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I'm worried that if you added subreddits to HN, HN may decline as well. Do you have a theory as to why Reddit is declining?

fragmede 4y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September
acadapter 4y ago
I think it's the hostile user interface and the lack of clear goals with moderation.
- superchroma 4y ago
  Yeah, the interface is slow and trash, even the legacy mode is frustrating to use.
  - 6510 4y ago
    I rarely do more than 3 page views. Most of my Reddit sessions span 1 page.
superchroma 4y ago
Some thoughts. I think users happen in generations. The first users set a tone, and then later users make formal and memetic rules to enforce tone (like the monkeys with the bananas up the ladder). Without change, this sticks and places become stagnant. On the other hand, there's clearly been a huge influx in users on Reddit and they haven't managed the volume well so you have popular threads which commenting in is just pissing in an ocean of piss. When that becomes normalized, users are forced to resort to unusual behavior to get noticed, meaning being spammy, dramatic or offensive.
Night_Thastus 4y ago
To me, the reason is simple - it got big. When a site/group is small there's little motivation for bad actors, advertising spam, fake accounts, etc. Why bother making spam bots on site X when site Y has 10x the userbase? Why try to make people angry with poor headlines when it won't reach a large audience? Why try to do propaganda when you could go elsewhere? Smaller communities are generally also tighter knit. In a small group there's more notable reputation that sticks. People can't get away with being jerks. As well, there's the corporate side. Reddit has to think and act very differently than HN does. They need to think about their profitability. What do advertisers think of their site? What kind of opinion does the public have of them? They can't afford to let things be loose and wild, they need to carefully control the content or the hammer could come down on them hard. That means a lot of accusations of violating "free speech". If HN suddenly got as popular as Reddit did, the exact same things would happen to HN as Reddit. 0 doubt. So no, it's not directly the format of reddit that is the problem. It's just the size.
reportgunner 4y ago
Reddit was never good, people who think it was just suffer from nostalgia.

fragmede 4y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September

acadapter 4y ago

I think it's the hostile user interface and the lack of clear goals with moderation.

superchroma 4y ago
Yeah, the interface is slow and trash, even the legacy mode is frustrating to use.
- 6510 4y ago
  I rarely do more than 3 page views. Most of my Reddit sessions span 1 page.

superchroma 4y ago

Some thoughts. I think users happen in generations. The first users set a tone, and then later users make formal and memetic rules to enforce tone (like the monkeys with the bananas up the ladder). Without change, this sticks and places become stagnant. On the other hand, there's clearly been a huge influx in users on Reddit and they haven't managed the volume well so you have popular threads which commenting in is just pissing in an ocean of piss. When that becomes normalized, users are forced to resort to unusual behavior to get noticed, meaning being spammy, dramatic or offensive.

Night_Thastus 4y ago

To me, the reason is simple - it got big. When a site/group is small there's little motivation for bad actors, advertising spam, fake accounts, etc. Why bother making spam bots on site X when site Y has 10x the userbase? Why try to make people angry with poor headlines when it won't reach a large audience? Why try to do propaganda when you could go elsewhere? Smaller communities are generally also tighter knit. In a small group there's more notable reputation that sticks. People can't get away with being jerks. As well, there's the corporate side. Reddit has to think and act very differently than HN does. They need to think about their profitability. What do advertisers think of their site? What kind of opinion does the public have of them? They can't afford to let things be loose and wild, they need to carefully control the content or the hammer could come down on them hard. That means a lot of accusations of violating "free speech". If HN suddenly got as popular as Reddit did, the exact same things would happen to HN as Reddit. 0 doubt. So no, it's not directly the format of reddit that is the problem. It's just the size.

reportgunner 4y ago

Reddit was never good, people who think it was just suffer from nostalgia.