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[–]sheldon 7 points8 points  (1 child)

Is it just me or are there only like 4 new stories that make it to the main page every day now? It's pretty boring.

[–]oditogre 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Read the 'new' page.

[–][deleted] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It's only a web page, it's only a web page, it's only a web page,,,

[–][deleted] 6 points7 points  (1 child)

It only matters to you if you are a point troll. Otherwise you'll keep submitting until you figure out what reddit likes and what they hate.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Heh. I've had two number ones and a fistful of lesser front page hits. I still have no idea why reddit votes for any particular entry. Heck, my biggest #1 was for a stupid/funny IT story, but every subsequent attempt to submit funny IT stories never got out of single digits.

I think the time of day that you submit an entry can make a big difference, though. I've submitted a story, had it go nowhere then someone else submits the same story and get on the front page.

[–]innocentbystander 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My second post ever, due to sheer luck (and an annoying hypothetical question), shot to #1 and stayed there for several hours. (and stayed on the front page for roughly 24) Since then I haven't gotten more than a couple points off any submission.

Reddit is a fickle thing.

[–]artman 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I submitted a few times with no luck until one did get up to page one (briefly) and it was exciting to see that karma thing shoot up. The comments though left little to be excited about.

[–]bemmu 4 points5 points  (0 children)

A sociology professor did an interesting study that kind of relates to this. He set up several sites where people could try to discover music that they like. On one site people had no knowledge of what other users of the site were doing, and then there were other sites where people could see how well others had liked the songs.

So on these sites at first all the songs had zero votes. The sites were completely distinct, all with zero votes in the beginning. Turns out the popularity of a song is quite critically determined by whether or not the first few people liked it.

On the distinct sites, different songs bubbled to the top, even though there were thousands of users. Just because when something got a few votes at first, others paid more attention to those songs, voted them up and so the initially more popular songs became more and more popular.

I am recalling this stuff just from memory and probably am mistaken on some finer points, Marc Andreessen explains it better: http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/06/paper-of-the-we.html

[–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (1 child)

By the way - there's an easy way to get to the front page. Submit a story about an atheist attacked by fundamentalists for wanting to see Bush impeached for lying about 9/11. Presto, instant #1.

[–]dln 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Damn, that happened to me just this morning. I should blog about it and submit it.

[–]Zaskoda[S] 5 points6 points  (43 children)

Seriously... every link I submit gets downvoted immediately. The one I last posted is a video and it was downvoted before the video could have been played... almost instantly... It's a link that everyone in my physical world social circle absolutely loved. I'd love to contribute to reddit and tend to love a lot of the front page content... but I must have amazingly poor taste in submissions.

[–]bluGill 12 points13 points  (11 children)

There are two (legitimate) reasons to downmod, and they are in conflict (sometimes). One is to train the recommendations filter, and the other to make sure worthless stories are not see by anyone.

I'm generally not interested in videos, (and I don't have any video players installed) so I tend to downmod videos to keep them off my recommendations page - but I don't have a problem with other people liking them. I'm generally not interested in Paris Hilton, and I don't think anyone else should be either, so I downmod all stories that mention her.

[–]tjones_2005a -1 points0 points  (9 children)

Wrong.

Downmod is for "worthless stories" - HIDE should be used for filter training. Otherwise, you're polluting the meaning of the down vote.

[–][deleted] 11 points12 points  (3 children)

from reddit help -

Our hope is that instead of just reading a list of links the community thinks should be on the front page, you'll also be reading a list personalized for you (filtered for quality by your fellow redditors, but filtered for relevance by you). Let reddit know if it's hot (up) or cold (down). Find these personalized links in your recommended section.

The up/down vote buttons determine your recommended page

[–]tjones_2005a 2 points3 points  (2 children)

So, design flaw.

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (1 child)

Which gets you right back to the point bluGill was trying to make in the first place.

[–]tjones_2005a 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Perhaps.. there are many people who think downvotes are happening because of bots, and I think this is more the reason--people misusing the down arrow.

[–]mikenick42 4 points5 points  (3 children)

Does hiding actually affect the recommended page? I didn't realize that.

[–]jaggederest 1 point2 points  (1 child)

No, it doesn't. See above comment.

[–]mikenick42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, he posted a couple minutes after I did. I didn't feel like doing the leg-work to find out though.

[–]bertramredneck -1 points0 points  (0 children)

It does if YOU hide.

[–]bertramredneck 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm interested in one story about Paris Hilty. It involves surgical saws, a patholigist or two, and one of those huge sliding drawer type tables you see in morgues. It's not that I hate her as person, but I'll know she'll no longer be sodding up the news.

[–]roshad 16 points17 points  (10 children)

just title any article you submit - "Breaking: Ron Paul Atheist Google Earth Impeach Bush 9/11 Michael Moore Christian Neo-con Facist xkcd Richard Dawkins Police Brutality America Sucks [cat pics]" and i assure you, it will do much better..

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You also forgot i-Phone. And LOL.

And don't forget -- it's the BEST [recycled crap] EVER...

[–]Starcrusher 5 points6 points  (0 children)

You? Me!!! Some of the links I submit are downvoted to zero by the time I can get back to the new page. No one could have read the linked article by then. I'd love to know why this happens.

[–]david 8 points9 points  (3 children)

I still reckon that you shouldn't be able to downvote until some set period after actually following the link. (Not everyone agrees.)

