8 ms·

Reddit has been ripe for disruption for years. It's just waiting on an inflection point and someone to take it behind the barn.

onlyrealcuzzo 2y ago
Or for Google to buy it. They could monetize it much better while being less annoying. Ultimately - Google is getting everything they want from Reddit with this deal without having to buy it outright. Short of Reddit transforming to an entirely different product (difficult) - I'm not sure where the major growth opportunity is for it.
- rob74 2y ago
  It wouldn't be the first time they have done something like this either. Remember https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Groups https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Groups ?
  - Suppafly 2y ago
    >Remember https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Groups https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Groups It'd be somewhat hilarious if google bought reddit just to archive it and shut it down.
jessriedel 2y ago
Very few of the reddit users who are providing the content for free are motivated by which search engines are allowed to index the content, so I don't see how this would make it more ripe for competition. (If you just mean society would now be even better off if reddit were disrupted, ok, maybe, but that's a different thing.)
crazygringo 2y ago
The network effects are too strong. Remember, the only reason Reddit "won" was because Digg destroyed itself with a radical upgrade that everyone hated. Reddit would have to do something similarly self-inflicted, and I can't even guess where people would go. Reddit was already an alternative to Digg -- what's the alternative to Reddit? I mean, it's certainly not Quora.
- tayo42 2y ago
  Reddit is quietly a huge website with a significant amount of users. So many people use it but dont talk about it. Google search says 1billion mau? Twice as big as Twitter
- nope1000 2y ago
  There is Lemmy for example, very similar to old Reddit. The big problem is the missing content outside of mainstream communities.
  - warkdarrior 2y ago
    [flagged]
    - talldayo 2y ago
      No, because people don't come to Lemmy to read AI-generated posts. It's called social media, not robot time with language models.
      - EasyMark 2y ago
        there are plenty of reddits outside of the "popular ones" that have invaluable information in one place and I can ask questions. It still has value for me, and not much value for axis of evil bots to spread political disinformation like popular subs and on twitter.
    - Slyfox33 2y ago
      Why would anyone want to purposely read AI bot content?
- NoMoreNicksLeft 2y ago
  It was already dead by then. Really, it was the various Slashdot exoduses... sites like K5 got large initial boosts, but stumbled and started to deteriorate. If the Digg exodus is what sent you to Slashdot, chances are you're the kind of user everyone else was trying to escape. >what's the alternative to Reddit? I mean, it's certainly not Quora. If it was deliberate I certainly can't tell, but one of the characteristics of Reddit is that it caused so many other little tiny internet forums to just wither away. Most were visually unappealing, running some ancient phpbb software or whatever, but there were so many like stars in the night sky. Now, if they're even still running, you look for the newest post, and it will say "November 2023". Hell, the only reason they are still running is that the credit card number on file paying for hosting doesn't expire until next year somehow. Reddit is a red tide algae choking out all life in the ocean, nothing else gets to exist anymore.
api 2y ago
Networks effects are more powerful than we are. Witness the number of people who despise Xhitter but are still on there. Once something has a sufficient network effect they become immune to normal market forces and able to abuse their position with near impunity.
bdw5204 2y ago
The strange thing to me is how everybody keeps trying to make distributed Twitter happen when distributed Reddit is the low hanging fruit for federated social media. You don't want to end up banned from a movies forum because you also participate in a political forum. Federation solves that problem because you can use separate accounts without either forum knowing that you also use the other.
- ravetcofx 2y ago
  This exists with Lemmy already and is fostering nice communities (and due to ActivityPub is interoperable with Mastodon accounts)
- ks2048 2y ago
  I like it principle, but after watching the situation with Twitter clones, I'm not too optimistic on federated services taking off. I would like to see a wikipedia-style system for Twitter/Reddit: open access data, non-profit.
- teabee 2y ago
  Is this not just what the internet was before reddit? What features would "distributed reddit" have that an internet full of independent community forums be missing?
- psunavy03 2y ago
  They had this years ago, and they were called "forums."
- Suppafly 2y ago
  >The strange thing to me is how everybody keeps trying to make distributed Twitter happen when distributed Reddit is the low hanging fruit for federated social media. Honestly, it's strange to me how hard people are trying to make distributed anything happen. Federation mostly solves a problem that real people don't have or care about.
  - Yawrehto 2y ago
escapecharacter 2y ago
Man, I just want to be able to search the entire internet for when I’m doing niche research. Does this mean there will be a future where everyone is running their own crawler? I suppose.
QVVRP4nYz 2y ago
The killing of third party clients didn't have significant impact, I don't know what would they have to do to lose users, other than some kind of mandatory subscription fee.

