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Spezless – A Reddit clone without u/Spez

40 points by eternalyxiii 3y ago

eternalyxiii 3y ago
Idea sparked by Shaan Puri (https://twitter.com/ShaanVP/status/1668323286936338432?s=20 https://twitter.com/ShaanVP/status/1668323286936338432?s=20)
- gravypod 3y ago
  I think this is a pretty interesting idea. It would be great if the creator (seems to be "benmlevy"?) was in the comment thread here. There's a lot of interesting questions that come to mind. I think that nonprofit software companies could do a lot of good.
printvoid 3y ago
You need more than 15000 signups just for building a counter. By that logic you are not going to get reddit with all the functionalities for 1M signups. lol
- memefrog 3y ago
  I agree. This is absurd. A reddit clone is a few hours work. The technology is not the difficult part, and they haven't even done it? Anyway the idea as a whole is stupid, because the problem with reddit is not its CEO but its entire design. It was an interesting idea, but it has failed. People are upset because third party mobile apps will be gone, but the site as a whole was far better before the influx of phoneposters anyway! Phoneposting is fundamentally incompatible with text beyond a couple of sentences. Phoneposters want - and get - short, easily consumed memes, photos, and videos.e They post short, easily consumed, low-value comments. Phoneposters have turned reddit from "the front page of the internet" into a site dominated by screenshots of tweets.
- kjeksfjes 3y ago
  I'd say your logic is a bit flawed if you think that the logic for what to do when reaching 15K signups needs to be identical to the logic for what to do when reaching 1M signups. The reasoning for each goal can be totally different. That said, personally I'm not going to use a site branded around the name spez.
8note 3y ago
Why not use the fediverse code? If you don't have to build stuff, why build stuff?
- goykasi 3y ago
  Why use the fediverse code? If you don't need the complexity, why include it?
  - hkt 3y ago
    Presumably because somebody else has already written it..
prox 3y ago
Love to see this work. In good reddit fashion I will use a throwaway to sign up.
TobyTheDog123 3y ago
Yeah that 48 hour limit really was a misstep. There were a handful of times today I wanted to research something and hit the private wall, surprising me each time. It showed me that if this protest was indefinite, it could have a real impact on the platform. Yet, on Wednesday all will be back to normal. I'm also very skeptical of something like this - it's the Twitter effect: people will complain all they like, but at the end of the day - Twitter and Reddit are where people are and will remain. As for the Digg comparison, tolerance for corporate greed in the services we use has skyrocketed in the past 13 years, so I dont think it's an apt comparison.
- memefrog 3y ago
  How many people left Digg for Reddit all those years ago? If the same number left Reddit today, nobody would even notice. Digg was a very niche website. So was Reddit. The migration was large only relative to their then-tiny populations. You could build a platform the size of early Reddit from people unhappy with these changes. You could probably build a platform 10x the size of early Reddit. Very likely larger than HN, certainly bigger than Lobste.rs or Tildes. But you aren't going to do to Reddit what Reddit did to Digg.
  - thunderbong 3y ago
    Where will they go? When people left Digg, Reddit was there. As of right now, there's no viable Reddit competitor.
    - danjac 3y ago
      Before Reddit, there were forums for every kind of interest. Reddit took care of the technical side of managing a forum, it was easier to stand up a subreddit for your fandom or hobby than purchasing a domain, setting up whatever PHP forum software, database and so on. If all those things were easier - maybe dirt-cheap turnkey hosting for something federated like Lemmy or whatever - then perhaps the answer to "viable Reddit competitor" is no Reddit at all, but just each subreddit go off and do its own thing. Your stamp-collecting forum doesn't need Reddit scale, it just needs a donate button for a few bucks a month, and if it's connected to the Fediverse then people can use a single login or app to switch between all their forums like they do with subreddits with a single federated timeline/notifications to keep them posted.
carrolldunham 3y ago
Paying "power users" is a heinous idea. The reddit karma farmers posting fake stories and known-approved thoughts are bad as it is. Imagine if you had the pull of actual money for crafting on-message bullshit you know a community will eat up. All genuine contributions that are purely from passion go out the window
Mengkudulangsat 3y ago
90% of revenues go to moderators and power users.... and where exactly are these revenues coming from? So far, all these alternatives I'm reading about can't convincingly explain how they plan to pay for themselves.
- Hasu 3y ago
  > So far, all these alternatives I'm reading about can't convincingly explain how they plan to pay for themselves. For most of its existence, Reddit hasn't been able to convincingly explain how it can pay for itself, and it still can't. The company currently isn't and I don't think has ever been profitable.
  - Mengkudulangsat 3y ago
    Which is why Reddit got into its current predicament in the first place. Profits may be optional (depending on the goals of the organization), but breakeven is mandatory.
- throwawaylala1 3y ago
  looks like they're crypto guys so there's that
- 0x0203 3y ago
  Honest question: roughly how much would running a link-aggregator website like (early) reddit actually cost, assuming text only user-submissions (links/comments), 50 million daily users, and an uptime similar to reddit? If one magically had the users and wasn't interested in personal profit, how cheaply could it be done effectively?
  - memefrog 3y ago
    50 million daily users is a lot. In ~2012, Reddit apparently had ~1.5m DAU. That was still a pretty decent website. Pulling random numbers out of the hat, maybe each daily active user makes 5 requests per day, on average? Many might just open up one thread, but a Pareto distribution means a small percentage would make hundreds of requests per day. So maybe more than 5? To be conservative, let's say 10. So that's 15m requests per day. That's about 200 per second. Couldn't you do that on a single server using just PHP? Obviously these are just ballpark estimates but really. When you say uptime similar to reddit, do you mean uptime similar to reddit now? Or similar to early reddit? Early reddit constantly threw errors at busy times.
