6 ms·

@judk's comment should be higher... it is the unfortunate cycle of ad-supported startups. imgur grew out of the garden that is reddit; it was suppose to replac

by rkalla 13y ago

@judk's comment should be higher... it is the unfortunate cycle of ad-supported startups. imgur grew out of the garden that is reddit; it was suppose to replace all those other crappy hosting services. It's been known for a while that directly navigating to a i.com/direct-link.jpg link costs imgur because they get no ad impressions from those loads. While I think this is the eventual trend of every imgur page load, they are saving reddit for the last as that is the last community they can afford to piss off. I feel for them though... it is really hard to stomach how expensive bandwidth and storage can get for a "free" media startup like this -- I am guessing they are slowly shifting scope and "growing" though as they hire more people, like every other startup in history... at some point they grow out of that sweet spot they supported (easy/fast image hosting) and into a realm no one really wanted or needed them (but makes them money). Oh well. Every time a company does this, it leaves the door open for another company to come up behind them and re-solve that problem in another interesting way. It is the way of growth and change.

mik3y 13y ago
Semi-OT, but: Considering how much reddit seems to depend on imgur and image hosting in general, how long will it be until reddit handles the image hosting themselves? Sure it would add a ton of new costs and headaches (takedowns, etc), but don't you have to have a plan for this if you're Yishan? Imgur hasn't exactly been subtle about adding reddit-like features (comments, comment ranking, categories, etc)..
- rkuykendall-com 13y ago
  Why would Reddit spend money they don't have to? New free image hosting services pop up every few months to try to take imgur down as the king of Reddit. So far, they've been unable to maintain any leads gained, but if imgur screws with Reddit they will be replaced in a heartbeat.
  - mik3y 13y ago
    > Why would Reddit spend money they don't have to? To keep traffic "on premises", ie thwart competition. Just look at imgur: now it's sort of a micro reddit, with its own commenting system, categories, and so on.
    - rgbrgb 13y ago
      Yep, I find myself clicking an imgur link on reddit then hanging out there for a while. It's a tenuous relationship they have.
    - mden 13y ago
      If the start location and end location for a user are reddit, why go through the trouble to capture some portion of the middle traffic as well? That's the beauty of an aggregator, you prosper through other people's content by providing additional value, not by competing with it. Also, I don't think there's an expectation from reddit users to be able to store images on reddit so you wouldn't be adding much perceived value in the first place.
      - mik3y 13y ago
        The problem I see is reddit isn't an aggregator in the strict sense. Look at the front page, it's riddled with imgur links. How many of them (advice animals, original content, etc) were posted there just for reddit? I'll just say unscientifically, a lot. (After all, that's why imgur was born.) So you're a site with a major feature that (a) drives publishers to another site, and (b) drives viewers to the same site, even though (c) the content was created for your site. And now (d) that site is adding some of your core features. I guess I can't see how that isn't a blindingly obvious concern if you're running reddit.
        mden 13y ago
        What I don't understand is what you gain by adding the ability to store images? Is the point to reduce the need to use imgur? Yes, imgur is adding the ability to add comments to images, but their functionality is a far cry from that of reddit. Let's assume they add for w/e crazy reason the ability to have nested comments and groups with admins and other similar things. Only at that point are they really encroaching on reddit's ground, except, they've just manage to make a rather limited imitation as it's only for images. And even then, how does it hurt reddit? Reddit is an aggregator of largely varied content. Imgur simply isn't and can't be.
- thatthatis 13y ago
  By not hosting the images reddit gets double special safe harbor status wrt copyright and dmca complaints. Reddit gets the traffic, imgur pays for the bandwidth and compliance.
- rkalla 13y ago
  I've actually wondered this for years - why reddit let imgur take that lead and run with it, but to some of the other replies I guess it does come down to cost. Reddit doesn't have a big budget and until last year I think it was just 3 or 4 of them (now I still think it is < 10) -- the moment they get a huge influx of money though, the moment they take over media hosting, cripple third party mobile apps and start punching babies - it seems to be the way of the startup world. For what little (nothing?) it is worth, it upsets me that this pattern is repeated over and over and over... for once I'd like to see a startup grow organically over time, never forgetting their roots, not being worth $4 billion after a year of being in business and just acting like a good, solid, mature company that grows into something valuable over a decade. These overnight-billion-dollar dice rolls are getting exhausting and while really addictive and interesting, they just suck the air out of the room.
  - maxerickson 13y ago
    They list more than 30 people: http://www.reddit.com/about/team/ http://www.reddit.com/about/team/ Not sure if those are all full time roles though.
  - danpat 13y ago
    Craigslist?
    - SomeCallMeTim 13y ago
      I thought of that, and to some degree, yes. But they are always shooting down anyone who dares to use their data and present it in a more useful manner. In particular they're totally screwing up some areas and ignoring complaints. The Denver/Boulder area of Colorado has multiple overlapping sites that cover an area smaller than that of the Bay Area, which has one all-encompassing site. The result is that it's really hard to figure out where to look for listings -- or where to post listings. What we need is combined area site like the Bay Area has, that lets you restrict to certain sub-regions for some searches (apartments, say) and broader regions for others (antiques?).
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
naner 13y ago
They're redirecting first-timers from sites like Facebook and Twiter who have many users who don't know an Imgur link from a Facebook CDN link. Reddit users all know what Imgur is already. There are many people on Facebook and Twitter who would likely browse through the types of stuff Imgur hosts on their homepage, not so much an issue for Reddit users. Imgur basically is just a more visual reddit with less reading...

