I genuinely wonder if the people in charge of Reddit ever come around to places like this to read these sentiments. Hell, they actually only need to read actual Reddit posts to understand that many people are utterly disgusted by their tactics to try and force you onto their mobile app, they're upset at how slow the (default) site is, etc.
Maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe people will keep using it forever. But I doubt it. They've turned Reddit from something that had potential to exist for a long time into something closer to TikTok (which, even without the current drama, was never going to be more than a fad IMO). There are more efficient ways to get low-effort shitposts and memes than Reddit. Those who want that will move on, and the people who were interested in more than that are leaving now.
I have come to the conclusion that reddit is 2 apps/websites.
The first is a tiktok-esque waste of time, instant gratification meme machine. Everyone on this app uses the reddit native app and doesn't care about dark patterns. They would never know that reddit's app is shit, because they literally don't care enough.
The 2nd is a Hackernews-esque collection of hobbyist sub-forums. These people are invested in their hobbies and sub-reddits. They use reddit to interact and discuss, but also a source of niche-news for their hobby. Every one here has a 3rd party reddit app or uses RES. (if you don't, please do). Unlike twitter, reddit lets 3rd parties offer feature complete wrappers for reddit. This group has ad-block, but will occasionally give someone gold. This group hates reddit, but also has no where to go.
If a person tries to make reddit both, then it is an annoying experience. I use reddit entirely as the latter. The front-page and r/all are garbage to me. Every super popular (barring sports) subreddit is trash. But, my niche subreddits are literally the best places on the internet to gain niche information.
Examples where the subreddit is the best source of open discussion on the internet for that niche: dota2, manga, soccer, metal, prog, civilized discourse, history, male fashion (kinda), calisthenics, small cities, fantasy fiction, niche YT channels, super authentic cooking....and that's just for me.
PSA : Use a 3rd party reddit app (SYNC is my preferred. Pay up the 2$ dollars. It is worth it). Use RES, and enforce filters strongly. Use RedditProTools to detect trolls, bias and top contributors. Use Imagus (hoverzoom has malware) for pop-image/video viewer. These will greatly enhance your reddit experience.
My time at Etsy (2012-2015) taught me that people will rationalize anything to avoid dealing with the fact that they made a fundamentally bad decision.
A big reason Etsy has lost a lot of trust with consumers is their inconsistently applied policies and their allowance of cheap knock off crap. When I was there a few years ago, there were all sorts of forum posts, reddit posts and tweets about the problem all the time. The leadership (and more importantly) the people in the company, absolutely refused to believe it was a problem. We came up with any excuse and rationalization we could for not addressing it. The most common one was, "they (the people complaining) don't have access to our data, they don't know what we know, therefore their points are irrelevant." Another was, "they're just mad, let them vent, it's no big deal." Pure denial, the simplest reaction to bad news.
By continuously shoving their heads in the sand and not addressing the perception (whether it was real or not) the company allowed the perception to become reality. I'd be pretty surprised if reddit leadership doesn't do the same thing when they see messages on HN talking about how shit reddit is. They'll rationalize how we're a bunch of pedantic, angry nerds who don't represent the average user. They'll ignore the growing negative trends in favor of looking at the positive ones. They'll do anything they can to not change the strategy they've committed to. It smacks of a company that doesn't plan, doesn't think about the consequences of their decisions, and goes with the first idea that pops into their head.
I think most people that use reddit are using it for specific sub-reddits, not for memes or 'shitposting'.
Apollo app makes reddit a really nice experience for me on iOS, but I'm not sure what Android has on that front. Problem is that 3rd party apps that provide a front-end to Reddit need to be in active development. Once the dev steps back for a couple months, everything is going to go to shit.
Once you get big you change your priorities. There is no reason the same can't happen to hacker news either. If they start allowing low quality shitpost. Right now I assume with the amount of traffic here, it doesn't cost lot of money to maintain this site. But the same for Reddit is different.
Reddit on its barely makes any profit and had made losses for a number of years. Right now they are too big to pull Digg and not suffer any major consequences.
many people are utterly disgusted by their tactics to try and force you onto their mobile app, they're upset at how slow the (default) site is, etc.
The problem is that not enough people are so disgusted that they stop using Reddit. As long as the managers can navigate that line between annoying people and turning people away, they will continue to make money.
I was never a Reddit person, and the few times I've gone there through HN links convinced me not to make visiting a habit.
