Front Page Subreddits Go Private in Response to Firing of Reddit Admin • Hacker News Board

Re: Front Page Subreddits Go Private in Response to Firing of Reddit Admin

#271

Post by derefr » Fri, Jul 03, 2015, 4:32 AM UTC

adventured wrote: post #107

Smerity wrote: post #5

One of the most telling points is from /u/imakuram, moderator for /r/books: "This seems to be a seriously stupid decision. We have several AMAs upcoming in /r/books and have no idea how to contact the authors."[1] They really shot the communities in the foot by not giving them any notice or support. Given that the key feature in ensuring the quality of Reddit is the moderation "donated" by the community, this is a de…

Peak Reddit was 2011-2014. The people running the 'business' just don't realize it yet. Three years from now, Reddit will be half as influential as it has been these past three years. A community like Reddit is incredibly challenging to keep balanced long-term. Services like it just tend to blow-up eventually. The upside is, innovation will probably come out of its meltdown, new types of services will bloom, and wipe…

On the other hand, Reddit has tons of mostly-isolated subcommunities that will continue to thrive, because they aren't really dependent on the Reddit userbase; they're just the moral equivalent of hosted copies of the reddit codebase, like WordPress.com instances of WordPress.

I can imagine that people will stop thinking of "Reddit" as a website that everyone visits with "default subreddits" et al, but they will possibly continue to associate the name with the platform.

Re: Front Page Subreddits Go Private in Response to Firing of Reddit Admin

#272

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jul 03, 2015, 4:32 AM UTC

btown wrote: post #41

The admin in question, Victoria (/u/chooter), is still posting, and gives every indication that it was not an expected nor voluntary departure: https://www.reddit.com/user/chooter /u/karmanaut, one of the most prolific moderators, gave some insight into why this is such a big deal: https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/3bw39q/why_ha... > We had a number of AMAs scheduled for today that Victoria was supposed…

[deleted]

Re: Front Page Subreddits Go Private in Response to Firing of Reddit Admin

#273

Post by Malician » Fri, Jul 03, 2015, 4:32 AM UTC

geofft wrote: post #209

vonklaus wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> basically everything you said It isn't about the firing. It is about subverting posts, subverting ideologies, deleting subs, limiting free speech in general and having an ambiguous morality/decision making process that is impossible to trust. Hiring Pao was so stupid. Leaving aside whether she was qualified, you can't lead a team that doesn't respect or relate to you. > this is a huge vote of "no confidence" toward…

The same goes for Yishan Wong, who personally hired Ellen Pao, supports the recent moderation actions[1], thought he wasn't qualified for the job[2], and censored creepshots, right? The whole thing's been going downhill since 2012, I guess? [1] http://www.quora.com/Reddit-Strengthens-Moderation-Spring-an... [2] http://www.redditblog.com/2012/03/new-reddit-ceo-reporting-f...

I think you're trying to make a sarcastic point here (unless I'm mistaken,) but that's probably quite true as written.

Even /r/askscience supports this move [1]. It is one of the most heavily moderated subreddits on the site, with professional staff. These aren't rabblerousers, they are very hard-working volunteers who are fed up with the administration.

[1]https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/3by2nk/a_messag...

Re: Front Page Subreddits Go Private in Response to Firing of Reddit Admin

#274

Post by geofft » Fri, Jul 03, 2015, 4:33 AM UTC

natrius wrote: post #234

kefka wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit has gone from someone who understood 'The Internet' : “We will not ban questionable subreddits,” Reddit’s CEO, Yishan Wong, wrote in the aftermath of that catastrophe. “You choose what to post. You choose what to read. You choose what kind of subreddit to create and what kind of rules you will enforce. We will try not to interfere — not because we don’t care, but because we care that you make your choices betw…

As someone who loves reddit, this dichotomy is the clearest sign that it has no future. Anyone who values freedom of expression and knows how to program can help build a decentralized reddit that no one controls on top of platforms like IPFS and Ethereum's Swarm. Every attempt at building a reddit clone fails because reddit enjoys tremendous network effects. But decentralization yields its own network effects—you don…

I wouldn't say I love Reddit, but I'm certainly an active user. But I'm not subscribed to any of the subreddits that were affected, and I wouldn't have noticed if it weren't for this thread. There are lots of little communities that work well, with their own things they value. (There was a particular thread over on /r/OrthodoxChristianity, now removed, that would have been hilarious if it wasn't sad: a member of the community tried to convince everyone else to move to Voat. The usual talking points for that move didn't really go over well there.)

I suspect one of the network effects is simply that people have Reddit accounts and know how the site works; it's not yet another site to sign up for, for a small-ish community of people interested in a thing. I think that's the sole reason, for instance, /r/rust works as well as it does; philosophically, the community doesn't align well with Reddit as a whole. I suspect that it's not users of any particular other subreddit (not even /r/programming) who are there, but people already using Reddit for many many other things. It's become one of the bigger discussion forums for the language, especially since the closure of the rust-dev mailing list.

If you can build a decentralized Reddit-like system with no per-community account system and also with no spam problem, you may stand a decent chance at replacing it.

Re: Front Page Subreddits Go Private in Response to Firing of Reddit Admin

#275

Post by AndrewKemendo » Fri, Jul 03, 2015, 4:34 AM UTC

kaonashi wrote: post #201

lingben wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

reddit is one of the simplest and easiest sites for a new user to learn to use. Somehow, Ellen Pao doesn't know how to use reddit, nevermind what the culture and community that has built over a decade truly means. She meant to send someone a pm but did a selfpost instead and then hurriedly erased it and banned everyone that responded to the selfpost: https://archive.is/9RFIp Reminds me of my grandmother sending me a…

Given the content of those replies, banning was entirely warranted.

