# Reddit



## like_to_retire (Oct 9, 2016)

So, a few weeks ago, in a discussion about investment forums, respected CMF member m3s advanced the notion that Reddit was a decent alternative to the CMF forum. He said, "_Have y'all checked out reddit yet? They've revamped the site and it's far more advanced than traditional forums"_. 

I responded that I had never checked it out before and so when I actually did I then responded with, _"it seems confusing to my addled brain. There's a bunch of twitter type videos and a bunch of other wacky stuff. I just don't get it. How do I read serious investing and finance issues like I do on forums? Are you youngsters sure this is serious information because it looks like a bunch of hipster **** to me"._.

Undaunted, CMF member m3s steered me toward the serious Canadian investor forums of _r/PersonalFinanceCanada, r/CanadianInvestor, r/FICan_.

So, I joined, and then started reading the Canadian investor forums as suggested every day, and then tried my best to respond to see how it worked and help those who I thought needed help. It was a bit of a test so I could watch what happened to the posts I responded to.

Well, my assessment is that Reddit is like a drive by shooting. There's no real long term discussion going on there. A post will be active for about one day max it seems, and then it will be gone the next day by nature of perhaps the rather low attention span of the participants who will let it float down in the hierarchy to make room for the new flavor of the day to be voted higher. The prolific nature of the site results in new posts stacking above your posts, so it would seem you have to have a massive amount of up-votes to overcome the new inflows. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong.

It couldn't be more different from the classic forum such as CMF that I'm use to. It is at least, an eye opener. I'm actually kinda amazed at the whole thing. The age group is certainly much younger than I'm use to, and since there are so many people participating (and there's a lot), there's a real cornucopia of goofy, uninformed questions that ofttimes make you think that it has to be a joke that they're asking their question. But no, there's just that many uninformed people.

Actually, the quality of the respondents is often quite good, albeit rapid fire because there isn't a lot of time, but it all seems to be lost in the fact that the entire thread is gone the next day. Is this an artifact of the new millennial attention span derived from smartphone use or perhaps too many lattes and avocado toast. I don't really know.

At CMF and other classic forums, a topic will often be beat to death over time, and while that maybe good, discussions perhaps lingers a bit too long as the usual knuckleheads begin to repeat themselves over and over again to no end. _You're an idiot, no you're an idiot, no you're an idiot, no you're an idiot, am not, are too, am not, are too, am not, are too_,... well, you've seen it all before. So, I understand that Reddit may want to distance itself from this classic forum model, but I don't know if they've achieved a step up or down. There's no long term discussion of a topic that gives people time to think and research and argue and come to conclusions. Really, what can be solved in a one day post as is the case on Reddit - very little I feel.

Even though I subscribed to the relevant Canadian investor posts as indicated earlier, I've also taken occasion to view the r/popular threads each time I visit the site. While the three investing forums would have up to maybe a hundred up-votes for very, very popular posts, the sub-reddit r/popular forum (which consists mostly of hipster garbage and cute cat videos) has tens of thousands of up-votes for a lot of the entries. The millennials certainly love cute pet videos, memes, cos-play and a multitude of other such short attention span nonsense. I think the seriousness of Reddit is evidenced that posts regarding finance result in 100 up-votes at best, while cute cat videos garner 47,000 up-votes. 

I'm interested especially in those here that are retired like myself, what are your opinions of Reddit financial forums. There's no question in my mind that it's interesting, but is it significant and is it the new alternative to classic forums?

ltr


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## fatcat (Nov 11, 2009)

reddit moves faster and there is a lot more content so threads tend to be shorter than cmf though here threads tend to wander away from the the original topic pretty quickly

i don't even participate in the financial forums on reddit so i can't comment on the quality of those reddits

reddit has a lot to look at needless to say, some threads can go very long (think politics or tech) but most are fairly short and brief


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## OnlyMyOpinion (Sep 1, 2013)

I don't belong to reddit but I monitor our city's forum as it often has timely news that doesn't get to mainstream till much later, and sometimes not at all.
It certainly does have it's share of lame posts.
I sort by 'new' rather than 'hot' or 'rising' - I'll decide myself what's of interest thank you.

I've tried the financial subs but find them exactly as you describe LTR. They lose my interest very quickly.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

like_to_retire said:


> Actually, the quality of the respondents is often quite good, albeit rapid fire because there isn't a lot of time, but it all seems to be lost in the fact that the entire thread is gone the next day. Is this an artifact of the new millennial attention span derived from smartphone use or perhaps too many lattes and avocado toast. I don't really know.
> 
> Even though I subscribed to the relevant Canadian investor posts as indicated earlier, I've also taken occasion to view the r/popular threads each time I visit the site. While the three investing forums would have up to maybe a hundred up-votes for very, very popular posts, the sub-reddit r/popular forum (which consists mostly of hipster garbage and cute cat videos) has tens of thousands of up-votes for a lot of the entries. The millennials certainly love cute pet videos, memes, cos-play and a multitude of other such short attention span nonsense. I think the seriousness of Reddit is evidenced that posts regarding finance result in 100 up-votes at best, while cute cat videos garner 47,000 up-votes.