onlyrealcuzzo 2y ago

Or for Google to buy it. They could monetize it much better while being less annoying. Ultimately - Google is getting everything they want from Reddit with this deal without having to buy it outright. Short of Reddit transforming to an entirely different product (difficult) - I'm not sure where the major growth opportunity is for it.

rob74 2y ago
It wouldn't be the first time they have done something like this either. Remember https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Groups https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Groups ?
- Suppafly 2y ago
  >Remember https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Groups https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Groups It'd be somewhat hilarious if google bought reddit just to archive it and shut it down.

jessriedel 2y ago

Very few of the reddit users who are providing the content for free are motivated by which search engines are allowed to index the content, so I don't see how this would make it more ripe for competition. (If you just mean society would now be even better off if reddit were disrupted, ok, maybe, but that's a different thing.)

crazygringo 2y ago

The network effects are too strong. Remember, the only reason Reddit "won" was because Digg destroyed itself with a radical upgrade that everyone hated. Reddit would have to do something similarly self-inflicted, and I can't even guess where people would go. Reddit was already an alternative to Digg -- what's the alternative to Reddit? I mean, it's certainly not Quora.

tayo42 2y ago
Reddit is quietly a huge website with a significant amount of users. So many people use it but dont talk about it. Google search says 1billion mau? Twice as big as Twitter
nope1000 2y ago
There is Lemmy for example, very similar to old Reddit. The big problem is the missing content outside of mainstream communities.
- warkdarrior 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - talldayo 2y ago
    No, because people don't come to Lemmy to read AI-generated posts. It's called social media, not robot time with language models.
    - EasyMark 2y ago
      there are plenty of reddits outside of the "popular ones" that have invaluable information in one place and I can ask questions. It still has value for me, and not much value for axis of evil bots to spread political disinformation like popular subs and on twitter.
  - Slyfox33 2y ago
    Why would anyone want to purposely read AI bot content?
NoMoreNicksLeft 2y ago
It was already dead by then. Really, it was the various Slashdot exoduses... sites like K5 got large initial boosts, but stumbled and started to deteriorate. If the Digg exodus is what sent you to Slashdot, chances are you're the kind of user everyone else was trying to escape. >what's the alternative to Reddit? I mean, it's certainly not Quora. If it was deliberate I certainly can't tell, but one of the characteristics of Reddit is that it caused so many other little tiny internet forums to just wither away. Most were visually unappealing, running some ancient phpbb software or whatever, but there were so many like stars in the night sky. Now, if they're even still running, you look for the newest post, and it will say "November 2023". Hell, the only reason they are still running is that the credit card number on file paying for hosting doesn't expire until next year somehow. Reddit is a red tide algae choking out all life in the ocean, nothing else gets to exist anymore.

api 2y ago

Networks effects are more powerful than we are. Witness the number of people who despise Xhitter but are still on there. Once something has a sufficient network effect they become immune to normal market forces and able to abuse their position with near impunity.

bdw5204 2y ago

The strange thing to me is how everybody keeps trying to make distributed Twitter happen when distributed Reddit is the low hanging fruit for federated social media. You don't want to end up banned from a movies forum because you also participate in a political forum. Federation solves that problem because you can use separate accounts without either forum knowing that you also use the other.

ravetcofx 2y ago
This exists with Lemmy already and is fostering nice communities (and due to ActivityPub is interoperable with Mastodon accounts)
ks2048 2y ago
I like it principle, but after watching the situation with Twitter clones, I'm not too optimistic on federated services taking off. I would like to see a wikipedia-style system for Twitter/Reddit: open access data, non-profit.
teabee 2y ago
Is this not just what the internet was before reddit? What features would "distributed reddit" have that an internet full of independent community forums be missing?
psunavy03 2y ago
They had this years ago, and they were called "forums."
Suppafly 2y ago
>The strange thing to me is how everybody keeps trying to make distributed Twitter happen when distributed Reddit is the low hanging fruit for federated social media. Honestly, it's strange to me how hard people are trying to make distributed anything happen. Federation mostly solves a problem that real people don't have or care about.
- Yawrehto 2y ago

escapecharacter 2y ago

Man, I just want to be able to search the entire internet for when I’m doing niche research. Does this mean there will be a future where everyone is running their own crawler? I suppose.

QVVRP4nYz 2y ago

The killing of third party clients didn't have significant impact, I don't know what would they have to do to lose users, other than some kind of mandatory subscription fee.