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Congrats to them big time. It seriously doesn't get the recognition it deserves as the most impactful social media platform. To me, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook,

Congrats to them big time. It seriously doesn't get the recognition it deserves as the most impactful social media platform. To me, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, and other social media today is less about connecting people and really about driving targeted and calculated impressions of X to audiences via a user's feed. This is astro-turfed to feel organic and botted to death by everyone because of how much influence it has to dupe people. Almost unusable. Even though reddit is extremely guilty of this too (just browse /r/popular not logged in for example), what I find awesome about reddit is its ability to connect people and really have group conversations on almost anything. On a positive side, it's easily the best platform for mobilizing like-minded individuals and finding historic and well documented people's experiences about literally anything. Most my Google searches on random subjects look like this: "buying a house reddit", "best board games reddit", "high protein vegan foods reddit".

throwawaysea 6y ago
> what I find awesome about reddit is its ability to connect people and really have group conversations on almost anything I see Reddit at its best in niche subreddits but it is far from a place to have conversations on almost anything. The site as a whole as well as most of the biggest subs have banned various topics or lines of discussion in a bid to align to progressive left political views.
- pjscott 6y ago
  If a subreddit forbids discussion of a topic, you probably wouldn't have been able to have a good conversation about it anyway. Don't go to the biggest subs! Avoid the places that have been taken over by the most aggressive enforcers of mass culture! Reddit's great redeeming virtue is that it's big enough for groups with more liberal discussion norms to flourish, if you can find them.
  - edgyquant 6y ago
    Yes but downvotes are annoying and the sub threads aren’t a good place for real discussions imo. I’d take an old fashion forum any day. It’s a shame that outside of history and science fiction there aren’t too many large forums anymore as Reddit has basically replaced them all. Reddit has a serious meme problem (even on subs where they’re banned) and repetitive jokes often times derailing conversations as funny one liners get upvoted to the top (then replied to with funny one liners) as longer form posts get moved to the bottom.
- matsemann 6y ago
  > in a bid to align to progressive left political views Is there really this huge conspiracy by the left, or are most just tired of hate speech from the right when they want to look at funny memes? > it is far from a place to have conversations on almost anything Well, except for this alt-right stuff and things that are illegal, are so much else censored? I'd wager most people could find a discussion about any of their interests.
  - leereeves 6y ago
    Half of the content on r/popular is hate speech about the right. It's among the most partisan, and from one point of view, toxic, sites on the Internet, but apparently, from another point of view, that's just "funny memes". In contrast to the Hacker News guideline "assume good faith", the attitude on reddit is more like "assume anyone who disagrees is evil".
    - matsemann 6y ago
      > Half of the content on r/popular is hate speech about the right. [Citation needed]. You don't do your point any favors by being hyperbolic. And as always, the "both sides are both equally bad"-rhetoric is just discussing in bad faith.
      - leereeves 6y ago
