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> it's also the most reliable place to get a general crowd-sourced opinion on the internet. There are specialist forums for specialist subjects, sure, but nowhe

> it's also the most reliable place to get a general crowd-sourced opinion on the internet. There are specialist forums for specialist subjects, sure, but nowhere else delivers like Reddit does on a diverse set of topics. That's some impressive blindness. That's exactly why the OP is stating it's unreliable. It _was_ reliable. Now it's a minefield, because trust->money. Just like Amazon 5 star reviews. They used to be good probably until about 2012-2015 (if you stretch it). Then it became weaponized because the trust was so high. Anything with strong 5 star reviews sold. Of course, you can "figure out" if what you're reading is trustworthy, but to blanket state "the most reliable place" - days gone to yesteryear.

rockemsockem 1y ago
I think you're both correct and I think your analogy about Reddit being a minefield is perfected if we imagine that it's a minefield in a beautiful place. Great experience with one step and blown to bits with one small step in a different direction.
x0x0 1y ago
Reddit was knowingly ruined by google. Once google pushed reddit to the top of search results, they created massive incentives to game reddit and fill it with disguised advertising and/or slop.
- irjustin 1y ago
  > Reddit was knowingly ruined by google. Once google pushed reddit to the top of search results Ehhhhh I agree and yet also disagree (it's fun though). Yes they were ruined by being promoted by algo changes, but do I blame google directly? For me, no. It's exactly as we stated before, it's because it was so trustworthy. Individual people's personal experience with X or Y many times with good details. That earned a lot of strong backlinks, blogs, etc. The domain became authoritative especially on esoteric searches. Then algo changes came (remember pandas?) and pushed them even further. I mean that's the point of search systems right? Get you to trustworthy information that you're looking for. Then the money grabbers showed up. So it's just like Harvey Dent said - either you die a trusted niche community or live long enough to see yourself become weaponized for money. He was so smart, that Harvey Dent.
  - MichaelZuo 1y ago
    So then why haven’t the higher credibility people in each niche set up an alternative? Why let reddit drag down the credibility of well everyone in their niche by association. Even if it’s only a tiny bit per year, that adds up over time.
    - irjustin 1y ago
      Beyond my pay grade but I'll take a stab (meaning I'm talking out of my ass). Some in fact have but the majority? Probably laziness, but laziness is just misaligned incentive-goals. Communities have very little incentive to de-reddit. It's actually a huge amount of work and they gain almost nothing directly. Separately, I was thinking you know HNews is pretty immune to this problem because we don't have a central theme or something, right? But no, that just means I can't see how I'm being monetized is all. Blind leading the blind.
    - firesteelrain 1y ago
      Stack Exchange Network has more niche networks that are higher quality than the subreddits now.
bobbiechen 1y ago
Agreed. Every now and then I search the name of my employer on Reddit, which pulls up a bunch of plausible looking comments that recommend a variety of tools. Then if you look at the comment closely, it doesn't make any sense. And if you look at the account, they only makes comments that mention an assortment of companies + one specific one that they're really shilling. There's a variety of these marketing spambots on Reddit, and I'm sure like the toupee effect, there are more subtle ones that I'm not noticing. I think this is existential in the long run for Reddit as a platform, but maybe the owners/employees are happy to milk all the value out and walk away from the husk.
petesergeant 1y ago
So you’re going to be able to tell me what _is_ the most reliable place to get a general crowd-sourced opinion then?
- Karrot_Kream 1y ago
  I don't think there is one. Prediction Markets are probably the closest and even those have problems. But at least incentives in a prediction market aim for the truth rather than an entertaining experience.
  - smcin 1y ago
    No, incentives aim for whatever gives a return - not an objective neutral verdict-of-the-crowd. It requires a regulator to be active. Read about the whale trades and wash trades on Polymarket: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41999743 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41999743
    - Karrot_Kream 1y ago
      Yes the incentive alignment is what I was referring to when I mentioned that prediction markets have their own issues. I'm not convinced wash trading is a huge problem as it's mostly about generating fake volume. The particular linked example is bad too because Trump did end up winning the election.
      - smcin 1y ago
        I said Polymarket doesn't give an objective neutral verdict-of-the-crowd at some moments, since their markets are still fairly small and can be moved short-term by whale trades. An example is how volatile their markets are on Fed rate decisions; sometimes you see serious short-term disagreement or contrarianism between individual markets: https://polymarket.com/event/how-many-fed-rate-cuts-in-2025 https://polymarket.com/event/how-many-fed-rate-cuts-in-2025 https://polymarket.com/event/fed-decision-in-october https://polymarket.com/event/fed-decision-in-october https://polymarket.com/event/fed-decision-in-december https://polymarket.com/event/fed-decision-in-december

rockemsockem 1y ago

I think you're both correct and I think your analogy about Reddit being a minefield is perfected if we imagine that it's a minefield in a beautiful place. Great experience with one step and blown to bits with one small step in a different direction.

