How Alexis Ohanian Built a Front Page of the Internet • Hacker News Board

Re: How Alexis Ohanian Built a Front Page of the Internet

#31

Post by kn0thing » Wed, May 30, 2012, 5:37 PM UTC

marblar wrote: post #14

batista wrote: post #2

>"I want to stay hungry," says Alexis Ohanian. "I really believe my resources are best used to help projects that make the world suck less." I hate this kind of over-indulgence. What "resources"? He built a social news website and had a strike of luck. It's not like the guy is an Einstein or a Tesla. Or that Reddit is something bettering society. It's a glorified internet forum. Imagine how stupid things like this wo…

He was talking about money. "I want to stay hungry." -> "I'm not going to spend all this money on myself."

Yep.

Re: How Alexis Ohanian Built a Front Page of the Internet

#32

Post by imgabe » Wed, May 30, 2012, 5:38 PM UTC

peterwwillis wrote: post #5

What the front page of the internet looks like today: * Image with overlayed snarky text * Another image * Another image... * The Daily Show clip * Another image * Another image * News article about Julian Assange * Another image * News article about guy doing something strange (which is actually really old) * Reddit question thread about Tarantino films * Youtube clip * "Ask Me Anything" request thread * Story on mo…

Install RES and filter out links to imgur. Reddit immediately becomes about 5x better. There is still a lot of good content, it's just swamped by people using pictures of popular things to get karma.

Re: How Alexis Ohanian Built a Front Page of the Internet

#33

Post by libraryatnight » Wed, May 30, 2012, 5:40 PM UTC

batista wrote: post #2

>"I want to stay hungry," says Alexis Ohanian. "I really believe my resources are best used to help projects that make the world suck less." I hate this kind of over-indulgence. What "resources"? He built a social news website and had a strike of luck. It's not like the guy is an Einstein or a Tesla. Or that Reddit is something bettering society. It's a glorified internet forum. Imagine how stupid things like this wo…

I think I'd be lying to myself if I thought that his stroke of luck and success with Reddit didn't give him more resources than myself. He's had the good fortune to be given more resources than many people, I think it's great he is saying he wants to use them for good.

Not being an Einstein or a Tesla is no reason to just fold up like a lawn chair and pack yourself away. I'm using my substantially more limited resources to do the best I can, I'm glad someone with a bit more is doing the best he can.

Re: How Alexis Ohanian Built a Front Page of the Internet

#34

Post by shiftpgdn » Wed, May 30, 2012, 5:40 PM UTC

Adaptive wrote: post #18

We are doomed to reinvent Usenet until we finally break the cycle and improve upon it. This has all happened before and will happen again.

If you're talking about eternal September and the decline of quality you might want to look at forums with heavy handed moderation or a paying userbase. For example the Something Awful forums have a pretty good signal to noise raito.

Re: How Alexis Ohanian Built a Front Page of the Internet

#35

Post by nicholassmith » Wed, May 30, 2012, 5:45 PM UTC

batista wrote: post #2

>"I want to stay hungry," says Alexis Ohanian. "I really believe my resources are best used to help projects that make the world suck less." I hate this kind of over-indulgence. What "resources"? He built a social news website and had a strike of luck. It's not like the guy is an Einstein or a Tesla. Or that Reddit is something bettering society. It's a glorified internet forum. Imagine how stupid things like this wo…

Stroke of luck can be equated to being in the right place at the right time, which is often how people rise up through the social ranks.

Plus the guy built something and developed a user base that can only be described as obsessive. That's no luck, that's good talent. What have you done today?

Re: How Alexis Ohanian Built a Front Page of the Internet

#36

Post by runevault » Wed, May 30, 2012, 5:45 PM UTC

peterwwillis wrote: post #7

tylermenezes wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can log in and customize it. The default set of subreddits is bound to be low-quality.

The idea that the default is supposed to be low-quality is depressing.

I wouldn't so much say the default is supposed to be low quality so much as the less interesting/technically savvy people don't change the defaults so those are the reddits they read/post to, leading to clutter.