100 up-votes is probably more than we would get here though at the moment with a few dozen active members. I think the quality of financial discussion there would depend on the participants moving in from the slowly dying classic forums

You probably need to find a topic in between the 2 extremes of r/popular and r/personalfinance I don't subscribe to cute pet videos or pop culture in general. Cute pet videos are known popular with the masses though I don't think it's a "millennial" thing. Are there any topics that you want to know the latest and greatest news about? Stuff that you are actually passionate and interested in besides finances? There are threads that stay active in mine but they are a combination of fresh/hot/trending topics whereas newbs get directed to a weekly sticky thread to constantly rehash the same questions over and over again

When news breaks in my large organization on a Friday afternoon you will hear about it first on reddit several days before it trickles through the archaic email hierarchy chains. If that's what stuffy old folks prefer then power to you


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

m3s said:


> I think the quality of financial discussion there would depend on the participants moving in from the slowly dying classic forums




lol the meaning of this ^^ could go either way

either the "stuffy old folks" moving in from the "slowly dying classic forums" would bring original & valuable material to enliven redditizens everywhere

or else maybe

the same stuffies would slowly smother the finance sub-reddits to death in their turn



.


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

like_to_retire said:


> So, a few weeks ago, in a discussion about investment forums, respected CMF member m3s advanced the notion that Reddit was a decent alternative to the CMF forum. He said, "_Have y'all checked out reddit yet? They've revamped the site and it's far more advanced than traditional forums"_.
> 
> ...
> 
> ...


 ... thanks for your detailed review of that forum. Definitely not wasting my time to post an opinion there, let alone conversing with a bunch of ADD-rooted smartphone addicts. :distracted::distracted::bi_polo:


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

Hello? Where did my post go?


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## like_to_retire (Oct 9, 2016)

m3s said:


> 100 up-votes is probably more than we would get here though at the moment with a few dozen active members. I think the quality of financial discussion there would depend on the participants moving in from the slowly dying classic forums.


Touché. For sure there are nowhere near the active members on classic forums as there use to be, but I don't know if they're dying as you seem convinced. I like a platform where I can think about something for a few days and come back and discuss it later. That's not really encouraged on Reddit and perhaps no-one is interested in that slow thought process any more. They want immediate answers and resolution, although you did mention weekly sticky threads. I tried to think of an analogy for the difference between Reddit and classic forums. In the video game world it would be that Reddit is like an online run-and-gun respawn game, while CMF is like playing the standalone mission. Video gamers will get what that means, no one else will.




> If that's what stuffy old folks prefer then power to you


hehe, yeah I guess I am stuffy and old, and so takes me a while to get onto something new like Reddit, but I like to try new things and see what they're like. Reddit is somewhat confusing at first, but I think I understand a bit better what's going on now and am able to navigate around and find new things. I'll keep playing around with it. Perhaps, as humble says, I'll _"slowly smother the finance sub-reddits to death"._ I do notice that many posters on Reddit appear to crave attention. There are entire posts dedicated to getting upvotes, such that if they get 5000 upvotes something wonderful will happen. There's also _Karma_ points that I don't understand. I suppose it's something like in Facebook where you get _Likes_, but I don't really know since I've never had a Facebook account, but I've read about it.

ltr


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

like_to_retire said:


> For sure there are nowhere near the active members on classic forums as there use to be ...
> 
> I like to try new things and see what they're like. Reddit is somewhat confusing at first, but I think I understand a bit better what's going on now and am able to navigate around and find new things. I'll keep playing around with it.




a big vote of thanks to like_to_retire, who has taken the trouble to report back with his always-welcome facts, findings & further adventures in the kingdom of the redditizens

some of us would agree, too, that a sustained & productive conversation is far more satisfying than a staccato series of tweets & thwips 


.


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## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

I tried reddit too, and that is where I found Wealthica and also a survey of wouldbe retirees. But their average age in Canada was around 30+. There are lots of cat picture threads. Like LTR says, people seem to focus on being popular. But the variety of topics is very granular and extensive. It is hard to find them because they get lost in the shuffle.

You can subscribe to a topic and then it shows in your home page. No indication of new activity that I can see.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

You have to unsubscribe from the default subreddits. Those are all overpopulated. I don't see any cats in my threads anymore. I also don't eat avocado toast or sip lattes though.

The more sustained and productive information is usually kept in the sidebars or stickies. Sidebar links are often a wiki, relevant resource or crowd sourced database like a google spreadsheet. Then rehashed questions get directed there. The discussions are mostly recent information or "original content" focused.

