Live data from Hacker News

RIF developer counters Reddit CEO’s claims

theverge.com

41–50 of 69 posts

Re: RIF developer counters Reddit CEO’s claims

#41
post #7

> Shu also tells me that RIF was paying a “sizable revenue share” to Reddit beginning in 2012, which was during Yishan Wong’s tenure as CEO. Shu says he says initiated the talks with Reddit to create the agreement, which allowed for the licensed use of Reddit’s trademarks. (At the time, the app was called “reddit is fun.”) Shu says Reddit terminated the agreement in 2016 — which was the year after Huffman took over a…

Yeah that part is really wild - there were making money already off a 3rd party app, then decided to NOT take their money in 2016, then not enforce any trademarks (assuming that was what the deal was for) for what, 7 years?! How is that not gross incompetence? Minority shareholder lawsuit territory? It's really clear that spez wants terminate any 3rd party clients whatsoever, I assume at this point any talk of app de…

> Who would invest in a Reddit IPO now?!

Moreover, what will be the short interest should this company go public?

I become more confident with every week that the CEO is holding back the company. And so is the board by allowing executive decisions and objectively false statements based on ego.

Re: RIF developer counters Reddit CEO’s claims

#42
post #6

Is anyone else having flashbacks to the freenode takeover?

I did not think of this, but yes, seems the same. Will have to go looking and see what ended up happening with Freenode.

Well that's easy. After the initial kicking of the old admins a community split was looming because not every project cared that much and some worried about the hassle of changing networks.

But Lee sped things up considerably by deleting all user and channel registrations, leaving his last holdout supporters at the mercy of randos that happened to be the first to join the channel.

That was basically the last drop and libera is now exactly like freenode was before he started stirring trouble. Only one or two projects went somewhere else (like alpine which went to oftc).

But libera is just as well run as freenode was before the incident and after a month or so it was already like it never happened. Nobody even talks about it anymore, it's just over and done. It's the best outcome possible IMO. No dragged out legal battles, no months of toxicity. Just problem solved.

Kudos to the admins who proved they were right all along and have the chops to run a network efficiently and create a great atmosphere without conflicts. And the new organization has a legal framework to prevent such a thing from happening again.

Something tells me Reddit won't go that easily. Not only because there's no exact replacement ready (lemmy isn't really it) and because the management isn't likely to shoot themselves in the foot that badly.

Re: RIF developer counters Reddit CEO’s claims

#43
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not his first controversy, he has a history with twisting facts and trying to manipulate people. Including that incident where he edited comments of people criticizing him on Reddit. I would guess there is a lot more of this behaviour that doesn't surface publicly.

Let's not forget him being the head moderator of r/jailbait and several of the other more "problematic" subreddits.

Yo, I have lots of opinions and strong feelings about reddit and spez right now, but I don't think that's accurate.

Afaict/afaik that was from a time where anyone could be annoited to a mod position without their consent.

I'm happy to have more pitchforks, but I also don't (1) like lies being spread or (2) want to distract from the "righteous" cause with something that's not true.

Re: RIF developer counters Reddit CEO’s claims

#44
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not his first controversy, he has a history with twisting facts and trying to manipulate people. Including that incident where he edited comments of people criticizing him on Reddit. I would guess there is a lot more of this behaviour that doesn't surface publicly.

Let's not forget him being the head moderator of r/jailbait and several of the other more "problematic" subreddits.

The head moderator of that subreddit was violentacrez aka Michael Brutsch, a troll prolific to have articles about him in The Guardian [1], The Atlantic, [2], and The Verge [3] among others. It's well within the realm of possibility that he added spez as a joke.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/oct/16/reddit-vi...

[2] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/10/what-...

[3] https://www.theverge.com/2012/10/18/3523434/violentacrez-mic...

Re: RIF developer counters Reddit CEO’s claims

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's not forget him being the head moderator of r/jailbait and several of the other more "problematic" subreddits.

The head moderator of that subreddit was violentacrez aka Michael Brutsch, a troll prolific to have articles about him in The Guardian [1], The Atlantic, [2], and The Verge [3] among others. It's well within the realm of possibility that he added spez as a joke. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/oct/16/reddit-vi... [2] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/10/what-... [3] https://www.theve…

Your link contradicts your comment:

“In October 2012, Chen exposed the real name and details of Violentacrez (a moderator of several Reddit jailbait communities), a Texas Internet developer, who was subsequently fired from his job.”

Re: RIF developer counters Reddit CEO’s claims

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The head moderator of that subreddit was violentacrez aka Michael Brutsch, a troll prolific to have articles about him in The Guardian [1], The Atlantic, [2], and The Verge [3] among others. It's well within the realm of possibility that he added spez as a joke. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/oct/16/reddit-vi... [2] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/10/what-... [3] https://www.theve…

Your link contradicts your comment: “In October 2012, Chen exposed the real name and details of Violentacrez (a moderator of several Reddit jailbait communities), a Texas Internet developer, who was subsequently fired from his job.”

Oops! Edited.

Re: RIF developer counters Reddit CEO’s claims

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah that part is really wild - there were making money already off a 3rd party app, then decided to NOT take their money in 2016, then not enforce any trademarks (assuming that was what the deal was for) for what, 7 years?! How is that not gross incompetence? Minority shareholder lawsuit territory? It's really clear that spez wants terminate any 3rd party clients whatsoever, I assume at this point any talk of app de…

> Who would invest in a Reddit IPO now?! The same kinds of investors who did no diligence on FTX. I am certain there is dumb money out there.

Any kind that thinks they can 2, 3, 5, 10x their investment. The vehicle in which to do that is of zero consequence.

Re: RIF developer counters Reddit CEO’s claims

#50
post #4

Barring all of the arguments for or against why reddit is doing what it is doing, why does spez keep lying? Like he must realize that emails don't disappear and phone calls can be recorded?

Because people in high executive positions usually have no intrinsic aversion to lying, and in this case, from a cold rationality perspective, lying is obviously more effective than admitting guilt.

(Expanding: people who know the details hate him anyway, and it’s better for people who don’t know the details to hear confusing accusations from both sides than an admission of guilt. Admissions of guilt are very rarely unilaterally effective.)

Post reply on HN