Reddit and Digg Cofounders Plan Relaunch of 'Human-Centered' Digg With AI Innovations (cnbc.com) 35
"The early web was fun," Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian posted Wednesday on X.com. "It was weird. It was community-driven. It's time to rebuild that.
"Which is why Kevin Rose and I just bought back Digg."
The amount of that purchase is "undisclosed," reports CNBC: The deal is backed by venture capital firms True Ventures, where Rose is a partner, and Ohanian's Seven Seven Six.... The company said in a release that it aims to differentiate itself in the social media market by "focusing on AI innovations designed to enhance the user experience and build a human-centered alternative...." Rose said in a post on X that he and Ohanian "dreamed up features that weren't even possible with yesterday's tech."
"We're bringing more transparency and community partnership," according to Rose's post, "unlike anything you've seen, plus AI that unlocks creativity without sanitizing the human element. The timing is finally right to reimagine what's possible."
"I really disliked you for a long time," Ohanian tells Rose in their joint announcement video. (To which a cheery Rose responds, "Rightfully so.")
But in the video Ohanian also says that today "Our perspective on the world has shifted a lot. You don't want to live in the past, but now we actually have the technology to make better, healthier community experiences." ("Old Rivals, New Vision," says a post on Digg's X.com account, urging readers to "Sign up to get early access when invites go live.")
And Digg.com now just displays this teasing catchphrase. "The front page of the internet, now with superpowers." (At the top of the page there's also a link to watch Diggnation Live at SXSW.)
While valued at $160 million dollars in 2008, Digg's plummeting traffic led to its brand and web site being acquired in 2012 by tech incubator Betaworks for about $500,000, according to CNBC...
"Which is why Kevin Rose and I just bought back Digg."
The amount of that purchase is "undisclosed," reports CNBC: The deal is backed by venture capital firms True Ventures, where Rose is a partner, and Ohanian's Seven Seven Six.... The company said in a release that it aims to differentiate itself in the social media market by "focusing on AI innovations designed to enhance the user experience and build a human-centered alternative...." Rose said in a post on X that he and Ohanian "dreamed up features that weren't even possible with yesterday's tech."
"We're bringing more transparency and community partnership," according to Rose's post, "unlike anything you've seen, plus AI that unlocks creativity without sanitizing the human element. The timing is finally right to reimagine what's possible."
"I really disliked you for a long time," Ohanian tells Rose in their joint announcement video. (To which a cheery Rose responds, "Rightfully so.")
But in the video Ohanian also says that today "Our perspective on the world has shifted a lot. You don't want to live in the past, but now we actually have the technology to make better, healthier community experiences." ("Old Rivals, New Vision," says a post on Digg's X.com account, urging readers to "Sign up to get early access when invites go live.")
And Digg.com now just displays this teasing catchphrase. "The front page of the internet, now with superpowers." (At the top of the page there's also a link to watch Diggnation Live at SXSW.)
While valued at $160 million dollars in 2008, Digg's plummeting traffic led to its brand and web site being acquired in 2012 by tech incubator Betaworks for about $500,000, according to CNBC...
Features also not possible with tomorrows tech (Score:2)
But keep dreaming, and at least try to make something that doesn't suck.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You have to be stupid to think you have "freedom of speech" on anybody's private network or subreddit. It's the height of narcissism to think that's some "right" you have.
Reddit is run by individual armies of people who carefully cultivate specific communities. They have every right to restrict the content in their communities, and you have every right to create your own community if you don't like it. Complaining that you're upset because you broke somebody else's rules is childish.
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When a site becomes the size of reddit, then free speech should absolutely be required. It's the same as when a company becomes so big the government can't afford it to fail.
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If the failure of one company or a small group of companies can bring down your whole economy, then those companies are indeed "too big to fail". No sane leader wants to see their economy collapse, so they're most likely going to bail out those companies because that's almost always preferable to the alternative.
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Come back tomorrow and tell us how it went, Mr Free Speech.
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Re: Features also not possible with tomorrows tech (Score:1)
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try posting anything controversial to r/controversy
Too controversial for the controversy community? You cant drop a sentence like that without an example
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lower the age of consent.
Repeal the 19th
I think Trump is a pretty good guy, eh stopped that dictator in Ukraine and doesn't afraid of anything
Legalize CP
All Reddit admins deserve death
Mangione is a hero and I mean it
So is Hitler
Here's a cool recipe for strychnine for you rat killers out there.
My point is, when you're fighting to stop ANY speech, consider what will happen then the Overton window swings and it's easy to ban your fa
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Break one link and it's gone.
That's not how this works? Like at all? There is no such thing as limitless free speech, there's always a line we are arguing over where it is. You agree there's a line, even in your own example should people be allowed to post CP in those subreddits?
Before you say "that's illegal!" yes but therefore we already acknowledge that some laws should supersede free speech.
You have access to 4chan and several other sites where you can talk about all those things, why do you need to do it on Reddit?
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Try posting to /r/conservative and be critical of Trump. The sub has flat out said they don't allow for any criticism. That and to even post you have to have "flair" and be vetted by the mods. If any member does break rank the mods claim the sub is being brigaded and closes the thread.
Sold too early (Score:2)
Didn’t the co founders sell Reddit like a decade ago? They clearly sold waaaay too early. Could’ve been billionaires if they had waited several more years.
Fuck Kevin Rose (Score:4, Insightful)
With no due respect, fuck Kevin Rose.
He's the one that killed Digg in the first place. He wouldn't know how to create a good social media platform if it was a 40oz out of a brown paper bag.
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The notion that AI will help social media is all you need to know that those folks haven't the slightest clue.
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It's going to b e a crap show for sure
Nothing new under the sun... (Score:4, Insightful)
Full of crypto-pushing stuff no doubt (Score:2)
Kevin Rose has been big on the whole "Defi" thing - I'm sure this'll turn out to be just another crypto-bro forum disguised as some sort of AI-innovative thing wrapped about some "blockchain" and "Web 3.0" crap.
If you want to read about fun early web (Score:2)
Digg (Score:2)
Just another site being brought back to feed the AI beast. No thanks.
My Space (Score:2)
Re: My Space (Score:1)
Bull$hit -- Human-Centered with AI" (Score:2)
DIGG swag (Score:2)
I still have a few of the pint glasses I laser etched with the DIGG logo, that I made to give away when I was burning the logo into laptops in the back room of the DIGG party in San Francisco in 2007.
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Time to catch the next wave (Score:2)
How retahded (Score:2)
"focusing on AI innovations designed to enhance the user experience and build a human-centered alternative...." Rose said
Read that a few times
Nothing practical is good enough (Score:2)
You need to tie accounts to government ID to avoid bots and to be able to ban the real problems effectively. You can't have accounts tied to government ID and have effective freedom of speech (at least in countries where you can't trust your government).
You need human moderators in sufficient quantity to review site activity, but that means either subscription fees or intrusive ads and even more datamining to sell user data than we already get, which will kill the site.
The only thing that works is having a
AI-Washing! (Score:2)