There are still interesting communities and multi reddit are cool.
But you're right, reddit is being poisoned. Maybe they will remove the front page and /r/all one day. They should. All of this might be caused by elections.
I wish somebody would write a repertoire of subreddit by tags or categories. I still love to read comments on science and other constructive debates. Curated posts should also be more visible, not like digg did though. Subreddit of the day is nice too.
The shit posts are annoying, but it's part of how reddit want to attract as many types of users as possible, like tumblr.
If you don't explore reddit your using it wrong. I should search for a repertoire though.
Why would they care if a small number of people hate that they aggressively push you to their mobile app when can achieve 50 million downloads? Follow the money. It will answer a lot of questions for you.
Management? Probably never. We are probably 0.5% or less of the reddit audience. Even on reddit commenters are only like 5% of the people visiting make comments so they don't mean much to reddit management. They will only know if there is a geurilla movement in social media to criticize some part of reddit and then reddit and twitter blow up. That's when management notices.
Adding to this reddit is centralizing themselves. Classically they were a link aggregator, a place pointing to other content. Now if you upload something there reddit is the place its pointing to. A video on reddit is hard to download, and a link to a video is always opened with a full reddit view with comments and everything.
I dont like the way they are going and have sought alternatives 2 years ago. Thats where i found hackernews and tildes.net which are pretty good. However not a good alternative to the niche subreddits we all love.
Meh, I know it's popular to hate but I don't mind the app and I don't mind the website redesign either, it works great for me. I'm not saying it does for everyone else but it's largely possible that people aren't as annoyed as you think.
That's what I said about SNAP. It seems platform stickiness is stronger than some of us might have judged. Especially considering today's tech illiterate youth. They have no idea what the implications of installing an 'app' are.
I use old reddit redirect. If old.reddit ever went away I would stop going to reddit completely, similar to what happened with the digg bar.
I don't use reddit on mobile specifically because I don't download apps on my phone (outside of a few small games such as bejeweled), and I think surfing the internet on the phone is miserable regardless. The only thing I ever crack my browser open for is to look something up while at the grocery store, etc.
There is a phenomenon when older and older groups enter a social platform, the quality of that platform deteriorates for the younger generation, and perhaps maybe even overall.
We saw this with facebook, We saw this with twitter, and we're now seeing this with Reddit.
(yes, there is twitter outside of tech, and it's content quality is extremely poor and juvenile)
Reddit, at one point, was just science, memes, an occasional atheist post, and and A list Celebrity AMA every other day - a platform that provided niche content mostly for age 18-30 year old Americans.
Now with the flood of all sorts of ideas from all fronts, It has become way too overwhelming to really digest what everyone has to offer - Diving deep into reddit will eventually and inevitably get anyone upset and bothered.
As Reddit builds its foundation upon favoring ad populum, it is starting to become evident that not every voice should be heard, especially when the average american individual is as uneducated as he or she is.
“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”
― Isaac Asimov
I'd like to one up Asimov - that it is not a false notion, but literally the core tenet of what democracy is.
I've been using Reddit since 2009 (after the Digg exodus for ironically - a bad redesign.), and the biggest change I've noticed (aside from the terrible single page app they switched over to) is how massively popular schadenfreude content is now. Subreddits like "Justice Served" and "Public Freakout", "Malicious Compliance" "Entitled Parents", the list goes on and on.
It's all "This person/people/group did something bad and now are getting their comeuppance." and the site has become like a nerdy version of World Star Hip Hop.
You really can't browse the regular Reddit front page without encountering a lot of content that is designed to upset you. I've started to actually hate using Reddit. Niche subreddits are still useful in limited ways, but it's a shame to see things go this way. Reddit had a good run.
Interesting that you feel older demographics degrade a platform. For me, it’s the opposite: I am really starting to appreciate hobby forums that are dominated by people a couple of decades older than myself. This tends to happen to independent website forums when now the younger generation eschews them for walled gardens like Reddit.
The reason for that is that older people are less likely to be using mobile, and they are more likely to create long-form text content. You can actually have substantial discussions with them and share detailed tips and reports. Compare this to the relevant Reddit subreddits, where each day’s new posts have largely devolved to vacuous uploaded photos or memes, and the discussion thread is often a lot of vacuous one-sentence replies.
My reddit account is over 10 years old, and I think we have different views of why Reddit is on a slow decline.
