"the co-founders resorted to creating fake profiles and using them to submit news articles" Almost 20 years later and they're still sticking to the same playbook today. Now that's consistency!
@@loneIyboy15 yeah but i wonder how do they manage that kind of work load? even moderating just one of those major subs must be a huge undertaking given how many posts and comments are generated on just one of those sub reddits
Because it is politically slanted in one direction. If you alienate half of your user base and chase them off the platform, of course you won't turn a profit.
Reddit is a place where if you just stay away from roughly the 100 most popular subreddits, your experience is actually mostly pretty bearable, even enjoyable.
@@SPONGEBOB20Yep, pretty much. It’s sad how politics has to seep into every sub, especially for people outside of the USA who don’t give two craps about it.
Most of the popular (by virtue of being forced upon new users) subreddits are glorified echo chambers and filled with bots. Reddit is useful if you have a niche interest or would like to learn how to block ads effectively.
I find it the most useful to be aware of the news that is happening, even if you are one of those people that just reads the headlines. Also if you are trying to learn a new topic go to the right subreddit and ask very specific questions or casually browse over a few weeks to learn of questions you would have never thought to ask. Then if you are a nation state and you want to get ahead of issues before the media finds people to pick up the stories when the problem inevitably gets worst without action, they can go on country subreddits and get real time sentiment of important issues and where the concerns are coming from.
Between the karma system forcing everyone to be part of the subreddit echo chamber, the ridiculously finnicky moderators, the dens of privacy invading armchair detectives and the raging politickers giving 4channers a run for their money, you would catch me on a chick with D website before seeing my Reddit account... And chick with D is the absolute last stuff I like.
Kinda but also no, ads are not really a good business model. The reason youre seeing so many services running on ads is bc they dont want to admit to themselves that ads arent profitable.
I don't use Reddit anymore. Anytime I've posted on there, the comments are always super negative and aggressive. Even for innocuous topics. I don't need someone ripping into me for asking a question about an action figure or something like that. At this point, it isn't worth the hassle to use ol' Reddit
Right? I remember once asking if nurses made a lot of money on r/nursing and a majority of the replies were condemning me for be a Conservative (something I made no mention of in the post).
I don't know what it is about Reddit that attracts the most insufferable people on the Internet. Try to ask a question there and you'll get a mix of joke answers, people telling you you're stupid for even asking the question, and contradictory advice that devolves into smug arguments between the respondents. It's like this across the entire site, no matter the topic of the subreddit. The most useful things on Reddit tends to be links off of Reddit to places with better information and discussion.
@@bchristian85 The karma feature made sense in principle as a way to promote useful or insightful comments and penalize poor contributions, but in reality it's just used as a way to enforce groupthink.
@@megadog_ The middle ground could be having it for posts but not for comments. When Reddit first started, there wasn't any discussion. It was only links and the karma made sense for that.
It's because they get upvoted. Reddit is what is is because of how karma works and how central karma is to everything on the site. Nowhere else on the internet does it that way.
Funny how Aaron Schwartz doesn't even get a mention in modern Reddit videos. They did a great job removing him from the history books, at least from their perspective
I actually was suspended for two days due to a sub mod and the user said "enjoy that suspension". Yeah, these folks really can't imagine other people, unlike them, don't live on the website and have lives outside of it. Plus, "suspension" just means you can't make comments, not that you can't view anything. If anyone recalls the interview on FOX of that Reddit mod from the antiwork sub, that's moderators in a nutshell.
Hard to expect much logic or reason from a large group of people that think 25 hours a week of walking a dog is far too much work, and deserving of a million an hour worth of pay, a house, where they would continue to live in the basement, food, etc.
@@ZadieBearhonestly they’re all like that regardless of political ideology. People need to realize that both sides of the political spectrum have extremists, not just one
It's too easy for the moderators of the subreddits to ban people who have a different opinion than the moderators. All the subreddits then eventually become echo chambers. That makes reddit very boring when it only allows a strict adherence to one ideology. No real discussion is allowed.
It happens with a lot with a specific subgroup of people who demand constant validation. One of them becomes a mod then raises a stink about other mods being "bigots". Those mods then get kicked off and replaced by people from the same subgroup until that's all that's there.
Reddit can be useful for niche interests, usually the smaller the community the better. But since subreddits are so dependent on their own moderation, it's way too easy to have echo chambers, mods with god complex, and overall toxic communities Not to mention all the problems that didn't make it into the video, like the small amount of people who control many of the popular subreddits, or the problems they caused for moderators when they blocked their API behind a huge paywall. If you didn't know, moderators are volunteers I don't think reddit is necessarily a bad experience for everyone, but it allows toxic people to have a platform either as users or moderators, which ruins the experience of many and it's the reason it has the reputation it has
Mods destroyed that site. Literally the worst of the worst of humanity is on a power trip tanking a mood y that once had so much promise. The lack of care from the company about how it allows unhinged moderation to ban accounts for pettiness or fun is insane.
