Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Reddit CEO tells employees that subreddit blackout ‘will pass’

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 271 posts

Re: Reddit CEO tells employees that subreddit blackout ‘will pass’

#111

Post by seydor »

Of course it will, like all the previous reddit hysterics which were quickly forgotten. I m not sure if people remember that net neutrality Did not pass, and yet the world did not end.

The blackout is so ill-thought and self-limiting. If they keep the subs down, my subreddits will start attracting users. The mods have no option but to end the strike, because they are too addicted to their power.

If they insist to take this further, reddit will see it as a wonderful opportunity to shake up the community which has been stagnant for years. There is nothing unique about the subs that are down

Re: Reddit CEO tells employees that subreddit blackout ‘will pass’

#112

Post by Ataraxic »

samwillis wrote: post #39
TheFreim wrote: post #9

If the blackout is only for two days then they're right, but if they continue indefinitely it could force a change (reddit is currently unusable since all but one sub I enjoy is gone, if it was gone indefinitely then reddit would be indefinitely out of the picture for me).

At some point, if they remain closed, Reddit will just take ownership of them, suspend the mods and reopen the reddits. They will however need to do it carefully, probably after most others have folded and reopened, so as not to cause another blackout. But ultimately it's their platform, they can do what they want. Maybe they will just have to start actually employing the mods, which may actually end up a net positiv…

Reopening is one thing but moderating an internet forum for no pay is not universally appealing.

Losing the most motivated mods may be a big loss, or extremely active users who post and/or make content. Hard to know right now but I think we'll get an early glimpse when some reopen.

Re: Reddit CEO tells employees that subreddit blackout ‘will pass’

#113

Post by adamc »

seanosaur wrote: post #59
EA-3167 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From Reddit's perspective overall this is a terrible idea, but from Huffman's perspective it's purely rational. If he has to walk this back it's probably not compatible with his continued tenure after all, the question of why this was done so hastily and rudely would inevitably undermine his leadership. If he just barrels ahead though, and prays that the addictions of mods and users are greater than their pride/desir…

> he can't realistically get rid of the mods and replace them, then expect that to not blow up in his face I'm not so sure about that. I would be very surprised if there was a high % of redditors that know / care about the mods or mod system. This could be the cynic in me but I bet he could eject all the mods tomorrow, replace them with more faceless accounts, and the vast majority of reddit's userbase would not see…

I don't think the users mostly care about the mods directly. They will care about the effects of not having motivated, committed mods, because it makes the subreddits less pleasant or compelling to use. That is, there wouldn't be user protests, just lots of users drifting away because reddit kind of sucked.

Re: Reddit CEO tells employees that subreddit blackout ‘will pass’

#114

Post by EscapeFromNY »

thegreatdukd wrote: post #84
adrr wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They’ll just replace the mods if the popular subreddits go longer than 2 days.

Cheering for them to do that for r/nba already. Mods blacked out the sub on the last day of the NBA finals. Zero common sense.

Your anger is justified, but directed at the wrong people.

Re: Reddit CEO tells employees that subreddit blackout ‘will pass’

#115

Post by legitster »

I would love nothing more than if actual independent communities actually had to build and maintain their own internet spaces again. I do not miss the days of forums - but there has to be something between the two, right?

But... unfortunately the CEO is probably right. Reddit is first and foremost a community of addicts. No one is actually threatening to spin off their own superior community space. (The closest we see are people trying to make knockoff platforms). Unless 100 new websites spin up and take away all of the community content, the addicts will just come back.

Re: Reddit CEO tells employees that subreddit blackout ‘will pass’

#117

Post by kibwen »

mr_00ff00 wrote: post #89
mrits wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It isn't irony at all. Reddit gets almost zero revenue from the sub organizing it. People aren't protesting Reddit in general, but a policy of reddit.

It’s not about revenue. As people have mentioned already, the CEO said the blackout has had almost no revenue impact. it’s funny to create a protest and hoping for change by showing Reddit that the community can walk away…and then using reddit to organize it. You are basically showing you can’t think of any good alternatives to organizing or chatting with people. So you will continue to use Reddit, even during a prot…

...Except that /r/ModCoord does have other venues, like the Discord linked in the sidebar. They mirror announcements to Reddit because that's the only place that's guaranteed to reach everyone involved, who are on Reddit by definition.

Re: Reddit CEO tells employees that subreddit blackout ‘will pass’

#118

Post by willis936 »

HDThoreaun wrote: post #35
TheFreim wrote: post #18

I don't understand why reddit didn't respond to the initial criticism by decreasing the pricing/demands and just slowly implementing what they want over time. Doing it all at once seemed like a silly move.

They want to IPO very soon. Don't have the luxury of rolling this out over a year plus.

Were they surprised by the news that they will IPO very soon? I suppose there was nothing they could have done to avert this issue 2-3 years ago.

Re: Reddit CEO tells employees that subreddit blackout ‘will pass’

#119

Post by xeromal »

Racing0461 wrote: post #75
henryfjordan wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

[flagged]

I'm will to start a dialog on this assertion. There are a lock of gang violence and suicides but what about school shoots? Seems like a uniquely American problem even though the number might not meet your criteria.

Re: Reddit CEO tells employees that subreddit blackout ‘will pass’

#120

Post by gestatingAI »

jamcrimer wrote: post #90
nequo wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What the 2 day blackout does is it nudges people to explore alternatives. With this, Reddit management has lowered the barriers to exit. When the next boycott comes, migration for many subreddits will be easier.

but we're already commenting on the only good reddit alternative... :)

Correct. I’m here because of the blackout and find it a refreshing change
Post reply on HN