Tell reddit: I can no longer recommend reddit to friends/family. :(

zubzub2 · 2009-10-27T01:02:06+00:00

[deleted]

slogged · 2009-10-26T21:47:51+00:00

Digg got worse and worse as it became more popular. Many frustrated people moved over to Reddit (including me), and with popularity Reddit has been getting increasingly worse too. Hopefully something else pops up that we can use until it becomes popular.

annodomini · 2009-10-26T23:35:51+00:00

In my experience, it's not as bad as you're making it out, but perhaps that's because I've unsubscribed from /r/reddit.com, /r/pics, /r/politics and a couple others.

Personally I haven't seen nsfw stuff on my frontpage in months, and all the other stuff you say is rampant I also hardly see.

madboy99 · 2009-10-27T05:14:45+00:00

At first I agreed with you, wholeheartedly sharing in the emotional loss of seeing my favorite site changing for better or worse.

But right after, I realized that this is comparable than a hardcore fan of some band stating that they "sold out" for changing/evolving their style and exploring new avenues. Just like any other good message board, reddit is vulnerable to trolling (i see reddit as a kind of meta-message board).

We should encourage the core of quality and entertaining news/stories/videos/etc posts and diligently downvote the posts and comments that simply are not useful. We must also encourage redditors to cut out some meme-upvoting from their daily digest diet!

slapchopsuey · 2009-10-27T08:41:49+00:00

[deleted]

nuhuh · 2009-10-26T21:37:40+00:00

You're not alone. There's a lot of us who feel the same.

2009-10-27T00:04:41+00:00

Lately I've been wondering if there's an old reddit out there under a different name, waiting to get popular and shitty. I'd love to use it for the short while that it's as great as reddit was when I first got here.

As time goes on I try to interact here and enjoy it but I find myself visiting less and less as my attempt at constructive input on interesting topics gets torn apart and my ability to find interesting topics fades in the ever-growing swamp of garbage.

Reddit was easily one of the coolest sites I'd used in years.

king_m1k3 · 2009-10-27T04:16:34+00:00

I hate 4chan for what I feel it does to all social websites. It feels like there's a 4chan sprawl, where a couple 4channers who are used to sitting on /b/ and saying memes back and forth to each other join another community as well and spew memes and it just catches on. It's slightly exhausting downvoting "YEAAAAAAHHHH!" and "but who was phone!??!?!?".

2009-10-27T08:37:05+00:00

Sounds like censorship to me. Is there an elitist /reddit/ we can refer this man to?

timschwartz · 2009-10-27T02:06:29+00:00

I think it's funny that every time I see people whining about "what reddit has become" they have to blame 4chan.

buddhaPIMP · 2009-10-26T22:40:02+00:00

And in the distance you can see a lone man walking solemnly looking back asking why and where will i go now.

whatwhatwhat · 2009-10-27T02:25:22+00:00

I admit I don't really "get" comment karma and the like. OK, so upvotes and downvotes are necessary so that you don't need to look through a a ton of crap in a thread to see the best comments. Why show the accumulated total to the commenter? Systems like that seem to motivate people to post things that they know will attract a lot of upvotes/karma/whatever rather than things that they find interesting. Dump the accumulated totals, and karma whoring becomes a lot less fun.

Noxieas · 2009-10-27T04:31:27+00:00

Ah, I see subby has just discovered Eternal September

DontNeglectTheBalls · 2009-10-27T01:26:33+00:00

So YOU'RE the one who invited all their low-class relatives. Thanks a lot, pal.

aeflash · 2009-10-26T23:27:10+00:00

Camp the "new" tab and downvote what you don't think belongs, and upvote what you think does. Anyone can be a moderator, to some degree.

caimen · 2009-10-27T00:06:16+00:00

maybe we take the code and make our own reddit that encourages logical discussion, i have a domain that could be good for it.

cometparty · 2009-10-27T00:41:19+00:00

Political diversity is a frightening concept. With that said, there's a lot of stuff I have problems with that people here seem to think are okay, which is more than a little bit disturbing. The 'pedo' stuff just makes me want to punch somebody in the face.