And they don’t budge on allowing people to fix the issues. I got banned from a Sub, and after 2 years of wanting back into it, I’ve gotten 0 responses.
@@Rockin_Ross Wow! I was just banned from the lego sub. Massive power trip for those mods, they abuse the living hell out multiple rules they have - no uncivil behavior - so anything and everything is up for the mods to go nuts on. Another is no selling, which makes sense in itself, but they have issues when you post a picture you took giving credit to a designer for something you built because people can look up the designer and buy digital instructions. Insane
I have been using Reddit for almost 14 years. I am surprised it's still alive despite the creators(admins/mods) trying to kill it. But I guess that's the trend of big companies as of late. Make many horrible decisions and still thriving.
@@chengliu872they’ve destroyed any competitors that could’ve existed, it’s much like TV and the media as well, it’s impossible to break into it as the players are already established and huge
“We encourage bot farm echo chambers with the most milquetoast and smug crowd and antagonized all the fun subreddits while bombarding you with advertising, how come we’re struggling”
I got banned for saying metaphorically "Burn it all down" after describing a rough situation that happened to me. Apparently I encouraged violence. Sad!
they're doing better than 4chan and 4chan is way better. I think all the bad things Reddit does really do make it more successful. Normies hate having fun online. There's not a single major website or social media that is pro-fun. If you want to have fun on a lamestream website it's a real struggle.
@@sor3999 are you blind? They are all in there so quick to try say the most wittty things to try get the most up votes and medals, everyone is constantly trying to out do each other or play add on. Hell even reddit themselves have achievements to try get you back again and again.
The biggest controversial issue about reddit you didn't touch is the fact a large portion of their site traffic is for adult content, some of it being borderline legal at various times. The jailbait sub lasted way longer than it should have.
Incredibly toxic. You can’t have any political discussion if your opinion isn’t extreme left. It’s usually downvoted to oblivion and hidden. I thought I was liberal till I went there. Now I realize I’m center left.
I left it in 2021. Everything seemed to be about bashing people who had different political ideas. There were so many awful things written that I finally realized one day: Almost all of these people would never dare say these things sitting across from someone. Why am I bothering myself with it?
Remember when they kept deflating the numbers for /r/the_donald to make them appear like a fringe movement Until one user approached them as an advertiser (reddit charges more to advertise on popular subreddits) and it turned out it was actually one of the largest subs on the site?
@@737215I remember being on r/conservatives around 2017-2019 it felt like real conservative posts were hidden and orange man bad posts were always given special treatment. In fact you made any post with mild conservative views were met with a ton of backlash on a Conservative subreddit, people got banned including me.
Every time i use reddit my mood is significantly worse. People there seem very hive minded and have superiority complex and just complain a lot about everything. I stopped using it and now my days are quite more pleasant.
Just don’t say anything that goes against the ideals of the mods of a sub forum or you will be banned for no reason. “Wait… you don’t like what I like?” *Banned*
And most importantly, don't post to a subreddit dedicated to a field you have actual education or work experience in. I have an urban planning background, but get downvoted when stating my opinion and citing journals by the NotJustBikes mafia.
My favorite was when some of the feminist subs auto-banned anyone they saw posting in right wing subs. This was against the rules but the admins didn't care. When I got banned I messaged thanking them for their subtle endorsement of Trumps immigration policies, and was subsequently banned from messaging them. Good times.
Or if it's a less moderated sub, you get downvoted if you don't conform to the official accepted narrative of the sub. More people need to be made aware of the psychological impact of what Reddit does. It plays a role in why people can't seem to disagree anymore without getting hostile.
Same, that's all I used for 10 years , was Reddit Is Fun. Between the good mods leaving and the horrible mobile interface I left. I still miss r/askhistorians
All of Swartz' obituaries list him as a Reddit co-founder because he was. Swartz's Infogami merged with Reddit early in the startup phase, and in light of that fact and Swartz' contributions (i.e. writing the entire technical backend), the other two co-founders recognized Swartz as the third.
Once you get the hang of reddit, it's really informative. Some sub rules can be down right annoying and make it impossible to post anything. Also, some mods are on a power trip and ban you if you're critical but that's on the rare occasion. Subs like r/pics and r/askreddit are full of bots.
@@sor3999 Drastic decrease in stability and overall function, started removing features, forcing people to download their shitty app, mass removal of content and users
Reddit is bearable if you fine tune it enough. The biggest thing that gets me is some of the subs have a ridiculous gate keeping complex. As some others have mentioned, you better like/do things/think the exact same as the consensus of the sub or you’ll be eaten alive. Hell, there’s one for steak, yes just steak, and it is one of the most toxic subs I’ve ever seen. Weed those out and you’ll be mostly fine.
