[drivebyacct2]

For what? I hate to be that guy, but I have seen a huge increase in "OP is a faggot" style posts being upvoted in the main subreddits (just in the last 4 weeks). I've always championed finding niche subreddits, and I do, but the result has been me spending increasingly little time on reddit. I check /r/rust, /r/golang, etc but that's about all I can stand.

[rm999]

When you see drastic and sudden changes in reddit, it's usually something external. In this case the beginning of December marks the end of the semester for college and high school students, who use reddit more during reading period/christmas break. They will soon start school again and things will return to normal.

That kind of behavior has been pretty much the norm for years at reddit. Not to say it's ubiquitous, reddit still has great content and what I'd call 'safe' subreddits where that behavior isn't tolerated. Also, to be clear to those who don't know, 'OP is a faggot' is supposed to be an ironic meme rather than hate speech. A terrible meme, but I wouldn't want people to misunderstand and think reddit has become a cesspool of hate.

[lessnonymous]

I hate this sort of joke. It reinforces the behavior for people who don't see it as a joke. And there's a lot of them.

"Oh, it's OK and funny to call people faggots"

I wish regular Redditors would stamp this shit out.

No, I'm not being unnecessarily precious or PC. I used to laugh at distasteful misogynistic jokes (and worse) but somebody pointed out to me that joking about it normalizes it. And to the depraved part of society the joke is missed and they see it as support for their depravity.

[awakeasleep]

Too true. And in the same way we forget "simple" tasks like googling a tech support question are actually advanced behaviors, we become blind to the fact that the vast majority of the world isn't ironically playing with our expectations all the time.

And furthermore, irony and the "it's a joke" mentality can be used to justify the continuation of behaviors that don't meet people's own standards. It's easier to repeat a lame justification for thoughtless behavior than to spend months working to break a bad habit.

[wtvanhest]

I have been reading hacker news for over 2 years. I started reading reddit last week when I learned about subreddits. The vast majority of my friends (all between 25-32) don't read reddit but are aware that it exists. There is an insane amount of growth that could happen there. I don't know much about their income, but saying "reddit is dead" or other comments because you don't think the quality is as good as it used to be is a stretch when saying the valuation shouldn't be $400m.

Seems to me like reddit could become the dominate messaging system and could be the best possible choice to replace craig's list if they decided to add classifieds.

It has huge growth potential and should not be underestimated so easily.

[drivebyacct2]

You may need more than a few days on reddit before saying things like "reddit could [../] replace craigslist"

[samstave]

There are a number of things we try to stamp out and it is damn hard.

I mod a subreddit with over 100K users. It's difficult to control trolls and others...

At the same time I have petitioned to Yishan directly several times to block /r/picsofdeadkids to no avail.

I use RES to heavily filter out the content I don't want to see.

And while that works wonderfully, I am often turning off the filter as well just to see what is on /r/all...

It is more successful to self-temper and manage your own experience on reddit than to try and change reddit.

[astrodust]

Maybe this money will add the ability to ignore people, or better, ignore entire groups of people pre-emptively. There are some subreddits I don't want anything to do with, nor the scum that dribble out of them.

[chimeracoder]

> They will soon start school again and things will return to normal.

Except when they don't[1].

> . A terrible meme, but I wouldn't want people to misunderstand and think reddit has become a cesspool of hate.

The language originates from 4chan, where it is also used ironically. I get rather annoyed when I hear people dismiss 4chan as homophobic, because under the surface, it's actually not. Then again, if Reddit is starting to mimic 4chan in terms of its language and linguistic memes, either 4chan's reputation is ill-deserved, or Reddit's reputation will start to resemble 4chan's.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_september

[sillysaurus]

If you have something to say that starts with "I hate to be that guy" then just don't say it.

You're not their main audience, and they're massively popular. They're continuing to grow in popularity, and they're becoming increasingly relevant as a primary source of information. Reddit represents a fundamental step forward in how the internet interconnects everyday people.

You may not see anything worthwhile, but in reality it's one of the most exciting future prospects of the internet in general. It has the potential to affect and influence generations. Something like that is truly special.

[drivebyacct2]

A year ago I would have bought that. Log out, look at the front page and repeat this with a straight face:

>It has the potential to affect and influence generations.

[batiudrami]

That's because the front page is crap though. When they fix subreddit discovery (and Alexis mentioned in a comment reply that they're working on it), so that you actually find communities about what you're interested in, rather than presenting the opening page of the website as a cesspit of juvenile idiots, then it'll be great (again).

But, they have to not screw that up first. It's not a simple problem - you have to communicate how the website works, give indications of the kinds of subreddits you can find, and get them to create an account and actually choose some before users get bored and click away.

[ceol]

The front page is reddit. It's the vast majority of their page views. The only reason it's popular is because of subs like /r/AdviceAnimals, /r/pics, /r/funny, /r/WTF. All low-quality, repetitive content.

[batiudrami]

Well, sure, for their current audience. But they're not getting capital to maintain their current audience, they're getting it to further expand into other demographics. Those demographics are likely to be less impressed by the content which currently dominates the front page.

Plus, going that way isn't necessarily a solid business model for the future anyway. Remember the Cheezburger network? Failblog? 9Gag and 4Chan have both had huge drops in traffic since their heyday. Reddit is the shining example of an internet culture site which has continued to flourish over time, and even then, I think they will hit critical mass with their current target demographic soon.

[3A2D50]

>...you have to communicate how the website works, give indications of the kinds of subreddits you can find, and get them to create an account and actually choose some before users get bored and click away.

I have to do this every time I recommend the site to someone in person. Partly to avoid the wrong impression that I enjoy the crap typically found on the front page.