[compumike]

Listened to this episode on a road trip yesterday and really enjoyed it. If you do a "part 2", I'm curious to hear more details about how they pulled off the growth of Reddit, broadening from an initial niche community into a wider collection of communities. Thanks jl and clevy!

[giantrobot]

They got multiple migration waves from digg, added subreddits, then network effects started.

Early Reddit was pretty boring unless you were interested in programming or technology. The first big bump in users from digg was during the HD-DVD key fracas. The ham-handed response by digg to even talking about the key leak pissed off a lot of users. They were already simmering due to astroturfing/Payola by "power users" (we'd call them influencers today).

Then a huge influx came after the digg v4 rollout that basically turned the site into a giant advertising channel, more so than it had been.

I'm no Reddit insider but I got turned onto it in 2005 or so and watched the digg user influxes over the years.

[hayst4ck]

Digg changed the way comments were threaded meaning there could be no cogent discussion in threads. I am confident that was the mortal wound to Digg.

[giantrobot]

I don't think you're wrong. Digg did not understand the core features that users valued. They assumed users would stick around through every monetization abuse they threw at them. Users put up with the "power user" bullshit (paid influencers and astroturfing) because the comments tied to those submissions could be worthwhile.

I think digg's fundamental problem was they viewed their user base like a passive audience. It turned out their users were in fact their main attraction. When they ruined the experience for users they left and digg was left with zero value.

[dreamcompiler]

Thanks to Cory Doctorow there's now a word for this phenomenon: enshittification.

https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-platforms-cory-doctorow/

[capableweb]

It seems that most social networks have experienced this, and for those that haven't, it's only a matter of time.

[irrational]

Everything passes eventually. Microsoft used to be king of tech, but no longer. Google has been king, but clearly they are on the downhill slide from their peak. Someday AWS will no longer be the prime cloud provider. Someday another phone manufacturer will take Apple’s crown. It is as inevitable as the rising and setting of the sun.

[6510]

Same way youtube discontinued their discussion platform. One day I had 200 interesting active discussions, the next there was non. Channels that relied on feedback turned into drifting ships.

[tyingq]

Digg wrapping external sites in an iframe was also a big stumble.