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Apart from the HN audience, what is the rest of the internet going to turn to when Reddit goes belly up?

by yosito 5y ago

pvarangot 5y ago
Honestly I think nowhere that is that big. I think it will federate a bit again into Discord/forums. It's kind of a last bastion of sorts for Alexandria type news and content aggregators with pseudonymous social features. Look what happened to big subs that where playing cat and mouse with the mods, they all just scattered after trying other platforms like Voat or whatever.
BitwiseFool 5y ago
Some kind of dark-horse platform will emerge and catch on like wildfire. I do not think a mere reddit clone will pull anyone away. There would have to be something new about it's UX.
- conductr 5y ago
  > There would have to be something new about it's UX Mobile first would be enough. I'm a little bit older and still do not understand the appeal of snapchat, tiktok, etc. I understand FB/twitter/instagram (I just don't like using it). But making a mobile version of a small feature fuel the hype storm needed
  - colinmhayes 5y ago
    Reddit is absolutely a mobile first company. Most of their users use adblock, so having a desktop site is just a way for them to gain mobile users. Their mobile app being awful is pretty hilarious given all this, but they're certainly trying very hard to improve the experience on mobile(while also showing as many ads as possible).
    - cwkoss 5y ago
      Reddit is trying to be a mobile first company. I don't think they are successful. I know many people who use reddit, almost always either on desktop browsers or using 3rd party apps for mobile, because their first party one is so clunky.
      - conductr 5y ago
        They never will be. The ship sailed. They’re trying to increase engagement by having a mobile product/audience. But. The browser is a great tool for media consumption it turns out.
      - shostack 5y ago
        How long do you think the 3p mobile apps will last given this development?
        cwkoss 5y ago
        I'd be surprised if they nuked it before their IPO, wouldn't want to slash traffic. But, don't have high hopes for after IPO.
    - travoc 5y ago
      How can be mobile first if they block you from using a mobile browser after the first click? Reddit employs dark patterns to force user tracking.
      - colinmhayes 5y ago
        Mobile app first.
chippy 5y ago
I expect somewhere which has 1. pseudo-anonymity, 2. strong moderation and 3. a kind of federation but not quite actual decentralization. 1. pseudo-anonymity, gives people freedom to speak their minds 2. moderation ensures people know that they are in a controlled space 3. Ensures that spaces have a branding, shared identity between them but are not being controlled from without, but only within
- sedatk 5y ago
  Decentralization and strong moderation are mutually exclusive. You can't simply have a single source of authority for content moderation and decentralize it too. It's either decentralized with variable rate of moderation quality, or have it centralized. There's no way inbetween.
  - 1270018080 5y ago
    Upvotes/downvotes and reporting on reddit are forms of decentralized strong moderation.
    - sedatk 5y ago
      Users can't vote out a content, they can only downvote it which doesn't affect its visibility, only its sort order. There are even people who love that kind of content and read Reddit sorted by "controversial". Curation has some censorship effects but moderation power trumps it. Reporting is advisory too, it's not a power per se. If subreddit mods don't read any of the reports, nothing would happen. No consequences.
- kspacewalk2 5y ago
  "Strong moderation" is vague, and can mean a variety of levels of involvement, from commonsense weeding out of spam and malicious trolling (what I will look for), to heavy handed and blatant attempts to steer conversation toward a particular point of view and to "combat" even reasonable disagreement and skepticism on important topics. Covid is the perfect example of this. I get it, some mods on my local subreddit fancy themselves Responsible And Important People On A Mission To Fight Misinformation (in their own minds). I don't care about their precious opinions on what constitutes Evil Covid Misinformation though, I just want an adult discussion that doesn't get siderailed by trolls. That's it, nothing else. Keep the sermonizing to yourselves thanks. So whatever reddit successor gives me that, I'll go to.
minsc__and__boo 5y ago
Anything that promotes meaningful content discovery. Everyone is projecting their need for anonymity in response to this question, but ultimately it comes down to frequency of dopamine hits. Think TikTok but more formats than just video.
madeofpalk 5y ago
There's two very different use cases for Reddit: - actual communities centred around a topic, like knitting or a particular video game. - just general memes and funny photos/videos That second use case can be supplanted by basically anyone and anywhere.
asdff 5y ago
I think it will just die off like the communities surrounding extinct forums and irc and usenet. Demographically reddit skews millennial and other platforms like tiktok are more popular among gen z. At least for me if reddit hits the fan I won't be hunting for another time sink, I'll probably just spend that time on more real life stuff instead which certainly carries my attention more as I get older than spending time on reddit.
ArlenBales 5y ago
On that note, what are currently the best reddit alternatives? Anything with modern UI/UX?
- unraveller 5y ago
  If you were on reddit anytime in the past several years and didn't notice the decline then datalounge is right up your alley. https://www.datalounge.com/threads https://www.datalounge.com/threads

Apart from the HN audience, what is the rest of the internet going to turn to when Reddit goes belly up?

by yosito 5y ago

Apart from the HN audience, what is the rest of the internet going to turn to when Reddit goes belly up?

