwaway46e21|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jliptzin|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stevenwliao|7 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] yumraj|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] peter_retief|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] puranjay|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stunt|7 years ago|reply
A lot of businesses in EU and Asia are owned or invested by US companies in many different industries. Why are people so offensive when it is other way around?
I’ve worked with Chinese! Let’s not blame all Chinese because of what their government is doing.
[+] [-] samstave|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] doorbellguy|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zethraeus|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] peteretep|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] throwaway46e21|7 years ago|reply
Hollywood writers and producers still know how to marginalize these new Chinese characters and unfortunately, it seems the Chinese audience is still naive to it.
At least the villains had agency. These new Chinese sidekicks only purpose is to serve the “American” hero.
[+] [-] colanderman|7 years ago|reply
Allowing such an oppressive government to control so much of our cultural mindspace is quite chilling.
[+] [-] jeffdavis|7 years ago|reply