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A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

larslofgren.com

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Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#261

Post by tiku »

Karrot_Kream wrote: post #244
neilv wrote: post #84

I don't know about this particular case, but, generally... bad actor subreddit moderators have been an occasional thing for well over a decade. And it's also been widely known for that long that Reddit is an influential venue in which to take over a corner -- for marketing or propaganda. What's an equal concern to me is how insufficiently resilient Reddit collectively appears to be, in face of this. A bad actor mod o…

Think about a Reddit mod's incentives. They: - Don't get paid - Spend time having to do some really thankless work - Don't really have a regular work schedule So what kind of person is going to do it? Someone who is willing to do the work for no pay. For smaller subreddits and areas where the work of moderation isn't that heavy, you'll find passionate individuals. Mods that moderate more time consuming content or the…

But what if they do get paid, by a competitor? It's very easy to DM a mod and tell them they will get x amount if they skewer the odds in your favor or blast your biggest competitor.

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#262

Post by qingcharles »

Braxton1980 wrote: post #73
UltraSane wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit moderation is also completely broken. Mods can ban anyone for any reason and do ban people for very stupid reasons with absolutely no recourse. It is so bad I have completely stopped posting on Reddit.

>Mods can ban anyone for any reason Yes, they can and that's how it's set up. Each community makes their own rules and can choose who participates. It's not Reddit. It's the sub that made the decision and I'm not sure how it would be possible for Reddit the company to deal with sub level rule complaints and appeals.

There are some big wins that they've never taken care of, despite spez talking big about fixing them, e.g.: stop allowing mods to pre-emptively ban you. I don't know anyone who uses Reddit that isn't banned from r/pics simply because they posted somewhere else on Reddit. The list of subs they ban for is huge.

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#263

Post by Hadriel »

michaelnovati wrote: post #99
FridayoLeary wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hello. It's nice to be able to interact directly with the subject of the article, so thanks for coming on. It's a shame you're being downvoted, because it would definitely be interesting to hear your perspective. This can't be a pleasant experience for you. I have a couple of questions for you. Firstly the article really didn't hold back about you in a way that you don't usually see. But he makes very specific and ve…

Yeah I'll I'm going to say for now is that if all your competitors (that I spoke positively about) are shutting down and shrinking and laying people off... there's more to the story. A sad story about an industry dying that should be told.

Michael for what it's worth I went to Codesmith back in 2016 lol and even then Will was a lil greasy with his marketing! LOL

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#264

Post by aitchnyu »

A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #3

Reddit should not be considered an authoritative source. Period. At this point it's the most astroturfed place on the internet. Accounts are bought and sold like cheap commodities. It's inherently unreliable. That said, in this instance Codesmith actually has an unusually strong defamation case. That Reddit mod is not anonymous, and has made solid claims (about nepotism with fabricated details, accusations of resume…

I've seen users with NSFW profiles leaving (relatively more) inane comments and their profile is private, so their posts and comments are not shown. I dread the day we can no longer evaluate users behind the comments.

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#265

Post by Montymio »

michaelnovati wrote: post #172
GenerWork wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe the phrase that applies here is "put up or shut up". If you have hordes of documents to draw on as primary sources, then it should be pretty simple (but perhaps time consuming) to write a rebuttal.

[flagged]

just gonna guess here. Were you “invited” because you had signed up with Codesmith under an alias and then received a standard event invite? because it doesn’t sound like anyone at Codesmith would be personally inviting you.

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#266

Post by qingcharles »

UltraSane wrote: post #10
A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #3

Reddit should not be considered an authoritative source. Period. At this point it's the most astroturfed place on the internet. Accounts are bought and sold like cheap commodities. It's inherently unreliable. That said, in this instance Codesmith actually has an unusually strong defamation case. That Reddit mod is not anonymous, and has made solid claims (about nepotism with fabricated details, accusations of resume…

Reddit moderation is also completely broken. Mods can ban anyone for any reason and do ban people for very stupid reasons with absolutely no recourse. It is so bad I have completely stopped posting on Reddit.

Reddit itself bans and shadowbans for no good reason on a very regular basis. And their appeal system generally does not work.

And Reddit bans are used by powermods to get rid of any rivals. They will pay to bot the report system so your account is instantly perma-banned by Reddit. And Reddit has the most aggressive system of all the social networks for detecting duplicate accounts, so you'll have a hard time ever using the site again.

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#267

Post by collingreen »

4bpp wrote: post #207
michaelnovati wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not my industry, no. Had the author reached out for comment they could publish my claims. More interested in a hit piece than the truth.

Even if we accept all your claims at face value, your behaviour in your capacity as the moderator of that subreddit was still immoral. However you feel about it, being a moderator is a voluntary responsibility which comes with an expectation of impartiality and service at the expense of, not in furtherance of, your personal goals. At best , if everything you say is true, what you are doing is akin to proudly voluntee…

To be clear I agree with a lot of what you wrote here so this is just a small nit:

> What other options do those who do not want the town square to be moderated by you have?

Start and visit a new subreddit. This is an important bit that gets covered up by metaphors like "landed gentry" and "peasants". Don't like it? Vote with your digital feet. It doesn't come with any of the baggage and complication that an equivalent real life move would have. Just stop going there and go somewhere else. Yes it would be nice if folks were awesome and tried to be awesome. The reality is they aren't and subreddits are property owned by the mods. Luckily, you don't have to be there.

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#268

Post by neya »

Karrot_Kream wrote: post #246
neya wrote: post #236

I wonder what makes a platform like HN work, but not the others. In almost every other platform moderators are just sad, angry little entitled narcissists who love exerting control over others. This has been proven time and again across multiple platforms: Wikipedia Quora Stackoverflow (surprise, surprise!) Reddit .. And basically anything else that depends on those so called moderators for fairness and equality. It…

The mods here are paid that's why.

But getting paid doesn't guarantee being neutral. I think it's more about the principle and vision than just the pay.

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#269

Post by sesm »

michaelnovati wrote: post #195
crummy wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I compared the statement 'do this because it changed my life and the life of many others' to the type of language used in cult documentaries on HBO why did you make that comparison?

[flagged]

What happened in 2024 that changed your mind?

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#270

Post by collingreen »

michaelnovati wrote: post #203
malfist wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that what you do all day? Its trivially easy to make a profile look like yours, its a lot harder to actually have an average of 28 commits a day every day for a year with zero days off. Not for weekends, not for vacations, not for sickness. All in completely private repositories

It's real code.

Well that proves it!
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