Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Steps Aside, Focuses on Initialized Capital • Hacker News Board

Re: Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Steps Aside, Focuses on Initialized Capital

#91

Post by leetcrew » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 9:00 PM UTC

bfuller wrote: post #71

ythn wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is still just as much hate on the site except now it is just seething under the surface Yeah but if your vast majority of users doesn't see it or know where to find it, who cares? I've been a reddit user for 2 years and never encountered the subreddits you are talking about nor have I sought them out. The "solution" you are talking about is heavy-handed speech moderation

Heavy handed speech moderation is what is starting to happen on reddit. It works on HN

although the format is similar, reddit and HN are very different sites, and imo that's a good thing.

when i visit HN, i expect the articles to be topical and for the discourse to be informative and interesting. somewhat amazingly, my expectations are usually met here, which makes the site quite a gem.

at the same time, i don't always want that. sometimes i just want to see a true train wreck unfold in the comments. in a way i even appreciate the donald trump and hate subreddits. if there are ideologies spreading that can impact my life, i would prefer to go to the source and read their actual words than have the ny times regurgitate them to me.

there are benefits to the hands-on moderation and the wild west styles. the only optimal solution is having a wide range of choices.

Re: Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Steps Aside, Focuses on Initialized Capital

#92

Post by staunch » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 9:03 PM UTC

Reddit is at a stage where it can attract as much help as it needs, so this seems like a great thing.

The startup world has always lacked for investors smart enough to grasp new stuff, brave enough to be first, and ethical/humble enough to attract the great founders.

Looking forward to seeing the investments!

Re: Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Steps Aside, Focuses on Initialized Capital

#93

Post by etjossem » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 9:23 PM UTC

tzahola wrote: post #78

etjossem wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From your source: - The DNC was not paying Correct The Record. Like all super PACs, Correct The Record made independent expenditures on behalf of supportive donors around the country, and you can find their names here: https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgave2.php?cycle=2016&cmt... - Correct The Record had about a dozen full-time content producers writing favorable posts about the Democratic candidate online. I'm not…

Thank You for Correcting The Record!

Zing!

Re: Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Steps Aside, Focuses on Initialized Capital

#94

Post by qbaqbaqba » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 9:29 PM UTC

ythn wrote: post #70

slg wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The stories of Reddit's problems with harassment, racism, and sexism have decreased over the last year but that appears to be mostly from the site doing a better job of hiding it. There is still just as much hate on the site except now it is just seething under the surface. I am sure that is better from an investor perspective, but it isn't really a solution to the problems.

> There is still just as much hate on the site except now it is just seething under the surface Yeah but if your vast majority of users doesn't see it or know where to find it, who cares? I've been a reddit user for 2 years and never encountered the subreddits you are talking about nor have I sought them out. The "solution" you are talking about is heavy-handed speech moderation

>who cares?

Victims?

Re: Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Steps Aside, Focuses on Initialized Capital

#95

Post by Karunamon » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 9:40 PM UTC

etjossem wrote: post #84

Karunamon wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why the whataboutism here? No, I would not like to address these accounts and the questionable methodology that was used to get that "328 million" number, because it's irrelevant to the question. As to the question, the answer unfortunately requires some familiarity with Reddit and having been a regular user there for a while. /r/politics is the big one since it was a "default" community up until that concept was eli…

I did some digging, and your evidence of "obvious pro-Hillary botting" (your [2] above) is an alt-right photoshop. They couldn't find any real evidence of this happening, so they fabricated their own. Here's how. The William_Trevino post is a real post on Reddit that was used as a template: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/search?q=author%3AWilliam_... But all the other "FirstName_LastName" entries were edited in by…

Your methodology is flawed. I just searched my own Reddit account which I deleted early 2015, which was around for five years and had thousands of comments and 100ish posts, and it identically returns no results of any kind.

https://www.reddit.com/search?q=author%3A+Karunamon&sort=rel...

Now, if we take the same search to Google, you see [deleted] posts by me, and posts that reference my name:

https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=cnF7WqfTHI7ctQXJt...

If we grab a random account from that image, say frank_calder, we get results:

https://www.google.com/search?ei=n3F7WqD7E8W2sAXu1ZzIBg&q=si...

Including one that calls out the botted nature of that account by name:

https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/4vsk1e/a_tour_of_ac...

And with some more digging, we can turn up their actual posts:

howard_lowery: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm8e2/paul_ryan_...

john_valtierra: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm7zz/could_sput...

frank_calder: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm88x/donald_tru...

terry_moore: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm79m/khizr_khan...

carlos_liu: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm8xn/donald_tru...

Reddit's search is and always has been awful.

This accounts for every user called out on that image. I'd thank you not to call me a liar in the future.

