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Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

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Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#41

Post by cryptica »

austincheney wrote: post #25
cryptica wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What?? I enjoy reading Hacker News and commenting, but Reddit is a lot more open and puts a higher value on free speech and contrarian ideologies (some of it is borderline horrible, but that's OK, that's the price of free speech). I'd be more worried about him bringing HN policies to Reddit. Trying to get superficially good behavior from users by punishing contrarian views isn't going to work in this case. But it wor…

> Reddit is a lot more open and puts a higher value on free speech I disagree in the strongest possible terms. So much of Reddit is a populist echo chamber, which is the opposite of free speech.

Well if you're poor, you have no free speech in any case. Populism is just a desperate way for the poor working class to acquire free speech by leveling the playing field... Sometimes that means taking the whole economy down but poor people don't care at all about the economy; especially when they already don't have jobs. What do they have to lose?

Populism is rational and rooted entirely in capitalist self-interest. What the rich don't understand about populism is that these people are not misguided or manipulated. They know exactly what's going on, they know that populism will destroy the economy, but this is exactly what they want.

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#42

Post by gkoberger »

tmpz22 wrote: post #22

I struggle to see any successful path for reddit that doesn’t devolve into being more like Facebook. Godspeed to the new CEO and I look forward to hearing their vision for the company.

Same CEO; this is a new board member (who happens to be CEO of YC).

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#43

Post by nine_k »

obilgic wrote: post #19
nisuni wrote: post #13

I am sorry for him. I know as a fact that he’s brilliant and fully deserves the position, but given the circumstances (Ohanian resigning and calling for someone black to replace him) he will always have to live with people having the reasonable doubt that he didn’t arrive there for merit alone.

You could say that to any "first X to become/do Y"

No; some of the first to become have become them in spite their being special (a black, a white, a woman, etc).

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#44

Post by krrrh »

bluedino wrote: post #12

Posing the question to gain more familiarity with African-Americans in tech: who were the other candidates for this position?

It’s a board seat for a company that produces a cultural product, there is no reason it had to be another person in tech, though there may have been an unstated intention to make sure that the representation of YC associated individuals on the board stayed the same or increased.

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#45

Post by dvtrn »

austincheney wrote: post #25
cryptica wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What?? I enjoy reading Hacker News and commenting, but Reddit is a lot more open and puts a higher value on free speech and contrarian ideologies (some of it is borderline horrible, but that's OK, that's the price of free speech). I'd be more worried about him bringing HN policies to Reddit. Trying to get superficially good behavior from users by punishing contrarian views isn't going to work in this case. But it wor…

> Reddit is a lot more open and puts a higher value on free speech I disagree in the strongest possible terms. So much of Reddit is a populist echo chamber, which is the opposite of free speech.

Is this a problem with Reddit the company or the subreddits you are completely free to browse or not browse and participate in?

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#46

Post by bluedino »

obilgic wrote: post #19
nisuni wrote: post #13

I am sorry for him. I know as a fact that he’s brilliant and fully deserves the position, but given the circumstances (Ohanian resigning and calling for someone black to replace him) he will always have to live with people having the reasonable doubt that he didn’t arrive there for merit alone.

You could say that to any "first X to become/do Y"

More like "first to be appointed to"

There rarely negative connotation attached to accomplishing something or earning something based on merit and not some other factor. It's seen along the lines of nepotism.

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#47

Post by brianberns »

LyndsySimon wrote: post #16

Serious question - since Ohanian has publicly stated that he urged the board to replace him with black candidate, is there a possibility that could face an EEOC charge? Perhaps this doesn’t apply, as there may not be “applicants” depending upon how their bylaws are set up - without applicants I’m not sure who would have standing.

EEOC says "In most circumstances, individuals who are partners, officers, members of boards of directors, or major shareholders will not qualify as employees."

https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/section-2-threshold-issue...

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#48

Post by casefields »

adewinter wrote: post #33
LyndsySimon wrote: post #16

Serious question - since Ohanian has publicly stated that he urged the board to replace him with black candidate, is there a possibility that could face an EEOC charge? Perhaps this doesn’t apply, as there may not be “applicants” depending upon how their bylaws are set up - without applicants I’m not sure who would have standing.

Just because Ohanian asked doesn't mean they had to do it. One can therefore conclude that they still chose a suitable candidate and would have chosen a differently colored candidate could they not find a suitable black candidate.

I think it's all fine. But do you, or anyone else, really believe anything but a black person was going to be picked?

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#49

Post by gpm »

adewinter wrote: post #33
LyndsySimon wrote: post #16

Serious question - since Ohanian has publicly stated that he urged the board to replace him with black candidate, is there a possibility that could face an EEOC charge? Perhaps this doesn’t apply, as there may not be “applicants” depending upon how their bylaws are set up - without applicants I’m not sure who would have standing.

Just because Ohanian asked doesn't mean they had to do it. One can therefore conclude that they still chose a suitable candidate and would have chosen a differently colored candidate could they not find a suitable black candidate.

They said that they were going to honor his wish...

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#50

Post by Natsu »

adewinter wrote: post #33
LyndsySimon wrote: post #16

Serious question - since Ohanian has publicly stated that he urged the board to replace him with black candidate, is there a possibility that could face an EEOC charge? Perhaps this doesn’t apply, as there may not be “applicants” depending upon how their bylaws are set up - without applicants I’m not sure who would have standing.

Just because Ohanian asked doesn't mean they had to do it. One can therefore conclude that they still chose a suitable candidate and would have chosen a differently colored candidate could they not find a suitable black candidate.

I saw media coverage claiming the board agreed to his request. I don't know how accurate it was, though.
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