So some people call you names and that's too much to handle as a CEO that they need to be banned?

Re: Front Page Subreddits Go Private in Response to Firing of Reddit Admin

#276

Post by adventured » Fri, Jul 03, 2015, 4:35 AM UTC

Kodix wrote: post #161

adventured wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Won't matter. There's no real lock-in among text / link content communities. They're trivial to build, there will never be a lack of new variations. Reddit doesn't even have possession of the vast media (youtube, imgur) that gets posted to its service, making it that much easier to replace. Imgur will probably see among the greatest benefit as Reddit erodes.

That's true about Imgur. It has already gained a sizable community not directly related to reddit before this fiasco, I wouldn't be surprised if it grew more quickly now. It has the infrastructure as well as the most popular form of content from reddit - unlike something like voat.

Right, the critical difference between Reddit and Imgur - Imgur contains the content. They're the host, rather than sending traffic off-platform. Just like eg YouTube. Those types of platforms end up being vastly more valuable; if you don't own or control anything on your own site, it'll always come back to bite you. Imagine Facebook hosting all of its photos on another site like Imgur.

With Reddit's approach, you end up creating lots of competitors; given the right context, or given enough time, those competitors will bleed you out. Twitter figured that out with TwitPic et al.

Re: Front Page Subreddits Go Private in Response to Firing of Reddit Admin

#277

Post by chillingeffect » Fri, Jul 03, 2015, 4:35 AM UTC

ChuckMcM wrote: post #167

This does feel a bit like "Internet" culture meets Sarbanes Oxley (which comes into play when you are publicly traded). There was a story about how unprofitable Reddit is [1] and given that one would expect it to start running out of cash. And when that happens it has to either get more VC funding or go to the public for additional funding. But if you're going to file an S-1 you really have to get your SOX compliance…

> illegal stuff going on

All of the conditions of SOX seem to be about financial disclosure, with the most general "crime-like" thing having to do with financial fraud. I don't SOX has much to do with e.g. online harrassment or pornography. It was enacted in response to financial and accounting scandals around 2000. [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarbanes%E2%80%93Oxley_Act

Re: Front Page Subreddits Go Private in Response to Firing of Reddit Admin

#278

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jul 03, 2015, 4:37 AM UTC

chernevik wrote: post #8

Jesse Jackson had an AMA that did not go very well. Several of the most upvoted questions were simply disrespectful. The Reverend's answers were mostly boilerplate and often unresponsive to the question. The AMA seems to have been part of some PR rollout -- Mother Jones had an article three days ago about Jackson taking on Silicon Valley. The event seems to have failed the rollout's objectives. Not a great moment for…

[deleted]

Re: Front Page Subreddits Go Private in Response to Firing of Reddit Admin

#279

Post by betenoire » Fri, Jul 03, 2015, 4:38 AM UTC

emdi81 wrote: post #45

bobbles wrote: post #39

People don't give a shit about 'reddit' as a thing, what they care about is the content people submit and the subreddits that foster the communities. They seem to be going through their own Digg v4 moment here, completely disregarding users because they think they're big enough to survive without them.

Felt I should share this. There are a number of really good established alternatives with great mods and admins for those who wish to branch out and check out something new: www.snapzu.com - Excellent content and friendly community. Has a unique XP/Leveling system and ability to post content into multiple subs. www.empeopled.com - Gives you more influence based on the amount of up-votes you've received. Use influence…

www.metafilter.com it's not free, but that's not a bad thing

Re: Front Page Subreddits Go Private in Response to Firing of Reddit Admin

#280

Post by ForEnglandJames » Fri, Jul 03, 2015, 4:38 AM UTC

geofft wrote: post #246

chernevik wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shouldn't. But see this exchange in the archive ( https://archive.is/jouWQ#selection-17025.0-17025.134 ) 'Have you felt regretful for rushing to judgement after condemning the "perpetrators" of the Duke lacrosse rape scandal during 2006-07?' 'No, the pattern is consistent. And we never want injustice to occur. But the pattern is fairly obvious, and a very obvious pattern that must be ended.' The Reverend isn't intere…

Maybe this is a stupid question, but I'm not sure I see how that relates to the departure of a Reddit employee facilitating that AMA. He answered the question, right? Whether the answer is terrible maybe impacts what you think of him , but not what you think of the person making the AMA happen (either as a person or as an employee), right? Or did he not actually answer the question, and did someone else answer in his…

Let me explain this in simple terms so everyone here can understand what's going on

1) Pao is still intent on shaking down the silicon valley establishment. She's made that very clear by here refusal to settle with KP, even after the embarrassing loss in the original case. Probably to bail out Ole Buddy, her hubby.

2) Jesse Jackson has decided to go where the real money is and start shaking down silicon valley for donations to his rainbow putsch coalition

3) Pao and Jackson are now aligned in intent--both want the moral high ground in their scheme to extort money from silicon valley using whatever weird false narrative of priviledge they can create

4) Pao invites the Right Reverend to do an AMA, likely coordinated by Victoria in order to start the press game for his campaign

5) Reddit users hurl abuse (rightfully so) at the Right Grifter Jackson over his continued race-baiting and hypocrisy (having an affair while 'counselling' president Clinton over his affair? Jesus Christ!)

6) Jackson gets pissed because he can't control the message. His people likely say something to Chairman Pao's people.

7) Pao realizes she done goofed and potentially lost a valuable ally in her extortion scheme.

8) Pao uses Victoria as a scapegoat to try to save face and fires her on the spot.

Now, all of this is rumor, but c'mon, you know it's what happened. It's common sense.