Every single sub-reddit will, at some point after its first few users, need to decide if it will be a meme/image macro sub, or not. Every sub that implicitly allows memes, will eventually become a meme sub if the mods choose to do nothing. It seems there are large numbers of users on Reddit that feel entitled to let "upvotes and downvotes" be the ultimate and only modding that should happen on a sub-reddit. These users will balk at any notion of getting rid of memes because "what else is there to discuss"? For them, the worst thing to happen to their feed is for there not to be a huge dearth of mindless content to consume which is heavily remixed and re-used all over the site every single time they login.
They will also deny that any sub that allows memes will somehow then "become a meme sub". They seem willfully ignorant of what happens to meme subs, and seem to think "if people upvote it, then that means they want it", ignoring how the people who upvote most frequently and the lowest quality content are those that rapidly consume meme content.
Reddit is ruined by these super passive consumers of memes. Not anti-intellectualism, but just those that want to go to reddit, see funny shit, upvote it all, and then get on with their day. And they demand to see that EVERYWHERE.
Reddit skews consistently young though. Too young for many people's tastes (including mine). There is just too much meme-noise in subreddits that are not well moderated. Shallow thinking and childish antics derail any deep conversation.
You are correct that reddit confuses truth with popularity though. That meme needs to die
>Reddit, at one point, was just science, memes, an occasional atheist post, and and A list Celebrity AMA every other day - a platform that provided niche content mostly for age 18-30 year old Americans.
This seems to mostly outright ignore some of the more controversial subreddits that existed/flourished in the past. There was a significant amount of content, including entire subreddits, dedicated to sexualizing minors.
It feels revisionist to think reddit has only recently become flooded with controversial content.
Excepting of course that just as you and many here do, you assume your opinion in the group of having higher value. Yes it is easy to pick out the obvious bad opinions but it becomes far less easy to do so when the issues are divisive because both sides can be correct but you can guarantee both sides can have proponents who think the other one is an idiot.
Reddit's issue for me is that many supposedly good subs are so completely toxic to any opposing view they may as well not exist.
Let's not forget the Eternal September that ruined newsgroups.
I don't think it's really an age issue per se. The problem that a group/demographic/tribe/whatever makes a place hot, then a bunch of people that don't fit their description show up wanting to get in on the fun. The result is the original group packing up and moving on. You see this everywhere from Facebook to gentrifying neighborhoods.
I think you are incorrect in blaming older people for this issue. I would argue it's simply the increased user base regardless of age. When things are niche and communities small conversations tend to flourish and surprisingly I think echo chambers are a bit less of a problem since dissenting views can often be voiced without down vote floods etc.
As the user base increases you get further from the group of people who were passionate enough about subject X to be early adopters and into a more generalized audience. That general audience is often not interested or not equipped for indepth discussion of X. That mentality also leads to down vote parties I think.
I have seen it in a number of subs that I used to really enjoy. After reaching a critical mass of users they have become meme and low content post factories.
I suppose part of that is an increase in users who specifically care about generating up votes so they generate as much content as possible which inevitably leads to low quality stuff.
Opinions are of equal value [...] this is dangerous.
I disagree that it is dangerous. Of course not every opinion is worthwhile, but since opinions got labeled as too dangerous, they got much more appeal for others. Otherwise it would just be another stupid opinion.
I think this had a large negative effect on many subs since people somehow lost the ability to just ignore something or write their own opinion as a response. Everyone was screaming for mommy moderator.
Today people get a heart attack if someone writes that the earth is flat.
From my perspective there are only two ways to browse Reddit nowadays: visiting the old.reddit.com site and through a third-party mobile app.
I’m not one to speak either about the changing dynamics on the site since it’s launch, but my experience there as a whole has shifted hard into the direction of carefully curated subreddits. Avoiding anything I don’t want to see is just as easy as never visiting All or Popular.
It's always interesting to see how the value of communities gets concentrated and captured.
1. Communities for around disparate forums
2. Those communities migrate to centralized service because of more eyeballs in one place, less work to maintain infrastructure, etc.
3. Centralized service captures increasing amount of value by running more ads, closing off more open channels, etc.
This is clearly the lifecycle for Facebook, Reddit, and arguably Google. My question is: what's step 4? Are communities going to start unbundling, or does this trend just continue?
This is a generally trending idea: make your users' experience miserable, improve short-term numbers, lose in the longer term.