I've gone ahead and not flagged you because I don't abuse the flag feature against people who make mistakes, given your utterly baseless and easily disproved assertion that those accounts were photoshopped onto this image.

Re: Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Steps Aside, Focuses on Initialized Capital

#96

Post by slg » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 9:46 PM UTC

coryrc wrote: post #81

slg wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These things never stay contained though. The hate subreddits feed off of and seep into the rest of the site. In the old days someone had to make a conscious decision to visit a site like Stromfront. You weren't going to go there unless you already were interested in racist ideals. On Reddit those ideals are mixed in with everything else. This makes it harder to notice you are being exposed to hate and/or influenced…

In the old days someone had to make a conscious decision to visit a site like SPLC. You weren't going to go there unless you already were interested in racist ideals. On Reddit those ideals are mixed in with everything else.

This is the exact type of thing I am talking about. You see this bothsiderism all over the place on Reddit. I am sure the author of this comment doesn't think of themselves as a racist (and perhaps there was sarcasm intended in this comment that is lost in the printed word). Many users might read this comment without considering it is racist. Yet the comment is drawing a direct parallel between Stormfront and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Equating those two as opposite and morally equal sides of the same issue is an inherently racist idea.

For the sake of comparison, here is the first paragraph of the Wikipedia entry for each:

Stormfront is a white nationalist, white supremacist and neo-Nazi Internet forum, and the Web's first major racial hate site.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is noted for its successful legal cases against white supremacist groups, its classification of hate groups and other extremist organizations, and for promoting tolerance education programs.

Re: Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Steps Aside, Focuses on Initialized Capital

#97

Post by Karunamon » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 9:47 PM UTC

pentagonpapers wrote: post #88

etjossem wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did some digging, and your evidence of "obvious pro-Hillary botting" (your [2] above) is an alt-right photoshop. They couldn't find any real evidence of this happening, so they fabricated their own. Here's how. The William_Trevino post is a real post on Reddit that was used as a template: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/search?q=author%3AWilliam_... But all the other "FirstName_LastName" entries were edited in by…

Is it possible that those users were deleted after this was revealed?

That appears to be what has happened. Contrary to etjossem's post, Google still has the history of their posts.

howard_lowery: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm8e2/paul_ryan_...

john_valtierra: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm7zz/could_sput...

frank_calder: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm88x/donald_tru...

terry_moore: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm79m/khizr_khan...

carlos_liu: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm8xn/donald_tru...

All appear to be single-purpose accounts that only posted in /r/politics, all are currently banned or deleted.

Re: Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Steps Aside, Focuses on Initialized Capital

#98

Post by throwahey » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 10:11 PM UTC

FireBeyond wrote: post #85

throwahey wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit is not even pretending to be fair and balanced. They lean far to the left (or pander to them) and the front page is often filled with anti-Trump, pro-Democrat propaganda. Free and fair discussion is a lost cause on that platform, 45 has made anyone with conservative values an enemy.

Just like the banned subreddit /r/The_Donald, right? Reddit would not allow Pro Trump posts.

They actively remove posts from that sub when they hit the front page.

Re: Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Steps Aside, Focuses on Initialized Capital

#99

Post by shostack » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 10:57 PM UTC

albertgoeswoof wrote: post #63

hglaser wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's likely that the largest advertisers don't use the self-serve ad manager. They call their rep who operates the system for them. This is why the self-serve ad managers for AdWords, Facebook Ads, etc. are all pretty unloved.

This is correct, all large companies use agencies to place their ads, almost never direct.

Ex-agency guy here, now client side. This is not the full picture.

Just because brands outsource media management to agencies doesn't mean the many business reasons for improving the UI go away.

As someone who has collaborated with Google engineers and PMs on such things before, I can confidently say they care quite a bit.

You see, agencies margins are in part dictated by how much time it takes to do "low impact" but "mid-high" effort activities like reporting and day to day campaign management. It takes real people hours to do those things and if to platforms are delivering otherwise comparable performance, at the agency level, they will push towards things that deliver higher margins. Which might be the platform that lets them get the most done with the least effort.

And I'd also add that i think AdWords and FB have some of the most user-friendly interfaces for such an advanced and massive feature set compared to other players in the industry.

Re: Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Steps Aside, Focuses on Initialized Capital

#100

Post by shostack » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 10:59 PM UTC

wldcordeiro wrote: post #86

debacle wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Far more advertising, better CPMs, sponsored content (AMAs), and selling dark patterns as marketing strategy.

They've already started! They're A/B testing the sign-up modal being uncloseable which of course means it'll pass because some marketing schmuck can say "See we get conversions!"

Can you elaborate on this test? Do you mean they are leaning towards not letting you browse Reddit without signing in? Or rather moving away from unverified accounts without an email attached?