Honestly I think nowhere that is that big. I think it will federate a bit again into Discord/forums. It's kind of a last bastion of sorts for Alexandria type news and content aggregators with pseudonymous social features. Look what happened to big subs that where playing cat and mouse with the mods, they all just scattered after trying other platforms like Voat or whatever.

BitwiseFool 5y ago

Some kind of dark-horse platform will emerge and catch on like wildfire. I do not think a mere reddit clone will pull anyone away. There would have to be something new about it's UX.

conductr 5y ago
> There would have to be something new about it's UX Mobile first would be enough. I'm a little bit older and still do not understand the appeal of snapchat, tiktok, etc. I understand FB/twitter/instagram (I just don't like using it). But making a mobile version of a small feature fuel the hype storm needed
- colinmhayes 5y ago
  Reddit is absolutely a mobile first company. Most of their users use adblock, so having a desktop site is just a way for them to gain mobile users. Their mobile app being awful is pretty hilarious given all this, but they're certainly trying very hard to improve the experience on mobile(while also showing as many ads as possible).
  - cwkoss 5y ago
    Reddit is trying to be a mobile first company. I don't think they are successful. I know many people who use reddit, almost always either on desktop browsers or using 3rd party apps for mobile, because their first party one is so clunky.
    - conductr 5y ago
      They never will be. The ship sailed. They’re trying to increase engagement by having a mobile product/audience. But. The browser is a great tool for media consumption it turns out.
    - shostack 5y ago
      How long do you think the 3p mobile apps will last given this development?
      - cwkoss 5y ago
        I'd be surprised if they nuked it before their IPO, wouldn't want to slash traffic. But, don't have high hopes for after IPO.
  - travoc 5y ago
    How can be mobile first if they block you from using a mobile browser after the first click? Reddit employs dark patterns to force user tracking.
    - colinmhayes 5y ago
      Mobile app first.

chippy 5y ago

I expect somewhere which has 1. pseudo-anonymity, 2. strong moderation and 3. a kind of federation but not quite actual decentralization. 1. pseudo-anonymity, gives people freedom to speak their minds 2. moderation ensures people know that they are in a controlled space 3. Ensures that spaces have a branding, shared identity between them but are not being controlled from without, but only within

sedatk 5y ago
Decentralization and strong moderation are mutually exclusive. You can't simply have a single source of authority for content moderation and decentralize it too. It's either decentralized with variable rate of moderation quality, or have it centralized. There's no way inbetween.
- 1270018080 5y ago
  Upvotes/downvotes and reporting on reddit are forms of decentralized strong moderation.
  - sedatk 5y ago
    Users can't vote out a content, they can only downvote it which doesn't affect its visibility, only its sort order. There are even people who love that kind of content and read Reddit sorted by "controversial". Curation has some censorship effects but moderation power trumps it. Reporting is advisory too, it's not a power per se. If subreddit mods don't read any of the reports, nothing would happen. No consequences.
kspacewalk2 5y ago
"Strong moderation" is vague, and can mean a variety of levels of involvement, from commonsense weeding out of spam and malicious trolling (what I will look for), to heavy handed and blatant attempts to steer conversation toward a particular point of view and to "combat" even reasonable disagreement and skepticism on important topics. Covid is the perfect example of this. I get it, some mods on my local subreddit fancy themselves Responsible And Important People On A Mission To Fight Misinformation (in their own minds). I don't care about their precious opinions on what constitutes Evil Covid Misinformation though, I just want an adult discussion that doesn't get siderailed by trolls. That's it, nothing else. Keep the sermonizing to yourselves thanks. So whatever reddit successor gives me that, I'll go to.

minsc__and__boo 5y ago

Anything that promotes meaningful content discovery. Everyone is projecting their need for anonymity in response to this question, but ultimately it comes down to frequency of dopamine hits. Think TikTok but more formats than just video.

madeofpalk 5y ago

There's two very different use cases for Reddit: - actual communities centred around a topic, like knitting or a particular video game. - just general memes and funny photos/videos That second use case can be supplanted by basically anyone and anywhere.

asdff 5y ago

I think it will just die off like the communities surrounding extinct forums and irc and usenet. Demographically reddit skews millennial and other platforms like tiktok are more popular among gen z. At least for me if reddit hits the fan I won't be hunting for another time sink, I'll probably just spend that time on more real life stuff instead which certainly carries my attention more as I get older than spending time on reddit.

ArlenBales 5y ago

On that note, what are currently the best reddit alternatives? Anything with modern UI/UX?

unraveller 5y ago
If you were on reddit anytime in the past several years and didn't notice the decline then datalounge is right up your alley. https://www.datalounge.com/threads https://www.datalounge.com/threads