5 ms·

Look past the "we're turning into reddit" HN angst: the IAmA reddit really can be very interesting.

thecoffman 16y ago
There's much of reddit that is still interesting and useful, and there's plenty of good discussion to be had - it just has a much worse signal to noise ratio since its exploded in popularity. If you're willing to unsubscribe from some of the bigger subreddits and take the time to "roll-your-own" so to speak, there is a lot of value to be had.
- javanix 16y ago
  Right, there's really nothing fundamentally different about HN and reddit other than the audience. At their core they are both vote-based commenting communities - and the generally high quality of comments makes me wish more sites (like Gawker, Engadget, etc) would use the same mechanism. Yes there is a lot of herd behavior but it's leagues better than the "First post!" cruft you see everywhere else.
  - phillmv 16y ago
    >Right, there's really nothing fundamentally different about HN and reddit other than the audience. Yeah. It just has an incredibly more functional UI and working RSS feeds.
    - javanix 16y ago
      Not sure what you mean by this, but in my opinion differing UI and RSS feeds are pretty much the opposite of "fundamental differences".
- monochromatic 16y ago
  Got some suggestions for good subreddits?
  - simonsarris 16y ago
    I'd strongly suggest joining your state's subreddit.
  - thecoffman 16y ago
    Well, there are subreddits for any particular political persuasion you may have - most of them have better discussion than the general /r/politics. There's /r/programming, but its a little light on content sometimes so I prefer: /r/systems /r/machinelearning /r/netsec /r/compscipapers /r/coding /r/compsci /r/linux /r/opensource /r/csbooks for the hacker part of me. There are also all sorts of other ones for any interests you might have - hard sciences, soft sciences, food, photography, sports, fantasy sports anything you'd like. Heres a spreadsheet with some other subreddits - its not nearly comprehensive, but it gives you an idea of what's out there. https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?hl=en&key=ttpCnxB3rDcEbGTxSi9CBFw&hl=en#gid=0 https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?hl=en&key=ttpCnxB3rD...
  - zck 16y ago
    TrueReddit is pretty awesome: http://www.reddit.com/r/TrueReddit/ http://www.reddit.com/r/TrueReddit/ . It's explicitly for "...thought-provoking articles, reddiquette, reading before voting and the hope to generate intelligent discussion on the topics."
  - redthrowaway 16y ago
    In addition to what others have said, I'll add r/depthhub. It's similar to r/bestof, but it serves to collect all of the interesting and deep discussions that happen on Reddit. r/theagora is also great if you have a philosophical bent. It's an attempt to recreate the dialectic of the Socratics. Emphasis is placed on focussed rhetoric and honest argument, and to avoid logical fallacies.
  - motdiem 16y ago
    /r/tldr is a nice digest, and a good way (for me) to find interesting stuff on reddit
araneae 16y ago
Entertaining perhaps, but I thought the interview with the IBM guy was a lot more interesting. There's not much on here except personal information and jokes.
kmfrk 16y ago
Still no thanks to the quality of the comments posted, though, and that's the main problem with the site. Jennings is fortunately able to be hilarious in all his answers, no matter how poignant the questions are.
- ZachPruckowski 16y ago
  Have you seen the level of commentary around the 'Net? I agree that Reddit's fallen down a bit, but it's way better than any other free and generalist site on the web. Heck, it's better than most soft-specialist sites. Reddit is in the same class of website as Digg, major newspapers, and YouTube - have you been to those sites and read their comments sections? Don't, if you want to keep any faith in humanity. By contrast, Reddit is almost reasonable. It's below HackerNews/Groklaw quality, and probably even below ArsTechnica quality, but it's still above average overall, especially among non-specializing and free sites.
rms 16y ago
I read reddit way more than HN these days. But I guess I also don't go to startup networking events in lieu of chilling on the beach in Thailand...
machrider 16y ago
The key to reddit is creating an account and subscribing to the right subreddits (programming, science, compsci, ...). Equally importantly, unsubscribe from the main "reddit.com" reddit, pics, wtf, etc. Suddenly reddit becomes an informative, useful site.