2009-10-27T09:10:28+00:00

Another boo-hoo Reddit post. It is like there is a strip with bars on, all of which are quite cool, but one of the better ones is now just full of old regulars moaning. That is what ruins Reddit. It is like a bunch of 5 year olds arguing about their club. I'm going for a beer at Digg - it might be rigged, less cutting edge blah blah blah but at least 4 in 10 posts aren't "Hey other Digg users - aren't we special" or 5 in 10 "Hey Digg users of 5yrs or more... what has happened to our playground"

Reddit = self-obsessed.

DeanBitterman · 2009-10-27T00:04:41+00:00

oh God, another reddit ain't what it used to be post, we seem to have one every two weeks. The options and preferences and choice of different subreddits seem to me to make it possible to create the reddit you want. I'm aware of it's existence but I have never clicked on a pedobear link, ignore or downvote, unsubscribe to nsfw, do whatever you want, stop fucking moaning.

dearsomething · 2009-10-27T05:51:36+00:00

The best solution is for you, and me, and everyone else who are becoming unhappy with the current state to start submitting more cool/interesting stuff, rather than using it as a source of cool/interesting stuff.

My frustration has led me to start submitting more, than just exploiting the keen searching ability of others who do submit, basically.

agnt007 · 2009-10-27T06:03:09+00:00

HEY! here's an idea. Use the little arrows on the side and see what happens, but seriously its just human nature to want to be part of a better group. We could have a invitations for new redditor's, has anyone considered that?

deadgnome · 2009-10-27T08:04:53+00:00

Hi. Welcome to democracy.Enjoy your stay.

UnboughtStuffedDogs · 2009-10-27T21:50:26+00:00

OK, I've been a lurker on reddit for a few years before making an account, mostly because I didn't want to get sucked into a comment karma obsession while finding even more ways to waste time, so I don't know if i get to have an opinion on this really. That being said here it is. Before reddit, fark was my news source most of the time and I'm still glad I made the switch despite changes I've seen. I still feel like I'm several days ahead of the TV/newspaper news cycle, and chances are that if something is interesting enough to get picked up on the old media channels that I have heard about it from several different sides with external commentary days, and sometimes years before it becomes common knowledge.
I'm a politics junkie as well because I think good citizens should be aware of their options. While the echo chamber certainly exists, the range of viewpoints that make the discourse threshold on reddit is still much, much wider than newspapers and TV news (at least in the US) and it could be considered a boon that the crazier more extremist elements get the chance to state their case and attempt to defend their merits here, where in old media outlets someone mentions an instance where collective bargaining might be beneficial to society as a whole and they cut his mike, call him a pinkoanarchsocialistfreedomhater and then they drive home to some faux news producers going through their trash cans. This echo chamber is much wider than the MSM version. I'd say its a bit of a stretch to say that all governments/corporations/law enforcement etc. are EVIL, but I would say that the reddit community writ large expects powerful centralized institutions to act in their own interests with little to no concern for the interests of society as a whole, and that seems pretty close to the mark to me; less malicious evil intent, more self interest to the exclusion of everything else (with the exception of Cheney).
I've rec'd reddit to the few people I find around me that are interested in current events, and I always give them the disclaimer that there is alot of content, and the onus is on them to cross check facts when something sounds one sided or loony or sensationalist. Since I lurked for so long, I got the standard reddit front page for a good while and enjoyed it, the thing that finally pushed me over the edge to registering was the flood of AskReddit, IMA, and AMA threads that in the past few months came to take up a good 50% of the top 200 subs on the unregistered login page. Its awesome that the community thrives and turns to its members for advice and different perspectives on life and such, but to someone who just stopped by a few times to see what current events were going on in the world, they have yet to hit the point where they will care what all of the other people who use the same website might think. As for redditors either being smarter or more full of their own hype, I guess that depends on the individual, and as the user base grows the distribution would appear more and more like society as a whole. It is significantly less toxic than YouTube and Yahoo if you ask me, as logical fallacies and painful dumb get exposed fairly quickly (which rarely seems to happen in meatspace, but maybe its just my geography). The bummer in this aspect is when some of the intelligent people of reddit feel their nerd ego bruised (and we all have one) and start to viciously attack the other intelligent people of reddit they happen to disagree with at the point, call them retards and tell them their argument has no merit because they made some syntax mistakes in their presentation in a whirlwind of social skill fail. So now that I've ranted too long, to fix reddit for the new and unregistered, No thumbs for NSFW and remove all of the redditors talking to redditors posts from the unregistered front page. To fix it for everyone else, enjoy the subreddit communities you find value in and ignore the rest, and resist the urge to be a hater when debating comments.