We're seeing the same pattern with ad-loaded sites, "Your ad choices" popups with those terrible "Manage My Preferences" dialogs — I'm sure all those result in quarterly bonuses for a bunch of managers. But they are not the Right Thing to Do, and will come to bite back in the long term.
I echo the complains about the default interface becoming worse with every update (especially on mobile, where it's borderline unusable) but I think it's interesting to see where this trend is headed.
It seems obvious to me that Reddit is trying very hard to transition from link aggregator to full blown social network. It's pretty wild when you remember that the original reddit didn't even have comments!
But now they self-host photos, videos, galleries, chatrooms, custom user pages etc... They're not a link aggregator anymore, they're trying to be Instagram for people who think they're too cool for Instagram.
But if you want to become Instagram you need to be an app first and a website 2nd, so they're working very hard to kill the web.
I sorta sort of look forward for the day they kill old.reddit.com and i.reddit.com, this way I won't have any excuse to browse the website anymore which will free some time for more interesting things.
I want to thank the admins that made the app and the web one of the worst. You helped cure my reddit addiction. I now open it only once or twice a month.
You cannot view comment replies on the web. You cannot view any sub on the web. You cannot even read full comments.
Seriously. Thanks. I even started studying for my exams!
The funny thing about this tactic is that it's put me right off the idea of using the app. If this is what their engineering is like, why would I want their app installed on my phone? My assumption is that it's a dumpster-fire of trackers, dark UX patterns and be just poor quality.
I wonder what I'd do if someone from Reddit applied for a job on my team. I'd certainly be _very_ interested in their thoughts on the Reddit approach.
Reddit has some of the most obnoxious and shameless dark patterns I've ever seen.
Even if you download the app, it constantly tries to lure you into logging in by displaying a fake notification count. The good old "Hey you've got a message, login to see it" technique. If you still refuse to login, the notification count becomes 2, as if now you have 2 messages. It's quite disgusting and makes me dislike reddit. Unfortunately, I'm guessing these tactics work on the average user.
I feel like once you are on mobile you only have access to this aberration of the internet called "The consumer web" where you're treated like a dawdling toddler who taps on shiny colorful things and the service is trying to put on a circus for you in order to get ad revenue.
This is essentially the experience across the board on all major web properties. I have no idea why I use my cell phone to access websites so frequently. It's a really terrible experience.
In fact, most of these sites are the candy and chips aisle for the mind - an unhealthy diet of emptiness. It's such a waste of time.
Recently I noticed that using ad blockers on iPhone will break the reddit mobile website - it will not allow you to scroll unless the annoying "use our app" popup shows from the bottom and you must click no. Some blockers like 1BlockerX or maybe Wipr block these annoyances and will lead to a broken un-scrollable reddit website. This started happening only recently and I wonder if this was a deliberate decision to also annoy users of ad blockers.
Oh, so thats what it is. I honestly thought that they somehow implemented scroll in js, and it doesn't work in safari, because reddit engineers didn't test it :)
I find the new reddit UI to be terrible, and still use old.reddit.com. I just hope they continue to host it. If they shut it down at some point, I will probably stop using reddit. And that will be a sad day.
Sounds like good old corporate to me, the boss says you won’t get your bonus unless there are x app installs, the product manager replies “hold my beer and watch this”.
This is a serious issue for users though and should highlight the risks with handing off control over important communication platforms.
Lots of justified criticism here about the mobile web Reddit, which is horrible.
But the desktop web Reddit has become unusable for me as well. My laptop heats up, the fans go into overdrive, and my browser slows to a crawl. It’s the anti-HN.
For months I thought there was no way to collapse a comment thread using the mobile site. Then one day I accidentally clicked on a comment timestamp and the thread collapsed. Which makes sense, because nothing say “hide these comments” like the text “17 minutes ago” :P
And lost at least one user. I mostly stopped going to Reddit because of the miserable mobile experience, which is how I would normally consume the content there.
The Reddit experience overall is incredibly subpar. I can't remember the last time I opened the site without using the unofficial Reddit Is Fun app or the RES extension on desktop. They make the experience so much better and keep me wondering why Reddit doesn't implement some of the features provided in those extensions into the official version.
[+] [-] r721|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ragnese|5 years ago|reply
Maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe people will keep using it forever. But I doubt it. They've turned Reddit from something that had potential to exist for a long time into something closer to TikTok (which, even without the current drama, was never going to be more than a fad IMO). There are more efficient ways to get low-effort shitposts and memes than Reddit. Those who want that will move on, and the people who were interested in more than that are leaving now.
[+] [-] screye|5 years ago|reply
The first is a tiktok-esque waste of time, instant gratification meme machine. Everyone on this app uses the reddit native app and doesn't care about dark patterns. They would never know that reddit's app is shit, because they literally don't care enough.
The 2nd is a Hackernews-esque collection of hobbyist sub-forums. These people are invested in their hobbies and sub-reddits. They use reddit to interact and discuss, but also a source of niche-news for their hobby. Every one here has a 3rd party reddit app or uses RES. (if you don't, please do). Unlike twitter, reddit lets 3rd parties offer feature complete wrappers for reddit. This group has ad-block, but will occasionally give someone gold. This group hates reddit, but also has no where to go.
If a person tries to make reddit both, then it is an annoying experience. I use reddit entirely as the latter. The front-page and r/all are garbage to me. Every super popular (barring sports) subreddit is trash. But, my niche subreddits are literally the best places on the internet to gain niche information.
Examples where the subreddit is the best source of open discussion on the internet for that niche: dota2, manga, soccer, metal, prog, civilized discourse, history, male fashion (kinda), calisthenics, small cities, fantasy fiction, niche YT channels, super authentic cooking....and that's just for me.
PSA : Use a 3rd party reddit app (SYNC is my preferred. Pay up the 2$ dollars. It is worth it). Use RES, and enforce filters strongly. Use RedditProTools to detect trolls, bias and top contributors. Use Imagus (hoverzoom has malware) for pop-image/video viewer. These will greatly enhance your reddit experience.
[+] [-] hoorayimhelping|5 years ago|reply
A big reason Etsy has lost a lot of trust with consumers is their inconsistently applied policies and their allowance of cheap knock off crap. When I was there a few years ago, there were all sorts of forum posts, reddit posts and tweets about the problem all the time. The leadership (and more importantly) the people in the company, absolutely refused to believe it was a problem. We came up with any excuse and rationalization we could for not addressing it. The most common one was, "they (the people complaining) don't have access to our data, they don't know what we know, therefore their points are irrelevant." Another was, "they're just mad, let them vent, it's no big deal." Pure denial, the simplest reaction to bad news.
By continuously shoving their heads in the sand and not addressing the perception (whether it was real or not) the company allowed the perception to become reality. I'd be pretty surprised if reddit leadership doesn't do the same thing when they see messages on HN talking about how shit reddit is. They'll rationalize how we're a bunch of pedantic, angry nerds who don't represent the average user. They'll ignore the growing negative trends in favor of looking at the positive ones. They'll do anything they can to not change the strategy they've committed to. It smacks of a company that doesn't plan, doesn't think about the consequences of their decisions, and goes with the first idea that pops into their head.
[+] [-] bstar77|5 years ago|reply
Apollo app makes reddit a really nice experience for me on iOS, but I'm not sure what Android has on that front. Problem is that 3rd party apps that provide a front-end to Reddit need to be in active development. Once the dev steps back for a couple months, everything is going to go to shit.
[+] [-] minusSeven|5 years ago|reply
Reddit on its barely makes any profit and had made losses for a number of years. Right now they are too big to pull Digg and not suffer any major consequences.
[+] [-] reaperducer|5 years ago|reply
The problem is that not enough people are so disgusted that they stop using Reddit. As long as the managers can navigate that line between annoying people and turning people away, they will continue to make money.
I was never a Reddit person, and the few times I've gone there through HN links convinced me not to make visiting a habit.
[+] [-] gonehome|5 years ago|reply
If there’s a post with an image hosted on Reddit itself, old Reddit often doesn’t show it.
I have to open in incognito to see it.
[+] [-] jokoon|5 years ago|reply
But you're right, reddit is being poisoned. Maybe they will remove the front page and /r/all one day. They should. All of this might be caused by elections.
I wish somebody would write a repertoire of subreddit by tags or categories. I still love to read comments on science and other constructive debates. Curated posts should also be more visible, not like digg did though. Subreddit of the day is nice too.
The shit posts are annoying, but it's part of how reddit want to attract as many types of users as possible, like tumblr.
If you don't explore reddit your using it wrong. I should search for a repertoire though.
[+] [-] MattGaiser|5 years ago|reply
People rage at airlines all the time. Any given us legroom back? No, as people still boarded the plane.
[+] [-] AlwaysRock|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] edoceo|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stjohnswarts|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Pilottwave|5 years ago|reply
I dont like the way they are going and have sought alternatives 2 years ago. Thats where i found hackernews and tildes.net which are pretty good. However not a good alternative to the niche subreddits we all love.
[+] [-] nightski|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] anonzzz|5 years ago|reply
What reddit replacements exist out there that have the niche communities that Reddit supports?
[+] [-] make3|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] linuxftw|5 years ago|reply
That's what I said about SNAP. It seems platform stickiness is stronger than some of us might have judged. Especially considering today's tech illiterate youth. They have no idea what the implications of installing an 'app' are.
[+] [-] RealStickman_|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] RandoHolmes|5 years ago|reply
I don't use reddit on mobile specifically because I don't download apps on my phone (outside of a few small games such as bejeweled), and I think surfing the internet on the phone is miserable regardless. The only thing I ever crack my browser open for is to look something up while at the grocery store, etc.
[+] [-] troughway|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fc373745|5 years ago|reply
(yes, there is twitter outside of tech, and it's content quality is extremely poor and juvenile)
Reddit, at one point, was just science, memes, an occasional atheist post, and and A list Celebrity AMA every other day - a platform that provided niche content mostly for age 18-30 year old Americans.
Now with the flood of all sorts of ideas from all fronts, It has become way too overwhelming to really digest what everyone has to offer - Diving deep into reddit will eventually and inevitably get anyone upset and bothered.
As Reddit builds its foundation upon favoring ad populum, it is starting to become evident that not every voice should be heard, especially when the average american individual is as uneducated as he or she is.
“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”
― Isaac Asimov
I'd like to one up Asimov - that it is not a false notion, but literally the core tenet of what democracy is.
That all opinions are of equal value.
And in all honesty... this is dangerous.
[+] [-] dimmke|5 years ago|reply
It's all "This person/people/group did something bad and now are getting their comeuppance." and the site has become like a nerdy version of World Star Hip Hop.
You really can't browse the regular Reddit front page without encountering a lot of content that is designed to upset you. I've started to actually hate using Reddit. Niche subreddits are still useful in limited ways, but it's a shame to see things go this way. Reddit had a good run.
[+] [-] Mediterraneo10|5 years ago|reply
The reason for that is that older people are less likely to be using mobile, and they are more likely to create long-form text content. You can actually have substantial discussions with them and share detailed tips and reports. Compare this to the relevant Reddit subreddits, where each day’s new posts have largely devolved to vacuous uploaded photos or memes, and the discussion thread is often a lot of vacuous one-sentence replies.
[+] [-] whatisthiseven|5 years ago|reply
Every single sub-reddit will, at some point after its first few users, need to decide if it will be a meme/image macro sub, or not. Every sub that implicitly allows memes, will eventually become a meme sub if the mods choose to do nothing. It seems there are large numbers of users on Reddit that feel entitled to let "upvotes and downvotes" be the ultimate and only modding that should happen on a sub-reddit. These users will balk at any notion of getting rid of memes because "what else is there to discuss"? For them, the worst thing to happen to their feed is for there not to be a huge dearth of mindless content to consume which is heavily remixed and re-used all over the site every single time they login.
They will also deny that any sub that allows memes will somehow then "become a meme sub". They seem willfully ignorant of what happens to meme subs, and seem to think "if people upvote it, then that means they want it", ignoring how the people who upvote most frequently and the lowest quality content are those that rapidly consume meme content.
Reddit is ruined by these super passive consumers of memes. Not anti-intellectualism, but just those that want to go to reddit, see funny shit, upvote it all, and then get on with their day. And they demand to see that EVERYWHERE.
[+] [-] cblconfederate|5 years ago|reply
You are correct that reddit confuses truth with popularity though. That meme needs to die
[+] [-] WindyLakeReturn|5 years ago|reply
This seems to mostly outright ignore some of the more controversial subreddits that existed/flourished in the past. There was a significant amount of content, including entire subreddits, dedicated to sexualizing minors.
It feels revisionist to think reddit has only recently become flooded with controversial content.
[+] [-] Shivetya|5 years ago|reply
Reddit's issue for me is that many supposedly good subs are so completely toxic to any opposing view they may as well not exist.