jrflowers 3y ago
I love the idea that recreating Reddit is a job that anybody could do with $10-20 mil to throw at engineering, as if the reason for its success is that it’s some sort of software marvel and not the fact that it’s the website with the people on it. There are so many people speedrunning Field of Dreams right now.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
switz 3y ago
I'm blown away that this is being upvoted. The lack of effort and critical thought here is appalling.
laserbeam 3y ago
So, not only this promotes itself to be a copy of Reddit, but also trashes the CEO in the name of the clone. Now don't get me wrong, I support the protest and an alternative to reddit. However, the way this is framed sounds like a one way street to a losing lawsuit. At least a very expensive one.
- alpaca128 3y ago
  You're making this sound a lot more heinous than it is. The name of the site just implies it doesn't involve Spez, and it's just a nickname. There's a large difference between "spezless" and something like "huffmansucks".
  - laserbeam 3y ago
    I'm trying to put myself into spez's shoes. If I were him, I would sue. Sure... It's quite benign at surface level, but I'd definitely sue if this became popular.
    - memefrog 3y ago
      Sue on what grounds?
    - alpaca128 3y ago
      > I'm trying to put myself into spez's shoes. If I were him, I would sue. Yes, that's what I'd expect from an admin who abuses their power to win arguments through manipulation and falsely accuses others of blackmailing him while being disproven by evidence. If he sues "spezless" it's not because he's being reasonable, but because he's spez.
    - kjeksfjes 3y ago
      Lol. Huffman has the legal rights and ownership of the name spez, as much as you have the legal rights and ownership of the name laserbeam.
voramok 3y ago
Somebody is way ahead of you with the idea of a non-profit Reddit https://flingup.com/ https://flingup.com/
- prox 3y ago
  Doesn’t allow pornography. Whatever you think, that’s a lot of Reddit it’s not covering in such a case.
taesu 3y ago
Not a fan of these - prove my idea will sell - type of websites.. theres a dozen websites ahead of this ten minute spent clever domained website.
CodinM 3y ago
You've been swimming in the VC world too much when you're under the impression that building a Reddit clone is a "$10M-$20M" sized task.
predictabl3 3y ago
Beyond obvious criticisms that others have pointed out, I'm not signing up for any platform that's not federated, idc if I'm on a site with 3 other users. I am done with rugpulls.
- number6 3y ago
  As you are mentioning rugpulls, all this clones are missing a key ingredient: Blockchain! Upvotes should be bound to a token. Companies or you can buy upvotes for promotion, or use your own stash that you earned in creating good comments. I am bit sad that no one is doing this. Would be the perfect storm if the Blockchain days weren't over...
  - slowmovintarget 3y ago
    I see your Blockchain and raise you one Generative AI. This new tech will write your posts and comments for you! Watch the fake internet points roll in!
    - number6 3y ago
      The AI could simulate whole subreddits as generative previews! You don't even need real people - it just looks real - oh and the posts contain subtle advertising for the paying corps --- create a chain with 3 comments and unique user names in the gist of the subreddit /movies/ with subtle advertising for WD40 === Comment 1: MovieLover123: "Just watched the latest blockbuster action film and I have to say, the car chase scenes were mind-blowing! The precision driving and intense stunts had me on the edge of my seat. What's your favorite car chase scene in a movie?" Comment 2: FilmFanatic456: "Oh, I absolutely love car chase scenes! One of my favorites has to be from 'Mad Max: Fury Road.' The adrenaline-pumping chase through the desert was pure cinematic gold. Speaking of cars, did you know that WD40 can work wonders on squeaky doors and hinges? It's like the 'Fury Road' for rusty parts!" Comment 3: CinemaCritic789: "Interesting tidbit, FilmFanatic456! I had no idea WD40 could be so versatile. It's like a secret weapon for maintaining smooth functionality. Now, back to car chase scenes, 'The French Connection' had an iconic one that still stands the test of time. The gritty realism and raw energy put you right in the heart of the chase!" Comment 4: MovieLover123: "Absolutely, CinemaCritic789! 'The French Connection' is a classic. And thanks for the WD40 tip, FilmFanatic456. I'll definitely keep a can handy for those squeaky moments. Now, back to movies, who's excited for the upcoming summer blockbusters? The trailers have been teasing some epic action sequences!" Comment 5: FilmFanatic456: "You're welcome, MovieLover123! WD40 is a game-changer for all those little annoyances. As for the summer blockbusters, I can't wait to see how they push the boundaries of action and visual effects. It's going to be a thrilling cinematic experience! Just like how WD40 frees up stuck mechanisms, these movies will set our imaginations free!" Comment 6: CinemaCritic789: "Indeed, FilmFanatic456! WD40 is like the unsung hero in our everyday lives, just like how great movies can become an unsung hero in our hearts. The anticipation for these summer blockbusters is growing, and I'm excited to see how they'll capture our imaginations and take us on incredible journeys!" Note: The advertising for WD40 is subtle, mentioning its versatility and the comparison to freeing up stuck mechanisms. It is presented in a way that relates to the discussion of car chase scenes and the idea of movies capturing our imagination.
alpaca128 3y ago
> 90% of revenue will go to moderators & power users Congrats, you now have a community of GPT-driven karma farming bots.
senectus1 3y ago
Lost me at u/Spez is a good dude. his behavior's and words say otherwise. also the comment earlier : >There are so many people speedrunning Field of Dreams right now. So true.
joot82 3y ago
Isn't the base version of reddit, without the crappy UI and image hosting, already open sourced? Just go from there. Probably easier to install than building a counter for your email signups. https://github.com/reddit-archive/reddit https://github.com/reddit-archive/reddit

