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It's a great asset, but I'm not too sure about that comparison. I think Reddit, for now at least, really lacks thought leaders. Facebook has all of a person's f

by mcintyre1994 14y ago

It's a great asset, but I'm not too sure about that comparison. I think Reddit, for now at least, really lacks thought leaders. Facebook has all of a person's friends, and so it kind of covers the thought leaders for that person to some extent. Twitter has the world's thought leaders, people whose views are very highly valued - see the AP getting hacked causing a noticeable drop in the world's markets for example. Reddit is a bit trickier. It has a lot of localised power - for example the live Boston bombers article was lightyears ahead of the media. It pretty much drove the media wave trying to initially determine who they were. It even has the world's thought leaders dropping in (Obama IAMA). But I think it really lacks the power to consistently put thought leaders in front of people. It's easy to argue it's a stronger community, but I don't think the average social network consumer really cares about the overall community.

rm999 14y ago
Part of the problem for reddit is most people don't realize what it's good for. The subreddit system has led to a diverse set of amazing communities that could appeal to almost anyone, but when I ask my friends if they use reddit they usually associate it with a site for memes and cat pictures.
- mcintyre1994 14y ago
  Yep, I agree. A lot of that is because they need default subreddits to avoid just showing a blank page, and their choices seem..barely better than that blank page. I guess the big example is /r/atheism, some of whose posts are insanely offputting. And then, like you say, /r/pics or whatever, "memes and cat pictures". It's a shame their selection of defaults give such a misleading view of the community at large. I'm not sure exactly how to fix it - rotate in highly rated posts from non-NSFW subreddits at random for non logged in users? At least that'd give some variety.
- 27182818284 14y ago
  I've always found it to be usenet version 2.0, but for some reason people get really offended when I make that comparison.

rm999 14y ago

Part of the problem for reddit is most people don't realize what it's good for. The subreddit system has led to a diverse set of amazing communities that could appeal to almost anyone, but when I ask my friends if they use reddit they usually associate it with a site for memes and cat pictures.

mcintyre1994 14y ago
Yep, I agree. A lot of that is because they need default subreddits to avoid just showing a blank page, and their choices seem..barely better than that blank page. I guess the big example is /r/atheism, some of whose posts are insanely offputting. And then, like you say, /r/pics or whatever, "memes and cat pictures". It's a shame their selection of defaults give such a misleading view of the community at large. I'm not sure exactly how to fix it - rotate in highly rated posts from non-NSFW subreddits at random for non logged in users? At least that'd give some variety.
27182818284 14y ago
I've always found it to be usenet version 2.0, but for some reason people get really offended when I make that comparison.