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

How Reddit Got Obama

allthingsd.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 106 posts

Re: How Reddit Got Obama

#21

Post by sharkweek »

dclowd9901 wrote: post #16
sharkweek wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As popular as your former employer is, there's a pretty wide gap from reddit to owning a telephone -- Look how badly CNN misrepresented reddit; that's the level of understanding most people will have if someone who is essentially looking for a news story spins it that direction.

Due to the enormous usage of Reddit, CNN's misunderstanding of Reddit made CNN look like the asses.

To us, a collective of tech savvy regulars of the Internet, yes. But to someone like my mom who has no idea there was backlash, not as much.

Re: How Reddit Got Obama

#22

Post by rhizome »

sharkweek wrote: post #10
emmett wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as I love it, the internet has some pretty unsavory corners. Assuming this makes any news outside the internet, I'd be curious to see what comes out -- "President Obama answering questions on new technology associated with necrophilia AND child porn". I'm being snarky, but it's comments like the one you just made which are echo-chambered into "there is something wrong with communications medium X because it w…

I guess I'm just more curious to see if the benefit provided from using reddit will outweigh any potential consequences. I do believe this will mostly be overlooked by news outlets outside of tech spaces, but... Most people don't understand reddit and it'd be ridiculously easy for opponents to spin this one deep into the negative.

I guess I'm just more curious to see if the benefit provided from using reddit will outweigh any potential consequences

That's an awfully long-haired way of wondering aloud to no-one in particular whether associating with Reddit will be considered to be a liability. I'm fairly sure the President has a near-army of people whose job it is to worry about such things.

Was the...did you say "necrophilia?"...really an issue outside of Sean Hannity's (or whoever's) shrieking fanbase? I think those people have less power than even pot advocates in the national landscape.

Re: How Reddit Got Obama

#23

Post by ibelieveinx »

redthrowaway wrote: post #17
nl wrote: post #9

"Front page of the internet" was always an ambitious tagline. Reddit is living up to it now, though.

That comes straight from pg, as reddit was his idea. He sold it to Alexis and Steve as "the front page of the Internet", that is, a user-curated list of all of the most interest links out there. While it may be read as ambitious, it was originally just intended to describe what reddit was and how it worked. It was the precursor of the "AirBnB for lightbulbs" taglines that dominated pitches a couple years ago.

This comment confuses me.

Re: How Reddit Got Obama

#24

Post by rorrr »

What a disappointing AMA. He answers stupid questions about his favorite basketball player and the white house beer recipe, but completely ignores the important ones about decriminalization of marijuana.

Fuck him. I'm not voting for him. He's a mild and more sociable version of Romney.

Re: How Reddit Got Obama

#25

Post by redthrowaway »

ibelieveinx wrote: post #23
redthrowaway wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That comes straight from pg, as reddit was his idea. He sold it to Alexis and Steve as "the front page of the Internet", that is, a user-curated list of all of the most interest links out there. While it may be read as ambitious, it was originally just intended to describe what reddit was and how it worked. It was the precursor of the "AirBnB for lightbulbs" taglines that dominated pitches a couple years ago.

This comment confuses me.

Alexis and Steve applied for the first YC batch with a cell phone food idea that pg rejected.

He told them that he liked them, but not the idea. He suggested instead that they build "the front page of the Internet". They did, and the rest is history.

People have a tendency to think that phrase is somehow bragging, but it's really just what the original idea for reddit was. It's not about their size, but about the intended purpose of the site.

Re: How Reddit Got Obama

#26

Post by derleth »

jonathanberger wrote: post #12

> "Not surprisingly, every answer he’s offered up so far has been studiously on-message." This part was a bit disappointing. Part of the fun of an AMA is finding out the unexpected. His one-liners about the Bulls or "NOT BAD" were my favorite parts.

What do you expect? When you're in an office, and I mean a high office, you represent that office and all that office represents. Right or wrong, the office of the President of the United States represents America on the international scene.

And people are unfair. People take things out of context. Occasionally, people just make shit up and shove it into your mouth. You can't stop them, but you can avoid helping them to the extent it's physically possible.

There's always going to be a noise floor in politics: The rampant idiocy, blatant lying, and absolute unreasoning psychotic hatred honestly felt by certain groups. Going off-message can either raise or lower that floor, and the sad fact is a single bad statement raises it a lot higher than a large number of good statements can lower it. Look at Muskie: He lost the nomination in part because he possibly cried on stage. Possibly. It could have been snow, but the implication was there. Nixon's lies hurt him, but it was likely the 'tears' that broke him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Muskie#Presidential_cand...

Re: How Reddit Got Obama

#27

Post by redthrowaway »

rorrr wrote: post #24

What a disappointing AMA. He answers stupid questions about his favorite basketball player and the white house beer recipe, but completely ignores the important ones about decriminalization of marijuana. Fuck him. I'm not voting for him. He's a mild and more sociable version of Romney.

Why on Earth would he go touch marijuana legalization with a 10-foot pole? He's not Ron Paul; he's actually trying to win the election. The average swing voter is a middle-aged mom, and you want him to talk about marijuana legalization?

You can either be a frank politician who addresses all questions honestly, or you can be a politician who wins elections.

Re: How Reddit Got Obama

#28

Post by derleth »

redthrowaway wrote: post #17
nl wrote: post #9

"Front page of the internet" was always an ambitious tagline. Reddit is living up to it now, though.

That comes straight from pg, as reddit was his idea. He sold it to Alexis and Steve as "the front page of the Internet", that is, a user-curated list of all of the most interest links out there. While it may be read as ambitious, it was originally just intended to describe what reddit was and how it worked. It was the precursor of the "AirBnB for lightbulbs" taglines that dominated pitches a couple years ago.

> AirBnB for lightbulbs

This statement exists in a Universe I don't inhabit, but would like to visit sometime.

Re: How Reddit Got Obama

#29

Post by waterlesscloud »

derleth wrote: post #26
jonathanberger wrote: post #12

> "Not surprisingly, every answer he’s offered up so far has been studiously on-message." This part was a bit disappointing. Part of the fun of an AMA is finding out the unexpected. His one-liners about the Bulls or "NOT BAD" were my favorite parts.

What do you expect? When you're in an office, and I mean a high office, you represent that office and all that office represents. Right or wrong, the office of the President of the United States represents America on the international scene. And people are unfair. People take things out of context. Occasionally, people just make shit up and shove it into your mouth. You can't stop them, but you can avoid helping them…

Then frankly he shouldn't be going on a forum known for its impertinent (to say the least) questions and saying "Ask Me Anything".

The abuse of Reddit AMA for boring, dull, traditional PR purposes takes one of its more interesting contributions to the internet and makes it just another venue for the Same Old Thing.

If a politician wants to be careful, let them go to the old careful outlets.

Post reply on HN