Reddit Claims 52M Daily Users, Revealing a Key Figure for Social-Media Platforms
I used to love using Reddit after Digg&#x27;s disastrous redesign many years ago, but it really has devolved in a number of key ways:<p>1. Site design. I can&#x27;t help but think that the site redesign lends itself towards dark patterns, echo chambers, and the kind of &quot;hot take&quot; reactionary culture that makes most of social media so unhealthy. As a user, I am mad that Reddit uses so many annoying nudges to get me to use their mobile app instead of the browser. I am wary of &quot;old.reddit.com&quot; being killed. I am frustrated by the site being slower.<p>2. Censorship. Reddit used to be a bastion of free speech. The late Aaron Swartz was a staunch defender of it. I think users should be allowed to discuss whatever they want and view Reddit&#x27;s role as a &quot;dumb&quot; forum hosting layer. If people don&#x27;t like some content for any reason, they are free to block those posters, or leave those particular subs, but they shouldn&#x27;t impose their censorship on others. Unfortunately, today Reddit heavily censors content across the board, particularly when it goes against San Francisco-centric progressive political culture. And ultimately, they even omitted Aaron Swartz from their &quot;founders&quot; page (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;reclaimthenet.org&#x2F;aaron-swartz-reddit-founder&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;reclaimthenet.org&#x2F;aaron-swartz-reddit-founder&#x2F;</a>), which is disgusting but also sad. After all, pg noted that as a result of the early Reddit-Infogami merger, Aaron is legally a founder of the combined company (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=20219" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=20219</a>).<p>3. Weaponization. It is very hard to escape Reddit&#x27;s prevailing leftist political culture. Even if you leave r&#x2F;news and r&#x2F;politics, you will find politics injected into every other subreddit, including ones that have nothing to do with politics (like r&#x2F;pics). This is in part because it has been targeted by activists as a way to get their word out and a location on which to squash opposing thought by any means necessary (banning subreddits, banning users, vote brigading, astroturfing, etc). Reddit users don&#x27;t value civil discourse as much as vote wars to win for their side, which is a key way in which it is different from Hacker News. It&#x27;s also telling that 92 of the top 500 subreddits are controlled by just 4 people (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;interestingasfuck&#x2F;comments&#x2F;fko21a&#x2F;92_out_of_the_top_500_subreddits_on_reddit_are&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;interestingasfuck&#x2F;comments&#x2F;fko21a&#x2F;9...</a>).<p>-----<p>I really hope one of the many Reddit competitors (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;RedditAlternatives&#x2F;comments&#x2F;hi97fz&#x2F;list_of_active_reddit_alternatives_v5&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;RedditAlternatives&#x2F;comments&#x2F;hi97fz&#x2F;...</a>) grows into a platform of its own. I have my eye on Ruqqus (<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ruqqus.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ruqqus.com&#x2F;</a>) and Saidit (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;saidit.net&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;saidit.net&#x2F;</a>). I&#x27;m also looking at Parler (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;parler.com" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;parler.com</a>) as a Twitter alternative and MeWe (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mewe.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mewe.com&#x2F;</a>) as a Facebook alternative. Unfortunately with network effects being what they are, the big issue is that these alternatives may attract mostly those who are victims of censorship from Reddit, leading to two separate echo chambers - one for liberals and one for conservatives. It&#x27;s better than one echo chamber with a &quot;tyranny of the majority&quot; but I&#x27;d rather we just get back to the old open Internet days where free speech reigns supreme.