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Ask HN: Is Reddit going the way of Stack Overflow?

13 points by NotAnOtter ↗ HN
Stack Overflow was once a haven for tech questions & explanations in the early 10's. At some point, the mod team soured and started deputizing members that started shunning and deleting comments for thinly justified reasoning. Things like asking a question that was asked 8 years ago would get your question deleted, ignoring the fact that tech reasonably could have changed in those 8 years. The site was not only generally toxic, it was difficult to actually use. Searching on google your question "stack overflow" was the main use case in the late 10's. LLM's have been the final nail in the coffin for SO, and the usage charts reflect this. Why bother carefully searching and phrasing your question to get a sassy answer 8 hours later, when Claude will give you an answer in 5 seconds with approximately the same accuracy of an internet stranger?

So - is Reddit headed the same way as SO? The mods of individual subreddits have been toxic for ages. Political subs curate hive minds, niche topics exclude members that are less informed, etc. Reddit admins, the ones that are emplyoed by the site, are also generally anti-user. Banning members without cause, poor or no explanations of what the ban is for and generally just policing with an iron fist & a rubber brain.

Reddit fills a different niche from SO, being more entertainment focused. But I feel it's the same mistaken model of moderation that will lead to the same demise in ~5 years.

Thoughts?

12 comments

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fracus
I think Stack Overflow went dead because of AI specifically. The issues you mention just made that transition easier for people. Before AI, people had no choice but to suffer the toxic mods at Stack Overflow.

Reddit isn't comparable, as AI has not replaced human opinion.

orionblastar
Just like Quroa, Reddit is overwhelmed by chatbots and spam. As the spammers and chatbots vote up each other's posts and the administrators and moderators can't keep up.
itake
As toxic and awful as reddit is, unlike SO, Quora, etc. I don't see what people will move onto?

SO -> Github Issues, LLMs

Quora -> Medium/Substack/SO/SE

/., Digg, Quora -> Reddit -> ??

I'd love something to replace reddit, but I can't find another platform that is as open (e.g. don't need an account), has the diversity of topics.

The political (and sub-reddit) echo chambers are ridiculous though.

chistev
Every time I create a Reddit account and try making a comment or a post I get banned instantly. Regardless of if I use a completely different device, email, ip.

It's eerie.

ivape
I’m beginning to think Reddit is a publisher. If you can control and curate what posts are seen (for example, perhaps only posts that your team makes), then you are content creator/publisher - not an aggregator.

It’s a controlled magazine with an editorial staff that selects topics, and controls the gates for commenting. It’s not organic on any level.

Fuck Reddit, seriously.

ListAndFuse
I hope not, do far we use Reddit on a day basis, and the subReddit we are on are not too spammed .
gobdovan
Well, they're a public company. They have to adhere to government-imposed standards (US, EU, and other jurisdictions too). Although I don't think they self-imposed curation, this is their current policy. Some subs get banned for no good reason, even when they were very valuable (e.g., a local financial subreddit was wiped out for reasons unknown, despite providing a better overview of how laws are applied than official sources) so mods inevitably get scared their sub may be next and start being more 'conservative'. This ends up creating hive minds and echo chambers. Anything that would come to replace Reddit (although I don't exactly see what could replace it) will be a victim of its own success at some point and will exhibit the same traits too.
ksherlock
There are, ~140,000 active subreddits.

Dudes be like "Reddit sucks". My brother in Christ, you made the sandwich.

softwaredoug
Unlike Stackoverflow, you can create another subreddit with different moderation.

For example there is an official Peloton subreddit. There is also one that’s looser and more free wheeling (OnePelotonSub). Some communities have circle jerk versions. Or ones that are more or less AI content friendly.

Stack exchange got stuck in a rigid, strict moderation regime. Which maybe makes sense for only one kind of community.

aprdm
What I worry about is how much of it is bots. It lost some value to me as it went from thinking the majority of interactions / posts were from people to actually realizing it's from bots from engagement.

It got very political everywhere too, which I assume gets clicks and are a favourite of bot farms

ivape
Man, I hope so. Too many ads and mods that dictate things. Reddit’s front page is not organic, it’s curated and they’ll easily sneak in covert ads (looks like a genuine post).

It should die, but I don’t know, we need like an army to kill this thing really. An army killed Digg. We need to assemble the avengers all over again.

The best thing I can think of is to clone Reddit posts and bring it over to a new Reddit clone daily (not a full clone, just the last 24 hours of top subreddits). That way there’s no FOMO for people on the new platform. Basically, seed the Reddit clone with Reddit.

Figure out how much it costs to run a Reddit clone, and try to charge a dollar or two a month from the community.

It needs to die, god willing. It’s really one of the most shameful YT alumni, like they literally do not get the spirit of Internet forums and made it disgusting.