Wealthica is active on reddit, they have their own subreddit now. A lot of subreddits have reps and pros involved. I've seen reddit force major changes to big companies like EA, Telus, Questrade


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## fatcat (Nov 11, 2009)

m3s said:


> You have to unsubscribe from the default subreddits. Those are all overpopulated. *I don't see any cats in my threads anymore.* I also don't eat avocado toast or sip lattes though.
> 
> The more sustained and productive information is usually kept in the sidebars or stickies. Sidebar links are often a wiki, relevant resource or crowd sourced database like a google spreadsheet. Then rehashed questions get directed there. The discussions are mostly recent information or "original content" focused.
> 
> Wealthica is active on reddit, they have their own subreddit now. A lot of subreddits have reps and pros involved. I've seen reddit force major changes to big companies like EA, Telus, Questrade


all good things have to come to an end ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLt5rBfNucc


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

Beaver101 said:


> Hello? Where did my post go?


 ... I now see my post has been posted at some 26 minutes later that same day. But then I can't delete my asking post #7 now. Should I report it for deletion or just leave it?


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## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

I believe cmfadmin needs to move the system back to real disks until they figure out how to overcome this severe limitation of their cloud implementation.


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## GoldStone (Mar 6, 2011)

like_to_retire said:


> hehe, yeah I guess I am stuffy and old, and so takes me a while to get onto something new like Reddit, but I like to try new things and see what they're like.


LOL at reddit being a "new thing". It might be new to _you_ but in general, it's four years older than CMF. Reddit launched in *2005*; CMF launched in *2009*.

I discovered reddit circa 2008-2009. It was already _widely popular_ back then.


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## Koogie (Dec 15, 2014)

2005 !!! 

Wow!

Practically pre-Cambrian.


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## GoldStone (Mar 6, 2011)

13 years old... that's 130 in Internet years.


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

I suspect folks can list even older financial type forums, such as Early Retirement Forum - 2000 (which I discovered in 2004 while an ex-pat and thinking of ER), Financial Wisdom Forum - early 2005


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## Longtimeago (Aug 8, 2018)

I have been posting in forums since the early days of the internet which I might remind some younger members here, only began in the mid-90s. 

In the earlier days, a forum such as this one was able to serve a purpose in providing information that was not easily found otherwise. But as the internet has grown to where it is today, the value of forums has really diminished. The fact is that you can Google anything you can think of and find not only facts but opinions, just as you get in a forum like this one. You can also get just as many differing opinions and misunderstood or incorrect facts as you can here.

I have asked myself several times over the last few years if forums actually have any real value any more other than catering to those too lazy to do their own Google search. I don't think they really do have much value any more. I continue to participate simply because I happen to like writing as in actual 'wordsmithing' and I enjoy the somewhat personal although obviously still anonymous interaction with people. Forums are in a sense a 'social' platform as well as a supposedly 'information' platform. 

I would say though that your comments about how fast a topic moves down the list into obscurity like_to_retire, is limited by your personal exposure to forums. For example, I frequent travel forums and the king of those has been Lonely Planet's Thorntree Forum for decades, at least in terms of membership numbers. A common complaint there even a decade ago was exactly what you are describing, a post got relegated to page 2 within a day or two as new posts were added. So that is nothing new, it is simply a function of how many active posters a forum has.


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

Longtimeago said:


> I have been posting in forums since the early days of the internet which I might remind some younger members here, only began in the mid-90s.


As have I to varying degrees, but mostly financial forums. The first financial forum I participated in was The Fund Library circa 1997 when I also got broad band internet. I moved on to better options starting circa 2000. Depending on content, I believe financial forums still have value and I still learn new things after all these years. One just has to skip all the noise (threads and posts) that do not interest them.


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## off.by.10 (Mar 16, 2014)

Longtimeago said:


> I don't think they really do have much value any more.


Certainly not all forums do and not all topics even on good forums do... but there are many places where you can ask questions and have reasonable hope to that someone will know the answer and be kind enough to write it out. Some things are not easily found with a google search and require actual thinking to come up with an answer. And every now and then there are actual new ideas to discuss. But yeah, the value has gone down a lot in the past two decades.


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

AltaRed said:


> Longtimeago said:
> 
> 
> > I have been posting in forums since the early days of the internet which I might remind some younger members here, only began in the mid-90s ...
> ...


I guess I am the odd man out where I was participating in dialup chat forums in the '80s. The big improvement in the late '80s was the offline readers that enabled one to connect for few minutes to download all the messages, read what one choose then respond at one's leisure without a connection then reconnect for a few minutes to add responses.

[Ahh the good old days ... when limited access plus thousands of dollars of computers were used to iron out the difference between Canadian & US candy such as Smarties and determining that for some, Greenland is the closest neighbour to the US.]




