4 ms·

Your "compensation" is you get to use Reddit. They wrote the software, run the servers, manage the user accounts, by nature of their product and brand bring peo

Your "compensation" is you get to use Reddit. They wrote the software, run the servers, manage the user accounts, by nature of their product and brand bring people to the site and then your sub (and potentially others). Let's not act like Reddit itself hasn't been extremely valuable to these communities. It's just untrue that the mods do the only important work to build subreddits. A lot of subs I'm in have low touch mods and I'm fairly sure if they didn't do it someone else easily would have. Hasn't dropped them from thinking they had fiat power and rights to shut down the subreddit despite many active users wishing to continue using Reddit.

ImPostingOnHN 3y ago
you're describing an internet forum, technologically unimpressive as of decades ago it turns out, the communities and their members (mod and non-mod) are more valuable to reddit than vice versa
- whateveracct 3y ago
  You've ignored the brand and product part. Which is as big if not bigger than tech when it comes to Reddit's success.
  - ImPostingOnHN 3y ago
    you've ignored that the brand and the product are the communities, including mod- and non-mod users without reddit, the communities could exist on any other forum software, hosting paid by anyone else, and be the same without the communities, reddit is worthless
AndrewKemendo 3y ago
Great! So what do you call that economic system in which individual people volunteer to improve privately owned property and the only “compensation” is simply the opportunity to use/improve private property. And again, unlike sharecropping, volunteers get zero of the property as fiat to convert. Preemptively there’s no possible pathway to claim that Reddit is a “Public Commons”, because nobody but the legal owners and their designated controllers, determine the distribution of value or future of the property.
- whateveracct 3y ago
  I think you're really misapplying labor politics to a casual website. I'd even go as far to say that comparing being a reddit mod to share cropping to be tasteless and offensive! I wouldn't say that opinion in public with my face & name associated with it, that's for sure. Mods can Just Quit. They can go self-host. Nobody is making them use Reddit. This isn't a labor situation where anyone's livelihood is at stake.
  - AndrewKemendo 3y ago
    Covered your complaint here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36562292 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36562292
predictabl3 3y ago
I will never stop giggling at this. What reddit actually, actually provides is not technically impressive for anyone that's done relatively anything at scale. In fact, it's impressive how utterly shit the site operates most of the time, given the only, the ONLY THING THEY DO is develop and run it. And yet, I still basically can't watch ANY DAMN VIDEO on the site now that I can't use 3P clients, yes, years after it's introduction the video player is still worse than stepping in dog shit. It's a database, some over engineered piles of JS to load a list of links, and by reddits own messaging, a crap API. It's really not special. The mods and users made it what it is, in spite of what it is.
- whateveracct 3y ago
  Okay go stand up another Reddit then that anyone can create a subreddit on. It'll probably be better, right? Reddit isn't stopping anyone. People have migrated off sites before (digg). Go on then, angry Redditors! It's not a strike if you're too feckless to walk away.
  - predictabl3 3y ago
    Lol, many of us have, but thanks for breaking out one of the three tropey abuse-excusing talking points that get rehashed here every other day. > Reddit then that anyone can create a subreddit on. It'll probably be better, right? I've never had a topic like reddit get people so eager to shove words in my mouth. REDDIT GOT LUCKY and maybe were calculating it how they used free labor. They didn't make anything, they have no unique value prop after losing power users and moderators. And despite what some funny people here say, the frontpage is a laughingstock still. When I peek once a week, because yes, I actually have some self-wilp and self-determination and feel no need to prop up shitty little platforms run by shitty lying little dictators. I know, shocking that some of us have values, and we even live them. Instead of creating more strawmans to put in my mouth, why not actually rise to the discussion and tell me what reddit has that no one else can touch. I think you've conceded it's not tech.
    - whateveracct 3y ago

ImPostingOnHN 3y ago

you're describing an internet forum, technologically unimpressive as of decades ago it turns out, the communities and their members (mod and non-mod) are more valuable to reddit than vice versa

whateveracct 3y ago
You've ignored the brand and product part. Which is as big if not bigger than tech when it comes to Reddit's success.
- ImPostingOnHN 3y ago
  you've ignored that the brand and the product are the communities, including mod- and non-mod users without reddit, the communities could exist on any other forum software, hosting paid by anyone else, and be the same without the communities, reddit is worthless

AndrewKemendo 3y ago

Great! So what do you call that economic system in which individual people volunteer to improve privately owned property and the only “compensation” is simply the opportunity to use/improve private property. And again, unlike sharecropping, volunteers get zero of the property as fiat to convert. Preemptively there’s no possible pathway to claim that Reddit is a “Public Commons”, because nobody but the legal owners and their designated controllers, determine the distribution of value or future of the property.

whateveracct 3y ago
I think you're really misapplying labor politics to a casual website. I'd even go as far to say that comparing being a reddit mod to share cropping to be tasteless and offensive! I wouldn't say that opinion in public with my face & name associated with it, that's for sure. Mods can Just Quit. They can go self-host. Nobody is making them use Reddit. This isn't a labor situation where anyone's livelihood is at stake.
- AndrewKemendo 3y ago
  Covered your complaint here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36562292 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36562292

predictabl3 3y ago

I will never stop giggling at this. What reddit actually, actually provides is not technically impressive for anyone that's done relatively anything at scale. In fact, it's impressive how utterly shit the site operates most of the time, given the only, the ONLY THING THEY DO is develop and run it. And yet, I still basically can't watch ANY DAMN VIDEO on the site now that I can't use 3P clients, yes, years after it's introduction the video player is still worse than stepping in dog shit. It's a database, some over engineered piles of JS to load a list of links, and by reddits own messaging, a crap API. It's really not special. The mods and users made it what it is, in spite of what it is.

whateveracct 3y ago
Okay go stand up another Reddit then that anyone can create a subreddit on. It'll probably be better, right? Reddit isn't stopping anyone. People have migrated off sites before (digg). Go on then, angry Redditors! It's not a strike if you're too feckless to walk away.
- predictabl3 3y ago
  Lol, many of us have, but thanks for breaking out one of the three tropey abuse-excusing talking points that get rehashed here every other day. > Reddit then that anyone can create a subreddit on. It'll probably be better, right? I've never had a topic like reddit get people so eager to shove words in my mouth. REDDIT GOT LUCKY and maybe were calculating it how they used free labor. They didn't make anything, they have no unique value prop after losing power users and moderators. And despite what some funny people here say, the frontpage is a laughingstock still. When I peek once a week, because yes, I actually have some self-wilp and self-determination and feel no need to prop up shitty little platforms run by shitty lying little dictators. I know, shocking that some of us have values, and we even live them. Instead of creating more strawmans to put in my mouth, why not actually rise to the discussion and tell me what reddit has that no one else can touch. I think you've conceded it's not tech.
  - whateveracct 3y ago