Bitcoin Forum

Hey guys, I started a Bitcoin News website 2 months ago with some friends who are also Bitcoin enthusiasts.

One week ago, we got permanently URL blocked, and IP address blocked from posting on Reddit Bitcoin. Our traffic numbers have tumbled since then, we have lost nearly 70% of our traffic since this ban.

What we discovered is many people are only going to Reddit Bitcoin for news. Reddit Bitcoin is heavily censored, and is now an additional central point of failure for Bitcoin. I think we need to get the news back on Bitcoin Talk!

You can read the full story of how my website got banned here:

http://bitcoinpricelive.com/bitcoinpricelive-banned-from-reddit/

Thank you for reading.

So this proves you were spamming Reddit for site traffic, and the block stopped that.

-B-

We were submitting our articles there because this is the main place people are getting Bitcoin news. Yes, we broke the rules of spamming there, but our URL is permanently blocked with no warning from them, so nobody can ever submit one of articles there.

Do you think it is a problem that people are getting are only getting news from Reddit Bitcoin?

One post to Reddit gets more traffic than posting here and 10 other social networks combined. We are trying to figure out how to reach people interested in reading about Bitcoin.

I repudiate such a blocking, of this site, without any warning from the subreddit moderators.
I support this cause.

Why should the rules not apply to you guys as well?

We are asking that our URL be unblocked, not so that we can spam again, but that if a reader of ours wanted to post they can. Right now, none of articles can ever reach Reddit Bitcoin again, and submitting one of our articles will get your Reddit account banned too.

Don't know if you have noticed, but places like WIRED magazine have their articles submitted to over 10+ subreddits and nobody says this is spam. Why is that? I am not saying we are the same as Wired... but I do not think it so unreasonable for us to submit our articles to Reddit Bitcoin only.

Where else should we share the articles then? We've tried every other social network and the traffic is tiny compared to Reddit.

Nobody thinks it is an issue that most people just get their Bitcoin news from Reddit only? And the fact that this is a heavily censored medium?  

For what it is worth, there are multiple CoinDesk articles almost every day on Reddit Bitcoin and this is not considered spam.

If the articles we write suck, then they will get down-voted anyways. Should it not be people voting on there?

Or you would like a moderator who knows nothing about Bitcoin decide what the Bitcoin news is?

Oh come on, Bitcoin's success does not rely on Reddit. Stop being butthurt that you broke Reddit's rules and they banned your site as punishment.

I never said Bitcoin's success depends on Reddit. I am pointing out that most people are only going to Reddit Bitcoin for news. This is something I had no idea about before trying to create a news site.

It would be nice if there was another place that has as many readers for Bitcoin as Reddit. Unfortunately, even these forums which I read get tiny traffic compared to Reddit Bitcoin.

Do I think that it is a problem for people to choose where they get their Bitcoin news from?  No, not at all.

I don't use Reddit, but apparently a lot of people do.  They make the choice that is right for them.  Reddit's moderators work to constantly adjust to attract and retain their readers, and if the readers don't like the block for your site, they will vote with their feet.  It's possible they like the current Reddit rules very much.  Noone is making them use it.

I suggest you work to add more value to your site.  I've found several sources of Bitcoin news without ever using Reddit.  If you are valuable, word will get around.

Some of the replies seem to think that I am making tons of money from driving traffic to the site. Actually, I am running without ads and have not made a single dollar from the site. I enjoy writing about Bitcoin and my friends do too.

We started the site because we felt CoinDesk was mainly just reporting mainstream opinions.

Yea, we have no idea where to get readers from now as the main source perma-banned us with no warning.

I'll rephrase it, you said:
Reddit's Bitcoin section does not create a central point of failure for Bitcoin. Bitcoin's success or failure will be totally independent of the Bitcoin subreddit.

How do you know that most people only go to Reddit for bitcoin news? Because your site lost a ton of traffic after being banned? Could easily be because your site is new and people were mainly aware of it from the links posted on Reddit.

Go visit Reddit Bitcoin right now. There 1,097 people there now, and 138,773 "readers". Please show me any other place that is remotely close.

We know this information from talking to other news sites, and asking many people who have said they only check Reddit Bitcoin for news.

We setup a Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Youtube... we do get some traffic from these. However, it is trivial compared to Reddit.

No, I have no idea how other news sites are getting lots of users. What I can say is that if you site is allowed to post on Reddit it is a HUGE advantage in the Bitcoin space.

For other topics, Reddit is not so important.

How are you doing at retaining the readers you already have?

You have no plan to get readers from other than at the expense of Reddit.

How does Reddit get readers?  Maybe you should do what they do.

What I am hearing here is a big entitlement mentality - you feel entitled to have Reddit (a private entity) treat you "fairly" (in your opinion of fair).  You feel entitled to get readers and make a site, even though you really don't know how to do so.  You feel entitled to build your site with assistance from other sites - at the expense of them having to limit themselves and not take actions that they feel are in their own best interest.

We need many sources for the news also we could do with more forums, agree with the central point of failure issue we face.  The upvote system at reddit makes it better equipped to show people what is important in bitcoin at any given time faster vs bitcointalk.