AltaRed said:


> Longtimeago said:
> 
> 
> > .. In the earlier days, a forum such as this one was able to serve a purpose in providing information that was not easily found otherwise. But as the internet has grown to where it is today, the value of forums has really diminished. The fact is that you can Google anything you can think of and find not only facts but opinions, just as you get in a forum like this one ... I have asked myself several times over the last few years if forums actually have any real value any more other than catering to those too lazy to do their own Google search. I don't think they really do have much value any more ...
> ...


Google is fine where the articles/YouTube videos or whatever covers what one needs in the detail one wants without any wording issues or questions. As much as some comments on a financial forum can be distracting - the interaction to cover the details IMO is usually of value. 

Certainly for several things learned as part of a financial forum thread - the need to investigate or knowledge that something could be of benefit did not exist. Becoming aware in advance is of value, n'est pas?


Cheers


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## bgc_fan (Apr 5, 2009)

Eclectic12 said:


> I guess I am the odd man out where I was participating in dialup chat forums in the '80s. The big improvement in the late '80s was the offline readers that enabled one to connect for few minutes to download all the messages, read what one choose then respond at one's leisure without a connection then reconnect for a few minutes to add responses.
> 
> [Ahh the good old days ... when limited access plus thousands of dollars of computers were used to iron out the difference between Canadian & US candy such as Smarties and determining that for some, Greenland is the closest neighbour to the US.]


The days of BBSes and FidoNET. I can't say that I really miss those days, but there was probably more of a community feel as they were local dial-ups.

I wonder if there is a dial connect ring tone for phones out there.


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## like_to_retire (Oct 9, 2016)

I've continued going to Reddit every day and offer responses to posts in the financial sub-reddits where I feel I can be useful. There's a huge sea of people that don't have a clue and need help.

Since I'm not your usual Reddit member who craves attention in an attempt to garner upvotes, it gives me a unique opportunity to analyze what's going on in Reddit.
I have experimented in /r/popular subreddits with an offering of various answers to posts to specifically illicit positive and negative responses, and I am always amazed at how my "Karma" is lowered or raised as a result depending on my post. It's all quite transparent - as it should be I suppose. I feel I'm getting an understanding of what's happening now. It is truly an amazing insight into the Reddit mindset. Sad, I'm afraid, as posters appear to be quite worried and aware of their upvotes, downvotes and Karma. Strange, since Karma as a currency has no value outside Reddit.

Entire posts appear to be launched for the sole purpose of obtaining Karma. Redditt's idea to float better posts to the top and lower poor posts to obscurity has created a cult of responses that are jaded by this overhanging monitor. This is definitely what separates Reddit from classic forums - full stop.

I do understand that Reddit feels their system is a way to preclude trolling and bots, and so boosting the quality of the posts, but low Karma users don't appear to care so they troll anyway. Users with high Karma certainly seem to receive higher respect and can get away with more infractions. There is a definite class system in action. I do think the Reddit system removes the problem that classic forums have with poor moderation. In a classic forum such as CMF, trolls can make the experience quite miserable if there isn't good moderation. With decent moderation, where a troll is simply removed, the classic forum model is superior in my opinion. With Reddit, a lot of this is handled by the mob.

I've specifically followed financial posts over the course of several days to see what happens. All I can say is that posters that have financial questions would be well served by coming to CMF and asking their question to the members here and then a discussion could begin. Unfortunately they might have to put up with insult flinging among members since CMF is basically a free for all. Your question at Reddit is a flash in the pan, and so a good response can get lost in the weeds and is never fully dealt with. 

Given the millennial penchant for useless social media banter, a lot of answers to posted questions appear to be quick, one sentence verdicts, much like a text message. I've taken to answer a few questions with long dissertations that hopefully answer the OPs question and it appears as a rare anomaly on Reddit with its usual shotgun style. I've gained some large Karma with these posts, but then summarily lost it when I act like a dickhead in /r/popular to test the system. 

I also notice that if you offer a decent response to a basic financial question, if you can get even a few upvotes that lifts you to the number one position and highest answer in the thread (not that difficult given the general terse answers offered), then this garners you even more upvotes as no one reads past the first few responses. It's almost like an exponential Karma getter. Crazy.

I admit there are a lot of posts in Reddit /r/popular that I completely don't understand. I mean, I totally don't understand what the post is about. It's some sort of inside hipster dufous talk for the cool crowd. Then I can subsequently read scores if not hundreds of responses to that nonsensical post that again make no more sense to me than if they were written in Martian. WTF? There's an entire cool hipster crowd that exists in another plane than this old fool, but I'm gonna guess none of these exchanges are worth more than the time of the day.

