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> The long answer is that most of the web has become too inauthentic to trust. Reddit was also partly successful in that regard because it catered to niche com

> The long answer is that most of the web has become too inauthentic to trust. Reddit was also partly successful in that regard because it catered to niche communities who ask the most interesting questions and, trolls aside, responses from the community that's generally trustworthy. There are literally subreddits with discussions on solutions that are deemed better than what you get from customer support. Reddit also doesn't have "promoted" content / responses, which is largely the issue with Google ads outlined by author.

mstipetic 4y ago
I never understood how Reddit isn’t an advertising powerhouse. Their users literally voluntarily segregate by interest, but the proper tech never got built out. Last I checked they integrated a 3rd party solution for that.
- petesergeant 4y ago
  I would guess they have a huge problem with ad blocking
  - margorczynski 4y ago
    Especially that places like Reddit attract more "tech-savvy" people who have a high amount of ad block users. Naive web ads on places like that or e.g. Ars Technica is tricky most probably.
    - hbn 4y ago
      I think that was the case a few years back, but these days a lot of casual users are accessing it through the official app and getting served tons of ads. It was a weird moment seeing a reddit comment where someone referred to the site as "this app." Made me feel old.
  - polski-g 4y ago
    They need to make the ads and relevant HTML look identical to "real" posts so adblocking doesn't work
    - brookst 4y ago
      This devaluing content to humans, thus breaking what makes the site good.
- oblio 4y ago
  If you look at their software dev efforts it should be painfully obvious why they're not a powerhouse of anything :-) They had great product-market fit early on, were boosted by YN, and inertia is a huge thing.
  - LewisVerstappen 4y ago
    Yeah, it's an absurdly poorly managed company.
    - bigbacaloa 4y ago
      Which is why it's still useful.
- LegitShady 4y ago
  reddit became massive overnight because digg imploded. digg imploded because they tried to turn into an advertising powerhouse.
- ilyt 4y ago
  I remember how their idea of paid ad was just a reddit post you can comment on. Which was kinda cool from user side but advertisers didn't like people taking piss on them in the comments so they undoed it
fathyb 4y ago
Reddit definitely has promoted content and native advertising. Perhaps you're not seeing it because you're using the far superior old.reddit.com?
- imachine1980_ 4y ago
  or download alternative mobile app becouse they allow it, and use adblock
- pclmulqdq 4y ago
  The biggest form of this advertising isn't actually done with the knowledge of Reddit. Organizations use Reddit accounts to astroturf narratives together, since Reddit is pseudonymous. Companies who need better PR, or just a good controversy, can do this much more cheaply on Reddit than any other internet forum. Still, the high-quality advice on Reddit that is authentic can be the most useful stuff on the internet.
  - djtango 4y ago
    True but, for example, I still find that restaurants and travel advice is far superior on Reddit than Google. Reddit is often my starting point for beginning research on purchasing decisions. Although when buying a digital piano, I ended up finding dedicated boards like pianoworld to be better EDIT Ironically, I also find YouTube to be a great source of research, mostly because the cost to produce content is higher and I think it's somewhat harder to produce inauthentic content (at least to me so far for the things I am researching)
tokinonagare 4y ago
> Reddit was Yes, it was somewhat good in the past but an alternative is sorely needed. Most popular subs (at least the one I frequent) are moderated to the point that censored would be the more appropriate word to describe the situation. Then there are whole subs banned (including non political) for wrongthink.
- MrMan 4y ago
  that is great for increasing the quality of search results, moderation is awesome
- AdamN 4y ago
  There's nothing wrong with a sub banning/censoring people. That's a critical part of having a trust value within a social network and if moderators of a popular sub don't think a poster is meeting the bar to post it is good for them to ban it and become higher trust. If they go too far than there won't be content on the sub at all though. For instance /r/AskHistorians has a very high bar for posting and threads are commonly removed. As a result (and because they still have posters that meet that bar), the sub is considered very high trust. Some other subs anybody can say anything and I go so far as to filter the entire sub out so I never see it again.
  - 000ooo000 4y ago