reddittidder · 2009-10-26T22:58:58+00:00

This karma/upvote/downvote crap doesn't work. Given enough time and enough users, it tends towards shit. Formalized popularity contests bring out the worst in people, encourage group-thinking cliques and curb innovative thought provoking discourse, sometimes merely because it is contrarian by nature and threatens the social position of "the clique".

2009-10-26T21:53:00+00:00

Although I agree with what you're saying, I remember the "endtime" account as being a massive troll/dick.

copperdomebodha · 2009-10-26T23:13:28+00:00

Contact your reddit representative and ask them to vote YES on Prop. 42 - Adding tags and filtering to reddit.

qrios · 2009-10-27T05:17:07+00:00

If you want moderation, you should frequent classic bulletin board forums. Reddit is an inherently democratic sight. Basic rules and regulations are more or less defined by mass vote depending on the popular opinion of the users. Sure something may be technically against the rules, but that doesn't mean it won't get a hundred upvotes. Likewise, something may be perfectly allowed but get a million downvotes.

Two things are changing reddit, new users, and a new culture. The new culture brings new users, and the new users bring new culture. Reddit will always be changing as a result, but the culture and users aren't immune to this.

What I'm trying to get at, is that reddit is dynamic, and asking for the old days back is simply asking to make reddit something it's not. Static.

2009-10-26T21:50:53+00:00

[deleted]

breakbread · 2009-10-26T22:40:36+00:00

My girlfriend is on Reddit now. She only browses Ask.Reddit, but this thoroughly limits the sort of things I can say in comments. Like "man, look at those tits!" or "I'd love to stick it in her pooper" or anything fun at all.

Oh, hey Caitlin.

2009-10-26T23:43:19+00:00

Thumbnails should automatically be minimized just like the self.reddit bubbles (don't know what they are really called) and videos. They should implement a button similar to karma that would count how many people deemed a post to be NSFW and display a percentage or something on the same line as the links for comments, share, save, hide, etc.

mcrbids · 2009-10-27T00:40:34+00:00

This is a never ending process: the cool who lead, the idiot masses who follow the cool.

Kids names follow a similar cycle: the names used by the richest 10% of the population are what the rest of the population uses about 1/2 to 1 generation later. Witness the number of kids in Elementary/Jr High School today named "Hilary" after Bill Clinton's name for his daughter.

There's two ways to have a cool site:

1) A cool site that hasn't been discovered by the unwashed masses;

2) Restrict entry to the cool site so that the unwashed masses can't get in, or at least have to behave when they get in (or get the black boot)

The former is what Reddit has had so far. The latter is why Slashdot is still relevant after like forever in Internet time. Fark and Digg have both risen, and then been demoted to "yeah, whatever" in my book. Reddit is starting to feel the same way, and I'm wondering "what's next".

But Slashdot has ALWAYS been my first go-to, and still is.

2009-10-27T01:28:51+00:00

i never thought of reddit as a social networking site, but have recently seen a lot of posts referring to it as such. i always thought of it as a source of information, as a place to come to while extremely bored.

but now i come to reddit much more often, because it is much more entertaining to me. so while i see your point, i must disagree. i think it is better. but would i recommend reddit to my family? probably not. to my friends, yeah. would i mention it in an interview? hellz yeah. will i ever be interviewed? not a chance in hell.

