Aliens in the Valley: The History of Reddit
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Aliens in the Valley: The History of Reddit
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Re: Aliens in the Valley: The History of Reddit
#2This article only touches lightly on what I believe to be Reddit's primary weakness, namely the inability to elect moderators for various subs. If someone is able to do a Reddit-like site with a fair means for nominating and electing moderators they will have a good chance at eclipsing Reddit's success.
Reddit could also implement this themselves, and given the sometimes questionable actions of some moderators (e.g. when all Tesla-related stories were being banned from /r/technology ) this would help to legitimize the nominal democratic nature of the site.
Re: Aliens in the Valley: The History of Reddit
#3Reading this, I'm struck by a few things that I believe are telling about the tech sector's culture.
The paternalistic/maternalistic attitude of Paul and Jessica is more than a little cloying. Frankly, it seems like they enjoyed the position of power granted them by the cash in their wallets.
And second, the focus on dysfunctional behavior as an aberration instead of the norm. See how the term 'dysfunction' is used to describe Yishan's departure, Twitter's board, Reddit in general.
Things rarely go 'professionally' when humans are concerned; I'd argue, in fact, that Yishan found a quite professional avenue to quit, in that it did not become a shouting match over a core issue.
I think it a mark of corporatism to adhere strongly to the facade of professionalism and punish or otherwise shame those that prove it a lie. Meanwhile, cultural leaders within the Valley pick favorites and call them "Muffins" but are, presently, secure from social fallout.
There is an in crowd and an out crowd, in other words.
Re: Aliens in the Valley: The History of Reddit
#4I was hoping it would mention the growing problem of astroturfing and "viral" marketing.
Re: Aliens in the Valley: The History of Reddit
#5This article only touches lightly on what I believe to be Reddit's primary weakness, namely the inability to elect moderators for various subs. If someone is able to do a Reddit-like site with a fair means for nominating and electing moderators they will have a good chance at eclipsing Reddit's success. Reddit could also implement this themselves, and given the sometimes questionable actions of some moderators (e.g.…
Keep in mind giving mods power incentivises mods to build, grow, and.. well... moderate their little corner of the internet on reddit's platform. You take that power away and good luck keeping mods working hard for you for free.
Re: Aliens in the Valley: The History of Reddit
#6This article only touches lightly on what I believe to be Reddit's primary weakness, namely the inability to elect moderators for various subs. If someone is able to do a Reddit-like site with a fair means for nominating and electing moderators they will have a good chance at eclipsing Reddit's success. Reddit could also implement this themselves, and given the sometimes questionable actions of some moderators (e.g.…
Keep in mind giving mods power incentivises mods to build, grow, and.. well... moderate their little corner of the internet on reddit's platform. You take that power away and good luck keeping mods working hard for you for free.
That power would still be there, it would just be checked by the possibility that they might one day lose it.
Re: Aliens in the Valley: The History of Reddit
#7Reading this, I'm struck by a few things that I believe are telling about the tech sector's culture. The paternalistic/maternalistic attitude of Paul and Jessica is more than a little cloying. Frankly, it seems like they enjoyed the position of power granted them by the cash in their wallets. And second, the focus on dysfunctional behavior as an aberration instead of the norm. See how the term 'dysfunction' is used t…
> The paternalistic/maternalistic attitude of Paul and Jessica is more than a little cloying. Frankly, it seems like they enjoyed the position of power granted them by the cash in their wallets.
In a setting where ideas change rapidly and companies start overnight, having a hunch about people even through failure might be completely justified. "You've produced garbage so far, but I'm confident that you'll make something good" is much more reasonable in the startup world than it is in, say, large-scale retail. The investment that PG makes in a prospect is really, really low; if "Muffin" doesn't produce, it doesn't really matter to him.
If this paternalistic attitude didn't work, Y Combinator wouldn't be doing it. To use a sports metaphor, they're drafting a football team rather than a baseball team. Baseball players can be studied statistically because the college game is similar enough to the professional game that you can study prior data. In contrast, football is a crapshoot; the college game is so different from the pro game that there's barely a correlation at all between good college players and good pro players. So is choosing startups to fund.
If the Muffins end up making money, that's a great indication that PG & Friends having an "in crowd" is producing results.
If they're incorrect, they're opening the door for a more rational company to do the exact same job as them without Muffins and beat them.
Re: Aliens in the Valley: The History of Reddit
#8Reading this, I'm struck by a few things that I believe are telling about the tech sector's culture. The paternalistic/maternalistic attitude of Paul and Jessica is more than a little cloying. Frankly, it seems like they enjoyed the position of power granted them by the cash in their wallets. And second, the focus on dysfunctional behavior as an aberration instead of the norm. See how the term 'dysfunction' is used t…
> The paternalistic/maternalistic attitude of Paul and Jessica is more than a little cloying. Frankly, it seems like they enjoyed the position of power granted them by the cash in their wallets. In a setting where ideas change rapidly and companies start overnight, having a hunch about people even through failure might be completely justified. "You've produced garbage so far, but I'm confident that you'll make someth…
As far as I can tell your response is off topic.
I never said it didn't produce results, I said that it had cultural effects.
>If this paternalistic attitude didn't work, Y Combinator wouldn't be doing it.
Your argument seems essentially "it exists, therefore it's fine." Minimal competence also produces results. That doesn't mean the flaws of an approach are mitigated or nonexistent.
My overall point has nothing whatsoever to do with results. What I'm saying is something about ugliness and ugly people and how our culture treats them despite the fact that we are all ugly people.
Unfortunately for Paul and Jessica, they are in public view quite often; in this article we get a glimpse of their ugliness. But they also consistently accept the rewards given them because of this exposure. Good/bad for them, depending on your viewpoint of that tradeoff.
I dwell on them because the disparity between how our culture punishes and rewards 'professionalism' and lack thereof.
This is about the lie of professionalism. Perhaps you're saying professionalism doesn't matter if, even during its absence, results can still be had? I don't see how that counters anything I've said.
Re: Aliens in the Valley: The History of Reddit
#9I was hoping it would mention the growing problem of astroturfing and "viral" marketing.
Post OC to reddit, get upvotes, create the OC and go to jail.
Re: Aliens in the Valley: The History of Reddit
#10This article only touches lightly on what I believe to be Reddit's primary weakness, namely the inability to elect moderators for various subs. If someone is able to do a Reddit-like site with a fair means for nominating and electing moderators they will have a good chance at eclipsing Reddit's success. Reddit could also implement this themselves, and given the sometimes questionable actions of some moderators (e.g.…
The Mods are chosen by the existing mod team themselves. The first mod is the creator of the sub.