x0x0 1y ago

Reddit was knowingly ruined by google. Once google pushed reddit to the top of search results, they created massive incentives to game reddit and fill it with disguised advertising and/or slop.

irjustin 1y ago
> Reddit was knowingly ruined by google. Once google pushed reddit to the top of search results Ehhhhh I agree and yet also disagree (it's fun though). Yes they were ruined by being promoted by algo changes, but do I blame google directly? For me, no. It's exactly as we stated before, it's because it was so trustworthy. Individual people's personal experience with X or Y many times with good details. That earned a lot of strong backlinks, blogs, etc. The domain became authoritative especially on esoteric searches. Then algo changes came (remember pandas?) and pushed them even further. I mean that's the point of search systems right? Get you to trustworthy information that you're looking for. Then the money grabbers showed up. So it's just like Harvey Dent said - either you die a trusted niche community or live long enough to see yourself become weaponized for money. He was so smart, that Harvey Dent.
- MichaelZuo 1y ago
  So then why haven’t the higher credibility people in each niche set up an alternative? Why let reddit drag down the credibility of well everyone in their niche by association. Even if it’s only a tiny bit per year, that adds up over time.
  - irjustin 1y ago
    Beyond my pay grade but I'll take a stab (meaning I'm talking out of my ass). Some in fact have but the majority? Probably laziness, but laziness is just misaligned incentive-goals. Communities have very little incentive to de-reddit. It's actually a huge amount of work and they gain almost nothing directly. Separately, I was thinking you know HNews is pretty immune to this problem because we don't have a central theme or something, right? But no, that just means I can't see how I'm being monetized is all. Blind leading the blind.
  - firesteelrain 1y ago
    Stack Exchange Network has more niche networks that are higher quality than the subreddits now.

bobbiechen 1y ago

Agreed. Every now and then I search the name of my employer on Reddit, which pulls up a bunch of plausible looking comments that recommend a variety of tools. Then if you look at the comment closely, it doesn't make any sense. And if you look at the account, they only makes comments that mention an assortment of companies + one specific one that they're really shilling. There's a variety of these marketing spambots on Reddit, and I'm sure like the toupee effect, there are more subtle ones that I'm not noticing. I think this is existential in the long run for Reddit as a platform, but maybe the owners/employees are happy to milk all the value out and walk away from the husk.

petesergeant 1y ago

So you’re going to be able to tell me what _is_ the most reliable place to get a general crowd-sourced opinion then?

Karrot_Kream 1y ago
I don't think there is one. Prediction Markets are probably the closest and even those have problems. But at least incentives in a prediction market aim for the truth rather than an entertaining experience.
- smcin 1y ago
  No, incentives aim for whatever gives a return - not an objective neutral verdict-of-the-crowd. It requires a regulator to be active. Read about the whale trades and wash trades on Polymarket: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41999743 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41999743
  - Karrot_Kream 1y ago
    Yes the incentive alignment is what I was referring to when I mentioned that prediction markets have their own issues. I'm not convinced wash trading is a huge problem as it's mostly about generating fake volume. The particular linked example is bad too because Trump did end up winning the election.
    - smcin 1y ago
      I said Polymarket doesn't give an objective neutral verdict-of-the-crowd at some moments, since their markets are still fairly small and can be moved short-term by whale trades. An example is how volatile their markets are on Fed rate decisions; sometimes you see serious short-term disagreement or contrarianism between individual markets: https://polymarket.com/event/how-many-fed-rate-cuts-in-2025 https://polymarket.com/event/how-many-fed-rate-cuts-in-2025 https://polymarket.com/event/fed-decision-in-october https://polymarket.com/event/fed-decision-in-october https://polymarket.com/event/fed-decision-in-december https://polymarket.com/event/fed-decision-in-december