    >There's nothing wrong with a sub banning/censoring people. That's a critical part of having a trust value within a social network I would not characterise a community moulded according to the whims of a few anonymous individuals as high in trust.
    - regularfry 4y ago
      It's high in trust of a very specific type. Not, perhaps, the type we want or need, but the type we have nonetheless.
    - AdamN 4y ago
      I muted USA Today in Apple News recently because their filtering was below the bar (click bait headlines, low quality writing). I don't know who the editors are that are making their decisions but I no longer trust that outlet anymore. Channels with higher quality selection (Financial Times) now have more of my time because I trust them more based on previous decisions they have made (to show me fewer low quality articles under click bait headlines).
A_D_E_P_T 4y ago
Reddit is one of the most astroturfed places on the internet, and there's an entire ecology of PR/marketing firms that focus exclusively on it. There's also a thriving market in "high karma" accounts, which can be bought for as little as $30. > Reddit also doesn't have "promoted" content / responses It does, though. Your karma basically determines the visibility of any new post you try to make. And low-karma or new accounts are de facto shadowbanned. Basically, Reddit's system is terrible.
- petesergeant 4y ago
  > Reddit's system is terrible This doesn’t match my experience of reading Reddit
  - LewisVerstappen 4y ago
    That's because you're just unaware of how astroturfed it is. I just headed over to one of the popular subreddits and randomly picked an account that posted a top meme https://www.reddit.com/user/esberat/submitted/ https://www.reddit.com/user/esberat/submitted/ The account has 8 million post karma and every single post it submits to a subreddit ends up on the front page of Reddit... without fail. The account isn't a mod of any of those subs, but they're clearly using upvote manipulation to get every single one of their posts to the front page.
    - DanielVZ 4y ago
      Of course the front-page will look like that. Niche subreddits are a completely different experience.
    - Doctor_Fegg 4y ago
      But in the context of TFA - searching Reddit to get factual answers - what appears on the reddit.com front page from day to day is largely irrelevant, surely?
      - A_D_E_P_T 4y ago
masklinn 4y ago
> Reddit also doesn't have "promoted" content / responses Reddit does have promoted content, but it's only at the toplevel, if you use new.reddit (possibly the official client as well) and you don't have an adblocker you'll see them interspersed in feeds (on subreddits anyway, not sure e.g. /r/all has ads as I don't use it, and usually use the old theme anyway). It also suffers quite a bit from astroturfing / content farms, but it's not always clear how the accounts are monetised, they're mostly visible as repost bots farming karma.
ClumsyPilot 4y ago
Google held control of who they reward using AdWords, they decided who lives and who dies, who goes bancrupt and who prosper It is their system that rewards SEO spam If you are a creator, you can put up a website, pat for deiagn and hosting fees, and hopw google finds you amongst SEO spam. Or you cam put a oage on instagram, for free, and deal with none of that shit
- carlosjobim 4y ago
  You can submit your site to Google and they will index it. If your content is good, you can rank highly - even if nobody links to you! Even if you don't pay Google a dime. Instagram doesn't allow links out, so you can not promote or sell your content - only if you pay them through their spy/ad service.
  - ClumsyPilot 4y ago
    > If your content is good, you can rank highly - even if nobody links to you! I m sorry, this is like news from a different universe. There is an absolutely world-shattering report on how children have lost all freedom ovet the past 40 years. They used to roam the neighbourhood, then they were allowed to stay in one street, and today we dont let them out of backyard. I have it on my PC, but can't find it in Google. Its impossible now
    - carlosjobim 4y ago
      I can only talk from my own experience, I've launched several websites that became high ranking on Google solely because of content and speed. Without anybody linking to them. Hell, there's still nobody linking to them years later, and Google still keeps them highly ranked. In niches with well established competitors. Without Google, I doubt I would have had any chance to reach a public, because nobody except search engines will give you the time of day when you're not already established. There's many bad things about Google, but they truly allow many people a chance to get their voice out and many small businesses a chance to exist. That is brilliant.
RicoElectrico 4y ago
The advantage of Reddit to the broad internet is that there are always people trying to prove you wrong and call out BS.

