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

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

#211

Post by alayne »

kefka wrote: post #193
blhack wrote: post #33

It's kindof astonishing what is happening over at reddit right now. "The internet" has it's own culture, and the people running reddit right now (one of the places where this culture is the strongest, imo), seem to have no idea how to interface with it. It honestly feels like it got taken over by silicon valley middle management marketing types or something, and now they just can't seem to figure out why the users ke…

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…

Numerous subreddits were closed on Yishan Wong's watch.

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

#212

Post by rodgerd »

seanalltogether wrote: post #29
mhomde wrote: post #17

What a circus reddit has become. There's probably/hopefully more to this story but still. It will be interesting to see if reddit forces the hands of the biggest subreddits to open again. Which raises an interesting question, who "owns" a subreddit, the mods? the subscribers? reddit? I also wonder if it's a good idea for a community like reddit to have "public facing" administrators Many of the biggest subreddits are…

I'm actually surprised that reddit allows default subreddits to go private or disable themselves in any way. Each community should absolutely be able to moderate themselves, but at the same time being a default subreddit carries extra responsibilities.

> being a default subreddit carries extra responsibilities.

Mostly filtering whichever collection of racists and woman-haters show up when they become defaults. So at least their moderators are getting a break from that.

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

#213

Post by JonTarg »

emdi81 wrote: post #96
coolnow wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit still has those subs about beating women and lynching black people, right? Get over yourself, voat is better than every single example you listed.

You keep telling yourself that, maybe some day the truth fairy will come along and grant you your wish.

I thought the super secret internet clubs era was over. How old are you? Most people on voat cross browse. There's even a plugin to put both aggregators in the same page. I don't get where this idea that voat is that "den of pedos and fat haters" is coming from.

Anyway, +1 for Snapzu.

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

#214

Post by chatmasta »

_red wrote: post #171
spiralpolitik wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More likely investors are getting restless and want to see some return. In these cases management feels it needs to have things under its control and starts removing power bases from lower down the org chart so that everything stays on message. AMA is Reddit's only viable asset so having it under control of someone who isn't part of the management clique is unthinkable. Usually these attempts fail and the company is…

I agree. However a counter-point is that its quite possible that they are trying to pivot reddit into a mainstream site, and thus are more than willing to burn most of the current user base. They don't need/want hard-hitting questions during AMA's, nor do they want freaky fetish subreddits, nor long winded post describing the intricacies of the Federal Reserve. They want cat pictures, pictures of freshly baked cakes,…

This is a very good thought.

The sense I get among most of my friends "in real life" is that they read reddit but would never post to reddit. A driving force behind that is the fear of being seen as a "redditor," which is an image generally associated with neckbeards (ironically a term popularized by themselves).

It could certainly follow an 80/20 rule, i.e. 20% of users post 80% of content, but 20% of users also cause 80% of the disruption. I mean ultimately, normal people are outside living their lives, not fussing over reddit drama. Much of the controversy is definitely stirred up by a "vocal minority." But are they necessary? That's the question. If the upvote economy is zero sum, why would you want to waste so much of it on loud muckrakers?

You might very well be right. Perhaps the reddit leadership realized they have an aggressive vocal minority that is actively damaging their reputation, so they don't mind culling it from their ranks. That would explain Alexis' overt willingness to sit and watch. He literally doesn't care, because why would he? It's all part of the plan to get more cats on the front page, and money in his pocket. (I don't blame him in the slightest.)

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

#215

Post by vonklaus »

rodgerd wrote: post #198
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…

You forgot ethics in game journalism.

People caring to much about bullshit like ethics in game journalism are missing the forest for the trees.

Pleasing special interest groups in a massively diverse community isn't possible, that's why democracy is typically favored over this bullypulpit nonsense.

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

#216

Post by rodgerd »

trcollinson wrote: post #175

I have heard a lot of people here and in reddit say, "well we should just make something better and leave!" Maybe a lot of that talk is just anger or discontent coming out right now. The community is up in arms. The moderators are frustrated at both corporate reddit and the website/tools available to them. Users are mortified. But in all seriousness, I want to explore the question, why don't we? What is stopping us f…

> But really, why not just replace it?