There's much of reddit that is still interesting and useful, and there's plenty of good discussion to be had - it just has a much worse signal to noise ratio since its exploded in popularity. If you're willing to unsubscribe from some of the bigger subreddits and take the time to "roll-your-own" so to speak, there is a lot of value to be had.

javanix 16y ago
Right, there's really nothing fundamentally different about HN and reddit other than the audience. At their core they are both vote-based commenting communities - and the generally high quality of comments makes me wish more sites (like Gawker, Engadget, etc) would use the same mechanism. Yes there is a lot of herd behavior but it's leagues better than the "First post!" cruft you see everywhere else.
- phillmv 16y ago
  >Right, there's really nothing fundamentally different about HN and reddit other than the audience. Yeah. It just has an incredibly more functional UI and working RSS feeds.
  - javanix 16y ago
    Not sure what you mean by this, but in my opinion differing UI and RSS feeds are pretty much the opposite of "fundamental differences".
monochromatic 16y ago
Got some suggestions for good subreddits?
- simonsarris 16y ago
  I'd strongly suggest joining your state's subreddit.
- thecoffman 16y ago
  Well, there are subreddits for any particular political persuasion you may have - most of them have better discussion than the general /r/politics. There's /r/programming, but its a little light on content sometimes so I prefer: /r/systems /r/machinelearning /r/netsec /r/compscipapers /r/coding /r/compsci /r/linux /r/opensource /r/csbooks for the hacker part of me. There are also all sorts of other ones for any interests you might have - hard sciences, soft sciences, food, photography, sports, fantasy sports anything you'd like. Heres a spreadsheet with some other subreddits - its not nearly comprehensive, but it gives you an idea of what's out there. https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?hl=en&key=ttpCnxB3rDcEbGTxSi9CBFw&hl=en#gid=0 https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?hl=en&key=ttpCnxB3rD...
- zck 16y ago
  TrueReddit is pretty awesome: http://www.reddit.com/r/TrueReddit/ http://www.reddit.com/r/TrueReddit/ . It's explicitly for "...thought-provoking articles, reddiquette, reading before voting and the hope to generate intelligent discussion on the topics."
- redthrowaway 16y ago
  In addition to what others have said, I'll add r/depthhub. It's similar to r/bestof, but it serves to collect all of the interesting and deep discussions that happen on Reddit. r/theagora is also great if you have a philosophical bent. It's an attempt to recreate the dialectic of the Socratics. Emphasis is placed on focussed rhetoric and honest argument, and to avoid logical fallacies.
- motdiem 16y ago
  /r/tldr is a nice digest, and a good way (for me) to find interesting stuff on reddit

araneae 16y ago

Entertaining perhaps, but I thought the interview with the IBM guy was a lot more interesting. There's not much on here except personal information and jokes.

kmfrk 16y ago

Still no thanks to the quality of the comments posted, though, and that's the main problem with the site. Jennings is fortunately able to be hilarious in all his answers, no matter how poignant the questions are.

ZachPruckowski 16y ago
Have you seen the level of commentary around the 'Net? I agree that Reddit's fallen down a bit, but it's way better than any other free and generalist site on the web. Heck, it's better than most soft-specialist sites. Reddit is in the same class of website as Digg, major newspapers, and YouTube - have you been to those sites and read their comments sections? Don't, if you want to keep any faith in humanity. By contrast, Reddit is almost reasonable. It's below HackerNews/Groklaw quality, and probably even below ArsTechnica quality, but it's still above average overall, especially among non-specializing and free sites.

rms 16y ago

I read reddit way more than HN these days. But I guess I also don't go to startup networking events in lieu of chilling on the beach in Thailand...

machrider 16y ago

The key to reddit is creating an account and subscribing to the right subreddits (programming, science, compsci, ...). Equally importantly, unsubscribe from the main "reddit.com" reddit, pics, wtf, etc. Suddenly reddit becomes an informative, useful site.