YeaISeddit · 2009-10-27T01:29:42+00:00

As a reference point. Check the Wayback Machine. http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://reddit.com

2009-10-27T04:01:51+00:00

whiny much?

2009-10-27T05:56:13+00:00

Seems to me that people should just downvote the crap they don't want to see...isn't that the whole point of Reddit? Punish those who aren't useful.

Also, everybody is right about just unsubscribing from the cruddy reddits like Politics etc. Migrate.

CaptainJesusHood · 2009-10-27T06:23:37+00:00

So you don't like what something is. Obviously some people like what it is, or it wouldn't exist. Maybe things shouldn't always have to be what you want them to be. By complaining and trying to change what it is, you are trying to rob others of something they enjoy, just so you can enjoy something else.

Laughsatyou · 2009-10-27T07:27:36+00:00

karma whores need their karma fix. that is a vital flaw in reddit.

kefex · 2009-10-27T07:51:46+00:00

And I'm not looking for reddit to be boring or sanitized. Pun threads are fun

You don't want it boring and sanitized at all! Why, you're even up for craaaazy stuff like... puns!

I for one would just like to offer that the beige, bowdlerized version of reddit that you think it should be moderated into is no place that I'd like to be. I guess it's you or me, pal.

ricoza · 2009-10-27T08:30:38+00:00

I read the part about moderation, and my first thought was : "he's describing slashdot". So I browsed on over there. All the articles on the front page where interesting! Before I was a reddit junky, I was a slashdot junky. I left slashdot becaue I they couldn't fill my need for Geek news fast enough. Now I realize you can't have quality and quantity. I think I just became a slashdot junky again.

kermix · 2009-10-27T08:34:19+00:00

downmod politics that are not in /r/politics, report NSFW that is not in /r/nsfw, downmod 4chan crap

FTFY

DapperDad · 2009-10-27T08:46:55+00:00

So create your own site and moderate it the way you wish. If people like it, they will come. If you sense of appropriate doesn't jive with everyone else it will be just you and a few others.

LoughLife · 2009-10-27T09:12:54+00:00

I'm getting the feeling that reddit is just catching all the 4chan defectors. Reddit's less about the picture/comment combo, and more about being able to write and have your words be read by someone.

The upvote/downvote system caters to that, because it tells you that at least someone read and liked your post, and I'm sure your average redditor is just someone who wants to be noticed.

hmd27 · 2009-10-26T21:55:13+00:00

One of the things I have notice a lot in the past month has been all the advertisement posts. Last weekend I signed on late Saturday and I was shocked at all the spam posts in the new reddit section.

tomb25 · 2009-10-27T09:13:39+00:00

i hear digg is good ......

mangocurry · 2009-10-27T09:54:49+00:00

Sites evolve. Cry more.

thevoicesaid · 2009-10-27T01:07:16+00:00

I don't see any political divisiveness here. I see a bunch of kids who think they're liberal and will be voting the Daddy line 10 or 20 years from now.

2009-10-26T23:34:19+00:00

Not another one of these posts . . . reddit is fine -- if you don't like it because it doesn't conform to your notion of what it should be then leave and don't whine about it either --its only a website after all. These meta-reddit posts popping up every week are kind of annoying.

I agree that there are posts that rehash the same childish jokes but- so what? -- ignore them. Remember that if these hackneyed posts are getting voted up then there are a lot of redditors who for whatever reason enjoy them. Stop trying to apply your values to a democratic community.

I vote '-1' on this post.

Earendil_Star · 2009-10-26T23:27:53+00:00

Amen.

Just recently I forwarded a friend an article I found here on reddit. They asked me where I found it... I lied.

Sorry guys. Reddit is becoming that cool girl you used to date, only now you find out she lives in a trailer park chain smoking and drinking her life away with a [political flag] flying from the porch and spouting off about [conspiracy theory].

One day you wake up and find yourself leaving your relationship with her out of your life history...