Pretty decent... through our other social networks like the FB, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube, etc.

For example, we have 7 subscribers to our mailing list... sick brag yea

How is Reddit limited by my site? If I submit an article about Bitcoin to the Bitcoin sub-reddit I fail to see who was hurt.

Like I said, if it is a poor article it will get down votes, and not many people will see it. Why do you need a moderator to tell you what to read there?

And I admit I have no idea how to create a Bitcoin news site. That is what I am trying to figure out.

The problem for my site is we have no clue how to get traffic without Reddit... I am open to suggestions.

I think you need to give the readers you have incentive to stay and incentive to attract new readers.  There is no advertising technique better than word of mouth.  People talk to each other, and they don't just talk on Reddit.  (As I said, I don't read Reddit at all.)

As for limiting Reddit, I mean you are wishing that they would limit themselves by refraining from taking an action that is perfectly within their rights to take.  They feel that certain rules about URL postings are in their best interests and the best interests of their readers.  Apparently many of their readers agree!!  There's nothing wrong with wishing they did differently, asking them to do differently, asking other people to support you by also asking them to do differently - but if that's the only plan you've got, I wouldn't hold out a lot of optimism.  That's also pretty lame.

Basically you need to educate yourself and learn how to attract readers, rather than relying on Reddit.

In fact, I think you should consider Reddit to be your competition: what have they got that you haven't got?  Start supplying that, and then some.  Make friends with people who have built high traffic sites, and learn from them.

It is my personal opinion that if you build a good site, people will come, and that people who focus overly hard on promotion of the site rather than building the quality of the site probably don't have a lot of quality there.  I'm not always correct, but it has been a good rule of thumb for me.

I like a wide variety of news sources as much as the next guy, never heard of yours but I'm open to all.

However, this doesn't mean that you can violate reddit's spam rules and complain when they ban you, as is their clearly stated policy.

You then double broke the rules buying alt accounts and trying to spam further?

Seriously, have you even read the rules of the site?  It sounds to me as if you still haven't, despite all this.

Going to re-analyze a few of your statements:


That's what they want to do!  And apparently Reddit's policies (which you call censorship and they call spam prevention) are what their readers want, because apparently they are fantastically successful.

If they are making a mistake, their readers will leave them.


This could only be true if there were something other than market forces responsible for Reddit's success.  They are regulated by their market, just like all of the rest of us.

Even in a non-profit venture, you are regulated by your market.


Now that I agree with!  I have no idea why people would rather go to Reddit than here.  I get my news from here and a handful of other places, none of which is Reddit.

But really I seem to eventually hear most of what I need to hear, even if it takes awhile to get from Reddit to here.

Yes, we broke the rules by posting our own articles there... I guess Coin Desk only has their readers post their articles there, and nobody from Coin Desk has ever themselves submitted an article.

As I wrote, we never received a warning that we violated any rules. My account was banned while I had paid ads as well running on the site. I had no idea the rules were so strict there.

We only bought a Reddit account off Fiverr to verify that our URL is indeed blocked. AND my IP address and any IP associated with me is also blocked. Not sure what the danger was in buying a Reddit account when our URL was already permanently blocked?

We never once got a complaint from Reddit Bitcoin. It was a top level moderator who banned us and knew nothing about Bitcoin.

Read about Reddit bans, many people get permanently banned because they disagree with some random moderator.

Reddit has created the most powerful sharing platform in the world... that does not mean they are operating it optimally though.

Their policies change without notice... we were sharing for over a month on there with no problems; our articles usually got some upvotes.

Reddit permanently banned my URL, but said I could still do paid advertising with them. How does that make any sense to you?

You have to keep in mind that Reddit is accountable to the people who read on their site and to the people who run the site - not to people who want to use their site to build traffic.  The very fact that you want to do that puts you firmly in a category where they are not going to care what you think about their policies.  They don't have to warn you, they don't have to be fair to you, they don't have to be consistent - and they are not wrong for doing any of this.  They can do whatever they want with their site - it's theirs!

Pick any site with user submitted content and more than one moderator and I can find you posts elsewhere from people complaining they were banned just because they disagree.  That's fine.  Sites can do what they want!

Reddit is just not that into you!

neither you, nor your "readers" should be allowed to spam reddit. 
i hope your "readers" don't start a new post here for every one of your articles or the same wll happen to you on bct.

Reddit has always been stricter than any other website and that's why they have a nice community. If you want to post a link of your spam free website, first thing you need to do is to send a message to any sub-reddit mods and explain nicely.

If you break the rules to the extend that your website gets banned then there is no reason why your website should get unbanned. The likely reason that other reputable news organizations have their articles submitted to reddit is because many people already read them without going to reddit and submit them independently and find them interesting/useful.

I am not sure if you are the same as 'banksworstfear.com' but you very much remind me of them, as you both are in very similar situations

Found out about them yesterday while searching for information about Reddit bans.

Interestingly enough his site was also running ad free as mine is... yet CCN and CoinDesk which have lots of ads, have their articles on Reddit Bitcoin every day. Just because it comes from a bigger user base, means they should be able to make money off it?