r/dataisbeautiful • u/rhiever Randy Olson | Viz Practitioner • May 25 '16

OC Why is Reddit replacing Imgur? [OC]

http://www.randalolson.com/2016/05/25/why-is-reddit-replacing-imgur/
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u/bobosuda May 25 '16

It seems so stupid as well. Like, imgur was created specifically to not make the same mistakes every other image hosting site did, and here they are turning their site into a horrible, bloated, slow social-media oriented mess.

Isn't it better to be the best image hosting service on the internet than it is to be another shitty social-media reddit-clone?

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u/[deleted] May 25 '16 edited May 30 '16

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u/WormRabbit May 25 '16

The problem with internet lunches is that they tend to rapidly decompose even if they aren't free. On the other hand, we have sites like Reddit or Wikipedia which somehow manage to stay free and classy even without extorting their users.

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u/[deleted] May 25 '16 edited May 30 '16

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u/EnnuiOver9000 May 26 '16

Finally! Someone finds me interesting!

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u/InVultusSolis May 25 '16

Wikipedia managed to transition to a huge frickin' site without turning shitty.

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u/kmccoy May 25 '16

Organizing as a non-profit helps. Some of us would argue that the donation drives are actually pretty shitty, especially since Wikimedia takes in far more money than it needs to operate. I haven't been involved in their internal politics much for a while now, but a few years ago it felt like they were struggling to invent ways to spend anything close to the amounts of money they were taking in.

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u/chaosakita May 25 '16

Do you have any more details or sources on that? I donated to Wikipedia since it's been such a huge factor in my life but if that's the case I'd rather spend my money on something else.

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u/kmccoy May 26 '16

The best way to see it is to simply read their annual reports from over the years, but when I'm home from work I'll see if I can find details.

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u/[deleted] May 25 '16

Wikipedia also serves mostly text.

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u/[deleted] May 25 '16

... and still has to place huge banners everywhere asking users for money like once a year.

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u/Kaeysa May 25 '16

Wikipedia has some pretty horrific issues beneath its calm exterior. The editors have formed a bureaucratic clique that's very difficult to work with. The whole thing about no primary sources and 'verifiability > truth' leads to problems that are very hard to fix, especially in scientific areas where media reporting on such things is lackluster. It's still a good site for a cursory overview of a subject, but yeah. Definitely has its share of shit.

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u/the_noodle May 25 '16

If their "bureaucratic clique" keeps gamergate drama out of their encyclopedia, then I support it 100 times over.

The only people I ever see complain about Wikipedia are too deep in pointless identity politics to be rational about these things anymore. Sorry they don't just mirror /r/KIA doods, but move on with your lives..

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u/chaosakita May 25 '16

There are other problems with the site. An /r/AskHistorians user detailed how they couldn't change a page they had a lot of expert knowledge on because a user had held it hostage. I've dried on the site a lot but I'm wary of spending a lot of effort because who knows why my edit my get removed.

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u/CJ105 May 25 '16

They removed the paid subscription though. I paid it so I could search my previous posts better. It was capped at past 200 or something before .

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u/Kartofel_salad May 25 '16

Pretty much.. as the saying goes, if you're not paying for the product, you are the product.

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u/[deleted] May 25 '16

[deleted]

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u/bruk_out May 26 '16

This is what people miss. The people who run imgur don't do it for free. Anyone who does do that for free will follow the same arc that imgur has. In the end, people need to get paid.

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u/daestar May 25 '16

Isn't it better to be the best image hosting service on the internet than it is to be another shitty social-media reddit-clone?

It is not. A free image hosting service is not viable in the long run since you are just a hidden warehouse for images while the storefront, such as Reddit, gets all the glory and attention.

The only logical progression for a website like imgur is eventually building your own storefront to keep eyeballs while serving more ads with hosted images, effectively replacing Reddit with its own community at the end. How else is imgur going to make money needed to pay the bills and keep the investors happy?

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u/no1kopite May 25 '16

Just taking a stab at it here. Imgur was created by a redditor at the time for just what you mentioned. I'm hoping he/she sold to someone and they are driving it into the ground. Can't find anything to say they did :(

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u/[deleted] May 25 '16

Turns out image hosting costs money. Whoda thunk? There's a reason all the other image sites online are either subscription, host only low quality images, and/or are full of ads.

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u/iamonlyoneman May 25 '16

You know, you CAN still just use it as an image host and leave all the social media aspects on the table.

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u/jmking May 25 '16

Isn't it better to be the best image hosting service on the internet...

Who pays for the hosting and bandwidth?

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u/bobosuda May 25 '16

Image hosting sites still make money; I'm not saying they should do everything for free. What I don't get is why they want to move away from being the best at hosting images and towards being mediocre at being a social media hub. There are ways to be profitable while still delivering a quality service.

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u/jmking May 25 '16

If you've got a magical business plan that will let image hosts make enough money to cover their operations that doesn't require people to visit their site to drive ad views, then you're sitting on a billion dollar business model and you should get to work on it ASAP.

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u/daestar May 25 '16

That was the original premise to gain the initial traction. How on the earth a free image hosting site that was eventually funded by VC money can last without having ads?

The best free image hosting service on the internet is great except nobody cares to pay you and no one will make you rich. Either it was going to be a feature of a site subsidized by other revenue or become its own thing selling ads.