I was around at the time, but I went from /. and/or forums to nothing to reddit. I was also about 5-7 years late to reddit

What were the prevalent reddit like boards at the time doing such that reddit became popular?

  • @CodingAndCoffee
    link
    211 year ago

    Reddit back then was like a blend of what content we’re seeing on the “chat” communities here on Lemmy, and what Hacker News is today. It was much more technology oriented, and much less topical.

    Subreddits existed, but ones for smaller fandoms and narrowly focused meme formats did not.

    • @hddsxOP
      link
      81 year ago

      Was there a catastrophic event similar to the Reddit API change that led people to flock to Reddit? Or was it the appeal of the format?

      For reference: I started because my friend was browsing Reddit in class and it seemed like something to do. I’m not sure if I represented the general population

      • @Aremel
        link
        181 year ago

        I wasn’t around for it, but I understand that Digg was the “it” place until they did something dumb, and then reddit was flooded with Digg refugees. It seems like history is repeating itself, or at least rhyming.

        • @bloodsangre7
          link
          61 year ago

          Yeah, the digg v4 move didn’t have identical reasons as now, but it sure felt familar

        • @Tot
          link
          51 year ago

          I remember a UI redesign that looked kinda like shit, losing the ability to downvote and therefore bury paid ads placed to look like regular content, and something about a facebook connection but details are real hazy.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        13
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        “You [Digg] chose to grow with venture capital… this new version of digg reeks of VC meddling. It’s cobbling together features from more popular sites and departing from the core of digg, which was to “give the power back to the people.”” - Alexis Ohanian

        • @bloodsangre7
          link
          71 year ago

          I know that was ~12 years ago, but to go from that to “we will continue to be profit-driven until we are profitable” is one hell of a character arc for a website

          • Quit_this_instance
            link
            fedilink
            71 year ago

            It’s actually a pretty common character arc, it’s just unusually blatant here.

            A different group took over, and money talks. That’s about it. That’s why if we want to maintain a non-corporate internet, decentralised social media are the only option available.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            41 year ago

            Let alone Aaron’s principals. He must be spinning so fast in his grave that we could probably solve the world’s energy needs.