I like Reddit.

On average the signal to noise ratio is great, and a scan through the hot list is usually a very worthwhile venture. The wide range of topics makes it more entertaining and informative than many tech-only sites, but it still has enough tech-related info to feel pertinent to the software development profession.

I've also received a substantial number of hits from Reddit over the past couple of months, with no less than 5 entries hitting the front page for periods of time, with each of them yielded 6000+ inbound visitors. Though these are of no profit to me, it is satisfying that many of these visitors left great comments and sent interesting emails, and found the entries informative or educational. After each onslaught the number of RSS subscribers jumps by a hefty amount.

Early on I admittingly submitted a couple of my longer, more thought-out posts to Reddit, thinking it would help exposure a bit, but became a bit discouraged by the whole exercise after seeing them instantly start descending into the negative range. Pure speculation, but my guess is that some rather unsportsmanlike submitters are automatically "voting down" everything in proximity of their addition, hoping to make their own submission stand out in relation (it's the only rational explanation for the almost instant vote downs). I would also guess that many users skip over low-ranked new items, so it basically becomes a race to get the first couple of up votes before it's voted into oblivion, and then a continued series of up votes to offset the continual downvotes.

This came to mind as I was just "testing out" the quicklinks that I just added on posts. I discovered a case of a single entry that had been submitted to Reddit three different times from different areas of the blog (which is a "benefit" of users who subscribe to and read the different areas). I've put these in order, determined by the obvious sequential ID that Reddit adds. I'm not sure of the specific times of each of them.

http://reddit.com/info?id=14ev - This was added from the home page version. It earned a forgettable score of 1.

http://reddit.com/info?id=14lu - This was apparently added referencing the static version located here. It earned a healthy -4 score. Perhaps because it was a duplicate of the prior one.

http://reddit.com/info?id=14sm - This was added from the Software Development version. It earned a very respectable score of 204, and I knew about this one because of a substantial impact on the visits over a two day period.

The exact same content, in different forms, yielded a 1, a -4, and a front-page for two days 204. Whether it was because of titles, time of day, or simply luck of the draw (that the last one got momentum before the haters started downvoting), it is a fascinating demonstration that these sorts of web democracies aren't always a meritocrasy.

Just thought that was a little fascinating.