Thoughts on moving things to Reddit?

General discussion for topics related to the FreeBASIC project or its community.
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anonymous1337
Posts: 5494
Joined: Sep 12, 2005 20:06
Location: California

Thoughts on moving things to Reddit?

Post by anonymous1337 »

I appreciate us having our own site, and I realize Reddit isn't quite the same, but... isn't it? Full of features as well... Wouldn't have to rely on someone to host the site. Reddit is free.

Thoughts? https://www.reddit.com/r/freebasic/
srvaldez
Posts: 3373
Joined: Sep 25, 2005 21:54

Re: Thoughts on moving things to Reddit?

Post by srvaldez »

every time I have come across a Reddit page via search engine, I found the content unintelligible and worthless.
marcov
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Joined: Jun 16, 2005 9:45
Location: Netherlands
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Re: Thoughts on moving things to Reddit?

Post by marcov »

IMHO fora without a bit of moderation to keep it somewhat ontopic usually deteriorate in spam and turfwars.
dodicat
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Joined: Jan 10, 2006 20:30
Location: Scotland

Re: Thoughts on moving things to Reddit?

Post by dodicat »

I don't know about anybody else, but I cannot read half the stuff (code in random phrase generator for example).
A magnifying glass would be needed (Or in my case the bottom of a broken beer bottle)
MrSwiss
Posts: 3910
Joined: Jun 02, 2013 9:27
Location: Switzerland

Re: Thoughts on moving things to Reddit?

Post by MrSwiss »

anonymous1337 wrote:Wouldn't have to rely on someone to host the site. Reddit is free.
Of course we would, on Reddit, this time (does anybody know, who/what is behind it?).
Thank you, but NO thank you ... (moving from bad to worse is, what I'd call that).

Second wrong idea: It's not at all, free! We are going to pay for it, with our personal data!
(Just for those who still believe, that everything that states "free", is actually free!)
Tourist Trap
Posts: 2958
Joined: Jun 02, 2015 16:24

Re: Thoughts on moving things to Reddit?

Post by Tourist Trap »

Hi anonymous1337. As said above, for some reasons Reddit tends not to display well. For me there is most of time a delay with a face or something. And I hardly can go further. It's a shame because the stuff hosted there is often of great interest. Don't you get this experience from your side?
sancho3
Posts: 358
Joined: Sep 30, 2017 3:22

Re: Thoughts on moving things to Reddit?

Post by sancho3 »

Reddit is owned by Conde Naste.
It is a huge social media monster. I'm going to guess it is in 3rd place: Facebook, Twitter, Reddit.
Stability is guaranteed. Not so sure this is a good idea though.
As for "paying for it with our data", I'm not exactly sure what you mean.
An open forum is an open forum. There are no protections here either.
caseih
Posts: 2157
Joined: Feb 26, 2007 5:32

Re: Thoughts on moving things to Reddit?

Post by caseih »

What he means by "paying for it with our data" is that the very content we post to reddit and the information attached to that (user data) is sold to pay for the site and make a profit. Anything that big data can glean and attach value to is used. In short when you use reddit, you and your privacy are the product that reddit sells to it's customers (which aren't the users). Facebook and the other social media companies are the same. That may be an acceptable bargain to you (free service in exchange for this valuable data), but it may not be to everyone.

Whereas I'm not sure how this site is paid for, but I would bet it's mostly donations by some dedicated people. They aren't monetizing our data or posts, although they could by rights.
nimdays
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Joined: May 29, 2014 22:01
Location: West Java, Indonesia

Re: Thoughts on moving things to Reddit?

Post by nimdays »

I'm sorry, Reddit is banned in Indonesia.
sancho3
Posts: 358
Joined: Sep 30, 2017 3:22

Re: Thoughts on moving things to Reddit?

Post by sancho3 »

This site is paid for by one person. If you do a search you can find his name (I can't remember it). (Plasma I think)
This person is not an active user but has posted here in the past.
There was talk of setting up donations to help this person out but that has yet to materialize.

