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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

#281

Post by Supermancho »

pvg wrote: post #148
rayiner wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably for the same reason you wouldn’t get a civil rights activist to replace the captain in a Navy boat. We need people fighting for civil rights, but we also need to create room for people from diverse backgrounds to do all of the rest of the work that needs doing.

This is a really poor analogy. The position of captain of on a warship is almost entirely unlike that of a corporate board member and corporate board members often represent external interests.

> This is a really poor analogy. The position of captain of on a warship

Trying to show viewpoints in the clearest and most concise way, is the height of discourse.

Making a backdoor point by claiming "poor analogy" is basically noise on noise. It muddles both the original point and fails to make a coherent followup. Defining a different set of criteria for what to compare on, does not change the initial comparison in a meaningful way.

Define an interpretation (which may get clarified) to focus in on an objection, then form a second viewpoint.

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#282

Post by trophycase »

piva00 wrote: post #277
hourislate wrote: post #18

This seems like a demotion. Nothing to celebrate. Reddit is cesspool of bots, disinformation. I find 4chan more civil and interesting. This gentleman would have been better off turning them down.

The issue with reddit is that your experience on it is completely dependent on your own curation of what subreddits you want to take part in. For hobbies I don't think there is any other single website on the internet that can help you get through most beginner to intermediate information, it's curated by a community, usually with the best free resources available being shared, and if it's a small community with dece…

"The problem is with the large subreddits, they will always devolve into memefests or the same old rehearsed jokes in the comments where if you've been on reddit for 10 years you learned to just... Skip through."

But why? I mean who posts this garbage and furthermore who upvotes it?

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#283

Post by piva00 »

throwawaysea wrote: post #161

Please influence the board to stop caving into censorship and let Reddit return to its free thinking roots. As ever expansive “hate speech” policies take root, the website is being co-opted to reflect just one worldview - that of the progressive left. This is dangerous and unwelcoming.

It would be great if conservative and progressive right wing could help to not let those communities devolve into prejudice, racism and eugenics. It is a problem when an ideology attracts the worst in human kind, as much as I hate the authoritarian left.

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#284

Post by trophycase »

digitaltrees wrote: post #158
cmdshiftf4 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Honestly, even you saying this is BS. "I want my replacement to be a black person" -> black person is hired -> "were they hired because of their race?" You: How dare you even imply they were hired based on their race! If anyone is bullshitting anyone here, it's you bullshitting yourself. The sheer mental gymnastics you're working through here to be outraged at the above must take a terrible toll. This is to say noth…

Except that no one says white people that hire friends--most of which are white friends from their childhood and school background--are racially motivated and yet the impact is white people hire more white people. This implicit bias might not be intended to be harmful, but it is racially informed. If we, as a society say we need to make a conscious effort to have more decision makers from a variety of backgrounds so…

"Except that no one says white people that hire friends--most of which are white friends from their childhood and school background--are racially motivated and yet the impact is white people hire more white people. This implicit bias might not be intended to be harmful, but it is racially informed."

Except they do. In fact, you're saying it right now.

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#285

Post by digitaltrees »

blockmarker wrote: post #273
digitaltrees wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it does. Building a board and management team that is more representative of the demographics in society is an effort to reduce the effect of in group bias. This is important because the argument that someone picked with their race in mind to achieve this goal is used to create the subtext that the person would not otherwise have been qualified and is used to undermine their legitimacy and the legitimacy of the g…

>Yes it does. Building a board and management team that is more representative of the demographics in society is an effort to reduce the effect of in group bias. Then when will they include conservatives in the board? They are after all half the population, but there doesn't seem to be any in all of Reddit's board or company.

Are you really conflating the under representation of black people in corporate boards and management with conservatives? I mean seriously, that’s not even a serious argument.

Let’s go ahead and ignore the systematic and historical oppression of minorities and black people in particular, if anything conservatives have dominated business culture and are over represented in leadership positions of companies.

Reddit, if anything is an outlier, not some propped up example of oppression of conservative voices.

But I take your point. And I agree people should hire from across the political spectrum.

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#286

Post by kortilla »

tomnipotent wrote: post #270
mushufasa wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 (w…

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

That’s usually because the founder(s) still have majority control at that point so the board just takes an advisory role. The dynamic completely changes when the board members can form a majority and remove the entire C suite.

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#287

Post by apatters »

dang wrote: post #250
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 feel you, but alas it's by no means guaranteed that the "free market" would replace it with anything better. The same pressures would exist on any replacement, and those pressures all point to what you're calling garbage. We're lucky that something as quirky as Reddit got to succeed as well as it did. It would be awesome if we could collectively get to the point where growth didn't have to trump everything else, so…

You do an incredible job with Hacker News! For those of us interested in the subject matter I feel this place is in the top 5 sites on the Internet.

The irony here is that while Hacker News is not growth-driven and that's surely part of what makes it great, the bills are paid by a firm that couldn't be more focused on growth.

Here's a thought, which is probably far too political for its own good but oh well. The characteristics of the software industry (both the ones we love and hate) boil in great part down to IP and business law... why not get behind legal reforms that would mitigate the growth at all cost environment. For instance if America had a better antitrust framework then some of the more predatory business plans out there might never have been written. And Stallman, the FSF etc. have been out there for many years pushing us to think about IP in a way that has had enormous societal benefits.

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#288

Post by esperent »

dropit_sphere wrote: post #203
offa wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What subreddit would that be, if you don't mind me asking?

I'd rather not say. I happen to like it existing.

In other words, it's a place so filled with hate and racism that you're ashamed to admit being a part of.

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#289

Post by esperent »

dropit_sphere wrote: post #203
offa wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What subreddit would that be, if you don't mind me asking?

I'd rather not say. I happen to like it existing.

In other words, it's a place so filled with hate and racism that you're ashamed to admit being a part of it.

Re: Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

#290

Post by kortilla »

raxxorrax wrote: post #276
whatshisface wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably the duties of a Silicon Valley board member would center on running a Silicon Valley company, which a Silicon Valley CEO would be uniquely qualified to do.

That doesn't really make their calls to diversity in any way believable.

Diversity in backgrounds, not diversity in skills. You don’t hire incompetent board members to check a box anymore than you hire programmers who can’t program to check a box.
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