It seems that YouTube is continuing to dilute what made the site great among so many users on the internet. In the early days of YouTube, categories used to mean something, now they are largely just a legacy feature which they haven’t removed for some reason. It’s probably because they are sentimental about it. This sentimentality does not seem to integrate well their incessant desire to obsess with putting ads into every part of the site.
Instead of putting ads everywhere, why don’t they try to focus on improving the categories.
However, it seems YouTube is destined to be flooded with tons of ads after spending years letting people upload for free and without fees on the site.
Reddit is turning 20 years and I wrote about what it needed to do in order to be successful in the next 5 years.
However, there is another aspect to the website that will make it better.
This idea is BetterCommunity Search.
Reddit has many communities, but it is difficult to see where they are. Many of the most popular communities are pretty easy to find. Their names are pretty simple to type into the address bar and send your browser there. However, as the site has grown in these past 20 years, the communities have only grown in size. However, the site’s internal search engine is pretty bad at searching for communities.
The site also has another feature which I dislike. It is this “recommendation” system which recommends subreddits based on interest.
However, upon closer inspection, there is a sense that the people running Reddit are not interested in actually making it work anymore. It’s all about the advertising now. YouTube has been heavily promoting advertising but they still remember the nature of what people went to the site in 2005; they went there because of the videos not the ads.
Having a better way to search communities on Reddit would greatly help the site.
Reddit is going to be turning 20 years this month. For a Silicon Valley startup, this is an incredible amount of time to be around on the internet. Many startup companies tend to disappear under the weight of too high expectations, or they simply run out of money and the party is over. This was very common after early 2000 when so many promising Internet companies that boasted about changing the world, ended up failing and only a couple resilient ones such as Amazon and Google were left picking up the pieces to build a better Internet ecosystem that would be sustainable.
I have been using Reddit for more 10 years now. It is a great tool that has become an essential part of the internet. Much like Etsy which was founded in the same month 20 years ago, Reddit could be said to be about making the Internet “Human Again”. It is all about the human interactions in the most idealistic view when one looks at this site.
However, it is still a company that needs to make somehow to justify having all these servers to store your and other’s information on the internet.
Reddit refuses to grow up and start adulting
However, the site is at a crossroads now.
The site seems like it is successful now, but that is largely because of the company’s ability to hide its decay with hidden means.
The userbase is now filled with bots and spam. While there are still are many devoted users who attempt to improve the site with user content, it clear that AI generated users and content is moving into the site. They are basically setting up shop and there isn’t much being done to improve the site. In many ways, the neglect is quite noticeable here. Entire subreddits fester with spam and bots and yet the reporting tool basically is on autopilot. Users complain but nothing seems to change and the people in charge talk about how the site is growing and it continues to get bigger. This arrogance is typical of many Silicon Valley startups, especially ones that are even attempting adulting into a more mature company that will make actual money on actual products which have worth.
The question is one has to ask the creators of Reddit is: How serious are they about the site?
The issue with many internet startups is that time marches on and institutions age. Reddit needs to grow up and not remain the teenager it once was in the mid 2000s.
Etsy in many ways is going through the same change and many of the older userbase does not like it. However, the economies of scale demand a certain amount of standardization and movement away from certain mentalities that made that company special in that particular niche. However, what is important is that Etsy still believes in “Making Commerce Human”. It has had to adapt to an ecommerce market where Temu and Shein are getting a lot of market share.
Reddit is still not making that change. While the site may still have a huge presence on the internet, the company may see itself being outmatched by other, newer sites.
What does Reddit Need to be successful in the next 10 Years
1. Reddit needs structure
Earlier in the 2010s, probably about a decade ago, the site got alot more attention than now. This is mainly because of the controversies revolving around the displaying of explicit images without consent of users.
However, the site has largely become essentially a cheat code for journalists who no longer want to leave their offices to actually write stories.
Even on YouTube, there are many users who have made money on just reading a subreddit and using the drama on them to make content for their channels.
In comparison to Facebook, Reddit seems like it is stuck in the 1990s. While it is a Web 2.0 site, its sensibilities are more of the 1990s because of the chaotic nature of the site and its users.
Right now, what is Reddit really about now?
To me, the site is filled with spam and low effort posting by many.
Reddit needs to be more than just advertising revenue. It seems like every site that is huge these days relies on advertising. However, Google moved towards cloud storage. So did Microsoft and Amazon. However, what is Reddit going to do when the advertising money starts drying up? The site is still acting like its the renegade when it has grown up and it is time to start taking responsiblities.
2. Reddit needs to start introducing paywalls.
I think that the site is pretty secure in its userbase. However, I think its time for the website to introduce some new features that will encourage better engagement on the site.
The site began with high-minded intentions. There was this view that just allowing for free speech meant low quality speech was allow to stuff the entire digital ecosystem.
The Reddit site is basically the eBay of social conversation. When eBay began in 1995, it relied heavily on people using the site’s servers to start their own shops. However, Reddit is heavily reliant on advertising to continue the site’s growth. When the site was new, it could rely on people just hoping that it would make money.
The company is apparently making money with ads and renting out its huge information stores to search engines. For example, Google often uses the site in its AI overviews.
