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Reddit To Transform Into a Social Network With New Profile Pages (digitaljournal.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the things-we-need-more-of dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Digital Journal: Reddit has announced it has begun trialling a radical new profile page design that's reminiscent of Facebook and Twitter. It will evolve the discussion board site towards being a social network by enabling users to post directly to their new profile page. At present, posts on Reddit have to be directed into a specific sub-Reddit community. You can't simply write a post and have it appear across the network which can make it difficult to get your voice heard. Unless you've got some reputation in a relevant sub-Reddit, your posts may end up going unnoticed. That could soon change. Last night, Reddit announced it's working on a drastic revision of its user profile page experience. The site has commenced testing of an early version of the design. According to a report from Reuters, just three "high-profile" users currently have access to the feature. When the new pages are eventually opened up to all, they'll showcase the user's profile picture and description. Below the header, posts from the user will be publicly displayed. The user will be able to add new posts to their page, without submitting to a sub-Reddit. Users will be able to follow each other to stay informed of new posts, effectively creating a social network atmosphere above the discussion boards.

11 of 130 comments (clear)

  1. Make my words by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This kills the reddit.

    1. Re:Make my words by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yea, this is their digg moment.

    2. Re:Make my words by Demeritus · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's not the first time I've felt sold out by Reddit, and I can't even be sure it's the last. I find myself back there for the pros even though they continue to do absurd actions (admin editing user posts, banning some subreddits for breaking rules but not others, blah blah blah). I do know I had to sign up for an account here, though, because if I can ween myself off Reddit now, I think that's better than struggling with it as it takes me down with it eventually.

    3. Re:Make my words by squiggleslash · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Slashdot did something similar in the early 2000s, and survived. That's why you have "Friends and foes", not a personal blocklist, which would be more useful.

      It'll have little affect on Reddit itself, but might or might not succeed as a feature. If it succeeds, more power to them, because Facebook is awful, and Twitter is managed terribly and limited by its very nature.

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      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    4. Re:Make my words by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Reddit'd "front page" has always been their weakest claim to fame. Despite what people like to think.

      Reddit is a group of VERY different BBSs that all happen to have the same hosting provider.... and that is the way it should be....

      I never visit the home page, I visit the 3 /r/ I care about and that is it, and occasionally another one when I need help on something.... \- the only way to use reddit and not get involved in the drama-rama that is 'reddit'

  2. Well, it was fun Reddit by gatkinso · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Can't see any upside to this.

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    I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
  3. No, no, no, NO, NO! by iCEBaLM · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We use reddit specifically because it isn't a "social network". Don't try to turn it into one!

  4. Transparency please by Artem+S.+Tashkinov · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What about more radical changes towards transparency?

    Shadow banning (only you can see your own posts), censoring, strange moderation, etc. etc. etc. have become a bane of many subreddits.

  5. Slashdot still the best 'format'. by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Decline in popularity aside, Slashdot still reigns supreme as the best 'format' for online discussion. I have to hand it to the creators for sitting down and thinking through how to do moderation and anonymity. Reddit seems to have just re-invented PHPBB and all the other forum software with this.

    -1 to +5 limits bandwagoning. I've seen stuff recover from initial -1 to 5, on Reddit once the bandwagons and bots take over it's near impossible for a post to change the direction.

    Limited voting rights. Random moderation points. Meta-moderation. Even something as simple as not being able to moderate and comment on the same thread. 90% of Reddit is "I disagree, I'll downvote then tell them why they're wrong".

    AC accounts are all equal. No account needed in the first place or a simple checkbox if I am logged in. (Plus some hilarity of "I'm posting AC because I work for..." and then they forget to check the box.)

    In the golden days browsing at +4 was nothing but decent discussion of tech topics. (Or people complaining about how that isn't news for nerds). Sure the trolls show up and people have been screaming about GNAA since I can remember but they're quickly down to -1.

    If there's someone that I find insightful or hate I can friend/foe them *server side* and moderate a bit further.

    It's not perfect but given everything that's come along since then it's still better.

    I wish someone would give the codebase a good rinse and expand it to more news discussion. It's not Reddit, Facebook, Digg or anything else that I've found.

  6. Re:Thanks but no by kalpol · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Reddit is already generally a toxic echo-chamber of superficial snowflakes CERTAIN that their opinion is the most important one. This will make it even worse.

    The value of Reddit is in the focused subreddits - /r/askhistorians, etc., where the discussion is heavily moderated to be on-topic and to a standard. This change sounds like a horrible idea and will either go completely unnoticed by users because that's not how they use Reddit or will kill it off because the promoted profiles suck all the traffic from the specific subreddits.

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    12:50 - press return.
  7. Modding and censorship "killed" Reddit long ago. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Reddit has been essentially "dead" for a long time now. It's no secret that mod abuse runs rampant there, and censorship has been very problematic.

    Hell, it was only a few months ago that, as reported by Slashdot, the CEO was caught editing user comments and then begged for forgiveness. That's the sort of incident that cannot be forgiven, ever.