There is precious little here of any value to data miners. If there was any value to it, it is also just as freely available as anything you post on Reddit.
Worried about email, username, password? Use throwaways. This apect of the argument makes no sense.
If you have sensitive data, I strongly recommend not posting here either.
caseih
Posts: 2157
Joined: Feb 26, 2007 5:32

Re: Thoughts on moving things to Reddit?

Post by caseih »

It's not that the data is sensitive. It's the metadata that's the most valuable. Reddit can form a pretty coherent picture of who you are, who you associate with, where you live, who you vote for (political leanings), and what things you likely buy, even if you don't speak about those things directly. Metadata analysis and AI is pretty amazing. Now you and I may keep a pretty low profile, but I think you'd be surprised how much a company like reddit can learn about you if you participate in their discussion groups. There's a reason they offer their services for free to users; they are paying for it by selling this very valuable data. That might not bother you, but to some it creeps them out how much these companies seem to know about them.
sancho3
Posts: 358
Joined: Sep 30, 2017 3:22

Re: Thoughts on moving things to Reddit?

Post by sancho3 »

I think you are mistaken about Reddit.
Here is a quote from a Reddit Admin. (granted 3 years old):
Reddit admin Drunken_Economist left this comment else where:

reddit does not sell your user data. Period.

This means that we will only share your personal data with your consent, and after letting you know what information will be shared and with whom, unless it is otherwise permitted in the privacy policy. While advertisers may target their ads to the topic of a given subreddit or based on your IP address, we do not sell or otherwise give access to any information collected about our users to any third party.
There is lots of other info in that thread.

Here is a breakdown of how Reddit makes money.
Targeted side bar ads, selling gold upgrades and gifts.
Its also well known that Reddit does not do particularly well financially despite the volume of users.
grindstone
Posts: 862
Joined: May 05, 2015 5:35
Location: Germany

Re: Thoughts on moving things to Reddit?

Post by grindstone »

After having a brief look at Reddit, I must agree with MrSwiss: "Thank you, but NO thank you"

Btw: If required, I would be willing to make an appropriate donation for the several hundred hours of pleasure freeBasic and this forum already brought to me :-)
anonymous1337
Posts: 5494
Joined: Sep 12, 2005 20:06
Location: California

Re: Thoughts on moving things to Reddit?

Post by anonymous1337 »

Tourist Trap wrote:Hi anonymous1337. As said above, for some reasons Reddit tends not to display well. For me there is most of time a delay with a face or something. And I hardly can go further. It's a shame because the stuff hosted there is often of great interest. Don't you get this experience from your side?
Oh, the error pages? No, I don't see those often at all. Where are you located? Reddit works great over here. No display issues. I'm not particularly fond of how Reddit looks, but I don't necessarily like how the forum looks, either.

I think Reddit is something you quickly get used to, and I think the forum is something people here like simply because they're used to it.
anonymous1337
Posts: 5494
Joined: Sep 12, 2005 20:06
Location: California

Re: Thoughts on moving things to Reddit?

Post by anonymous1337 »

caseih wrote:What he means by "paying for it with our data" is that the very content we post to reddit and the information attached to that (user data) is sold to pay for the site and make a profit. Anything that big data can glean and attach value to is used. In short when you use reddit, you and your privacy are the product that reddit sells to it's customers (which aren't the users). Facebook and the other social media companies are the same. That may be an acceptable bargain to you (free service in exchange for this valuable data), but it may not be to everyone.

Whereas I'm not sure how this site is paid for, but I would bet it's mostly donations by some dedicated people. They aren't monetizing our data or posts, although they could by rights.
So one thing about partners on Facebook and Reddit I'm not sure a lot of people know about is the "data sharing" aspects are usually overblown. I've advertised on Reddit and followed Zuckerberg's testimonial to Congress.

Basically, larger sites have their own internal ad placement and knowledge-base platforms. As an advertiser, you let Facebook or Reddit know the demographics you want to target, and it's their job to then find your audience.

I get data on the success of my campaign, but not much more than that. I have to trust the social media platform to know who is who.

That being said, FACEBOOK and REDDIT have *extensive* details about who and what you are. If you don't trust them, stay away :)
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