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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

#191

Post by aSplash0fDerp »

metalens wrote: post #52
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.

I am not sorry for him. What is your definition of merit for a board position? As far as I know, board positions are often filled based on explicitly subjective criteria, e.g. such subjective criteria might be: Who is currently on the board and what personality/skillset/experience does the board need in order to balance its membership? Who does the company & board need in order to: raise as much money as possible, be…

As disposible as Internet things are, it's nice that we are seeing what "could happen" when disagreements occur (its less valuable now).

Even if Walmart or Amazon disappeared, there would be another company there to fill the void (and very few would miss them), so with online opinion boards being a sithoshi a dozen, seddit4u is not the same thing as reddit.

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#192

Post by nexuist »

nexuist wrote: post #184
throwawaypop wrote: post #169

Being a republican, I'm scared of the leadership choices social platforms are making. Michael Seibel is a pro-Democrat and anti republican and anti-Trump. For god sake, allow reddit to have free-speech and don't censor the voices of "silent majority" in the USA. P.S 60M American citizens voted for Trump.

I don't see why Republicans can't just use another platform like gab or voat if they think reddit has become hostile to them. Reddit being a private company has every right to control what ideologies are promoted on their pages just as you have every right to start your own reddit clone and moderate it however you feel. There's even an open source core with which to start from: https://github.com/reddit-archive/reddi…

I should also mention, that under capitalism nobody is ever entitled to another person's platform. I can't just interrupt a Taylor Swift concert and start talking about whatever issue I want just because she has an audience willing to listen. Why then should I be able to say whatever I want on Twitter when they are the ones paying to host my content?

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#193

Post by qball »

nexuist wrote: post #184
throwawaypop wrote: post #169

Being a republican, I'm scared of the leadership choices social platforms are making. Michael Seibel is a pro-Democrat and anti republican and anti-Trump. For god sake, allow reddit to have free-speech and don't censor the voices of "silent majority" in the USA. P.S 60M American citizens voted for Trump.

I don't see why Republicans can't just use another platform like gab or voat if they think reddit has become hostile to them. Reddit being a private company has every right to control what ideologies are promoted on their pages just as you have every right to start your own reddit clone and moderate it however you feel. There's even an open source core with which to start from: https://github.com/reddit-archive/reddi…

Payment processing and hosting aren't treated like phone companies; they're allowed to be discriminatory in who they do business with.

Is there a valid reason for that? No. Is the end result of there being no law forcing financial and manufacturers of modern printing presses like those to do business with everyone a threat to the First Amendment? Absolutely, and I'd argue the state has a compelling interest here to force them.

Until that changes, "just build your own platform" isn't helpful.

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#194

Post by Digory »

LyndsySimon wrote: post #160
screye wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think OP's point has to do with the perceived value of their moral signaling vs the actual morals themselves. It is a win-win for Reddit in terms of perception, whether they have to fight a case because of it or not. If anything, this would be an 'any publicity is good publicity' situation. Now if it is actually inline with a truly moral stance...who cares. In this system there are only 3 morals. Money, money and m…

I was explicitly not taking a position on the action itself. I’m honestly interested to see how this might open a company to litigation.

1. A director looks more like an employee post-AB5, so it could be employment discrimination in California.

2. Independent contractors are protected against some race-based mistreatment in California.

3. The Unruh Act prohibits California businesses from race discrimination in offering “advantages” and “privileges” to non employees.

4. The next employee fired will have a much better case that their employment was terminated based on race — as Reddit openly does make decisions based on race.

Granted, there are responses to all of these. Maybe even constitutional defenses. Maybe they’ll argue some other state’s laws apply, but all US states have pretty broad non discrimination laws — for a reason.

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#195

Post by ponker »

mindfulplay wrote: post #17

A dumb but serious question: what powers does a board of directors have? In terms of day to day operations, engineering, product, marketing and so on?

The main powers that a board exercises are hiring and firing the CEO and approving/vetoing acquisitions.

