[dmode]

It is interesting that the #1 story in HN is decline in FB and the #3 is growth in Reddit. Personal anecdote, I have shifted all my FB screen time to Reddit. Not out of any agenda, but perhaps to interact with a more diverse group of people. Bold prediction: FB will try to acquire Reddit soon

[ProAm]

For me I've moved from Reddit back to Digg, Reddit seems to be the worst parts of Facebook combined with the worst parts of Twitter. The redesign is horrendously busy, the comments are trite or vicious, and the v.reddit videos either autoplay or never play when you click on them.

[mhink]

Not much to do about v.reddit, but you can disable the redesign in your user preferences, and as for comments- unsubscribe from the default subreddits and then go subscribe to specific, smaller subs that catch your interest. /r/SubredditOfTheDay, /r/TinySubredditOfTheDay, and /r/Serendipity are great ways to find out about about new subs.

(Unfortunately, there's not much to do about the mobile app, which is pretty bogus... although there are a few third-party apps which are less obnoxious.)

[rolleiflex]

Disabling the new design still requires you to be signed in, though. I don’t sign in most of the time I’m using Reddit. (Which makes for poor monetisation, and even being able to disable the new redesign only when signed in is a win for them over the current situation.)

[dunmalg]

Not signing in to reddit is the surest way to experience the online equivalent of a table next to the bathroom.

[spookthesunset]

"table next to the bathroom"

This is a phrase I'm not familiar with. What do you mean?

[damon_c]

You have been waiting all week for this occasion. You made a reservation at this great restaurant with someone you are really excited to make a closer connection with. Finally, the moment comes, and you are led to your table.

Unfortunately your table is within 2 meters of the bathroom. Every time the door opens, the bathroom light casts shadows on your silverware and lights the back of your head highlighting the thinness of your hair. This is followed, a few seconds later, as the smell of urinal mints wafts over and mixes with the delicate anise and dark plum notes of your $26 glass of wine.

I guess you have to have been there :|

[russh]

I'm guessing it's like getting the table next to the bathroom at a restaurant; A second class experience.

[Zarath]

Was trying to understand this myself. I guess the table next to the bathroom is the most undesirable location for a table since there are smells/foot traffic/noise? Whether parent meant reddit is the bathroom, or the restaurant, I'm not sure.

[rolleiflex]

Not always. I don’t go to Reddit.com, I always go to Reddit.com/r/motorcycling, or r/leathercraft, for example. You don’t have to be signed in for that.

[naravara]

Signing in puts you at risk of getting sucked into pointless internet comment arguments though.

[jonreem]

Not signing in and curating your subreddit subscriptions all but guarantees you will only be exposed to the most populist content on the site and will never see any of the deep, niche, and interesting stuff on it.

[spookthesunset]

> Signing in puts you at risk of getting sucked into pointless internet comment arguments though.

....says a person signed into HN engaged in pointless internet comment arguments....

[beeneuf]

You do not need to sign in the disable the new design, you can just use old.reddit.com.

[HeadsUpHigh]

You go to old.reddit.com There is also a firefox addon that redirects all links to old reddit.

[gsich]

Or with old.reddit.com in the URL. There is probably a browser addon or JS for that.

[catach]

> Disabling the new design still requires you to be signed in, though.

old.reddit.com works fine when logged out, for me.

[beatgammit]

I'm in the same boat, but I didn't go to digging, but came back here. The new redesign, coupled with the realization that I spent far too much time with the same arguments showed me that Reddit is broken now.

Why can't I just have a nice link aggregator with decent discussion? HN is great, but it doesn't have as much content as other platforms. I just want to discuss politics, hobbies, and lifestyles with the same level of discussion we have here, why is that too much to ask?

[ux-app]

> "...why is that too much to ask? "

because it's bloody hard to create civil, thoughtful communities. HN is interesting since the general user base seems to have learned to self-moderate, buuuut, it has made HN a pretty dry place (boring maybe?).

I have found some absolute hilarious gems on Reddit. The wit and humor of some users really catches me off guard sometimes, but the issue with Reddit is that there is just so much low effort garbage to sift through to find anything interesting/funny. Reddit seems to have converged on to a low effort meme-fest for the most part. I've gone to the effort to customise my sub-reddits to match my interests, but each community seems to very quickly become a repetitive echo chamber, so there are not many new/unique POV to explore. For example I sub to /r/Australia and it's basically the same content re hashed over and over (NBN sucks, Libs suck, House prices suck, magpies are annoying, here's a picture of a Kookaburra etc.)

So Reddit isn't really for me any more and I spend little time there. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I find that I get more out of just sitting in the sun and letting my mind wander.

[pmoriarty]

You can go to https://old.reddit.com to get the old design back.. for now.

[nine_k]

I suppose the quality of the comments very much depends on the subreddit(s) you read. I mean, something like r/haskell is bound to have a different commenting culture from r/funny.

