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I am Steve Huffman, the new CEO of Reddit. AMA. (2015)

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Re: I am Steve Huffman, the new CEO of Reddit. AMA. (2015)

#51
Most CEOs would have figured out after eight years to deflect and absorb downward pressure from investors while incorporating feedback from Reddit's key resource: users, who provide content for free.

It's a damn shame that Huffman didn't get the sort of guidance and counseling to walk that wire.

Re: I am Steve Huffman, the new CEO of Reddit. AMA. (2015)

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's like some people don't understand Reddit. You get to choose what you want to follow, you can create a multireddit with a subset of them, you can create a new account and hide all the big subs to let the little ones filter through. The world was always your oyster and yet people act like it took subs going dark to do that, it didn't. If someone says they only see crap on Reddit it's their own fault. It doesn't ta…

This is incredibly unfair. While I’m familiar with many of those tricks, I haven’t even thought about them in probably, literally years. The current Reddit UX does not encourage and maybe doesn’t even support that view. If that’s something you’re doing, I can say with some level of confidence that you’re a Reddit Poweruser. The only time I ever really thought about tricks like that is when I used the Reddit Enhanceme…

> The current Reddit UX does not encourage and maybe doesn’t even support that view.

Its discoverability is difficult. It is still possible.

https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/36004304341...

The key part is the "overflow menu"

> Visit a community that you’d like to include in a custom feed. On the right-hand side of the page, you’ll see a Community Details box. Click the overflow menu (⋯) in the top right of the box.

> Select Add To Custom Feed then choose Create A Custom Feed.

These show up when you use the drop down for subscribed and favorited subreddits or on the sidebar (if that is expanded).

(VERY late edit)

The other thing about multis - you can make them public and allow other people subscribe to them.

As an example: https://www.reddit.com/user/shagieisme/m/orangecats/ which is the combination of six subreddits that feature orange cats.

Furthermore, users may be added to a custom feed.

Re: I am Steve Huffman, the new CEO of Reddit. AMA. (2015)

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's like some people don't understand Reddit. You get to choose what you want to follow, you can create a multireddit with a subset of them, you can create a new account and hide all the big subs to let the little ones filter through. The world was always your oyster and yet people act like it took subs going dark to do that, it didn't. If someone says they only see crap on Reddit it's their own fault. It doesn't ta…

This is incredibly unfair. While I’m familiar with many of those tricks, I haven’t even thought about them in probably, literally years. The current Reddit UX does not encourage and maybe doesn’t even support that view. If that’s something you’re doing, I can say with some level of confidence that you’re a Reddit Poweruser. The only time I ever really thought about tricks like that is when I used the Reddit Enhanceme…

In new reddit: User Settings -> Feed Settings -> turn off "Enable home feed recommendations"

All you'll see at reddit.com are subreddits you've followed.

Re: I am Steve Huffman, the new CEO of Reddit. AMA. (2015)

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a private company. What else was it supposed to be about? Distributing VC money to users?

Yes, in fact the most successful social media companies do just that. Reddit doesn't seem to be aligning its interests with the interest of power users unlike other social media companies. Reddit is really putting itself in a position of getting what it pays for, which it doesn't pay for moderators while at the same time is taking their tools away and also seems to be insulting them too. Treating major contributors a…

> it doesn't pay for moderators while at the same time is taking their tools away

The mods mainly were protesting because they relied on these tools. Reddit responded by making exceptions for these tools, and threw in exceptions for accessibility-focused tools to boot. (Taking the "think of the blind and deaf people" argument off the table.)

The only people that are still upset are the people who just want to continue to use ad-free readers, without paying money.

Reddit is a digital drug dealer that just raised prices on its addicts. The power users you describe are the least likely to delete their accounts and leave. Their rage over something relatively trivial is just a testament to their addiction.

Re: I am Steve Huffman, the new CEO of Reddit. AMA. (2015)

#55
16 years since I moved to reddit from ....mostly slashdot....

I actually pre-empted the blackout and went cold turkey a few days early.

I feel like I need a sobriety avatar but honestly I'm satiating with a combination of other feeds.

