Reddit is what happens when a corporation thinks that it can monetize 4chan. Reddit quietly and not so quietly manipulates users ability to vote on content. It has "shadow users" and "shadow bans". In a democracy that is election rigging and breaking civil rights. With shareholders that is fraud. Reddit is trying to figure out how to fool its users into paying reddit to have the users write for reddit. To have users edit content for reddit and pay reddit for the privilege. That place is an unethical pile of shite. It is a digital version bondage or indentured servitude.
I'm pretty sure Conde Nast's original investment in Reddit was to develop a comments system for their online properties that increased engagement. I'm also pretty sure that once Conde Nast discovered what a nightmare it is to scale Reddit, they tried to take it open source to make it better and then abandoned the open source fork and hunkered down to fight spam and keep their investment from being pissed away totally. If I recall correctly, Digg had 10 times the staff and about double the viewership at the time of the Digg implosion. If you examine Reddit through the lens of an inundated bucket brigade attempting to keep the ship afloat, their moves make a lot more sense.
Honest question. And I haven't read this article, or ever heard about reddit's "cryptocurrency" until thirty seconds ago. Do you think Conde Nast will in the grand scheme of things regret procuring reddit? (Do they already? Is that shortsighted?) I mean, hell, it cannot have cost them much. [Apparently the price was never disclosed...?] reddit is a massive headache to be responsible for, I'm sure. Moreso than any website/company of a similar size. And financially it ain't worth much, at least tangibly. But I still can't shake the feeling that most corporations would kill to have access to one of the 30 most visited websites in the world. If they can figure out a way to monetize it intelligently... and that's just the option that takes the least brainpower to think of.
I think they've regretted it since 2008. Best estimate I've ever seen was $6m. Know why they always ramble on about Google analytics while pooh-poohing Alexa and every other legit traffic analyzer? 'cuz the majority of their traffic is porn. Free. Porn. They really did give violentacrez a "pimp daddy" trophy. Say Craigslist wants to show you an ad. They need to render that ad page once and serve it to everyone. Say Reddit wants to show you a comments page. They need to render a unique page for every pageview. 500m valuation, negative revenue. But that's okay, Gold will save us all. Chris Poole ran 4chan out of his mom's basement. Even after he'd been voted Time's most influential person of 2009 he couldn't get a job. Also, speaking as a default mod, corporations don't have to kill to have access to one of the 30 most visited websites in the world. They just need to do an AMA. Somethingawful charges you $10 up front. But then, they're tiny compared to Reddit, and have been since about 8 years before Reddit existed. But hey - it makes Rich money. Think about it: Every page Reddit renders has an intricate vote and browsing history for the audience. Every page Reddit renders is utterly devoid of rich media. It should be a CDN's wet dream: plug that into your database and serve ads all day long. But nobody wants to advertise on Reddit 'cuz they look at the actual traffic reports and see porn and piracy. So Reddit has a choice: traffic or monetization. Get rid of the porn and piracy and you'll sell ads... but get rid of the porn and piracy and you're Digg 3.0. Do you think Conde Nast will in the grand scheme of things regret procuring reddit?
I mean, hell, it cannot have cost them much.
reddit is a massive headache to be responsible for, I'm sure.
Moreso than any website/company of a similar size.
And financially it ain't worth much, at least tangibly.
But I still can't shake the feeling that most corporations would kill to have access to one of the 30 most visited websites in the world.
If they can figure out a way to monetize it intelligently... and that's just the option that takes the least brainpower to think of.
Let's back off the hyperbole a bit. It's a very popular website that had no plans for what to do when it became very popular. I used it when it was much, much smaller and its problems come from being essentially the same site it was nine years ago. I'm not working off my reddit debt or being whipped by Master Ohanian. To my knowledge.It is a digital version bondage or indentured servitude.
I use it all the time. It does a variety of things better than anywhere else on the internet (and I do mean a variety -- best music resource this side of the bandcamp "new" page, best place to go for tweets about sports news, incl. twitter). Etc. I have never felt like an indentured servant. Nor have you. Who shares these damn comments?That place is an unethical pile of shite. It is a digital version bondage or indentured servitude.