by rkalla 13y ago

mik3y 13y ago

Semi-OT, but: Considering how much reddit seems to depend on imgur and image hosting in general, how long will it be until reddit handles the image hosting themselves? Sure it would add a ton of new costs and headaches (takedowns, etc), but don't you have to have a plan for this if you're Yishan? Imgur hasn't exactly been subtle about adding reddit-like features (comments, comment ranking, categories, etc)..

rkuykendall-com 13y ago
Why would Reddit spend money they don't have to? New free image hosting services pop up every few months to try to take imgur down as the king of Reddit. So far, they've been unable to maintain any leads gained, but if imgur screws with Reddit they will be replaced in a heartbeat.
- mik3y 13y ago
  > Why would Reddit spend money they don't have to? To keep traffic "on premises", ie thwart competition. Just look at imgur: now it's sort of a micro reddit, with its own commenting system, categories, and so on.
  - rgbrgb 13y ago
    Yep, I find myself clicking an imgur link on reddit then hanging out there for a while. It's a tenuous relationship they have.
  - mden 13y ago
    If the start location and end location for a user are reddit, why go through the trouble to capture some portion of the middle traffic as well? That's the beauty of an aggregator, you prosper through other people's content by providing additional value, not by competing with it. Also, I don't think there's an expectation from reddit users to be able to store images on reddit so you wouldn't be adding much perceived value in the first place.
    - mik3y 13y ago
      The problem I see is reddit isn't an aggregator in the strict sense. Look at the front page, it's riddled with imgur links. How many of them (advice animals, original content, etc) were posted there just for reddit? I'll just say unscientifically, a lot. (After all, that's why imgur was born.) So you're a site with a major feature that (a) drives publishers to another site, and (b) drives viewers to the same site, even though (c) the content was created for your site. And now (d) that site is adding some of your core features. I guess I can't see how that isn't a blindingly obvious concern if you're running reddit.
      - mden 13y ago
        What I don't understand is what you gain by adding the ability to store images? Is the point to reduce the need to use imgur? Yes, imgur is adding the ability to add comments to images, but their functionality is a far cry from that of reddit. Let's assume they add for w/e crazy reason the ability to have nested comments and groups with admins and other similar things. Only at that point are they really encroaching on reddit's ground, except, they've just manage to make a rather limited imitation as it's only for images. And even then, how does it hurt reddit? Reddit is an aggregator of largely varied content. Imgur simply isn't and can't be.
thatthatis 13y ago
By not hosting the images reddit gets double special safe harbor status wrt copyright and dmca complaints. Reddit gets the traffic, imgur pays for the bandwidth and compliance.
rkalla 13y ago
I've actually wondered this for years - why reddit let imgur take that lead and run with it, but to some of the other replies I guess it does come down to cost. Reddit doesn't have a big budget and until last year I think it was just 3 or 4 of them (now I still think it is < 10) -- the moment they get a huge influx of money though, the moment they take over media hosting, cripple third party mobile apps and start punching babies - it seems to be the way of the startup world. For what little (nothing?) it is worth, it upsets me that this pattern is repeated over and over and over... for once I'd like to see a startup grow organically over time, never forgetting their roots, not being worth $4 billion after a year of being in business and just acting like a good, solid, mature company that grows into something valuable over a decade. These overnight-billion-dollar dice rolls are getting exhausting and while really addictive and interesting, they just suck the air out of the room.
- maxerickson 13y ago
  They list more than 30 people: http://www.reddit.com/about/team/ http://www.reddit.com/about/team/ Not sure if those are all full time roles though.
- danpat 13y ago
  Craigslist?
  - SomeCallMeTim 13y ago
    I thought of that, and to some degree, yes. But they are always shooting down anyone who dares to use their data and present it in a more useful manner. In particular they're totally screwing up some areas and ignoring complaints. The Denver/Boulder area of Colorado has multiple overlapping sites that cover an area smaller than that of the Bay Area, which has one all-encompassing site. The result is that it's really hard to figure out where to look for listings -- or where to post listings. What we need is combined area site like the Bay Area has, that lets you restrict to certain sub-regions for some searches (apartments, say) and broader regions for others (antiques?).

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

naner 13y ago

They're redirecting first-timers from sites like Facebook and Twiter who have many users who don't know an Imgur link from a Facebook CDN link. Reddit users all know what Imgur is already. There are many people on Facebook and Twitter who would likely browse through the types of stuff Imgur hosts on their homepage, not so much an issue for Reddit users. Imgur basically is just a more visual reddit with less reading...