26 ms·

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 i

by carboy 8y ago

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.

dymk 8y ago
You and I both know that's not going to happen. There's no shortage of people willing to moderate subs.
fortytw2 8y ago
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.
- 0xADEADBEE 8y ago
  I appear to have independently parroted your comment! I do apologise. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one who feels that way though!
- etrautmann 8y ago
  I quit cold turkey from ~1 hour a day in 2014 to zero and have never regretted it once.
  - chrisper 8y ago
    I tried that but I get FOMO. Like I feel like I get to discover so many interesting things (news about niche games etc) because of Reddit but at the same time I also hate it.
0xADEADBEE 8y ago
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.
- computerex 8y ago
  Not to mention the fact that the site for some reason performs like shit on mobile. Never underestimate a corporate company's ability to overcomplicate/encumber a simple product to the point where it's barely usable.
  - Simon_says 8y ago
    They want to push you to the app.
- Deimorz 8y ago
  I worked at reddit for 4 years but quit in 2016, largely because they were clearly beginning to switch from a small, fairly independent company (despite being owned by Advance/Conde) to one that was going to become completely dependent on venture capital and I knew what that would end up doing to the site (which, like you mentioned, is manifesting through the redesign, the dark patterns, and so on). They've now taken $500M in VC since I left. A few months later, I decided to start a non-profit with the goal of building a site that would actually be able to stick to its principles and address a lot of the issues that I think are hurting online communities: https://blog.tildes.net/announcing-tildes https://blog.tildes.net/announcing-tildes (HN discussion of the announcement here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17103093 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17103093) It's in private alpha and is still fairly small, but it focuses on higher-quality non-fluff content and discussions, and gets several hundred posts/comments a day. If you (or anyone else) is interested in an invite, please read the blog post I linked above and send me an email at the address listed in there and I'll be happy to give you one.
bitxbitxbitcoin 8y ago
Where do you find yourself spending your internet time instead?
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- sureaboutthis 8y ago
  I don't have internet time. I only go to the internet when looking for something specific or to kill time waiting for something else. Otherwise it's more important to spend it getting things done or with real people. Sitting on the internet, otherwise, is no different than clicking channels on the TV.
confounded 8y ago
At least the APIs mean it’s possible to have third-party open-source clients.
- dopamean 8y ago
  If they ever make a change that badly affects RedReader it'll be over for me. I love that app and I have a pretty solid reddit experience with it.
- rchaud 8y ago
  I remember having 3rd party Twitter and FB apps in 2011. That didn't last long.
movedx 8y ago
My advice would be to treat it like a tool: look up what you need, ask questions when you need to, but ignore it the rest of the time.
- baroffoos 8y ago
  Its a tool covered in weird gunk and makes your hand feel dirty every time you use it. The website is slow and bloated and filled with mountains of JS and tracking
  - movedx 8y ago
    True. The new UI is a joke. I've always hated most modern website UIs, though.
- frosted-flakes 8y ago
  I used to spend hours a week on Reddit, but I've consciously made the effort to avoid it. Unless it comes up in search results, in which case I'm using it as a tool.
- rchaud 8y ago
  It's not Stack Overflow; Reddit is designed to be visited daily and 'engaged' with. That said, I do go to Reddit first when I'm looking to answer questions like HDD recommendations or things to do in my city. That's because searching Google for it will give me nothing but awful content mill blog posts stuffed with affiliate links and SEO-optimized keywords ("Best USD Hard Drives in 2019"). On Reddit you actually get the feeling that the question is trying to be answered by actual people.
  - movedx 8y ago
    > It's not Stack Overflow; Reddit is designed to be visited daily and 'engaged' with. I don't care how it's designed. It can be used as a tool.
chrisper 8y ago
A lot of the moderators in Reddit are powerhungry or are marketing shills. Since it satisfies their needs I don't think they mind it being not paid.
- rchaud 8y ago
  Before long, a glorious new age will dawn: the era of the Reddit influencer.
diminoten 8y ago
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.

by carboy 8y ago

dymk 8y ago

You and I both know that's not going to happen. There's no shortage of people willing to moderate subs.

fortytw2 8y ago

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.