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#196

Post by nexuist »

qball wrote: post #193
nexuist wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see why Republicans can't just use another platform like gab or voat if they think reddit has become hostile to them. Reddit being a private company has every right to control what ideologies are promoted on their pages just as you have every right to start your own reddit clone and moderate it however you feel. There's even an open source core with which to start from: https://github.com/reddit-archive/reddi…

Payment processing and hosting aren't treated like phone companies; they're allowed to be discriminatory in who they do business with. Is there a valid reason for that? No. Is the end result of there being no law forcing financial and manufacturers of modern printing presses like those to do business with everyone a threat to the First Amendment? Absolutely, and I'd argue the state has a compelling interest here to f…

You don't have to use a hosting service; you can purchase servers by yourself and run your own datacenter without ever involving a third party.

Payment processors are not required; you can accept physical checks or digital currency such as Bitcoin without involving a third party processor. A bank isn't allowed to close your account unless you do something illegal, so aren't you safe there?

Modern day conveniences like AWS and Stripe are just that - conveniences. You can do what they do on your own. If you manage to find enough paying customers, then there is nothing stopping you from becoming your own manufacturer or payment processor. If you cannot find enough paying customers (in the form of subscriptions or donations), then arguably there is no reason for you to exist anyways.

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#197

Post by frosted-flakes »

paulcole wrote: post #105
jstgord wrote: post #87

Dear Reddit, for the love of Mike .. PLEASE treat reddit as a web-first platform. You are killing the golden goose by trying to force people toward the app - by gradually removing features and usability from the mobile web site and constantly reminding people they "should" use the app. I don't want reddit as an 'app', I want reddit to be readable/scrollable on mobile and web without any form of coercion.

If you’re using Reddit on iOS or iPadOS and you’re not using Apollo, you’re doing yourself a disservice. https://apolloapp.io/ As an added bonus if you subscribe to the subreddit, /r/ApolloApp it’s like /r/ChoosingBeggarsLite with the complaints and feature requests for a free app.

The problem with apps is that they don't have tabs. I can only view one thing at a time, and the way I use Reddit (open a bunch of links in new tabs to read one at a time, or to refer to two things at a time) doesn't work without tabs.

It's the same with the Amazon app. The website is atrocious because pressing back after viewing anything shoots you back to the top of the page, but the app only lets you see one thing at a time.

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#198

Post by dropit_sphere »

esperent wrote: post #129
missosoup wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly is 'social good', in your mind?

It's not that complicated. Start by working to deal with the platform being used to spread racism and hate speach and go from there.

I happen to be a member of a subreddit you'd probably describe as "racism and hate speech." Obviously I find some redeeming value there.

IMO the direction you're describing seems...reactive? I mean, sure, if you don't like racism and hate speech, work to get rid of them, but there's a lot more to social good than that.

Frankly I think Reddit should actively try and fragment itself a bit---give mods more power, let communities become more distinct. Maybe allow mods to add js, or let subreddits host SPA's, etc. Don't encourage subreddit enmity, but tolerate it.

Reddit has a lot of users, but they don't really do much except talk and provide ad impressions. This feels like a waste, considering they're on a compute platform.

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#199

Post by admin1010 »

julianeon wrote: post #120
casefields wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

99% of the world, and 99.999% of reddit, has no clue who he is. Nor do they know anyone that has first hand knowledge of working with him. All they'll know is the the way the previous guy stepped down, and what he requested. I understand it's a terrible position to be put in.

People are acting like Seibel's about to assume the role of President of the Universe. It's just the reddit board. If it's so awesome, can you name the other people who are on it, as of today? Guaranteed that 95% of the people reading this did not know that this august institution also includes, and would not have known were it not for this comment: Sam Altman (famous, not surprising) Robert Sauerberg (probably less…

I thought Keith Rabois was on the board too.

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#200

Post by samplatt »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #167
krelian wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>You are killing the golden goose by trying to force people toward the app I think this is the the type of requests that shows the disconnect between the HN crowd and real users. The majority of users will use the app. It's entirely in reddit's benefit to push the app, that's where they have complete control and can add more tracking and ads without the hindrance of ad/tracking blockers. old.reddit.com is all I use b…

Reddit is smarter than digg though - they know they need to keep their legacy and leader users happy - because once influencers (real ones, not Instagram users) leave the site will stop being culturally relevant. The fact they’ve kept the old site still running for so long (4 years now?) I think it evidence they’ll keep it around. I don’t think it’s costing them anything.

>I don’t think it’s costing them anything.

It's almost certainly costing them LESS, since there'd be less of a focus on development AND it'll use less bandwidth due to smaller preview thumbnails and no preview video... that's probably outsourced to a different cdn but whatever.

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