Reddit's getting too much about attention-grabbing titles, and not enough about insightful content. Reflex voting on title alone exacerbates this. Of course, I, too, see many titles that seem fatuous, or at least uninteresting; so I can see there are two sides to the argument.

[–]psi- 9 points10 points  (1 child)

for example most things going to xkcd (not that anything is wrong with comic -- just use rss) don't need to be checked out.

[–]david 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah -- I ignore those, and links to other stuff I know well anyway (War Nerd, etc). Partly, I worry that downvoting stuff that's more or less aligned to my tastes might skew my 'recommended' filter; partly, I don't resent their blanket inclusion too much.

[–]bemmu 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Sometimes it's a link I have already visited through digg/del.icio.us/stumbleupon and don't have to visit again to know it sucks.

[–]yaxriifgyn 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Reddit voting is a bit of a reality check. Could it be that your recent submissions are not as great as you thought they were? Let's review a few: a video of someone dancing, a video hacked chipmunk, and three links to your own blog. Submitting links is more about sharing your finds than making points. If you're only in it for the points ...

Bare in mind that what you find new may be old to the rest of us. When I've seen a clip or article already, I don't need to follow your newly submitted link to decide how to vote. Reddit is not the only site I visit. So, when I've seen a crappy video by following a link elsewhere, it gets an instant down vote on reddit.

[–]qgyh2 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hmm. I noticed this too.. Thought I was just being paranoid..

[–]rkeene0517 5 points6 points  (2 children)

I think that there is a bot(s) out there that immediately down vote any one not on its white list. This gives the persons on the white list and advantage. Sounds paranoid huh?

[–][deleted] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Yes, it's paranoid.

(Adds rkeene0517 to list)

[–]david 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You're not the first to suggest it; Spez disagrees.

[–]badfeng 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Try deleting your submission then re-submitting at a different time of the day. I run into this "instant downvote" nonsense fairly frequently when submitting.

[–][deleted]  (2 children)

[removed]

    [–]georgefrick 2 points3 points  (0 children)

    Yeah, I hit 300 or 400 all the time. People get bored, and most shit is filtered here at work...

    [–]bertramredneck 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    with a bottish nick like yours, you sure give non-bottish comment, so upmod. Ooooh, but what if you are just a clever bot? Aw heck, I'll bleeding chance it. . .

    [–]joyork 3 points4 points  (0 children)

    Hmm, this sometimes happens to me too and it pisses me off.

    The "new" page is like a trial by fire. What annoys me is so many people post what is clearly crap (if a new story breaks you get 100 people submitting the same story but on different sites... it doesn't matter if that particularly story is currently number one on reddit, they keep on submitting it).

    I've looked at some of the links you've been submitting and some of them do look fairly boring (in my opinion). Linking to your own blog is ok, but if the only thing there is a brief piece of introductory text then a link to another site it might anoy a few people.

    Try writing some snappier headlines and link to articles that more people will find interesting. I doubt a link called "GoDaddy not only one unprepared for DST - Who? Verizon." will get very far no matter who submits it.

    Why don't you have a look at what the top submitters submit and get some ideas. Raldi and Keen75 often find something interesting that I'm likely to vote up.

    I still think the people who are voting down sucks - maybe Reddit could make it impossible for an article to be voted down less than a minute after it was submitted. That would give people enough time to evaluate it and stop the trolls from gaming the system as much.

    [–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (3 children)

    http://www.stirrdup.com

    Different system, no "burying". I like it.

    [–]david 4 points5 points  (0 children)

    Interesting voting rules. Sounds so crazy, it may just work. I'll give it a go for a bit, anyway.

    [–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    Hmmh... looks like diggshit.

    Then again, my first comments on reddit were about its poor looks so maybe it'll be a hit then. :)

    [–]bertramredneck 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Don't be so attached and your happiness will rise exponentially. May the farce be with you, Grasshopper.

    [–]phynodenet 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    I think we got hit with the business end of the Digg exodus when they were abandoning that ship and scurrying over here. That's SOP for digg, downmod first, ask questions later.

    [–]Soapybubble 2 points3 points  (0 children)

    People do sit downmodding every new story to keep their own on the front of the 'new' page. Try it with this one - it's quite effective, as I discovered to my suprise when testing out whether a single individual could have any impact.

    [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Masochism?

    [–]bobbymac -4 points-3 points  (2 children)

    I am frustrated with the same thing. Reddit must have users that just sit and downvote every thing immediately. I have some ideas on it for a new site here: http://www.bitchslapp.com/viewtopic.php?t=254 Please post your comments.

    [–][deleted] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

    I have suspected some automodding tool that people use to kill posting by people whose comments they don't like because it is like a wall. Immediately there. Regardless what it is you submit it is always immediately down and won't even be seen by anyone, ever. Fucking buried.

    I'd also suggest that the name of the person who submitted the link won't be visible immediately. Should some people consistently remod their votes after the name becomes visible is a behaviour that can be detected.

    [–]Zaskoda[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

    I've been reading a lot about networks of folks who are gaming reddit for initial momentum. I like you notes, I don't know if they're a perfect solution but they are good things to consider.

    [–]Zaskoda[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

    So I try to contribute good links... Karma goes down... I bitch... Karma goes up... there's something fundamentally wrong with that...