0xADEADBEE 8y ago
I appear to have independently parroted your comment! I do apologise. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one who feels that way though!
etrautmann 8y ago
I quit cold turkey from ~1 hour a day in 2014 to zero and have never regretted it once.
- chrisper 8y ago
  I tried that but I get FOMO. Like I feel like I get to discover so many interesting things (news about niche games etc) because of Reddit but at the same time I also hate it.

0xADEADBEE 8y ago

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.

computerex 8y ago
Not to mention the fact that the site for some reason performs like shit on mobile. Never underestimate a corporate company's ability to overcomplicate/encumber a simple product to the point where it's barely usable.
- Simon_says 8y ago
  They want to push you to the app.
Deimorz 8y ago
I worked at reddit for 4 years but quit in 2016, largely because they were clearly beginning to switch from a small, fairly independent company (despite being owned by Advance/Conde) to one that was going to become completely dependent on venture capital and I knew what that would end up doing to the site (which, like you mentioned, is manifesting through the redesign, the dark patterns, and so on). They've now taken $500M in VC since I left. A few months later, I decided to start a non-profit with the goal of building a site that would actually be able to stick to its principles and address a lot of the issues that I think are hurting online communities: https://blog.tildes.net/announcing-tildes https://blog.tildes.net/announcing-tildes (HN discussion of the announcement here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17103093 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17103093) It's in private alpha and is still fairly small, but it focuses on higher-quality non-fluff content and discussions, and gets several hundred posts/comments a day. If you (or anyone else) is interested in an invite, please read the blog post I linked above and send me an email at the address listed in there and I'll be happy to give you one.

bitxbitxbitcoin 8y ago

Where do you find yourself spending your internet time instead?

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
sureaboutthis 8y ago
I don't have internet time. I only go to the internet when looking for something specific or to kill time waiting for something else. Otherwise it's more important to spend it getting things done or with real people. Sitting on the internet, otherwise, is no different than clicking channels on the TV.

confounded 8y ago

At least the APIs mean it’s possible to have third-party open-source clients.

dopamean 8y ago
If they ever make a change that badly affects RedReader it'll be over for me. I love that app and I have a pretty solid reddit experience with it.
rchaud 8y ago
I remember having 3rd party Twitter and FB apps in 2011. That didn't last long.

movedx 8y ago

My advice would be to treat it like a tool: look up what you need, ask questions when you need to, but ignore it the rest of the time.

baroffoos 8y ago
Its a tool covered in weird gunk and makes your hand feel dirty every time you use it. The website is slow and bloated and filled with mountains of JS and tracking
- movedx 8y ago
  True. The new UI is a joke. I've always hated most modern website UIs, though.
frosted-flakes 8y ago
I used to spend hours a week on Reddit, but I've consciously made the effort to avoid it. Unless it comes up in search results, in which case I'm using it as a tool.
rchaud 8y ago
It's not Stack Overflow; Reddit is designed to be visited daily and 'engaged' with. That said, I do go to Reddit first when I'm looking to answer questions like HDD recommendations or things to do in my city. That's because searching Google for it will give me nothing but awful content mill blog posts stuffed with affiliate links and SEO-optimized keywords ("Best USD Hard Drives in 2019"). On Reddit you actually get the feeling that the question is trying to be answered by actual people.
- movedx 8y ago
  > It's not Stack Overflow; Reddit is designed to be visited daily and 'engaged' with. I don't care how it's designed. It can be used as a tool.

chrisper 8y ago

A lot of the moderators in Reddit are powerhungry or are marketing shills. Since it satisfies their needs I don't think they mind it being not paid.

rchaud 8y ago
Before long, a glorious new age will dawn: the era of the Reddit influencer.

diminoten 8y ago

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.