If you really want some Karma on Reddit, post a cute cat video. Then you're gold.

ltr


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

like_to_retire said:


> I've continued going to Reddit every day and offer responses to posts in the financial sub-reddits where I feel I can be useful. There's a huge sea of people that don't have a clue and need help.
> 
> Since I'm not your usual Reddit member who craves attention in an attempt to garner upvotes, it gives me a unique opportunity to analyze what's going on in Reddit.
> I have experimented in /r/popular subreddits with an offering of various answers to posts to specifically illicit positive and negative responses, and I am always amazed at how my "Karma" is lowered or raised as a result depending on my post. It's all quite transparent - as it should be I suppose. I feel I'm getting an understanding of what's happening now. It is truly an amazing insight into the Reddit mindset. Sad, I'm afraid, as posters appear to be quite worried and aware of their upvotes, downvotes and Karma. Strange, since Karma as a currency has no value outside Reddit.
> ...




this post is a gem. It's fun, sweet, witty, thoughtful, whimsical, beautifully written & right on the money.

LTR it would be nice to see a broader readership for this treasure. I can see it as an opinion piece in the globe & mail, it's that polished an article. Had you thought of approaching a bigger media? is there a good daily newspaper in your hometown? i believe local would be most likely to publish yours.

it might be necessary to add a sentence or 2 explaining to a general audience why you set out from a "classic" - although slowly perishing - forum, in search of the wilder e-shores of investor communication.

anyhow i love it


.


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## like_to_retire (Oct 9, 2016)

humble_pie said:


> LTR it would be nice to see a broader readership for this treasure. I can see it as an opinion piece in the globe & mail, it's that polished an article. Had you thought of approaching a bigger media?
> .


hehe, thanks humble_pie, but I can't think of anything worst than interfacing with the media.

I was certainly interested in a response from CMF member m3s who appears to be somewhat of an expert and participant of the Reddit world, to find out how far off base I might be.

ltr


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## agent99 (Sep 11, 2013)

Reddit?? Only vaguely heard of it. Maybe it comes up in Google searches? I had a look at Facebook. Couldn't see any value there, so cancelled. Have a twitter account, but heaven knows why? I never use it. 

I recall when we first got electronic mail in workplace. People spent 1/2 their day at their computers reading irrelevant emails. I am sure productivity went down. 

So what I wonder with - Google, Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. is - What else do the younger set do, if they waste their days with this stuff?


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## like_to_retire (Oct 9, 2016)

agent99 said:


> Reddit?? Only vaguely heard of it. Maybe it comes up in Google searches? I had a look at Facebook. Couldn't see any value there, so cancelled. Have a twitter account, but heaven knows why? I never use it.
> 
> I recall when we first got electronic mail in workplace. People spent 1/2 their day at their computers reading irrelevant emails. I am sure productivity went down.
> 
> So what I wonder with - Google, Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. is - What else do the younger set do, if they waste their days with this stuff?


Yeah, old guys are maybe missing out. I never had a Facebook account, nor a Twitter account or Instagram account. Everyone I see on my bike rides each day are staring at their screens so I thought that perhaps if I investigated Reddit I might understand the appeal.

Nope, not yet.

ltr


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

like_to_retire said:


> hehe, thanks humble_pie, but I can't think of anything worst than interfacing with the media.


perhaps you might sleep on it though

here i was thinking of a promising new career for you as a media sensation. GranPoppa goes to Reddit & turns out that he's pretty cool himself







> ... to find out how far off base i might be


i don't believe you're off base at all. Your piece appeals to a broad audience because it rings true from a cross-generational POV. It's authentic.

m3, you'll remember, said he was pleased with the space ex & aviation subreddits, he was getting viable information from those faster than through the dod bureaucracy. But those would be highly specialized elite subreddits, in fact quite daunting subreddits for lay persons, no? i imagine they would host far fewer cats n trolls than your basic plebeian retail investor subreddit


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## GoldStone (Mar 6, 2011)

agent99 said:


> So what I wonder with - Google, Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. is - What else do the younger set do, if they waste their days with this stuff?


Re-check your assumptions. I'm 50, almost 51, yet I'm on Reddit daily. It's a source of news, education, entertainment and, occasionally, helpful advice.

I follow about 400 investors on Twitter. I hand-picked them one by one. The signal to noise ratio of my financial twitter feed is very good; better than any traditional financial forum. Some of my best stocks picks in the last few years came from "fintwit".

Google? It's an indispensable tool for everyday life and work. It doesn't really belong with the other names you cited.

I don't use Facebook or Instagram.

====

Now let's turn the tables, shall we?  

Do you have cable? How much time do you spend watching TV?

Any newspapers or magazine subscriptions?

Golf?

What other wasteful activities are popular among older boomers?


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## agent99 (Sep 11, 2013)

Is it possible to post videos and graphics to this forum? I have tried and only a link appears. A few cat videos might liven things up a bit


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## like_to_retire (Oct 9, 2016)

GoldStone said:


> Re-check your assumptions. I'm 50, almost 51, yet I'm on Reddit daily. It's a source of news, education, entertainment and, occasionally, helpful advice.
> 
> I follow about 400 investors on Twitter. I hand-picked them one by one. The signal to noise ratio of my financial twitter feed is very good; better than any traditional financial forum. Some of my best stocks picks in the last few years came from "fintwit".
> 
> ...



