I don't think the google graveyard is a concern, because it's obviously a valuable, profitable product they could sell, but if you haven't been horrified by the current enshitification of reddit, you haven't been paying attention.
I was a moderator of some very large subreddits, and due to reddits pigeonholing me into an app vs new mobile layout, I'm leaving those moderator positions (note: I am not complaining about the api issues). I don't want to participate in a community that is catering to the lowest common denominator such that the term "redditquitte" is a joke.
I've thought long and hard about it, and I think companies are intentionally creating Eternal Septembers in their products, because it's just easier to just put big pictures on the homepage to get clicks, when that type of UX only invites the type of people who see the site as something only to consume and not to contribute to.
I've been invited to multiple "moderator feedback" focus groups, that were worse than awful. After they defaulted an "annoying look here" icon in the right corner to try and get us to work more, I said "fuck this, I'm out."
My point here isn't just to bitch and moan, it's to point out that site:reddit.com only works because the community is one that actively values contribution over consumption... that's going away, and the usefulness of site:reddit.com will go away as that culture changes.
Reddit was enshitified circa 2014 or 2015, this is not a new thing. It's been garbage for a long time and I'm surprised it's taken so many this long to notice. In fairness if you kept to subreddits that were eminently unpopular and off the beaten path then it wasn't as obvious.
I guess the mobile app was what really broke the camels back but the quality of the posts had been on a downward trend in a severe way since at least Obama's second term, when I think both political parties recognized it as important and began to manipulate it. This is made easier by the partitioning of the site into subreddits. I hopefully don't have to explain here why that makes automated sockpuppeting much more effective and easier to accomplish. It's a fundamental design flaw (if we were to assume the design of Reddit was intended at all to provide a space for authentic personal takes on real issues and by real humans).
There is a danger of the same thing happening to HackerNews but I hope the lack of financial incentives to allow that sort of thing does some work to mitigate it, along with the lack of partitioning of the community.
It’s still a lot less enshittified than Google or most of the web. You can find actual humans giving actual advice for a lot of categories where Google just gives you (likely AI generated) SEO garbage.
You can easily ignore the vitriol and fake news on Reddit, you can not get around a lot of commercial detritus anywhere else anymore
I've been on Reddit for like 14 years now and politics have never affected me. At all. I stick to subs related to my interests like mechanical keyboards, retro computers, engineering, architecture... and hardly ever I see political stuff. But I don't remember when was the last time I browsed "All" or "Popular", or kept subbed to the large or "default" subs, which, I think, is where you'll find more political stuff. What I mean is that the best thing of Reddit is that you can -still- make of it whatever you want.
>This is made easier by the partitioning of the site into subreddits. ... It's a fundamental design flaw (if we were to assume the design of Reddit was intended at all to provide a space for authentic personal takes on real issues and by real humans).
Huh? I don't follow here: having multiple subreddits is exactly what makes the site usable for so many utterly different niche topics. There's probably a subreddit for repairing 1967 Camaros; do you really want to see posts like that every day in your news feed? I don't. Reddit isn't meant to just focus on tech topics like this site; it's meant to be a site with discussion forums for every topic imaginable, and there's no practical way to do that without subreddits.
People have been claiming that Reddit has been enshittified (not with that exact term) since it was first created. People were already longing for the good old days when I first began using Reddit in ~2010.
Any attempt at pinpointing the enshittification is bound to be extremely subjective. What is clear is that it has been a continuous decline for a long time.
Google acquisitions suck because the thing gets left to rot. The last thing Reddit needed was all of its recent changes towards crypto and engagement-bait nonsense. I think they'd have it in better shape than it is now.
reddit has done a great job of letting itself rot -- for example, the moderation system tends to result in a hostile experience for users who attempt to participate.
On the other hand, if google owned it, getting banned from a subreddit would possibly mean getting locked out of all of your google accounts.
May be internet needs a refresh from walled gardens and one sided impositions without any accountability. Some class of services need to be protected to the same level as access to basic utilities such as roads or power…
I’ve been banned on two separate accounts for posting something the mod of the subreddit didn’t like. When I found out there was no appeal I kinda gave up on Reddit.
