HACKER Q&A
📣 rizs12

Where can I find human-generated content now that I've quit Reddit?


I am so used to appending 'reddit' to the end of every Google search that I am now at a loss as to where I can find human content that isn't SEO optimised (and bullshit).

I've had enough of Reddit - partly because it's so full of spam and bots and general bullshit. I've blocked my browser from accessing Reddit, to ensure I kick the habit.

I've tried using duckduckgo instead of google search but that hasn't made much of a difference.

  👤 atlintots Accepted Answer ✓
There are some free ([1], [2]) and paid ([3]) search engines targeting smaller/indie websites. You might also enjoy [4], though it's not a search engine.

[1]: https://search.marginalia.nu/

[2]: https://wiby.me/

[3]: https://kagi.com/

[4]: https://bearblog.dev/discover/

👤 oshout
If you search in google with a time-qualifier you'll probably get better results, especially for 'current-event stuff (but it works with nearly anything!)

do your search on Google, then click "Tools" then click the dropdown box which says "any time" and select either a generic time from the picklist or click "custom range" and specify your own date range.

The above works really well for cutting out SEO BS, and it's a great method to get past propaganda or whatever topic & opinion is being pushed (for example: if you search "Haitian Cat" you will get a bunch of results from biased media pushing an agenda - all about September 15, 2024.. however, if you set the time-qualifier end date to "Sep 01, 2024" , bam your results are cleared up!)

more options: - use a different search engine (this one is paid with a trial - people say it's worth it!): https://kagi.com/

- I use a bookmark manager called raindrop.io - it makes offline copies, indexes , and allows you to tag things (among many other features). Sites which you come across that are especially cool or useful, tag "news source" or "source"- then, when you're looking for stuff - start there. It's a bit of a habit to be cognizant and on the lookout for 'cool sites' but once the ball is rolling it's super easy. This in itself isn't an exact solution but is a great way to build your own reference of sites you appreciate - and much more than a normal bookmark manager which simply saves the title of the page & URL.

- try an AI like perplexity which searches the internet and cites every statement it makes. It will probably cite reddit though-- maybe there's a way to prevent that.

I've been avoiding reddit for years and when it's brought up (especially professionally) I ask for alternative cites / sources.

👤 thothofc1
I am working on a platform project that aims to block bots and artificially generated posts.

Take a look:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15PbRtaWFr67lfVx8yonu9XIe7RW...

https://forms.gle/povkdgYYs7RW2sYu9

👤 octo-andrero
For some topics search here, at hackernews, may work very well. Some people submit links to theirs personal blog posts here. There's a newsletter that tries to find and get together all such posts for the last day. You may find it here https://hnblogs.substack.com/about . This newsletter is my current favorite way of reading hackernews.
👤 danjl
Discord servers seem to be growing in popularity. I think this may be one of the last bastions of human generated data, though eventually the AI bots will take over. The problem is it's really hard to find good servers. Oddly it seems like the better they are the less traffic they get.
👤 rickteng
Perhaps dark net still has. I think a deeper problem is that soon we may no longer be able to tell if a content is human-generated or not.
👤 michelsedgh
Adding reddit to end of results doesn’t help anymore it did for a short while until they ruined that too
👤 lobito25
books prior to 2023