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?

  • @[email protected]
    21•1 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.

    • @[email protected]OP
      8•1 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

      • @[email protected]
        18•1 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.

        • @[email protected]
          5•1 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.

      • @wildbus8979
        13•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

        • @[email protected]
          7•1 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
            8•1 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.

          • @wildbus8979
            4•1 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.