40 points by eternalyxiii 3y ago

Idea sparked by Shaan Puri (https://twitter.com/ShaanVP/status/1668323286936338432?s=20 https://twitter.com/ShaanVP/status/1668323286936338432?s=20)

gravypod 3y ago
I think this is a pretty interesting idea. It would be great if the creator (seems to be "benmlevy"?) was in the comment thread here. There's a lot of interesting questions that come to mind. I think that nonprofit software companies could do a lot of good.

printvoid 3y ago

You need more than 15000 signups just for building a counter. By that logic you are not going to get reddit with all the functionalities for 1M signups. lol

memefrog 3y ago
I agree. This is absurd. A reddit clone is a few hours work. The technology is not the difficult part, and they haven't even done it? Anyway the idea as a whole is stupid, because the problem with reddit is not its CEO but its entire design. It was an interesting idea, but it has failed. People are upset because third party mobile apps will be gone, but the site as a whole was far better before the influx of phoneposters anyway! Phoneposting is fundamentally incompatible with text beyond a couple of sentences. Phoneposters want - and get - short, easily consumed memes, photos, and videos.e They post short, easily consumed, low-value comments. Phoneposters have turned reddit from "the front page of the internet" into a site dominated by screenshots of tweets.
kjeksfjes 3y ago
I'd say your logic is a bit flawed if you think that the logic for what to do when reaching 15K signups needs to be identical to the logic for what to do when reaching 1M signups. The reasoning for each goal can be totally different. That said, personally I'm not going to use a site branded around the name spez.

8note 3y ago

Why not use the fediverse code? If you don't have to build stuff, why build stuff?

goykasi 3y ago
Why use the fediverse code? If you don't need the complexity, why include it?
- hkt 3y ago
  Presumably because somebody else has already written it..

prox 3y ago

Love to see this work. In good reddit fashion I will use a throwaway to sign up.