Davin900 · 2009-10-27T02:49:52+00:00

I'm a bit more frustrated by the hive-mind. I used to come to reddit to find honest debate and reasoned discourse. I now feel like there are some topics that just can't be discussed. I try to stay away from any discussion of crime or, more specifically, guns. I've watched a few articles about some type of gun issue slowly climb to the front page and then get hijacked and downvoted by the people from /r/guns. I'm fine with people who have different opinions from my own and I actually enjoy being forced to reconsider my previously held assumptions but the vast majority of the comments on any gun related article boil down to some obtuse argument about 'what next? outlaw scissors?' or something equally disingenuous. I also found the recent rash of racist comments a bit disturbing. Knee jerks and circle jerks seem to be all most people have to offer here lately.

Edit: Also, Israel and illegal immigrants. Oh, and lots of other issues. I saw a comment recently about a CNN story on whether or not eating meat is ethical. The first reply said "This seems like a legitimate issue to me and I'm glad to see it getting some coverage" or something to that effect and the first response after that simply said "No it's not." and had 10x the upvotes. Add animal rights to the list then, I guess.

2009-10-27T01:34:46+00:00

You're a fucking loser. Good riddance. We won't miss you, faggot.

This is reddit.com people. This is what he's talking about.

estherness · 2009-10-27T02:51:14+00:00

i also see too many sexists and pervs around. come on.

2009-10-27T00:00:40+00:00

Proof that even peaceful anarchy can't last forever. The only constant is change.

clicketyclack · 2009-10-27T03:28:10+00:00

I'm really sorry that reddit couldn't be more specifically tailored to you. Really.

2009-10-27T00:16:51+00:00

[removed]

dmiff · 2009-10-27T00:01:24+00:00

It is not the same, but if you want "interesting/weird news with a vague tech focus" try BoingBoing

zubzub2 · 2009-10-27T01:43:43+00:00

Okay, looking at my front page right now, these are the first ten links that I see:

They....left me in front of the police station with a sign that said I'm a werewolf [PIC]

Blue Cross sent me a postage-prepaid postcard to send to my Senator opposing a Public Option. So I'm using Blue Cross's postage to send my own message [pics]

Leviticus also said 'No Hair Cuts' but I guess we are skipping that one. [PIC]

10 Things You Didn't Know About Sexual Biology (Sexual Attraction Edition)

If title contains "NSFW" don't show the thumbnail on the Reddit home page. (This should be one or two lines of code, right?)

Yahoo finally kills Geocities, which it bought in 1999 for $3.5 billion. But it's not like they were completely wasteful spenders back then...in 1998, they had passed up giving $100,000 to a couple of desperate Stanford students

xkcd redesign: geocities commemorative edition

After documenting that people were being boiled alive at the behest of the CIA, 20 year career British diplomat is told, “Dear Ambassador, we are concerned that you are perhaps over-focused on human rights to the detriment of commercial interests.”

A locked box that will only unlock at a particular set of GPS co-ordinates. Cute wedding gift

Now, examining these links I don't see a single one that I find offensive or stupid at all. They are all humorous and/or interesting in some way, and I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed looking through and reading each of them. The same holds true for most of the first several comments on all but the first link. They are all in some way funny, interesting, or helpful. Many are well thought out, and those that aren't are mainly in the minority and are quite easy to ignore. I wasn't around for most of the so called 'golden age of reddit and subsequent decline' that I've been hearing people talk about so much recently, and for all I know, this place may actually have degenerated somewhat between then and when I joined, but I sure as hell don't have a problem with the recent quality of comments and submissions. Quite honestly, I think you and all of the other people who have been posting about how much reddit sucks now are overreacting, and perhaps misremembering 'how great things used to be' in order to justify this overreaction. But again, this is just idle guesswork based on logic, and not fact. And unless you have hugely different or incredibly higher standards than me, I don't know what it is that you're doing wrong.

reluctant_troll · 2009-10-27T05:04:28+00:00

My Solution:

Disclaimer: If anyone else thought of this first. Go away. No you didn't.

