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Comment by ppod | Hacker News Reader

HN is just more niche. HN is 842 on US alexa. Reddit is 7. The criticism that reddit gets is so naive. What other site of comparable size, where the users are mostly anonymous, has better community? Compare reddit comments with comment threads on youtube or national newspaper sites, and re-calibrate your humanity baseline.

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>The criticism that reddit gets is so naive

It's perfectly valid to criticize something for sucking even if there isn't a better alternative.

It's also perfectly valid to criticise the criticism for having too high standards. If you expect a car to fly you to the moon, your standards are too high. If you expect Reddit to be like HN, you're also a fair bit off.

No, it's not really valid to come back saying that nobody has done better so therefore your sights are too high. If someone is complaining about the CO2 output of the lowest emissions coal plant, it's a perfectly valid criticism even if it is the best coal plant.

Reddit is a cesspool, and there is no proof that's the only thing that can happen with large online communities. There is plenty of room for innovation there. It's not like online communities have been around for thousands of years and this is clearly the best solution as proved by extensive research.

It may be a cesspool but it is a cesspool with a lot of valuable and interesting content and discussion, along with the shit.

The parent is saying that the blame lies with humanity rather than any particular site's methods of operation. The fact that HN is virtually unknown to trolls is probably the only thing that keeps it solidly on the good side of the temple/cesspool gradient.

I wouldn't be so sure that this place is unknown to trolls. Pretty sure I've seen some trolling.

There's criticism, and there's not knowing what you're talking about. Unless one has run an online community like Reddit before, it's more than likely that that individual is playing armchair CEO.

Unless you're the CEO of Reddit, you're by definition playing armchair CEO. I don't need to be Cristiano Ronaldo to have a legitimate criticism that he needs to fall back and help the defense sometimes. I mean, he's the best, but he doesn't have to score all the goals.

Disclaimer: I'm a Madrid fan, not Barca.

Ah, good ol argument from authority. Unless you are the CEO you may not critique the CEO.

This response always drives me crazy. The "well why don't you make something better" has to stop. If everyone had to be on the same level of what they were criticizing, then there would be absolutely no feedback. I'm not a director, but I've studied film enough to know the elements of what makes a good movie. If you've never been displeased with something, then I applaud your saintly hood, but please understand that often the most passionate users, are the most vocal. Regardless if they are are singer/guitarist/artist/ceo/presidentoftheus/whatever.

Because you're going to more or less make the same dumb decisions that the person you're criticizing made once you're in that same position dealing with a thousand different angles, people, and pressures your limited mind could not imagine before, and that's a fact.

I run an online community like Reddit.

Sure, but you're not saying anything that's not already common knowledge and you're not adding anything to any discussion by just saying that. :|

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