Yeah, 50 is a tough age. Gen-X, just like my two sons. Kinda caught in the middle of two outspoken generations. You guys seem to be the sensible crowd. I find it cool that you're getting your news, education, entertainment and, occasionally, helpful advice from Reddit. Obviously, I'll have to delve deeper, Those things haven't come easy to me yet.

Google, yeah, come on, it's in a class by itself.

Golf sucks.

So, am I to understand that cable, TV, newspapers and magazines are out? Holy crap.

ltr


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

like_to_retire said:


> So, am I to understand that cable, TV, newspapers and magazines are out?



oh nonononono. no.

what's to understand is that goldstone isn't a human being. it's a network. dark fibre.


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## GoldStone (Mar 6, 2011)

like_to_retire said:


> So, am I to understand that cable, TV, newspapers and magazines are out? Holy crap.


I cut the cable 5+ years ago and I don't miss it for a second. I do have a TV antenna that catches a few over the air channels. I rarely use it. Linear TV experience is terrible. Pure waste if you ask me.

The bigger point: what is or isn't waste is subjective.


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## agent99 (Sep 11, 2013)

GoldStone said:


> Re-check your assumptions. I'm 50, almost 51, yet I'm on Reddit daily.


 Relative to some of us, that IS young! Same age as my kids who also waste a lot of time on-line.



GoldStone said:


> Now let's turn the tables, shall we?
> 
> Do you have cable? How much time do you spend watching TV?
> 
> ...


- Cable - Yes - but cheapest plan and only for internet. 
- TV - about an hour a day max - BNN/Bloomberg and News. Sometimes sports if of interest. Nothing else.
- No newspaper or magazine subscriptions. Only read newspapers if someone has left one at Timmies!
- Golf a couple of times a week. Walking. What do you do for exersize?

Other activities like maintaining cars and home are not wasteful. They are an investment of time that saves money while keeping us active. 

In winter, instead of vegetating, many of us head South where we continue with activities that keep our minds and bodies active.

Glad to see you are trying to learn about how we cope with retirement. Having eyes glued to a tiny screen is not one of the ways


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## GoldStone (Mar 6, 2011)

agent99 said:


> - Golf a couple of times a week. Walking. What do you do for exersize?


Walking. It's free. No advance booking required. 




agent99 said:


> Other activities like maintaining cars and home are not wasteful. They are an investment of time that saves money while keeping us active.


Sure, I do that too all the time. What do you do when you get stumped?

I'm currently in the middle of a small DIY bathroom reno. I had a plumbing question the other week. I took pictures and posted the question on the HomeImprovement sub-reddit. I received a few helpful suggestions within an hour.

A few days later, I had an electrical question. Took the pictures, posted the question on /r/HomeImprovement, got a good pointer within 15 minutes.

There is a lot more to reddit than just cat videos.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

like_to_retire said:


> hehe, thanks humble_pie, but I can't think of anything worst than interfacing with the media.
> 
> I was certainly interested in a response from CMF member m3s who appears to be somewhat of an expert and participant of the Reddit world, to find out how far off base I might be.


Hey, you only posted it today and I'm an hour behind pacific time. Have you already been afflicted by the millennial instant gratification of reddit?



like_to_retire said:


> I've continued going to Reddit every day and offer responses to posts in the financial sub-reddits where I feel I can be useful. There's a huge sea of people that don't have a clue and need help.
> 
> Since I'm not your usual Reddit member who craves attention in an attempt to garner upvotes, it gives me a unique opportunity to analyze what's going on in Reddit.
> I have experimented in /r/popular subreddits with an offering of various answers to posts to specifically illicit positive and negative responses, and I am always amazed at how my "Karma" is lowered or raised as a result depending on my post. It's all quite transparent - as it should be I suppose. I feel I'm getting an understanding of what's happening now. It is truly an amazing insight into the Reddit mindset. Sad, I'm afraid, as posters appear to be quite worried and aware of their upvotes, downvotes and Karma. Strange, since Karma as a currency has no value outside Reddit.


I agree there's less knowledge on the financial subreddits which is why I've tried to encourage knowledgeable members here to check it out. But why do you keep going back to /r/popular? Do you consider yourself into pop culture? If not unsubscribe and subscribe to subreddits you do enjoy or are interested in!



like_to_retire said:


> Entire posts appear to be launched for the sole purpose of obtaining Karma. Redditt's idea to float better posts to the top and lower poor posts to obscurity has created a cult of responses that are jaded by this overhanging monitor. This is definitely what separates Reddit from classic forums - full stop.


