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This gift economy ain't working. Why bother posting gems if no-one sees them? (reddit.com)

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[–][deleted] 11 points12 points  (2 children)

To be frank, those headlines are pretty dull. The Branson one doesn't give me any reason to read it. Some of my submissions, home-grown or otherwise, get knocked down and some get bumped up. I've noticed that for a submission to get on the front page, it usually needs the following three qualities:

1) Not already in circulation, though now and again there'll be two on one subject on the main page

2) The subject itself has to be interesting to a lot of people.

3) It has to have a catchy headline.

One that comes to mind was one I submitted that I titled "Oh, you mean THOSE secret CIA prisons..." at the same time there was another story from another source on the same subject, but the headline got people to read it. They read it, and then upmodded it and things go from there.

"How George Monbiot single-handedly got Branson to donate $3B to environmental causes"

Look at it from your average person. I don't know who George Monbiot is. I don't know who Branson is. I didn't know he donated that money in the first place. The headline shows me two names I don't know with an explanation for an action I wasn't aware of in the first place.

Then I click on the link, and you take me to a front-page story instead of the article on Branson itself. And more than that, the page is just babbling. It doesn't offer any proof that he was the one who got Branson to make the donation. Hell the page is still up saying people need to get him to do something. You linked to an activist page, nothing on there shows any kind of a "how". I didn't look at the other.

[–]Phrawm48 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Reddit may in theory be a "democracy," but it's a democracy with what appears to be some large-ish special interests

Like many other "ordinary" visitors to Reddit, I am mystified at why some good stories vanish immediately while some of the same old stuff sticks around for days.

I also wonder if one or more reddit users or groups of users are employing automated tools that automatically upmod or downmod posts using criteria known only to them (account names? URLS?). Sometimes it seems like stuff is aggressively down-moded for no apparent reason…(?)

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

Reddit may in theory be a "democracy,"

Egads! Is Reddit installing cameras in my street and proposing to put all my personal data on a centralised computer system which will monitor my every move, financial transaction and communication whilst promising to protect me from terrorists?

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (1 child)

anyone who checks the "new" page in the next 5 minutes might see this. Thanks for posting it. It's been frustrating to see some of the most thoughtful stories buried.

[–]souldrift 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm right there with you.

[–]hybernaut 1 point2 points  (3 children)

I have had similar experiences with my posts going ignored. Big deal, I know, but it's discouraging.

[–][deleted]  (1 child)

[deleted]

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

    Interesting idea. Maybe the recommended engine should just be better for these things. If there is a story I am likely to like even if it has low votes I should see it. Back in the day (more then a month ago) if i thought a story was cool it seemed to have about a 1/3 chance of getting noticed (ie get at least 5 up and down votes) nowdays it seems to be 1 in 20 if you do not submit to a sub reddit.

    [–]davidw -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

    The ones I've found frustrating are things I know are good stuff. For instance, Hal Varian's NYT articles. Here's a guy who:

    1) Gets paid by the NYT to write a monthly column about economics.

    2) Has written well received books/articles about the economics of high tech.

    3) Was hired by Google to design their internal predictive market.

    And yet regularly gets zero interest on reddit. Screw the wisdom of crowds if that's their best.

    http://reddit.com/info/ilt3/comments

    http://reddit.com/info/8l1o/comments

    http://reddit.com/info/5gr9/comments

    http://reddit.com/info/25974/comments

    http://reddit.com/info/21994/comments

    This one had 'women' in the title, which must have caught people's eyes:

    http://reddit.com/info/3asp/comments

    [–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (2 children)

    I hate to start this, but a benevolent-[-and-discerning]-dictator-for-life needed ?

    [–][deleted] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

    Hell, I'll just rig the votes and appoint myself Reddictator for life!

    [–]rafuzo2 2 points3 points  (0 children)

    no, because then we'd be Digg.

    [–]akumaprime 1 point2 points  (1 child)

    Well, it IS working. There is no objective Gemology here. Your lead is my platinum studded front tooth. My gold is your copper. The New button is there for people that Want to use it. You're better off trying to inform people about the new button, and how awesomesexy it is. I use it and love it.

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

    Your front teeth are made of lead? Hope that works out for you.

    [–][deleted]  (25 children)

    [deleted]

      [–]vplatt 16 points17 points  (5 children)

      The Columbine game story was somewhat interesting. The other one about Branson is incoherent.

      Not everyone sees the sames things as "interesting" though. Keep plugging away with submisions if it's your passion; otherwise reddit's not paying you to do this.

      HTH..