mstipetic 4y ago

I never understood how Reddit isn’t an advertising powerhouse. Their users literally voluntarily segregate by interest, but the proper tech never got built out. Last I checked they integrated a 3rd party solution for that.

petesergeant 4y ago
I would guess they have a huge problem with ad blocking
- margorczynski 4y ago
  Especially that places like Reddit attract more "tech-savvy" people who have a high amount of ad block users. Naive web ads on places like that or e.g. Ars Technica is tricky most probably.
  - hbn 4y ago
    I think that was the case a few years back, but these days a lot of casual users are accessing it through the official app and getting served tons of ads. It was a weird moment seeing a reddit comment where someone referred to the site as "this app." Made me feel old.
- polski-g 4y ago
  They need to make the ads and relevant HTML look identical to "real" posts so adblocking doesn't work
  - brookst 4y ago
    This devaluing content to humans, thus breaking what makes the site good.
oblio 4y ago
If you look at their software dev efforts it should be painfully obvious why they're not a powerhouse of anything :-) They had great product-market fit early on, were boosted by YN, and inertia is a huge thing.
- LewisVerstappen 4y ago
  Yeah, it's an absurdly poorly managed company.
  - bigbacaloa 4y ago
    Which is why it's still useful.
LegitShady 4y ago
reddit became massive overnight because digg imploded. digg imploded because they tried to turn into an advertising powerhouse.
ilyt 4y ago
I remember how their idea of paid ad was just a reddit post you can comment on. Which was kinda cool from user side but advertisers didn't like people taking piss on them in the comments so they undoed it

fathyb 4y ago

Reddit definitely has promoted content and native advertising. Perhaps you're not seeing it because you're using the far superior old.reddit.com?

imachine1980_ 4y ago
or download alternative mobile app becouse they allow it, and use adblock
pclmulqdq 4y ago
The biggest form of this advertising isn't actually done with the knowledge of Reddit. Organizations use Reddit accounts to astroturf narratives together, since Reddit is pseudonymous. Companies who need better PR, or just a good controversy, can do this much more cheaply on Reddit than any other internet forum. Still, the high-quality advice on Reddit that is authentic can be the most useful stuff on the internet.
- djtango 4y ago
  True but, for example, I still find that restaurants and travel advice is far superior on Reddit than Google. Reddit is often my starting point for beginning research on purchasing decisions. Although when buying a digital piano, I ended up finding dedicated boards like pianoworld to be better EDIT Ironically, I also find YouTube to be a great source of research, mostly because the cost to produce content is higher and I think it's somewhat harder to produce inauthentic content (at least to me so far for the things I am researching)

tokinonagare 4y ago

> Reddit was Yes, it was somewhat good in the past but an alternative is sorely needed. Most popular subs (at least the one I frequent) are moderated to the point that censored would be the more appropriate word to describe the situation. Then there are whole subs banned (including non political) for wrongthink.

MrMan 4y ago
that is great for increasing the quality of search results, moderation is awesome
AdamN 4y ago
There's nothing wrong with a sub banning/censoring people. That's a critical part of having a trust value within a social network and if moderators of a popular sub don't think a poster is meeting the bar to post it is good for them to ban it and become higher trust. If they go too far than there won't be content on the sub at all though. For instance /r/AskHistorians has a very high bar for posting and threads are commonly removed. As a result (and because they still have posters that meet that bar), the sub is considered very high trust. Some other subs anybody can say anything and I go so far as to filter the entire sub out so I never see it again.
- 000ooo000 4y ago
  >There's nothing wrong with a sub banning/censoring people. That's a critical part of having a trust value within a social network I would not characterise a community moulded according to the whims of a few anonymous individuals as high in trust.
  - regularfry 4y ago
    It's high in trust of a very specific type. Not, perhaps, the type we want or need, but the type we have nonetheless.
  - AdamN 4y ago
    I muted USA Today in Apple News recently because their filtering was below the bar (click bait headlines, low quality writing). I don't know who the editors are that are making their decisions but I no longer trust that outlet anymore. Channels with higher quality selection (Financial Times) now have more of my time because I trust them more based on previous decisions they have made (to show me fewer low quality articles under click bait headlines).

