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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

#261

Post by mistermann »

MrJagil wrote: post #239
apatters wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why don't we just tell it like it is? The majority of comments here reflect the fact that Reddit is a garbage site run by a garbage company. Used to be great, more garbage every day. They leverage network effect to abuse their users and to suck. I look forward to the day they fail and the free market replaces them.

I have quite an intricate system build up to get the most quality out of reddit as poossible —it’s still quite bad, but it’s better. I have been thinking of making a blog post or soemthing about it. - I have a multireddit with select magic the gathering subs - I have a multireddit with select tech subs - I have a multireddit with general high quality subs - My “all” feed has HUNDREDS of subs filtered off. This is a l…

I would love to read such a blog post!

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#262

Post by tzs »

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.

> P.S 60M American citizens voted for Trump

63 million.

...and 66 million voted for Clinton, and 8 million voted for third party, write in, or independent candidates.

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#263

Post by divslinger »

MrJagil wrote: post #239
apatters wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why don't we just tell it like it is? The majority of comments here reflect the fact that Reddit is a garbage site run by a garbage company. Used to be great, more garbage every day. They leverage network effect to abuse their users and to suck. I look forward to the day they fail and the free market replaces them.

I have quite an intricate system build up to get the most quality out of reddit as poossible —it’s still quite bad, but it’s better. I have been thinking of making a blog post or soemthing about it. - I have a multireddit with select magic the gathering subs - I have a multireddit with select tech subs - I have a multireddit with general high quality subs - My “all” feed has HUNDREDS of subs filtered off. This is a l…

Muting words on Twitter might help

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#264

Post by jdoliner »

dang wrote: post #256
jdoliner wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice, I thought I heard someone say at one point that it had been rewritten in rails. I'm much happier knowing this comment is going through Arc.

You had half the story, just the wrong half. HN and YC used to be a single program in Arc (a single thread, even: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21231810 ). When pg left, the YC side was split off and redone in Rails. In the narrative in my head, this is known as "the great lobotomy". I still wish they hadn't, but oh well. If you know anyone who would love to program in Arc and wouldn't mind being publicly impa…

Thanks for the clarification! I'll keep eyes out for an Arc dev. I do run across the occasional Arc enthusiast in interviews.

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#265

Post by gorgoiler »

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?

Another way to think of it is that directors are like school governors.

They are powerful, but even more so they are responsible for the organization.

Company directors are public figures. They can be investigated for misconduct, struck off from being a director again, and must publish their personal details publicly. (They can also sign passport applications and vouch for visa applications: you get ups as well as downs!)

They appoint the executives but they have to fire them too, and are held accountable for the behavior of the people they choose. Mess it up and you’ll never sit in a board again.

The stakeholders go straight to the directors when things go wrong. This is especially fun when you have hundreds of thousands of members of the public as stakeholders in a publicly traded business.

The buck stops with them.

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#267

Post by davmar »

jimbob45 wrote: post #254

The most unmeritocratic job filling I’ve seen. He got the job for being black. They should have just employed the Rooney Rule to make things seem fair. This will just spurn the opponents of Affirmative Action that much harder, myself included. Weird that the NFL has the better idea here.

dude. you suck. go to gab.

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#268

Post by gandutraveler »

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.

I would be happy to switch over to app only if it actually worked. The UX is so horrible for expanding collapsing threads. If I click on a deep link I have to press back n times to reach the landing post for the deep link.

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#269

Post by robbintt »

PHGamer wrote: post #257
russellendicott wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a reddit announcement the other day that stated /u/kn0thing was stepping down from the board and requested that a black person fill his place. https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/gxas21/upcom...

are boards not considered employees. feel like this would violate labor laws.

They are not.

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#270

Post by tomnipotent »

mushufasa wrote: post #31
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 board of a directors does not get involved with day to day operations. The board of directors sets the strategy for the firm. That is because the board of directors has the authority to hire/fire company management. Board of directors != Advisory board.

> The board of directors sets the strategy for the firm.

I have never seen this be the case, though I can only speak for start-ups and early post-IPO eras.

The board provides oversight over the CEO and other executives responsible for planning in the organization. They review quarterly earnings and other financials, and provide feedback and thoughts on what the company wants to do in the subsequent planning period (which is driven by the CEO, not the board). Usually the board and leadership team meet only once a quarter, with the occasional call in-between (but otherwise very little face time).

More often than not the board's influence is in asking questions that help the CEO and leadership team better flush out their plan, pointing out potential issues or bringing up topics of discussion that may not have been considered. Maybe a board member has experience in something on your roadmap, or knows someone/company/product that can help.

Maybe they feel very strongly for/against something, so you commit to getting back to them with your thoughts/plan of actions after doing some more due diligence. Maybe they think you want to spend too much on a new initiative next year, and want to see a revised forecast that bakes in a more conservative approach.

Boards have say in executive compensation & equity grants, but rarely otherwise seem them get involved in financials. Usually they have their own financial analyst look over your data, and ask a lot of uncomfortable questions you don't currently have answers to that you maybe get embarrassed about when you finally do figure it out.

In rare circumstances, the board may have negative or lukewarm feelings about what's presented and the CEO may decide to revise that plan, but it really depends on the CEO. New CEO's may be more likely to buckle to board pressure/suggestions than an experienced CEO. I've seen it both ways (usually the CEO doesn't want to hurt future fundraising and may acquiesce more readily).

At the end of the day, it's the CEO leading strategy with the board providing a "first right of refusal/you're crazy" role.

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