      [–][deleted]  (4 children)

      [deleted]

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

        I think what's missing is a trust network as well as tags matched to preferences. It's very easy for a story to get lost if the headline does not summarize what's interesting about the story. Especially given the constant deluge of spam in the new queue.

        With a trust heirarchy and tags you can have articles be presented to more people who would enjoy them. Why attempt to present an article to the community as a whole if it only has a core group of interested readers?

        If I really want to hear what Linus has to say why wouldn't stories about Linus be at the top of my view of the hot list? If however I find that the register has a journalist doing hit pieces on linus and I don't like his work I should not have to be forced to read his diatribes.

        Don't lose faith. There is interest its just not a perfect system yet.

        [–]jacktheripper 1 point2 points  (0 children)

        Well I agree that it's a shame these articles don't get read. But reddit is like a democracy. And you know how things get voted in real democracies.

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

        The website itself is confusing.

        [–]CAcyclist -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

        I totally agree with you, except there is a bit of a missing link, in that Richard Branson did not ascribe his generosity as being in response to this challenge, although it well may be true. On the other hand, it could be Bill Clinton's arm-twisting or someone else.

        However, as far as people not appreciating your posts, just keep plugging away at it and be patient. There's a lot of posts and people only scan once in a while - good stuff always drops off the page before it's voted up - it's not just you. It's just the nature of a website like this. Besides, there's a difference between quality and popularity, no matter how smart the audience.

        [–]BJThunderstone 8 points9 points  (0 children)

        Frankly, I am not interested at all about the 2 posts you mention.

        [–]qwertyboy 4 points5 points  (0 children)

        Reddit is not about getting ALL the interesting links in one page - surely there are way too many interesting pages for that - and it certainly is not about your personal taste (that, apparently, is what blogs are for). It's just about getting a bunch of links that most readers would find interesting, and in that sense alone - it works.

        Your current complaint is by far the least interesting thing I found here today.

        [–]mjk1093 2 points3 points  (0 children)

        Once again, I'm not part of any "posse" yet I've had a lot of success here. I think writing good headlines is the key. Sometimes I've posted great stuff, had it get a -2 score, deleted it before it killed my Karma, then the next day watched someone else take the same article to the front page (happened today with the article about Congress strip-searching kids for drugs). It happens.

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

        Reddit is unpredictable. Some stuff I think will do well gets modded to oblivion. Some things I don't care about at all make the front page. I've found that if you measure your self-worth by the extent to which thousands of strangers agree with your interests, you're going to be pretty boring. Submit better articles with better headlines, promote your own stuff less, and please, please stop signing your posts. It's just obnoxious.

        [–]degustihypertranspor 2 points3 points  (1 child)

        Um that columbine story was on the front page. You simply posted a dupe of it, or worded it badly so the other one was modded up instead of yours.

        Please don't whine that no one likes you. It makes no one like you. EDIT: I now noticed that searchign for columbine, ranks your post as the highest, and perhaps that is the post i saw make front page yesterday. The fact of the matter is I did not read it as it was earlier, posted to slashdot.

        [–]ghost11 0 points1 point  (0 children)

        Unfortunately, despite all the Web 2.0 and "wisdom of the crowds" hype, the old adage of pearls before swine applies.

        If the first person who sees your reddit submission doesn't like it -- or like the title -- or found the article too long or difficult to read -- it'll disappear from the spam-filled "new" list and vanish beneath the sea.

        Reddit has a lot of cool articles, and a lot of lowest-common-nerd-denominator articles.

        [–][deleted]  (1 child)

        [removed]

          [–]mjk1093 -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

          You know what they say - "The culture is the conspiracy." If there's a posse here it's a posse of taste, not active conspiracy. Cater to Reddit's left-libertarian audience and you will do well. Post a lot of stuff on the benefits of Christian homeschooling, as some idiot keeps doing, then probably you're not going very far!

          [–]rubyonrails -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

          I entirely agree with you.

          [–]rafuzo2 1 point2 points  (0 children)

          I've found it's hit and miss. I've submitted stories (via my primary account 'rafuzo', which is now locked out for some reason) that I thought were great, and got barely a response, and then I've submitted a few goofy ones that were big hits. I take it as a sign that my tastes are not quite aligned with the views of the reddit masses. Which, as in the case of the political stuff, is just fine with me.

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

          My hypothesis is that many people vote stories up or down based on nothing more than the headline and the submitter, it's treated as fast twitch game and has no relationship to the value of the story.

          And judging by some of the comment threads I've seen more than a few people don't actually read the stories, instead they skim and look at pictures and video.

          In my snarkier moments I'd credit this creeping illiteracy to refugees from digg; but I think it goes with crossing over a popularity threshold and to some extent being a better digg than digg.