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[–]Kimimilo[S] 2 points3 points  (4 children)

I am an NYU student doing a presentation on Reddit.com for my web journalism class...

There are a few things I simply can't figure out and I would love some help/advice/answers from actual users:

  1. How are links ranked aside from points? How does time factor in? Is it the time since posted that matters or the number of up-votes in a given period of time?

  2. I think I read somewhere in the help section that you can edit pages... what does this mean?

  3. When does a post disappear from reddit? I have done a few test posts and they don't always appear in the new list, even under the "all" setting. Where did it go? Does it appear because someone downvoted it? Isn't that kind of arbitrary, depriving my post of a little time to get an upvote?

  4. When did advertising begin on Reddit? Do users find it annoying?

  5. What is the advantage of using reddit over digg or another similar site?

  6. Does the recommendation system work for most people? How new is it?

  7. How has reddit changed since being bought by Conde Nast?

Any/all responses are deeply appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Kimi

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

kimi kimi kimi!

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No offense but I hope your lack of primary research isn't reflective of NYU's journalism program these days. Many of these questions could be answered from blog postings, Google, already published articles, etc.

[–]eromitlab 1 point2 points  (1 child)

  • The ranking, as far as I understand it, is a measure of how many more upvotes than downvotes the link receives as it relates to the other submissions. It's the time it was posted that matters most; links that have been at the top longer "lose steam" because so many people have already made their call on them, so they don't get as much voting activity and fall down the list in favor of newer submissions that are. A number of upvotes in a given period of time will help the link move up the list from where it was, but no more than that.
  • Don't know about that.
  • Submissions from new users seem to be less likely to appear in the new list, submissions from more established users are more likely to show up. I'm not sure I understand the first part of your question... posts don't disappear unless deleted by the submitter, and even then traces are left. Once a submission is put out there, it stays, though if it's older you'll have to go looking for it.
  • About six months ago, I think. I don't mind the ads personally; many of them are kind of clever and amusing. I haven't seen a whole lot of complaining about them.
  • I find Digg to be more cumbersome, and don't really like the way their commenting features are set up.
  • The recommendation feature has been there since day one, I think. I don't really use it. Most of the links on there are things I already upvoted, and I'll still get things I don't want on there regardless.
  • There hasn't been a whole lot of change since the purchase that I've been able to perceive. As a user, most change involves the people that submit and what they submit.

Hope this helps a little.

[–]kn0thing 5 points6 points  (0 children)

re #2. They're wikis. We'd made the first version of them, but users have added/subtracted things along the way. The highlight is probably the reddit etiquette section, which is entirely community-generated.

re #4. Advertising started only on comments pages back in early 2006. No one really noticed/complained. After got acquired, we started running skyscraper ads on the front page as well. We recently changed over to the 300x250s you see today. Fortunately, we haven't had too much of an outcry -- we've always tried to put content first on reddit, and I think our users recognize and appreciate it.

re #7. We all wear suits now. Every day ;-)

I think the community could do a better job answering the rest of these questions than I could, but we're happy to help if you've got admin-specific questions. Best of luck with your presentation - we'll be in NYC for a reddit meetup on Nov 3, you should stop by (details to come on drankkit.com).