[propogandist]

reddit is only usable if you have a plugin like this

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/old-reddit-redirec...

which will auto-redirect you to the old-design

[usuallymatt]

Can't you just use old.reddit.com ?

[propogandist]

I end up landing on reddit from search engines and this automatically loads the old.reddit.com as it will revert to the new UI by default. I do not log in and have not been active on reddit for a long while.

[kdamken]

You can also just change that in your account settings to use the old design.

[tyingq]

"and the v.reddit videos either autoplay or never play when you click on them"

So it's not just me? I quit using Reddit because this happened on my phone all the time. Don't they test this sort of thing, or pay attention to abandonment stats?

[cm2012]

Imagine FB's data attached (by email or cookie) to Reddit's screentime - would easily quadruple Reddit's ad revenue with the same ad inventory. If they got away with it without driving away Redditors, would be salivation worthy as a marketer.

Reddit's main traffic problem for advertisers is that most users don't really subscribe to subreddits or make accounts, but rather browse the front page casually. So you can target, for instance, /r/smallbusiness to target small business owners, but you'll exhaust that inventory very quickly. A Facebook acquisition would mean that a much higher percentage of Reddit's audience could be served relevant ads.

[propogandist]

they started tracking outbound links for all users sometime ago and offer the ability to advertise to users based on their browsing behavior, keywords, community affiliation when I'd investigated last year. They were expecting an overhaul of their platform this year, so I imagine targeting has only improved for un-registered users.

I don't believe Reddit (owned by Conde Nast, a subsidary of Advance Publications) has any intentions to sell the platform outright, as they essentially get to control the v̶o̶i̶c̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶t̶e̶r̶n̶e̶t̶ front page of the internet.

[fazzone]

Wow, I really can't imagine an acquisition that I would less rather learn about than FB hypothetically buying reddit. Considering how FB has all the money in the world it is probably wise to start editing/deleting all my reddit comments now because once FB slurp the whole DB it's already over - the fact that I would never visit reddit again wouldn't save me.

[cm2012]

The reddit data is not as valuable as being able to use FB's data to serve ads on Reddit. But it's probably valuable nonetheless.

[chrisdhoover]

You haven’t done that already? Most I leave any comment is 1 week.

[bluegreyred]

Reminds me of this: https://youtu.be/uSVqoW1rz6w?t=850

"We know all of your interests. Not just your interests you are willing to declare publicly on Facebook – we know your dark secrets, we know everything… (laughs)"

[crovalin17]

> Bold prediction: FB will try to acquire Reddit soon

This would be bad on so many levels.

[mbesto]

Not for their investors who put in $200m and want a return.

I use Reddit daily, but it's days are numbered. Having Facebook acquire them I think is it's only saving grace. I use the word "it" deliberately, because Reddit is now in the hands of its VCs.

[wild_preference]

> and want a return

Then it would be bad for them, too.

[mbesto]

WhatsApp was an incredible success for its investors. Not so much for its acquirer. Look hard enough and you'll find M&A doesn't always pan out as expected, even at the $1B value range.

[brokenmachine]

They would get their return as the exodus begins.

[Angostura]

> Having Facebook acquire them I think would be it's coup de grace

Fixed that.

[matt4077]

Facebook and Reddit serve far too different purposes in my life to make sense of a comparison. I might just have grown too old, but the talk of Reddit (or instagram etc.) replacing FB don't seem to make very much sense, as long as FB is the go-to platform for connecting with real-world acquaintances.

I literally have no connections on FB to people I haven't met in person, and don't know a single friend's reddit account.

[netsharc]

FB also has pages that post memes/pics/news/Russian propaganda, and thousands and thousands of people commenting underneath them (tragically mostly to make their friends aware of the content by mentioning their names), so that's their reddit/forums competition.

But unlike forums, most of the conversation on Facebook is 20 comments at a time and you can't just link to page X of some conversation...

[lettergram]

And yet you're discussing this on Hacker News...

[thewhitetulip]

What could Reddit offer FB for acquisition? Does it really fit into FB's vision?

Also Reddit is owned by Wired's parent, Conde Naste. I don't think it is up for sale.

[cft]

I wonder if they have tried already

[rigged-system]

>> FB will try to acquire Reddit soon

That's just about the worst thing I can imagine

[liftbigweights]

> but perhaps to interact with a more diverse group of people.

Your FB is probably far more diverse than reddit at this point. Maybe reddit 5 years ago, but reddit today is a propaganda platform for a political party and ideology. It's the echo chamber of echo chambers.

I've never had FB. I started weaning myself from reddit years ago. I primarily use youtube now. Though that is getting screwy too.

> Bold prediction: FB will try to acquire Reddit soon

Doubt it. Bolder prediction: FB will be around long after reddit is gone.