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>looking for product recommendations This is the trick I use too; but I found the result still isn't great enough for a few reasons. 1. People seem have a ten

>looking for product recommendations This is the trick I use too; but I found the result still isn't great enough for a few reasons. 1. People seem have a tendency to recommend products/brands that are niche or "in minority". Like some obscure ones that scratch particular itch for that user (and often expensive and hard to find). This is totally fine on its own, but you want to have the big picture (i.e. learn about the most popular ones) first when researching a new product. 2. The number of the answers is often so low (and most would have 1 digit upvotes) that it's very hard to judge when there is conflicting info. 3. People often just list the brand/name, without much more information. 4. you can't even sure if these answers are genuine (instead of marketing/soft advertisement). Still, probably much better than anything else that can be easily found in general search.

hctaw 6y ago
One upvote on Reddit is worth 1,000 5 star reviews, for now at least.
toomanybeersies 6y ago
I've found that reddit tends to get pretty cargo culty around particular products/brands, like Sony mirrorless and the Olympus mju II for cameras, Denon DJ equipment, or Starting Strength for weightlifting. So many recommendations basically follow the form "I'm new to this hobby and bought one of these a week ago, I swear it's the best thing ever"
- chaps 6y ago
  Is this post meant for SEO?
- sidibe 6y ago
  In any kind of subreddit about a category of products, they are all very sure that anything that's not expensive is awful. But what would real customers be doing replying to posts I'm a subreddit like that? Probably not a great place to compare things
- emptyfile 6y ago
  Lol. Reminds me how I once asked what's a good EU online shop for running gear on the running subreddit, and the top recommended post was about a premium priced boutique european manufacturer of clothes for "plus sized" runners...
- dharmab 6y ago
  I noticed a cycle with headphones on Reddit: - A headphone is released which is not flawless, but offers great value. - The headphone is recommended on Reddit. - Demand for the headphone goes up. - The price of the headphone increases. - The headphone is no longer a good value, but is still recommended. - This continues until either a well-reputed user points out the poor value or a new headphone with great value is released.
  - nmfisher 6y ago
    > - The headphone is recommended on Reddit. This is not a coincidence, I'm guessing Reddit is around 1/3 astroturfing to 2/3 legitimate discussion. I don't fault people for doing it, but I'm not going to pretend that Reddit is some pristine haven for genuine reviews. HN is just as exploitable, but at least the ratio of informative content is higher, and the concerted marketing efforts are better disguised.
- steve_adams_86 6y ago
  Starting strength - absolutely. It’s fine and served me well, but it isn’t the bible of building strength. There are several books worth reading, different schools of thought, but somehow SS always comes out on top on Reddit.
comboy 6y ago
I agree with all of the above but there are two good dynamics. For small niche subreddits where you only get a few answers it seems less likely that those are advertisements (and user history is often telling) And on bigger subs, it's much harder to manipulate the answer unless your product is already pretty decent and you're just fighting over some market spot. In other words, obviously bad products won't be able to advertise this way because of negative comments, but some covert brand building certainly can be done.
- MegaButts 6y ago
  > In other words, obviously bad products won't be able to advertise this way because of negative comments Negative comments can be downvoted and it's not a secret that you can buy reddit accounts and that there are lots of bots. A comment only needs what, 5 downvotes before it's automatically minimized by the default view? You're not seeing those comments unless you're digging, the same way you would on Amazon or anywhere else.
throwaway0a5e 6y ago
Reddit is great for knowing what products to buy if you want upper middle class status symbols. If you're looking to spend money with little regard for efficiency of the dollar (i.e. buying someone a gift) it's fine. If you are accountable to yourself or others it is far from ideal.
np- 6y ago
It’s good if you keep in mind who the typical redditor is and if you would take advice from that type of person in real life. One notable example was when I was trying to do some research on cars. The type of things generally recommended seemed almost tailor made for young men at a certain stage of their life (ie budget/sporty/manual/etc). Sure I love that stuff too, but just take a look around in the real world, and it’s pretty clear that the recommendations you’re getting are super limited in scope.
- joshribakoff 6y ago
  It’s an echo chamber too. On /r/investing people parrot “time in the market beats timing the market”, while this may be true for most, I read a post the other day where someone wrote “I really want to buy the dip but I know that would be childish”. While it may be riskier than the strategy they parrot it’s hardly “childish”. On /r/personalfinance people say you must payoff a 2% mortgage before you can consider investing. Advice on there is hit or miss because of herd mentality There’s also entire subs dedicated to illegal activity like sharing pirated content or sourcing scheduled substances, or discussing conspiracy theories or discussing violence, and Apple is ok with this while shutting down other apps like parlor which arguably didn’t do anything different

hctaw 6y ago

One upvote on Reddit is worth 1,000 5 star reviews, for now at least.