I got shadowbanned a TON till I realized you could be shadow banned for leaving to many (on topic) links to other websites or subreddits in the comments.
Sorry I am good at leaving sources to backup what I say I guess?
The moderation system is pretty much the same as any forum. You just have to read the sidebar rules first when you're posting on an unfamiliar subreddit, as you would when joining any community.
But you can be banned from sub A if you post in sub B because mods from sub A don't like sub B, even if what you posted was something that mods from sub A would like... and AFAIK you won't find out you were banned from sub A until you try to post on sub A. Not that it happened to me, but I've seen plenty of cases.
On most forums there's no automated system that automatically shadowbans users for using a blacklisted IP.
They also don't quietly remove comments in a way that is invisible to a user for triggering some keyword in AutoModerator or a spam filter. And there are usually no minimum karma or account age requirements for posters.
Some of the moderators ban anyone anyone who makes comments that they do not like, even if comments are reasonable, polite, and within rules.
Moderation of that type usually seems to be secret, but the problematic moderators that I have noticed seem to be trying to protect some political belief or pet disinformation from discussion. It poisons the entire site for me.
Getting OT, but what is the deal with all the completely different moderation guidelines (that amass to like 20-30 weird rules and exceptions) for every subreddit. I find it almost impossible to participate (except just adding a comment here and there).
For example, I wanted to post a funny Risitas youtube vid I made (you know the Spanish comedian with that laugh...), and couldn't find a single usable "funny" subreddit. Some banned youtube content completely. Some banned "video memes", some banned X and some banned Y... all of them had slightly different guidelines and you immediately got an insta-splurge from a bot-mod if you tried posting. Some required you to prefix every post subject with some code word. I had to give up eventually and post it on some super-small subreddit instead that accepted anything.
> what is the deal with all the completely different moderation guidelines ... for every subreddit
My sense is that the bigger the userbase, the more it attracts junk, spam, abuse, etc. So, the rules get tightened to combat it. Also, my impression is that the moderation tools are not great, so crude/heavy-handed methods are sometimes all that is available.
I think you found the corollary already: smaller subreddits have less rules and/or less strict enforcement.
I'm not sure a better solution, given the situation. Though I agree it can be discouraging for well-meaning occasional contributors.
The other problem is the moderators themselves. Each subreddit has its own volunteer moderators. It's a thankless job, so who volunteers to do it? Frequently people who shouldn't have that power. So many subs have terrible mods who abuse their power.
"... It is a well-known fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job."
No worries. And in fact, sorry if I came out as nitpicky. Not that kind of person usually, but being his fan even before he became internet-famous I felt some urge, strange as it sounds.
I've become really skeptical of Reddit comments around products for this reason. Searching "best X site:reddit.com" and going off the top comment recommendation seems really sketchy when that top comment is only 5-10 points.
Maybe I'm just really paranoid these days, but I would bet looking at searches with Reddit in them and creating threads or commenting on old ones and paying for up votes is probably lucrative.
I don't think Reddit has ever been a clean acquisition - either because they've raised at high valuations many times or because of an undesirable content/moderation problem.
where does this notion come from? google is for them to find out what you think you want so they know what ads to serve you. if it was for finding content, they would show you the results that were actually related to your query.
Google hasn’t bought Reddit because it’s literally only downsides. Bad PR, low profit margin, etc…
I mean does anyone actually like Reddit anymore? Front page is almost entirely bots reposing and reusing the same comments that have been used for years.
> I mean does anyone actually like Reddit anymore?
I do like the good parts, deeply hidden, that can often be surfaced with a Google search. Case in point, I had a bug with some installed software yesterday, to which the only viable solution I found was in a Reddit post from a few months back.
But the experience of actively browsing the "leading edge" of the site? Absolutely not. I purposely-deprecated my credentials a year or so back and haven't regretted it.
You’re living in a bubble because Reddit is probably among the top 50 most visited sites in the world. You may not like the experience, hate the spam, hate what it stands for, but a lot of people still visit it and use it daily
Why Google have not bought reddit, I don't know (beyond moderation issues, but AMZN made it work with twitch).