TobyTheDog123 3y ago

Yeah that 48 hour limit really was a misstep. There were a handful of times today I wanted to research something and hit the private wall, surprising me each time. It showed me that if this protest was indefinite, it could have a real impact on the platform. Yet, on Wednesday all will be back to normal. I'm also very skeptical of something like this - it's the Twitter effect: people will complain all they like, but at the end of the day - Twitter and Reddit are where people are and will remain. As for the Digg comparison, tolerance for corporate greed in the services we use has skyrocketed in the past 13 years, so I dont think it's an apt comparison.

memefrog 3y ago
How many people left Digg for Reddit all those years ago? If the same number left Reddit today, nobody would even notice. Digg was a very niche website. So was Reddit. The migration was large only relative to their then-tiny populations. You could build a platform the size of early Reddit from people unhappy with these changes. You could probably build a platform 10x the size of early Reddit. Very likely larger than HN, certainly bigger than Lobste.rs or Tildes. But you aren't going to do to Reddit what Reddit did to Digg.
- thunderbong 3y ago
  Where will they go? When people left Digg, Reddit was there. As of right now, there's no viable Reddit competitor.
  - danjac 3y ago
    Before Reddit, there were forums for every kind of interest. Reddit took care of the technical side of managing a forum, it was easier to stand up a subreddit for your fandom or hobby than purchasing a domain, setting up whatever PHP forum software, database and so on. If all those things were easier - maybe dirt-cheap turnkey hosting for something federated like Lemmy or whatever - then perhaps the answer to "viable Reddit competitor" is no Reddit at all, but just each subreddit go off and do its own thing. Your stamp-collecting forum doesn't need Reddit scale, it just needs a donate button for a few bucks a month, and if it's connected to the Fediverse then people can use a single login or app to switch between all their forums like they do with subreddits with a single federated timeline/notifications to keep them posted.

carrolldunham 3y ago

Paying "power users" is a heinous idea. The reddit karma farmers posting fake stories and known-approved thoughts are bad as it is. Imagine if you had the pull of actual money for crafting on-message bullshit you know a community will eat up. All genuine contributions that are purely from passion go out the window

Mengkudulangsat 3y ago

90% of revenues go to moderators and power users.... and where exactly are these revenues coming from? So far, all these alternatives I'm reading about can't convincingly explain how they plan to pay for themselves.

Hasu 3y ago
> So far, all these alternatives I'm reading about can't convincingly explain how they plan to pay for themselves. For most of its existence, Reddit hasn't been able to convincingly explain how it can pay for itself, and it still can't. The company currently isn't and I don't think has ever been profitable.
- Mengkudulangsat 3y ago
  Which is why Reddit got into its current predicament in the first place. Profits may be optional (depending on the goals of the organization), but breakeven is mandatory.
throwawaylala1 3y ago
looks like they're crypto guys so there's that
0x0203 3y ago
Honest question: roughly how much would running a link-aggregator website like (early) reddit actually cost, assuming text only user-submissions (links/comments), 50 million daily users, and an uptime similar to reddit? If one magically had the users and wasn't interested in personal profit, how cheaply could it be done effectively?
- memefrog 3y ago
  50 million daily users is a lot. In ~2012, Reddit apparently had ~1.5m DAU. That was still a pretty decent website. Pulling random numbers out of the hat, maybe each daily active user makes 5 requests per day, on average? Many might just open up one thread, but a Pareto distribution means a small percentage would make hundreds of requests per day. So maybe more than 5? To be conservative, let's say 10. So that's 15m requests per day. That's about 200 per second. Couldn't you do that on a single server using just PHP? Obviously these are just ballpark estimates but really. When you say uptime similar to reddit, do you mean uptime similar to reddit now? Or similar to early reddit? Early reddit constantly threw errors at busy times.

jrflowers 3y ago

I love the idea that recreating Reddit is a job that anybody could do with $10-20 mil to throw at engineering, as if the reason for its success is that it’s some sort of software marvel and not the fact that it’s the website with the people on it. There are so many people speedrunning Field of Dreams right now.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

switz 3y ago

I'm blown away that this is being upvoted. The lack of effort and critical thought here is appalling.

laserbeam 3y ago

So, not only this promotes itself to be a copy of Reddit, but also trashes the CEO in the name of the clone. Now don't get me wrong, I support the protest and an alternative to reddit. However, the way this is framed sounds like a one way street to a losing lawsuit. At least a very expensive one.