toomanybeersies 6y ago

I've found that reddit tends to get pretty cargo culty around particular products/brands, like Sony mirrorless and the Olympus mju II for cameras, Denon DJ equipment, or Starting Strength for weightlifting. So many recommendations basically follow the form "I'm new to this hobby and bought one of these a week ago, I swear it's the best thing ever"

chaps 6y ago
Is this post meant for SEO?
sidibe 6y ago
In any kind of subreddit about a category of products, they are all very sure that anything that's not expensive is awful. But what would real customers be doing replying to posts I'm a subreddit like that? Probably not a great place to compare things
emptyfile 6y ago
Lol. Reminds me how I once asked what's a good EU online shop for running gear on the running subreddit, and the top recommended post was about a premium priced boutique european manufacturer of clothes for "plus sized" runners...
dharmab 6y ago
I noticed a cycle with headphones on Reddit: - A headphone is released which is not flawless, but offers great value. - The headphone is recommended on Reddit. - Demand for the headphone goes up. - The price of the headphone increases. - The headphone is no longer a good value, but is still recommended. - This continues until either a well-reputed user points out the poor value or a new headphone with great value is released.
- nmfisher 6y ago
  > - The headphone is recommended on Reddit. This is not a coincidence, I'm guessing Reddit is around 1/3 astroturfing to 2/3 legitimate discussion. I don't fault people for doing it, but I'm not going to pretend that Reddit is some pristine haven for genuine reviews. HN is just as exploitable, but at least the ratio of informative content is higher, and the concerted marketing efforts are better disguised.
steve_adams_86 6y ago
Starting strength - absolutely. It’s fine and served me well, but it isn’t the bible of building strength. There are several books worth reading, different schools of thought, but somehow SS always comes out on top on Reddit.

comboy 6y ago

I agree with all of the above but there are two good dynamics. For small niche subreddits where you only get a few answers it seems less likely that those are advertisements (and user history is often telling) And on bigger subs, it's much harder to manipulate the answer unless your product is already pretty decent and you're just fighting over some market spot. In other words, obviously bad products won't be able to advertise this way because of negative comments, but some covert brand building certainly can be done.

MegaButts 6y ago
> In other words, obviously bad products won't be able to advertise this way because of negative comments Negative comments can be downvoted and it's not a secret that you can buy reddit accounts and that there are lots of bots. A comment only needs what, 5 downvotes before it's automatically minimized by the default view? You're not seeing those comments unless you're digging, the same way you would on Amazon or anywhere else.

throwaway0a5e 6y ago

Reddit is great for knowing what products to buy if you want upper middle class status symbols. If you're looking to spend money with little regard for efficiency of the dollar (i.e. buying someone a gift) it's fine. If you are accountable to yourself or others it is far from ideal.

np- 6y ago

It’s good if you keep in mind who the typical redditor is and if you would take advice from that type of person in real life. One notable example was when I was trying to do some research on cars. The type of things generally recommended seemed almost tailor made for young men at a certain stage of their life (ie budget/sporty/manual/etc). Sure I love that stuff too, but just take a look around in the real world, and it’s pretty clear that the recommendations you’re getting are super limited in scope.

joshribakoff 6y ago
It’s an echo chamber too. On /r/investing people parrot “time in the market beats timing the market”, while this may be true for most, I read a post the other day where someone wrote “I really want to buy the dip but I know that would be childish”. While it may be riskier than the strategy they parrot it’s hardly “childish”. On /r/personalfinance people say you must payoff a 2% mortgage before you can consider investing. Advice on there is hit or miss because of herd mentality There’s also entire subs dedicated to illegal activity like sharing pirated content or sourcing scheduled substances, or discussing conspiracy theories or discussing violence, and Apple is ok with this while shutting down other apps like parlor which arguably didn’t do anything different