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

31–40 of 106 posts

Re: How Reddit Got Obama

#31

Post by batiudrami »

lotharbot wrote: post #8
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…

> "the internet has some pretty unsavory corners." Average voters actually use the internet and understand it. There's porn and stuff "out there", but most people don't run into it when they're visiting facebook, yahoo, espn.com, and other mainstream sites. The average voter isn't going to question the judgment of someone who "uses the internet" because it doesn't seem seedy to them. The average voter doesn't know wh…

I've recently been wondering why they don't move away from the 'default subreddits' model homepage and to a splash page: "Welcome to Reddit, a place where you can share links and talk about your favourite subjects. What are you interested in?", with a big search box, and a list of suggested subreddits that you can subscribe to. It gets users to create an account, and can allow for a friendlier experience for new people. Of course, there'd still be a 'go to the front page' link for people who preferred it, but this would help change the 'default' reddit experience, which for most people isn't great, as well as helps convey the message that reddit isn't a singular, rage comic-loving, pro-weed legalisation commmunity.

Re: How Reddit Got Obama

#32

Post by shorttime »

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.

I'm not bashing anyone but there must be some observations made obvious.

He's lived in Chicago, the Bulls comment makes sense. Appealing to his home town.

"NOT BAD" - do you REALLY think he knew to say that or do you think someone prompted him?

There are very smart people that control his speeches, people behind the curtains, to get the maximum appeal from the audience in which he is speaking to. Everything is scripted ever so carefully. Always keep this in mind. He's trying to win you over, for your vote.

Re: How Reddit Got Obama

#33

Post by lhnn »

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…

I absolutely agree that it's tough to be honest and off-the-cuff in politics, much less modern politics. However, as someone else said, no one should look at Obama and think about how 'hip' he is for using Reddit as a phone-in for stances he's already talked about. It's called "Ask Me Anything". I would have even been a little impressed if he were honest and said "AMAA".

Re: How Reddit Got Obama

#34

Post by 001sky »

redthrowaway wrote: post #27
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.

Why on Earth would he go touch marijuana legalization with a 10-foot pole?

Well, if its good enough for TED, why not Reddit?

http://whohastimeforthis.blogspot.com/2012/03/best-of-ted-20...

Hands down, the best [TED] talk this year was from Bryan Stevenson on injustice in the US criminal legal system. For example, the number of prisoners in the last 40 years has grown from 300,000 to 2.3 million (primarily, I believe, due to non-violent drug infractions). One third of young African American men are in prison, on probation or on parole. Ours is the only country in the world that gives life sentences to 13 year olds. As for the death penalty, one out of nine defendants sentenced to death have been exonerated. in California a billion dollars will be spent defending and executing the death penalty in the next 5 years, although a referendum is on its way to re-direct those funds to police enforcement budgets.

What made the talk great was Stevenson's ability to weave in his personal stories, recounting memories of what it was like to grow up among activists like Rosa Parks. There was so much enthusiasm for Stevenson and his cause that TED Curator Chris Andersen jumped on the occasion to solicit donations for Stevenson's private foundation. Right there many of us stood up and, in aggregate, pledged close to a million dollars!

Re: How Reddit Got Obama

#35

Post by akozak »

edw519 wrote: post #30

There are quite a few redditors at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave... Your tax dollars at work.

I know your comment was sarcastic, but it touches on the recent debate about whether the US government deserves any credit in the development of the Internet. And it at least gives me hope that the next generation of policymakers will appreciate the power of the open web to facilitate speech, culture, and economic development.

Re: How Reddit Got Obama

#36

Post by JohnsonB »

They didn't "get" Obama at all. He has so far answered a total of 10 questions, all of them canned, standard set pieces from his campaign that you could have just as easily read off his website. And he wasn't even the one interacting with the community; it's questionable if he was involved with this AMA at all. This was essentially a complete abuse of the AMA system but no one's calling him on it because he's the POTUS.

Re: How Reddit Got Obama

#37

Post by nacker »

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.

"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."

This.

Do not vote.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy:_The_God_That_Failed

http://mises.org/document/1092/Myth-of-National-Defense-The-...

Re: How Reddit Got Obama

#40

Post by [deleted] »

JohnsonB wrote: post #36

They didn't "get" Obama at all. He has so far answered a total of 10 questions, all of them canned, standard set pieces from his campaign that you could have just as easily read off his website. And he wasn't even the one interacting with the community; it's questionable if he was involved with this AMA at all. This was essentially a complete abuse of the AMA system but no one's calling him on it because he's the POT…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN