7 ms·

It's unfortunate that Reddit silently went closed-source before being forced to admit it. Certainly a betrayal of trust with their long-standing userbase.

Mononokay 9y ago
The majority of their code is still open-source. https://github.com/reddit https://github.com/reddit
- andrewguenther 9y ago
  It is definitely not the majority and doesn't match what they're running on the back-end anymore at all.
- Sylos 9y ago
  That's like someone telling you the majority of ingredients that they put into something you're supposed to eat, but not that one ingredient. It's either their secret super sauce or it's poison. And I can tell you for free that whatever Reddit has built technologically, does not contain any secret super sauce whatsoever.
  - chme 9y ago
    I sort of get reddits reason to hold the post ranking algorithm secret. So that it is hard to game it. Until there is a way to easy 're-key' such an algorithm if someone found a way to abuse it, holding it secret is the best solution for them. I currently can't think of a better solution to avoid gaming of ranking algorithms than holding it secret and changing/adapting it often. Maybe some machine learning algorithm?
confounded 9y ago
Yup. I understand the scale and micro services thing, but they could at least keep the mobile clients open (even if with a lagged release for feature launches, or just periodic tarballs).
- jahlove 9y ago
  Like the abandonware that is AlienBlue.
jschmitz28 9y ago
Maybe having it be open source would represent a security risk? https://github.com/reddit-archive/reddit1.0/blob/master/data.lisp#L32 https://github.com/reddit-archive/reddit1.0/blob/master/data...
- keyle 9y ago
  It goes both ways, being open-source can also make your product more secure, as it's out in the open and a lot more eyeballs look at the code.
  - colejohnson66 9y ago
    Tell that to OpenSSL
    - __s 9y ago
      Where's your flawless closed source SSL implementation?
      - colejohnson66 9y ago
        Wow. Offended much? Did I say (or even imply) I had one? All I did was provide a counter to the claim that open source means more eyes which could make your software more secure.
        serf 9y ago
        >All I did was provide a counter to the claim that open source means more eyes which could make your software more secure. You really didn't say much about open source and it's ability find bugs; you just cited a particularly nasty set of bugs on an open source project as a way to condemn all of open source work to being as bug-ridden as other methods. It was more snark than it was providing a clean example as a counter-point. Someone could easily point out the millions of bugs in closed source projects as a counter to your point of equal caliber; but I think that it's clear to most of us that NO methods that we yet understand will result in bug-free code.

Mononokay 9y ago

The majority of their code is still open-source. https://github.com/reddit https://github.com/reddit

andrewguenther 9y ago
It is definitely not the majority and doesn't match what they're running on the back-end anymore at all.
Sylos 9y ago
That's like someone telling you the majority of ingredients that they put into something you're supposed to eat, but not that one ingredient. It's either their secret super sauce or it's poison. And I can tell you for free that whatever Reddit has built technologically, does not contain any secret super sauce whatsoever.
- chme 9y ago
  I sort of get reddits reason to hold the post ranking algorithm secret. So that it is hard to game it. Until there is a way to easy 're-key' such an algorithm if someone found a way to abuse it, holding it secret is the best solution for them. I currently can't think of a better solution to avoid gaming of ranking algorithms than holding it secret and changing/adapting it often. Maybe some machine learning algorithm?

confounded 9y ago

Yup. I understand the scale and micro services thing, but they could at least keep the mobile clients open (even if with a lagged release for feature launches, or just periodic tarballs).

jahlove 9y ago
Like the abandonware that is AlienBlue.

jschmitz28 9y ago

Maybe having it be open source would represent a security risk? https://github.com/reddit-archive/reddit1.0/blob/master/data.lisp#L32 https://github.com/reddit-archive/reddit1.0/blob/master/data...

keyle 9y ago
It goes both ways, being open-source can also make your product more secure, as it's out in the open and a lot more eyeballs look at the code.
- colejohnson66 9y ago
  Tell that to OpenSSL
  - __s 9y ago
    Where's your flawless closed source SSL implementation?
    - colejohnson66 9y ago
      Wow. Offended much? Did I say (or even imply) I had one? All I did was provide a counter to the claim that open source means more eyes which could make your software more secure.
      - serf 9y ago
        >All I did was provide a counter to the claim that open source means more eyes which could make your software more secure. You really didn't say much about open source and it's ability find bugs; you just cited a particularly nasty set of bugs on an open source project as a way to condemn all of open source work to being as bug-ridden as other methods. It was more snark than it was providing a clean example as a counter-point. Someone could easily point out the millions of bugs in closed source projects as a counter to your point of equal caliber; but I think that it's clear to most of us that NO methods that we yet understand will result in bug-free code.