        I was going to say my citation is r/popular itself, but it looks like there's less of it now that the election is over. During the election it was disgusting. The toxic content is still there though, like a LeopardsAteMyFace post crowing about the death of Ron Wright, and as if to prove my point: "This thread has been locked due to extremely toxic and rude comments." Such as the current top comment "...I'm really past playing nice with even the memory of these fucks...... Rot in hell, Ron." The discussion was too toxic even for the LeopardsAteMyFace mods, but they didn't delete it. It's still visible, and featured on r/popular. That sub (and the other we-hate-conservatives subs) are often filled with hate speech like that, and yet, unlike r/TheDonald, they haven't been quarantined. https://www.reddit.com/r/LeopardsAteMyFace/comments/lflxdi/another_gop_covid_casualty/ https://www.reddit.com/r/LeopardsAteMyFace/comments/lflxdi/a...
- TomSwirly 6y ago
  European here. You must be a right-wing American because I find the site fairly right wing, myself. I was actually shocked how long they allowed the constant threats of violence and racist abuse to percolate on the_donald, and which still exists on r/conservative. It might be that you believe that threats of violence are protected speech, however, being a US conservative. Let me assure you that they are not, not even in the US.
bad_username 6y ago
> what I find awesome about reddit is its ability to connect people and really have group conversations I am a redditor for 7 years and that was true early on. Today it is not. You can connect and have group conversations only if you subscribe to a certain dominant political and cultural narrative, walk on egg shells, and toe a line. If you don't, you are swiftly downvoted and banned. There is no escape from this even in generic, non-political subs. Niche small subs are often ok, but Reddit is not unique to have those.
- ZephyrBlu 6y ago
  Depends what you mean by small. I think subs with even a few hundred thousand subscribers are generally pretty good, depending on the community of course.
- Buge 6y ago
  >certain dominant political and cultural narrative, You mean dominant across all of reddit or dominant in that specific sub? There are plenty of subs that have a political and cultural bent quite different from the overall reddit one.
- asah 6y ago
  yeah as 14yr redditor, sigh can confirm. Anything remotely political creates too much work for mods, who in turn ban first and ask questions later. Eggshells are sometimes not enough.
- Applejinx 6y ago
  Pretty sure you've got some opinions that are also being pushed by massive, coordinated troll farms. What you're seeing is the scale of the exercise. Maybe that tells you something about your political opinions and the nature of the folks you share them with. This sort of thing doesn't just randomly happen. If you're getting clobbered for an offhand remark, it's not about you, it's because there were 10,000 bots and trolls there before you automatedly saying the same stuff to make it seem like 'everybody is saying it'. Then you turn up, and bam: they don't even think you're real, because you're saying the stuff a thousand bots were saying. Hard luck: I don't think there's a good answer for you, the ground is sort of salted at this point.
TomSwirly 6y ago
I don't get that valuation, though. I've been on reddit for 13 years (today!) and I have never once purchased anything I've seen advertised there - because I never see anything advertised there. I don't run ad blockers or anything. How do they justify a $6 billion valuation?
- yuppiepuppie 6y ago
  Strange. Do you pay anything to them? I know reddit gold removes the ads. I still use old.reddit.com and I see ads on my front page when Im browsing outside my pi.hole or adblocker
- bo1024 6y ago
  They still have a huge amount of your attention...that has to be valuable somehow. Maybe only in nefarious ways.
- redonkulus 6y ago
  Happy cake day
- xboxnolifes 6y ago
  They have a ton of active users and user data. They have the potential to be milked dry from ads.