alpaca128 3y ago
You're making this sound a lot more heinous than it is. The name of the site just implies it doesn't involve Spez, and it's just a nickname. There's a large difference between "spezless" and something like "huffmansucks".
- laserbeam 3y ago
  I'm trying to put myself into spez's shoes. If I were him, I would sue. Sure... It's quite benign at surface level, but I'd definitely sue if this became popular.
  - memefrog 3y ago
    Sue on what grounds?
  - alpaca128 3y ago
    > I'm trying to put myself into spez's shoes. If I were him, I would sue. Yes, that's what I'd expect from an admin who abuses their power to win arguments through manipulation and falsely accuses others of blackmailing him while being disproven by evidence. If he sues "spezless" it's not because he's being reasonable, but because he's spez.
  - kjeksfjes 3y ago
    Lol. Huffman has the legal rights and ownership of the name spez, as much as you have the legal rights and ownership of the name laserbeam.

voramok 3y ago

Somebody is way ahead of you with the idea of a non-profit Reddit https://flingup.com/ https://flingup.com/

prox 3y ago
Doesn’t allow pornography. Whatever you think, that’s a lot of Reddit it’s not covering in such a case.

taesu 3y ago

Not a fan of these - prove my idea will sell - type of websites.. theres a dozen websites ahead of this ten minute spent clever domained website.

CodinM 3y ago

You've been swimming in the VC world too much when you're under the impression that building a Reddit clone is a "$10M-$20M" sized task.

predictabl3 3y ago

Beyond obvious criticisms that others have pointed out, I'm not signing up for any platform that's not federated, idc if I'm on a site with 3 other users. I am done with rugpulls.

number6 3y ago
As you are mentioning rugpulls, all this clones are missing a key ingredient: Blockchain! Upvotes should be bound to a token. Companies or you can buy upvotes for promotion, or use your own stash that you earned in creating good comments. I am bit sad that no one is doing this. Would be the perfect storm if the Blockchain days weren't over...
- slowmovintarget 3y ago
  I see your Blockchain and raise you one Generative AI. This new tech will write your posts and comments for you! Watch the fake internet points roll in!
  - number6 3y ago
    The AI could simulate whole subreddits as generative previews! You don't even need real people - it just looks real - oh and the posts contain subtle advertising for the paying corps --- create a chain with 3 comments and unique user names in the gist of the subreddit /movies/ with subtle advertising for WD40 === Comment 1: MovieLover123: "Just watched the latest blockbuster action film and I have to say, the car chase scenes were mind-blowing! The precision driving and intense stunts had me on the edge of my seat. What's your favorite car chase scene in a movie?" Comment 2: FilmFanatic456: "Oh, I absolutely love car chase scenes! One of my favorites has to be from 'Mad Max: Fury Road.' The adrenaline-pumping chase through the desert was pure cinematic gold. Speaking of cars, did you know that WD40 can work wonders on squeaky doors and hinges? It's like the 'Fury Road' for rusty parts!" Comment 3: CinemaCritic789: "Interesting tidbit, FilmFanatic456! I had no idea WD40 could be so versatile. It's like a secret weapon for maintaining smooth functionality. Now, back to car chase scenes, 'The French Connection' had an iconic one that still stands the test of time. The gritty realism and raw energy put you right in the heart of the chase!" Comment 4: MovieLover123: "Absolutely, CinemaCritic789! 'The French Connection' is a classic. And thanks for the WD40 tip, FilmFanatic456. I'll definitely keep a can handy for those squeaky moments. Now, back to movies, who's excited for the upcoming summer blockbusters? The trailers have been teasing some epic action sequences!" Comment 5: FilmFanatic456: "You're welcome, MovieLover123! WD40 is a game-changer for all those little annoyances. As for the summer blockbusters, I can't wait to see how they push the boundaries of action and visual effects. It's going to be a thrilling cinematic experience! Just like how WD40 frees up stuck mechanisms, these movies will set our imaginations free!" Comment 6: CinemaCritic789: "Indeed, FilmFanatic456! WD40 is like the unsung hero in our everyday lives, just like how great movies can become an unsung hero in our hearts. The anticipation for these summer blockbusters is growing, and I'm excited to see how they'll capture our imaginations and take us on incredible journeys!" Note: The advertising for WD40 is subtle, mentioning its versatility and the comparison to freeing up stuck mechanisms. It is presented in a way that relates to the discussion of car chase scenes and the idea of movies capturing our imagination.

alpaca128 3y ago

> 90% of revenue will go to moderators & power users Congrats, you now have a community of GPT-driven karma farming bots.

senectus1 3y ago

Lost me at u/Spez is a good dude. his behavior's and words say otherwise. also the comment earlier : >There are so many people speedrunning Field of Dreams right now. So true.

joot82 3y ago

Isn't the base version of reddit, without the crappy UI and image hosting, already open sourced? Just go from there. Probably easier to install than building a counter for your email signups. https://github.com/reddit-archive/reddit https://github.com/reddit-archive/reddit