I'm pretty sure I showed up around the time slashdot were writing about reddit re-writing the site in python:

https://web.archive.org/web/20190616155639/http://www.aarons...

Re: I am Steve Huffman, the new CEO of Reddit. AMA. (2015)

#56
post #47

Isn't the third-party API access issue all about preventing Reddit from being overrun by AI/LLM robots? I suppose nothing is stopping them from using web interfaces but it does seem a bit harder than just using APIs

Not necessarily. The conversation with the Apollo dev was about the missed opportunity cost of having the user on the official platform. The $20m/year number was referring to opportunity cost, not the actual cost.

To me that unpacks to a mix of lost potential value on having the user on the official client for data harvesting + advertising purposes + having full control over user experience, and subtly trying to get rid of 3rd party clients without just shutting the APIs down.

Re: I am Steve Huffman, the new CEO of Reddit. AMA. (2015)

#57
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, in fact the most successful social media companies do just that. Reddit doesn't seem to be aligning its interests with the interest of power users unlike other social media companies. Reddit is really putting itself in a position of getting what it pays for, which it doesn't pay for moderators while at the same time is taking their tools away and also seems to be insulting them too. Treating major contributors a…

I suspect they see "you get the be the moderator in a community!" as a user feature, and not as an internal job. And people clearly want to do it, and care enough to do it for free. Up to a point, at least.

If there's a bunch of openings for moderators as a result of this blackout, I'm thinking I might like to try it out, especially on a high-traffic sub if I can. Of course, as an unpaid volunteer with so much power, I'm not going to use it the way they want me to. Instead, I'll just randomly ban people I don't like, and then get them banned sitewide whenever they question my ban. (This seems to be normal behavior in many subs already...) Then I'll continue banning people, targeting the most productive users on that sub, until the sub is nothing more than a wasteland. This probably wouldn't be good for Reddit, but they'll be getting what they paid for.

Re: I am Steve Huffman, the new CEO of Reddit. AMA. (2015)

#58

I think reddit has run its course for me, and I don't think they're losing anything of value when I stop browsing. I've been using old. for years, and always been pretty strict about blocking ads. In the past few years, it's been getting less and less enjoyable for me, and since I stopped visiting on Monday, I've been feeling better, and I don't think I'll be going back. Reddit is saving a little on bandwidth since I…

Reddit has built a reputation for being "not social media", but in my opinion it has come to embody most of what people say they hate about social media. If I visit Reddit without logging in, the content on the home page is disastrously bad: Videos of fights with comments from people cheering on the violence. Screenshots of exaggerated Tweets taken out of context. 10 different stories about the latest tragedy somewhe…

100% agreed, yet the average user is incredibly fickle. Without the power users reddit will fizzle; a little bit at a time, then all at once (as we may see soon).

Re: I am Steve Huffman, the new CEO of Reddit. AMA. (2015)

#59
post #55

16 years since I moved to reddit from ....mostly slashdot.... I actually pre-empted the blackout and went cold turkey a few days early. I feel like I need a sobriety avatar but honestly I'm satiating with a combination of other feeds. I'm pretty sure I showed up around the time slashdot were writing about reddit re-writing the site in python: https://web.archive.org/web/20190616155639/http://www.aarons...

Can you summarize your other feeds? I actually created an account here on HN during the blackout for my tech info but constant tech info gets exhausting after a while.

Re: I am Steve Huffman, the new CEO of Reddit. AMA. (2015)

#60
post #59
post #55

16 years since I moved to reddit from ....mostly slashdot.... I actually pre-empted the blackout and went cold turkey a few days early. I feel like I need a sobriety avatar but honestly I'm satiating with a combination of other feeds. I'm pretty sure I showed up around the time slashdot were writing about reddit re-writing the site in python: https://web.archive.org/web/20190616155639/http://www.aarons...

Can you summarize your other feeds? I actually created an account here on HN during the blackout for my tech info but constant tech info gets exhausting after a while.

mostly spike.news & curated news feeds @ mastodon

none of which are adequate for dialog IMO but I run irc and discord for that mostly when I'm not harassing chatgpt

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