throwawaysea 6y ago

> what I find awesome about reddit is its ability to connect people and really have group conversations on almost anything I see Reddit at its best in niche subreddits but it is far from a place to have conversations on almost anything. The site as a whole as well as most of the biggest subs have banned various topics or lines of discussion in a bid to align to progressive left political views.

pjscott 6y ago
If a subreddit forbids discussion of a topic, you probably wouldn't have been able to have a good conversation about it anyway. Don't go to the biggest subs! Avoid the places that have been taken over by the most aggressive enforcers of mass culture! Reddit's great redeeming virtue is that it's big enough for groups with more liberal discussion norms to flourish, if you can find them.
- edgyquant 6y ago
  Yes but downvotes are annoying and the sub threads aren’t a good place for real discussions imo. I’d take an old fashion forum any day. It’s a shame that outside of history and science fiction there aren’t too many large forums anymore as Reddit has basically replaced them all. Reddit has a serious meme problem (even on subs where they’re banned) and repetitive jokes often times derailing conversations as funny one liners get upvoted to the top (then replied to with funny one liners) as longer form posts get moved to the bottom.
matsemann 6y ago
> in a bid to align to progressive left political views Is there really this huge conspiracy by the left, or are most just tired of hate speech from the right when they want to look at funny memes? > it is far from a place to have conversations on almost anything Well, except for this alt-right stuff and things that are illegal, are so much else censored? I'd wager most people could find a discussion about any of their interests.
- leereeves 6y ago
  Half of the content on r/popular is hate speech about the right. It's among the most partisan, and from one point of view, toxic, sites on the Internet, but apparently, from another point of view, that's just "funny memes". In contrast to the Hacker News guideline "assume good faith", the attitude on reddit is more like "assume anyone who disagrees is evil".
  - matsemann 6y ago
    > Half of the content on r/popular is hate speech about the right. [Citation needed]. You don't do your point any favors by being hyperbolic. And as always, the "both sides are both equally bad"-rhetoric is just discussing in bad faith.
    - leereeves 6y ago
      I was going to say my citation is r/popular itself, but it looks like there's less of it now that the election is over. During the election it was disgusting. The toxic content is still there though, like a LeopardsAteMyFace post crowing about the death of Ron Wright, and as if to prove my point: "This thread has been locked due to extremely toxic and rude comments." Such as the current top comment "...I'm really past playing nice with even the memory of these fucks...... Rot in hell, Ron." The discussion was too toxic even for the LeopardsAteMyFace mods, but they didn't delete it. It's still visible, and featured on r/popular. That sub (and the other we-hate-conservatives subs) are often filled with hate speech like that, and yet, unlike r/TheDonald, they haven't been quarantined. https://www.reddit.com/r/LeopardsAteMyFace/comments/lflxdi/another_gop_covid_casualty/ https://www.reddit.com/r/LeopardsAteMyFace/comments/lflxdi/a...
TomSwirly 6y ago
European here. You must be a right-wing American because I find the site fairly right wing, myself. I was actually shocked how long they allowed the constant threats of violence and racist abuse to percolate on the_donald, and which still exists on r/conservative. It might be that you believe that threats of violence are protected speech, however, being a US conservative. Let me assure you that they are not, not even in the US.

bad_username 6y ago

> what I find awesome about reddit is its ability to connect people and really have group conversations I am a redditor for 7 years and that was true early on. Today it is not. You can connect and have group conversations only if you subscribe to a certain dominant political and cultural narrative, walk on egg shells, and toe a line. If you don't, you are swiftly downvoted and banned. There is no escape from this even in generic, non-political subs. Niche small subs are often ok, but Reddit is not unique to have those.

ZephyrBlu 6y ago
Depends what you mean by small. I think subs with even a few hundred thousand subscribers are generally pretty good, depending on the community of course.
Buge 6y ago
>certain dominant political and cultural narrative, You mean dominant across all of reddit or dominant in that specific sub? There are plenty of subs that have a political and cultural bent quite different from the overall reddit one.
asah 6y ago
yeah as 14yr redditor, sigh can confirm. Anything remotely political creates too much work for mods, who in turn ban first and ask questions later. Eggshells are sometimes not enough.
Applejinx 6y ago
Pretty sure you've got some opinions that are also being pushed by massive, coordinated troll farms. What you're seeing is the scale of the exercise. Maybe that tells you something about your political opinions and the nature of the folks you share them with. This sort of thing doesn't just randomly happen. If you're getting clobbered for an offhand remark, it's not about you, it's because there were 10,000 bots and trolls there before you automatedly saying the same stuff to make it seem like 'everybody is saying it'. Then you turn up, and bam: they don't even think you're real, because you're saying the stuff a thousand bots were saying. Hard luck: I don't think there's a good answer for you, the ground is sort of salted at this point.

TomSwirly 6y ago

I don't get that valuation, though. I've been on reddit for 13 years (today!) and I have never once purchased anything I've seen advertised there - because I never see anything advertised there. I don't run ad blockers or anything. How do they justify a $6 billion valuation?

yuppiepuppie 6y ago
Strange. Do you pay anything to them? I know reddit gold removes the ads. I still use old.reddit.com and I see ads on my front page when Im browsing outside my pi.hole or adblocker
bo1024 6y ago
They still have a huge amount of your attention...that has to be valuable somehow. Maybe only in nefarious ways.
redonkulus 6y ago
Happy cake day
xboxnolifes 6y ago
They have a ton of active users and user data. They have the potential to be milked dry from ads.