A_D_E_P_T 4y ago

Reddit is one of the most astroturfed places on the internet, and there's an entire ecology of PR/marketing firms that focus exclusively on it. There's also a thriving market in "high karma" accounts, which can be bought for as little as $30. > Reddit also doesn't have "promoted" content / responses It does, though. Your karma basically determines the visibility of any new post you try to make. And low-karma or new accounts are de facto shadowbanned. Basically, Reddit's system is terrible.

petesergeant 4y ago
> Reddit's system is terrible This doesn’t match my experience of reading Reddit
- LewisVerstappen 4y ago
  That's because you're just unaware of how astroturfed it is. I just headed over to one of the popular subreddits and randomly picked an account that posted a top meme https://www.reddit.com/user/esberat/submitted/ https://www.reddit.com/user/esberat/submitted/ The account has 8 million post karma and every single post it submits to a subreddit ends up on the front page of Reddit... without fail. The account isn't a mod of any of those subs, but they're clearly using upvote manipulation to get every single one of their posts to the front page.
  - DanielVZ 4y ago
    Of course the front-page will look like that. Niche subreddits are a completely different experience.
  - Doctor_Fegg 4y ago
    But in the context of TFA - searching Reddit to get factual answers - what appears on the reddit.com front page from day to day is largely irrelevant, surely?
    - A_D_E_P_T 4y ago

masklinn 4y ago

> Reddit also doesn't have "promoted" content / responses Reddit does have promoted content, but it's only at the toplevel, if you use new.reddit (possibly the official client as well) and you don't have an adblocker you'll see them interspersed in feeds (on subreddits anyway, not sure e.g. /r/all has ads as I don't use it, and usually use the old theme anyway). It also suffers quite a bit from astroturfing / content farms, but it's not always clear how the accounts are monetised, they're mostly visible as repost bots farming karma.

ClumsyPilot 4y ago

Google held control of who they reward using AdWords, they decided who lives and who dies, who goes bancrupt and who prosper It is their system that rewards SEO spam If you are a creator, you can put up a website, pat for deiagn and hosting fees, and hopw google finds you amongst SEO spam. Or you cam put a oage on instagram, for free, and deal with none of that shit

carlosjobim 4y ago
You can submit your site to Google and they will index it. If your content is good, you can rank highly - even if nobody links to you! Even if you don't pay Google a dime. Instagram doesn't allow links out, so you can not promote or sell your content - only if you pay them through their spy/ad service.
- ClumsyPilot 4y ago
  > If your content is good, you can rank highly - even if nobody links to you! I m sorry, this is like news from a different universe. There is an absolutely world-shattering report on how children have lost all freedom ovet the past 40 years. They used to roam the neighbourhood, then they were allowed to stay in one street, and today we dont let them out of backyard. I have it on my PC, but can't find it in Google. Its impossible now
  - carlosjobim 4y ago
    I can only talk from my own experience, I've launched several websites that became high ranking on Google solely because of content and speed. Without anybody linking to them. Hell, there's still nobody linking to them years later, and Google still keeps them highly ranked. In niches with well established competitors. Without Google, I doubt I would have had any chance to reach a public, because nobody except search engines will give you the time of day when you're not already established. There's many bad things about Google, but they truly allow many people a chance to get their voice out and many small businesses a chance to exist. That is brilliant.

RicoElectrico 4y ago

The advantage of Reddit to the broad internet is that there are always people trying to prove you wrong and call out BS.