It's no different than people complaining about RU-vid. YOU choose your content. If you think what you see sucks, it says a lot about you and your taste.
Reddit is fine for finding very specific information about something which may be difficult to find info on otherwise. It can also be good for users who share a common interest in a very niche topic, but obviously each subreddit will have its share of obnoxious people.
To a point, I agree. For video games, computer problems, etc, there is some truth to it... but there is still so much BAD advice on there. And I will add, those are ghost town subs. If I have a problem redoing some electrical work in my house that takes actual knowledge, the replies are few and far between. But for things where you don't have to have any experience or knowledge, like AITA, they will get thousands of resposes. The more actual knowledge you require, the less useful Reddit becomes.
The mods are among the worst people on the planet. I posted a direct quote from The Sopranos on a Sopranos board, and received a lifetime ban for it. Phil Leotardo is horribly homophobic but also hilarious, that’s the entire point of the series! So stupid.
What Reddit contributed to was the elimination of a whole lot of small discussion forums. There was a discussion forum I frequented in the 2000's. About 2009 the rate of new people coming to the server dropped as when people search for the author they went to large social media platforms like Reddit. Small is beautiful. Let Reddit go out of business.
Reddit is so popular, yet big media almost never talks about it in comparison to other social media as well as Google and yahoo. I still remember that infamous time they were asking who this “4chan” was. It’s an accomplishment especially since they never advertised themselves and were entirely by word of mouth
I used Reddit off and on for a few years but finally stopped altogether because it's yet another mostly pointless time sink. On rare occasion, an internet search would lead to a reddit comment that actually had useful info, but in general it's just another somewhat toxic social media vortex.
I’m so sick of the politics in r/pics that always gets bumped to the top of the front page. I just want to see nice photography that users took themselves.
The thing that sums Reddit up the most for me is that for quite a while, none of the moderators for "Two X Chromosomes" actually had two X chromosomes.
You'll get banned for stepping out of line, by invisible mods on a power trip, with absolutely zero transparency or accountability. The platform needs to die, and be completely replaced.
Redditors are awful. Two weeks ago, we had to put down our beloved dog of 13.5 years (she wasn't eating/drinking/moving anymore). My mom wanted to put her down immediately, but because I have little experience with this subject, I asked Reddit for advice, saying that I want to spend just one more day with her, plus I wanted time to seek a second medical opinion. Most of the comments were supportive, but my post got downvoted to hell, and quite a few people told me "how dare you", and that I'm a POS dog owner who must not care about my dog's suffering by wanting to keep her alive another day. (don't worry, I now understand b/c I heeded the advice of the supportive comments and we put her down immediately.) Redditors are some of the most vile, disgusting people I've ever come across. It makes you wonder what they're like in real life (presuming they ever leave their sh*t-stained bedroom).
As if literally anyone else’s opinion but the law matters for pets. Owning an animal is not a superior or ethical thing on its own, but the only opinion that should matter is your family and the law. Your problem is in part asking for the opinion from people who have no business being the ones who answer your post.
Their solution is to continue to shove ads in every nook and cranny of the interface. Ads in the main feed, ads whenever you click on a post, ads in the middle of comment sections when you're scrolling.
It is too bad that reddit is a dying echo chamber filled with over-zealous jannies. I joined in 2008 and it was definitely a step forward in accessibility for the average person, but the double-edged sword hurt them in the long run.
Reddit was ruined when they took away negative karma and instead changed it so that downvotes subtract from upvotes. That is what made it the hive mind it's known for being.
Not a single mention of Aaron Schwartz. From a neutral standpoint, his contribution to Reddit is important and a simple mention would have been enough.
I went through the same thing. I watch youtube videos in the background now instead of loading up reddit. And I used to close the app on my phone, and immediately hit the Apollo app and re open it out of habit.
It's a straight up time-waster for a lot people and I'm not going to act like I haven't done it also. But for the most part it's an opinion chat sub with not much useful going on. Ok to use it as such, but recognize it for what it is...
Reddit is a horrible website and replacement for what used to be dedicated forums. because of the stupid voting system, obnoxious, unfunny comments are always at top, with tons of bot generated comments as well. Nowadays if I want to go somewhere to discuss a topic, usually the reddit board related to it is the only active place and is always full of bitter, hostile people or a bunch of annoying rules that make it difficult to ask a question or have a conversation. IMO the internet would be a better place if it went away.
Everyone talking about the basement dwelling mods, but the admins are even worse. They condone it all. They even took over many main subs because not all the mod teams would get behind their bs.