It costs money to run. Serious money if you're going to have employees. And, as voat have discovered, if you're going to become the favoured destination of the assorted gators, racists, pedo^h^h^h^hebeophiles, woman-haters, frozen peachers, and assorted bottom-of-the-barrel types that have been looking for reddit alternatives in the last few months, you may find it quite difficult to keep your hosting arrangements even if you can pay for them.

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

#217

Post by adventured »

AUmrysh wrote: post #153
drspacemonkey wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to kn0thing, it's a shame, "but so it goes". And then there's the implication that they're all sitting back and enjoying popcorn while Reddit consumes itself. http://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/3bwgjf/riama...

What's really sad is that reddit and Alexis were, arguably, the most successful Y-Combinator startup, and now they've fallen by the wayside as cronyism and personal agendas take over. Alexis let this happen, though. Not that I blame him, I'd have taken the money too.

By far and away, Airbnb is the most successful Y-Combinator startup. It's not a close race between Reddit and Airbnb. After that is Dropbox and Stripe perhaps. I don't think Reddit ever quite stacked up to these types of companies in terms of potential. Reddit is a link-aggregator, the very definition of a poor business opportunity (they don't own anything, and hardly control anything on their own site).

Airbnb is carrying a $25 billion valuation, and has a legitimate shot at justifying it in the coming years. They own their segment like an eBay or Uber, their network effect has won.

Was Reddit once the top start-up out of Y-Combinator, years ago? I'm skeptical of that having ever been true as well.

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

#218

Post by dikaiosune »

flashman wrote: post #72
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…

> They really shot the communities in the foot by not giving them any notice or support. Reddit's major liability (and yet, one of its strengths) is the devolvement of responsibility to moderators. Without their volunteer work, the site couldn't have grown as big as it has. But mods have the power to utterly trash the site through collective action. The admins have spent years saying that moderators are responsible f…

There's a flip side to that argument as well. If the moderators have such power, then why has reddit failed to court their favor?

I'm not active there, but it does seem to me like reddit owes possibly as much to the community as vice versa.

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

#219

Post by geofft »

lingben wrote: post #138
flashman wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That link also illustrates how utterly hateful some parts of the Reddit community is. Being a Reddit admin must be really frustrating.

It is a 2 way street. The community can be nasty but they do not treat every admin this way. Consider Victoria who was just fired. The whole shenanigan today isn't really about her but about the way the mods are being treated. But my point is that the community really appreciated her work and her approach. When you come in and right off the bat are condescending, haughty, and tone-deaf, as well as non-transparent, th…

That's 'cause Victoria had a different job. People loved Raymond Chen back when Steve Ballmer was CEO of Microsoft.

In particular, Victoria had the job of making AMAs happen smoothly, and /r/IAmA is this very weird subreddit, operationally speaking (how many other subreddits have their own mobile app?), that clearly needs a paid staff member. Ellen has the job of being the final say on anything that happens, controversial or otherwise. If the entire Reddit staff agrees that an AMA needs to happen, Victoria does it. If the entire Reddit staff agrees that a subreddit needs to be banned, Ellen does it (or at least takes the blame for it).

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

#220

Post by pbreit »

slg wrote: post #159
Uhhrrr wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the questions were overly disrespectful. It's an Ask Me Anything, not an Ask Me Respectful Things. And it's not the first time someone has called him a shakedown artist or mentioned his out-of-wedlock child.

>Mr. Jackson, You are an immoral, hate-filled race baiter that has figured out how to manipulate the political system for your own gain. You've personally set back race relations year after year and continue to do more harm than good. Extorting money from companies to line your pockets and threatening to bus in protestors and create a fake racial controversy if they don’t agree to pay you off is NOT civil rights acti…

I bet he could have answered it in a charming way, though. That's what people like him are supposed to do.
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