[+] [-] alangibson|5 years ago|reply
I don't think it's really an age issue per se. The problem that a group/demographic/tribe/whatever makes a place hot, then a bunch of people that don't fit their description show up wanting to get in on the fun. The result is the original group packing up and moving on. You see this everywhere from Facebook to gentrifying neighborhoods.
[+] [-] logosmonkey|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] raxxorrax|5 years ago|reply
I disagree that it is dangerous. Of course not every opinion is worthwhile, but since opinions got labeled as too dangerous, they got much more appeal for others. Otherwise it would just be another stupid opinion.
I think this had a large negative effect on many subs since people somehow lost the ability to just ignore something or write their own opinion as a response. Everyone was screaming for mommy moderator.
Today people get a heart attack if someone writes that the earth is flat.
[+] [-] jpe-210|5 years ago|reply
I’m not one to speak either about the changing dynamics on the site since it’s launch, but my experience there as a whole has shifted hard into the direction of carefully curated subreddits. Avoiding anything I don’t want to see is just as easy as never visiting All or Popular.
[+] [-] alangibson|5 years ago|reply
1. Communities for around disparate forums 2. Those communities migrate to centralized service because of more eyeballs in one place, less work to maintain infrastructure, etc. 3. Centralized service captures increasing amount of value by running more ads, closing off more open channels, etc.
This is clearly the lifecycle for Facebook, Reddit, and arguably Google. My question is: what's step 4? Are communities going to start unbundling, or does this trend just continue?
[+] [-] jwr|5 years ago|reply
We're seeing the same pattern with ad-loaded sites, "Your ad choices" popups with those terrible "Manage My Preferences" dialogs — I'm sure all those result in quarterly bonuses for a bunch of managers. But they are not the Right Thing to Do, and will come to bite back in the long term.
[+] [-] simias|5 years ago|reply
It seems obvious to me that Reddit is trying very hard to transition from link aggregator to full blown social network. It's pretty wild when you remember that the original reddit didn't even have comments!
But now they self-host photos, videos, galleries, chatrooms, custom user pages etc... They're not a link aggregator anymore, they're trying to be Instagram for people who think they're too cool for Instagram.
But if you want to become Instagram you need to be an app first and a website 2nd, so they're working very hard to kill the web.
I sorta sort of look forward for the day they kill old.reddit.com and i.reddit.com, this way I won't have any excuse to browse the website anymore which will free some time for more interesting things.
[+] [-] ffpip|5 years ago|reply
You cannot view comment replies on the web. You cannot view any sub on the web. You cannot even read full comments.
Seriously. Thanks. I even started studying for my exams!
[+] [-] varbhat|5 years ago|reply
https://github.com/Docile-Alligator/Infinity-For-Reddit
https://github.com/QuantumBadger/RedReader
https://i.reddit.com
https://old.reddit.com
[+] [-] alangibson|5 years ago|reply
Reddit shuts down their API in 3, 2, 1...
[+] [-] noneeeed|5 years ago|reply
I wonder what I'd do if someone from Reddit applied for a job on my team. I'd certainly be _very_ interested in their thoughts on the Reddit approach.
[+] [-] esolyt|5 years ago|reply
Even if you download the app, it constantly tries to lure you into logging in by displaying a fake notification count. The good old "Hey you've got a message, login to see it" technique. If you still refuse to login, the notification count becomes 2, as if now you have 2 messages. It's quite disgusting and makes me dislike reddit. Unfortunately, I'm guessing these tactics work on the average user.
[+] [-] kristopolous|5 years ago|reply
This is essentially the experience across the board on all major web properties. I have no idea why I use my cell phone to access websites so frequently. It's a really terrible experience.
In fact, most of these sites are the candy and chips aisle for the mind - an unhealthy diet of emptiness. It's such a waste of time.
[+] [-] Daniel_sk|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ffpip|5 years ago|reply
Enable uBlock Annoyances in the filter lists.
[+] [-] vasachi|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yuppiepuppie|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] harha|5 years ago|reply
This is a serious issue for users though and should highlight the risks with handing off control over important communication platforms.
[+] [-] freyr|5 years ago|reply
But the desktop web Reddit has become unusable for me as well. My laptop heats up, the fans go into overdrive, and my browser slows to a crawl. It’s the anti-HN.
[+] [-] PopeDotNinja|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mads|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] BelleOfTheBall|5 years ago|reply