However, it is clear that paywalls need to start going up on the site.
Paywalls will probably only be used by a couple of subreddits. Which reedits would use paywalls? It is hard to say. The most likely subreddits would be investing subreddits. There will still be some free subreddits, but investing has become more popular on Reddit in recent years, and I think the company is probably going to monetize that market as those people tend to have more money than the average American citizen.
The introduction of such paywalls could also be seen on sponsored subreddits by big companies.
Another area that could be monetized are news subreddits. Some newspapers in local areas which have been struggling since 2008. One particular way that these local newspapers can revive themselves to focus less on print, They need to refocus on websites and apps. Of course, another approach is by having a subreddit which can serve as a website for local newspapers or even bigger newspapers. Unlike Facebook, Reddit is more intimate in its community while Facebook is biased towards national issues rather than local or regional issues.
Paywalls would go a long way to giving Reddit more reliable income than just relying on advertising revenue on the site.
3. Allow Users to change moderators
This is a big issue on Reddit. Many moderators are not even known by the userbase and have complete control of their various subreddits.
There is very little ability to change anyone trying to ban you or remove your posts on the site.
This has meant that moderators on the site are acting in ways that chill conversations on those subreddits. These moderators on some sites are necessary in my opinion. However, even on those sites, there is little ability to understand how you have violated some rules. To many users on Reddit, it is arbitrary to see moderators just removing posts. Even if you follow rules on these subreddits, these moderators are simply removing everything they do not like even when it is the most inoffensive thing.
Such tyranny on these subreddits is one of the reasons that Reddit has become increasingly more aligned in the areas of circles of political persuasions. There is not much connection or conversations between the groups who have differing views.
With moderators on political subreddits and even local subreddits putting their biased views on the internet, it is tough to have spaces where you can have moderators who are constantly getting in the way of reasonable talks on the site.
4. Reddit needs to update its interface
Reddit’s interface was once charming, but it isn’t anymore. In many ways, it is getting in the way of the site being able to convey information in a concise way to the users.
Web 1.0 was a time of static webpages and lots of blinking GIFS and annoying JPEGSs. Reddit’s site is a mixture of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. However, the spirit of the site is still a Web 1.0 site. While one does get dynamic updates when one gets message from users and notifications, the desktop website is lagging behind the mobile app. In many ways, the desktop side of things has been put on the back burner in favor of the mobile app here.
The site needs to more like Facebook and shed its Web 1.0 roots. While I love the design of Web 1.0 sites, it is better on sites that are smaller in scale. With the rise of the economics of scale, Web 2.0 makes more sense than a bunch of static web pages and contradicting web standards and styles.
Reddit’s stagnation in this style has been a detriment to the site’s identity. It is unable to change and is basically stuck in the mid 2000s.
While Reddit has a strong community, it is clear that without pivoting to a new interface, it may face an issue that Facebook is currently facing, which is an aging userbase that seeks to get away from social media. Reddit is heavily dependent on its original userbase of tech geeks and nerds to keep it going. However, as time goes on and we see the rise of alternate platforms such as Tik Tok and Poshmark and Lemon8, Reddit may find itself simply outdated and relying on too small of an audience to support a big site.
5. Revamp the User creation process
Right now, the creation of a user on Reddit is simply too easy. Many people do not take much effort into creating their users, creating many burner accounts and moving from one account to another.
What the site needs right now is a great accountability as well as more modifications to allow for users to truly embrace their avatars.
There is a lot of chaos on Reddit, and much that of that stem from its inability to truly invest in its users.
The anonymity of Reddit works better for a small forum rather than a site which is trying to be a global forum for the world and every conceivable culture. Reddit is stuck with a style which is 1990s in its nature here.
6. The site needs to stop being used as Search Engine Crutch
Reddit has the risk of diluting its brand by attaching it to AI generators. If people, simply get the answers on the search engines, then what is the point of Reddit?
Reddit cannot be simply reduced to an answer engine now. Before ChatGPT, Reddit would have had people travel to their site in order to get answers. Google’s search quality was getting worse, and people began typing in “their question and Reddit”. This would work for a time but one has to remember many of these answers were not checked nor did you have any idea that the response in the search result would actually lead to anything here.
Another issue with using Reddit being used as the appendage of Google is of link rot, which shows the fragility of cyberspace. The issue is that websites require tons of maintenance and sometimes links can no longer operate.
The issue compounds itself when the internet has major shifts what technologies are used to bring cyberspace to life.
Flash was removed from the internet and so many sites ended failing and being unsable.
Reddit will have this issue as time continues to go on.
However, the threat of ChatGPT and other LLMs is pretty big for Reddit. Their Reddit Answers tab is rather mediocre and useless in a sense as it is not very well integrated into the site.
The ability to just ask questions to LLMs will take away traffic away from many sites. This is the same thing that happened with Wikipedia’s rise and how it took traffic away from many sites.
Reddit needs to move away from releasing their information to search engines build communities. Ads will still be there; they should try to put paywalls or have subscriptions for specific interests that go beyond removing the ads. With AI rising on the internet, the userbase of Reddit is going to start shrinking and people will notice it. That is why it is important that Reddit pivots now so that it does not make late actions that will help the site.
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