Yes this is a known problem. This is why OC or original content is heavily encouraged and reposts are supposed to be discouraged, but unfortunately some reposts and karma farming exist. People often comment on the most popular comments probably for karma as well. Again I unsubscribe from these over populated subreddits full of karma farming addicts



like_to_retire said:


> I do understand that Reddit feels their system is a way to preclude trolling and bots, and so boosting the quality of the posts, but low Karma users don't appear to care so they troll anyway. Users with high Karma certainly seem to receive higher respect and can get away with more infractions. There is a definite class system in action. I do think the Reddit system removes the problem that classic forums have with poor moderation. In a classic forum such as CMF, trolls can make the experience quite miserable if there isn't good moderation. With decent moderation, where a troll is simply removed, the classic forum model is superior in my opinion. With Reddit, a lot of this is handled by the mob.


They can always troll but down voted comments get buried and hidden unless you scroll down to them or open them if it was under a popular comment



like_to_retire said:


> I've specifically followed financial posts over the course of several days to see what happens. All I can say is that posters that have financial questions would be well served by coming to CMF and asking their question to the members here and then a discussion could begin. Unfortunately they might have to put up with insult flinging among members since CMF is basically a free for all. Your question at Reddit is a flash in the pan, and so a good response can get lost in the weeds and is never fully dealt with.


Fair enough but I think the advantage of reddit is for breaking news and updates. Noobs would be better served by reading the sidebar links, wikis, resources, pinned FAQs or just using google as these topics have probably been discussed ad nauseam online already. People don't want to read those threads over and over everyday they want to see news and updates imo, so those threads will drop fast unless it's a unique question. Many subreddits have collaborated to build and share resources in google docs etc and link them in the sidebars or sticky threads



like_to_retire said:


> Given the millennial penchant for useless social media banter, a lot of answers to posted questions appear to be quick, one sentence verdicts, much like a text message. I've taken to answer a few questions with long dissertations that hopefully answer the OPs question and it appears as a rare anomaly on Reddit with its usual shotgun style. I've gained some large Karma with these posts, but then summarily lost it when I act like a dickhead in /r/popular to test the system.


Long response often bubble to the top in subreddits I follow like /r/history /askscience /aviation /space /philosphy etc. Subreddits I follow about my interests like /r/WildernessBackpacking will have long posts about months of backpacking across continents with detailed questions and responses. I posted a question to /r/Ultralight and discovered a quality cottage industry products I never knew existed, saving me from learning the same mistakes others with more experience have already learned and developed solutions to on reddit itself. I have since discovered many quality cottage industry products, an underground industry entirely unknown to the old brick and mortar shoppers



like_to_retire said:


> I also notice that if you offer a decent response to a basic financial question, if you can get even a few upvotes that lifts you to the number one position and highest answer in the thread (not that difficult given the general terse answers offered), then this garners you even more upvotes as no one reads past the first few responses. It's almost like an exponential Karma getter. Crazy.


Recently someone posted a picture of a rare military installation I have worked at. I simply posted what it was called, what it was for, and that I had worked there and it tripled my karma count. I think this is because people just wanted to know what it was and what it was for so they could google it or ask questions. Even the OP didn't necessarily know what it was as it is a large unusual looking structure.



like_to_retire said:


> I admit there are a lot of posts in Reddit /r/popular that I completely don't understand. I mean, I totally don't understand what the post is about. It's some sort of inside hipster dufous talk for the cool crowd. Then I can subsequently read scores if not hundreds of responses to that nonsensical post that again make no more sense to me than if they were written in Martian. WTF? There's an entire cool hipster crowd that exists in another plane than this old fool, but I'm gonna guess none of these exchanges are worth more than the time of the day.


I actually don't understand most of the comments on /r/popular. I believe they're mostly quoting obscure movies or shows or video games and then others continue the quote. You will even see people say "ahh finally a reference on reddit I actually get" I don't watch movies, tv or play video games so I never get those references either. Again why are you still subscribed to /popular anyways?



like_to_retire said:


> If you really want some Karma on Reddit, post a cute cat video. Then you're gold.


I think you have a fair analysis of reddit but I still think it is a more advanced platform than traditional forums with linear discussons. There are downsides to a democratic society (I forget the name of a netflixish show that had a future society where everyone wore their number like a reddit karma and everything was based on popular opinion..) On the other hand I find it does a good job of sorting out good content based on some unknown algorithm of time, clicks and votes. The result is I don't have to read everything to discover the valuable content myself.

I use a news aggregator called Haystack on Apple TV. I can select news sources and tags that I'm interested in or block ones I'm not interested in and it will show me clicks from news around the world. I find it much better than watching any one news source as they all have their own slant. Reddit is kind of similar it just pulls information I'm interested in efficiently. Less signal to noise as GoldStone put it


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## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

I got into redditt a month ago and I am still in the befuddled mode. If LTR and M3S would post some favoured subreddits and other strategy discussion, I would greatly appreciate it. Imagine you have been away from any connection for a couple of weeks. How do you approach the beast?


