Re:Reddit needs help
by astrodust on Saturday July 10, 2010 @08:10PM
(#1504579)
What amazes me most about Reddit, apart from it's apparently Craigslist inspire design, is that there is only the most sheepish attempts to advertise.
As a registered user you know all the stories I've clicked on, all the stories I've voted for, and the sections I'm following, and with all this information you can't do something meaningful like put an ad or a "suggested link" for a product or service I'd like. I see links to the most random crap ever.
Why is it so hard to apply some sort of affinity metric to the advertising problem?
The sad truth is that if Reddit doesn't advertise, if the developer time is simply spent putting out fires, then it will end up being an irrelevant property. There is an amazing community there, which is a credit to what the site has managed so far, but that community will simply migrate to a better platform. It happened with Digg, it happened with Slashdot, and sadly it is inevitable that it will happen to Reddit unless some big changes are made.
Although I find many aspects of Facebook to be in outrageously bad taste, or rudely invasive, the one thing they've managed to do as a company is grow, build out, and become highly profitable. There are a lot of things Facebook does that are worth studying in meticulous detail, deconstructing and re-implementing, from their process, to their features, to their strategy to maintain growth. Their capability to execute on complicated technical problems is spectacular.
If Conde is unwilling to invest, maybe the best plan is to seek investors to buy out the property and make it an independent venture that's more focused on the site.
Re:Reddit needs help
by code_duck on Saturday July 10, 2010 @08:38PM
(#1504633)
Their attitude is somewhat Twitterish. They aren't going to scare off their readers with minor, unobtrusive advertising, and should just go ahead and be more direct about it. Strike while the iron is hot, make some money.
As a registered user you know all the stories I've clicked on, all the stories I've voted for, and the sections I'm following, and with all this information you can't do something meaningful like put an ad or a "suggested link" for a product or service I'd like. I see links to the most random crap ever.
Why is it so hard to apply some sort of affinity metric to the advertising problem?
The sad truth is that if Reddit doesn't advertise, if the developer time is simply spent putting out fires, then it will end up being an irrelevant property. There is an amazing community there, which is a credit to what the site has managed so far, but that community will simply migrate to a better platform. It happened with Digg, it happened with Slashdot, and sadly it is inevitable that it will happen to Reddit unless some big changes are made.
Although I find many aspects of Facebook to be in outrageously bad taste, or rudely invasive, the one thing they've managed to do as a company is grow, build out, and become highly profitable. There are a lot of things Facebook does that are worth studying in meticulous detail, deconstructing and re-implementing, from their process, to their features, to their strategy to maintain growth. Their capability to execute on complicated technical problems is spectacular.
If Conde is unwilling to invest, maybe the best plan is to seek investors to buy out the property and make it an independent venture that's more focused on the site.