Re: How Alexis Ohanian Built a Front Page of the Internet

#37

Post by justin » Wed, May 30, 2012, 5:47 PM UTC

batista wrote: post #2

>"I want to stay hungry," says Alexis Ohanian. "I really believe my resources are best used to help projects that make the world suck less." I hate this kind of over-indulgence. What "resources"? He built a social news website and had a strike of luck. It's not like the guy is an Einstein or a Tesla. Or that Reddit is something bettering society. It's a glorified internet forum. Imagine how stupid things like this wo…

Unbelievable.

Alexis spends the majority of his resources (read: time, money, presence, influence) doing things that are not for profit. One big one was heavily campaigning online and offline against SOPA in December and January. SOPA not passing was definitely something good for society -- because it could have handed de facto censorship abilities to corporations.

As for Reddit, as a forum for internet activism like fighting SOPA I'd argue that it is bettering society in many ways. Perhaps the majority of Reddit is cat pictures, but some parts of it can be a tremendous force for activism.

"Making the world suck less" is a tongue in cheek way of saying he's not out spending his well earned millions (Reddit wasn't an overnight success; Steve and Alexis put in work to make it work) on blood diamonds and ferraris. If he wants to say that instead of "I'm spending my time on philanthropic causes" why the fuck shouldn't he?

Re: How Alexis Ohanian Built a Front Page of the Internet

#38

Post by kn0thing » Wed, May 30, 2012, 5:49 PM UTC

batista wrote: post #2

>"I want to stay hungry," says Alexis Ohanian. "I really believe my resources are best used to help projects that make the world suck less." I hate this kind of over-indulgence. What "resources"? He built a social news website and had a strike of luck. It's not like the guy is an Einstein or a Tesla. Or that Reddit is something bettering society. It's a glorified internet forum. Imagine how stupid things like this wo…

Take a look at the previous sentence for context:

"I've tithed since the day we sold Reddit, because I believe wealth is a means to an end, and wealth has never made me happy, only comfortable. And I want to stay hungry. I really believe my resources are best used to help projects that make the world suck less."

Yes, luck has had a tremendous impact in my life. Meeting Steve, getting into YC, starting reddit w Steve, breadpig has been going really well ($200K profits donated so far), and hipmunk for that matter has been going swimmingly thus far.

I'd personally love to hear that a 23yr old inventor of post-it/jelly+peanutbutter combo/facial hair remover was using her resources (wealth) to make the world suck less. That'd be awesome. I don't see how that's any less awesome than an NFL 1st round draft pick or a trust fund kid doing the same thing. I'm a lucky person who wants to see more lucky people in the world.

Re: How Alexis Ohanian Built a Front Page of the Internet

#39

Post by kn0thing » Wed, May 30, 2012, 5:50 PM UTC

notatoad wrote: post #21

[deleted] wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

The story I heard was that Alexis and Steve went to PG together with a somewhat different idea, and PG suggested that they make reddit instead. Steve was the coder, and Alexis was the community manager - a fairly important job when the business is to build an online community.

Yep. Just like in the story. Steve built reddit, I doodled the logo and did the non-tech stuff.

Re: How Alexis Ohanian Built a Front Page of the Internet

#40

Post by planetguy » Wed, May 30, 2012, 5:57 PM UTC

dalore wrote: post #17

peterwwillis wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea that the default is supposed to be low-quality is depressing.

The idea is that you can make it "your" front page of the internet with just the topics that interest you. If you go by the default it's got the most mass market appeal because of popularity but if you're someone who reads hackers news that is not what you want. So customize it. The internet has become popular and just like pop music it will appeal to the lowest common denominator.

If you go by the default it's got the most mass market appeal

Well, not really "mass market" appeal, just appeal to the incredibly narrow and apparently homogeneous subslice of the world's population that fits into the reddit demographic.

If you're not aged 15-25, college-educated (or college-bound), left-wing, atheist, obsessively interested in every one of the typical geeky pursuits, and already intimately familiar with every one of several hundred reddit memes and running jokes, you're gonna have a bad time.

I'm not sure how many people there are among the world's seven billion people who fit into all those categories, but they all already have reddit accounts.