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## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

Eclectic12 said:


> I guess I am the odd man out where I was participating in dialup chat forums in the '80s. The big improvement in the late '80s was the offline readers that enabled one to connect for few minutes to download all the messages, read what one choose then respond at one's leisure without a connection then reconnect for a few minutes to add responses.


Yes I remember belonging to a Chicago "dialup" group without actually dialing.


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## like_to_retire (Oct 9, 2016)

kcowan said:


> I got into redditt a month ago and I am still in the befuddled mode. If LTR and M3S would post some favoured subreddits and other strategy discussion, I would greatly appreciate it. Imagine you have been away from any connection for a couple of weeks. How do you approach the beast?


The three Canadian forums (called subreddits) that I subscribe to are r/PersonalFinanceCanada, r/CanadianInvestor, r/FICan. You simply enter a forum address (one of the three I mention) into the search bar at the top of the page and that forum (subreddit will appear on the screen). Then click the subscribe button on the right hand side. Then when you next visit Reddit, that's the forum it will show as your Home page. Continue adding subreddits and they'll all appear in order of popularity on your home page. You can unsubscribe to any if you don't like them on your home page at any time.

For convenience at the top right of the page will be a direct link to the /r/popular and the /r/all subreddits where you'll find just about every crazy thing you can think of... like cat videos. To get back to your home page, there's an icon for that too.

If you don't like a comment in a post, then click the downvote arrow, or if you like it, click the up arrow. You can also up and down click the entire post. Or you can simply read and do nothing.

Try that and ask more when needed. I'll try and answer - novice that I am.

ltr


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## Eder (Feb 16, 2011)

bgc_fan said:


> The days of BBSes and FidoNET. I can't say that I really miss those days, but there was probably more of a community feel as they were local dial-ups.
> 
> I wonder if there is a dial connect ring tone for phones out there.


http://thew0rd.com/media/thew0rd56k.mp3

56k though...couldn't find the USR Sportster 8.8k


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## like_to_retire (Oct 9, 2016)

m3s said:


> I agree there's less knowledge on the financial subreddits which is why I've tried to encourage knowledgeable members here to check it out. But why do you keep going back to /r/popular? Do you consider yourself into pop culture? If not unsubscribe and subscribe to subreddits you do enjoy or are interested in!


haha, yeah, I don't actually subscribe to /r/popular, I just keep clicking the /popular icon at the top of the page after I've finished reading the financial sections that I'm subscribed to. It's kind of like driving down the highway and there's a car wreck. You just can't not look.

Thanks for your patient response to my observations. I always learn some new things from your tutelage. 

ltr


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

kcowan said:


> I got into redditt a month ago and I am still in the befuddled mode. If LTR and M3S would post some favoured subreddits and other strategy discussion, I would greatly appreciate it. Imagine you have been away from any connection for a couple of weeks. How do you approach the beast?


r/PersonalFinanceCanada is probably the closest to CMF then look in the sidebar for similar subreddits like r/personalfinance r/investing r/cantax r/CanadianInvestor r/fican r/financialindependence I also like r/leanfire

r/WorldNews is pretty good for breaking new alerts from the app not necessarily being covered by the CNN types. I got rid of most of the default subs besides r/history r/askscience r/philosophy etc r/IAmA gets celebrities from time to time

I'm relatively new to reddit but I've found good communities in the hiking, backpacking, camping, travel type subs. I also follow military ones especially while outside my organization and some niche topics I'm learning about at the time

It seems like your personal feed depends on what you've been clicking on recently which I'm not sure I like. Kind of like how facebook feeds depend on your location and who you've interacted with lately and other unknown algorithms

The karma is kind of pointless but it is very satisfying when you get into a "heated discussion" with someone and later see they were downvoted so much they deleted their own comments. I don't think these are necessarily always trolls


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## GoldStone (Mar 6, 2011)

m3s said:


> It seems like your personal feed depends on what you've been clicking on recently which I'm not sure I like.


I don't think this is true on reddit.

When you go to reddit.com as a logged user, you land on what they call your Home Page. It shows the content of your subscribed sub-reddits. Nothing else.

/r/all is the Front Page. It shows the entire content of reddit without any filters. You can sort it by "hot", "new", "rising", etc. Hot = already popular. Rising = becoming popular. You can enter your own filters to exclude certain sub-reddits from /r/all. I am not aware of any algorithms beyond that.

/r/popular is just a filtered version of /r/all. It's basically /r/all minus NSFW content, minus sub-reddits that other users consistently filter out on their /r/all. For example, /r/popular excludes politics. This is because many users filter out political sub-reddits when they visit /r/all.


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## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

m3s said:


> I'm relatively new to reddit but I've found good communities in the hiking, backpacking, camping, travel type subs. I also follow military ones especially while outside my organization and some niche topics I'm learning about at the time.


Thanks to you and LTR. I have gone back and managed my subscriptions and the home page is now quite usable. Will give it a try daily for a while and continue to pare it down.


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