I signed up for reddit in August 2012 when Tosh.0 mentioned it, but ever since I have largely remained a lurker, and I've always enjoyed the comments. ("Nobody actually reads the articles.")
I know this isn't really relevant to the major subreddits going downhill, but here's an anecdote from several years ago that was one of the major reasons I cut it out of my life: Back in 2017 or so, I was really into the video game Overwatch, and since I used Reddit, naturally I frequented its subreddit. Well after a frustrating session of trying to grind to a higher rank, I wrote a short post about the experience. I only spent like 20 minutes on it, but I did my best to make it funny. After posting it, it was automatically removed for violating the following rule, and I quote: "Too many capital letters." To be clear, it was not in Caps Lock - it was simply proper grammar. I even appealed to the mod team to approve the post. All I got was a snide response: "Sounds like the rule is doing its job." If that's not a perfect example of the waste of life that Reddit mods are, I don't know what is.
It's always sickened me that companies like Reddit or Amazon can exist for decades as failures. Elsewhere, in the manufacturing-based economy, "no profits" means "no business". Never MIND gargantuan losses that have become abstract concepts to the tech community, instead of being realized for what they are, flushing dollars down the toilet that could be used for real growth, real help for those in need, and real progress as a civilization.
@@mirzaahmed6589 They were unprofitable for more than half their existence, living off investor money. They crushed entire retail sectors during that time. NOW they’re profitable, after vanquishing so many competitors.
Before 2015, even better. That was before they decided to start banning the worst of the worst. That was the start of the slippery slope of censorship.
besides the power hungry mods and bot accounts, a huge problem is that they suck at UI. New reddit as well as their app is flat out horrible. You know you are a failure when the 3rd party apps does everything better than your own app.
Reddit is still kinda useful for finding niche info, but the way Spez aggressively tried to monetize it just made it unbearable otherwise. I deleted my account a while back, don’t miss it
Reddit is the most useless website ever if you ask any question most of the responses you will get boil down to "idk didn't happen to me" a sarcastic comment the user posted to make themselves look smart or your post just gets deleted
Every sub has a million rules you have to follow to even keep a post up. God help you if you just want some help without having to consult a Post Lawyer.
@@loneIyboy15: The worst part is that your post can be in compliance of all of the many rules and still be taken down simply because the mod doesn't feel like allowing it. The mod(s) in r/Phoenix is an example. I posted plenty of stuff that did not break any rule, yet he/she/they deleted it because he/she/they were like "I don't think this topic deserves an entire post" or something like that. Like who tf are you to make that decision?
I follow 100 subreddits that interest me and prefer the experience over the algorithm-based endless content feeds. You're in control: Visit the subs you want, sort posts how you want, see what you want to see and then go about your day. The anonymous nature of posters is a blessing and a curse. Yes, there are toxic people spewing hate but there are also decent people speaking from the heart, sharing thoughts that they wouldn't share anywhere else. You can really get a pure look into the thoughts and struggles of ordinary people. I learn so much by being a daily Reddit user.
Been on reddit for about 12 years now, and every single attempt to make money has been a hot pile of garbage, every time. They seem to constantly make worse and worse decisions for the site, I can’t comprehend how it’s even still up honestly. The smaller subreddits can be great, but anything larger than a few hundred thousand users is just insufferable.
To give you an impression of how broken Reddit is: I subscribe to 16 subreddits while I have muted 67 subreddits. The way they serve content is a total disaster.
...but here's another post from /r/pics about the election and some surface level feel good content about liberals! -- I say this as a far left progressive. The echochamber is exhausting
Then why even have it? 😂 I used to go on there for some kinky s3xual stuff but when I factory reset my phone like months ago of this year.. I was glad to go on google play and see if I can download again but then they blocked me stating that my phone is not compatible for their weird ahh app and I was like GOOD! I'm tired of going on your dumb app full of bots and edgy corny weirdos 😆😂
Reddit is a bunch of echo chambers with constant repeated amnesia about what topics people already talked about. I got tired of reading the same things and sending the same comment replies multiple times.
He is considered the co-founder of Reddit by Y Combinator owner Paul Graham as a result of the merger of Swartz' project Infogami and Reddit. With the merger of Infogami and Reddit, Swartz became a co-owner and director of parent company Not A Bug, Inc., along with Reddit cofounders Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian. Ohanian considers Swartz a co-owner of Reddit.
After doing some research, it seems like Swartz's impact on the website has been heavily overstated through the years. I hate to say this, but I'm pretty sure the fact that he took his own life kind of thrust him into this martyr category, and since then people have embellished his importance greatly.
The idea of being rewarded or upvoted for your responses absolutely kills that site. Across every subreddit I've visited, it's always about "karma-farmimg" as opposed to useful information. At this point, Reddit's best purpose is for finding links to other resources.