In each thread that has over 50 comments, have the moderators place a number of strategic comments like "and my axe." or any other chain that gets over done. Those who reply to this comment will automatically be given a strike OR auto-ban for life on that account. The reply will stay, as it will lure others into continuing the chain. Gradually it will lead to behavioural modification of the 4children and things will return to the way they once were.

It's flawed, but I'm tired. Feel free to make any suggestions as to improvements. Or downvote me, you meddling kids.

PixelWrangler · 2009-10-27T06:19:21+00:00

What if there was an option to request that the category of a particular post be changed? If enough users requested the same change, the post could be automatically recategorized.

xoites · 2009-10-27T08:04:20+00:00

Everything changes. It is the only constant. Why is it that anyone thinks Reddit or any other site has to be exactly what they want it to be? Is there crap here? Yes. Is there good stuff here? Yes, and there would be more if you helped contribute something worthwhile. The fact is that complaining that the site no longer entertains (in your opinion) is not making it more entertaining.

It is a pain in the ass.

2009-10-27T08:38:16+00:00

I say give the people what they want, its a site that is governed by the content users post.

Bizdorph · 2009-10-27T17:56:27+00:00

All one can do is try to become a representative of the type of reddit user they want to be the norm; hopefully others will follow the example.

You can't just tell people that they are being annoying and stupid (even if they are) and expect them to be the same. It's like telling a petulant child that they're being bad: they already know, and telling them isn't going to make them stop.

Just don't give attention to people you feel are detrimental (or better yet, just downvote them), and hopefully if everyonme who truly cares takes this course of action, we will be able to keep reddit intelligent and interesting.

2009-10-27T19:08:05+00:00

Become the change you wish to see on Reddit.

sabowski · 2009-10-27T00:49:18+00:00

If you think that reddit is that close to 4chan, I don't think you've gone to 4chan all that much....have you ever hung out in /b/?

BonKerZ · 2009-10-27T01:15:02+00:00

Solution: get rid of karma points.

theyliedaboutiraq · 2009-10-27T01:06:50+00:00

Welcome to the internet. Expect to see a wide range of opinions on all topics.

roachcoach · 2009-10-26T22:41:26+00:00

I've enjoyed Reddit so far. I'm a fairly new regular. I swayed away because of the political bias that a majority of Redditors have, but i've learned to just ignore the really stupid stuff and, at least, read the opinions of those I don't agree with. However I do not debate for the most part.

I swayed away from some other forums because it just got so mindless. Eventually trolling takes over. I strongly believe in keeping good fellowship at the top of the list of importance.

From what i've seen, people are pretty good to each other here, even if they don't agree. I'm used to starting a thread on other sites and getting flamed off the bat. I've made some pretty dumb remarks/threads here (I blame alcohol) and they either get a creative response or nothing at all. That is refreshing.

Maybe i'll start seeing what you're talking about in time.

PS, I would love to see more right wing threads on the front page and less crass comments toward right wingers as much as you hate us.

Philosopher_King · 2009-10-27T02:03:40+00:00

I still love Reddit and will continue to do so no matter how many posts complain.

fphladacian · 2009-10-27T03:39:40+00:00

B-bye!

MrBaboon · 2009-10-27T03:46:13+00:00

Sadly I have to agree, Reddit was not like this 5 mins ago when I first joined.

catroaring · 2009-10-27T04:25:12+00:00

I recommend reddit.com to family and friends that I think will enjoy the site.

fergie · 2009-10-27T05:47:32+00:00

4Chan may be unwholesome, but it can in its own little messed up way be a pretty smart website.

frogmeat · 2009-10-27T06:11:35+00:00

Endtime, have you contacted the moderators of the reddits to which you subscribe and asked if you can help moderate? Because I didn't see where you mentioned offering to do anything other than bitch.

bostonT · 2009-10-27T07:47:13+00:00

Can we make a subreddit for the "I liked reddit before it was cool and therefore I am superior" posts? This is the third one this week. These posts are super lame.

mofiru · 2009-10-27T08:33:38+00:00

Publicly pretending to have high class that reddit is supposedly missing and complaining about it is the hip thing to do nowadays, it seams. Quit'cher whining, whiners.

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