Reddit is Clueless

bnt

Went on Reddit this morning, and thought I had travelled back in time to 1995, the year Alicia Silverstone would, like, totally pause for Stop signs. Rage-quitting, subreddits going "dark" (private), and general first-world-problem whining. All because the lady who organised AMA (Ask Me Anything) interviews has been laid off from Reddit without advance notice. Here's one version of the story on Reddit.

I really thought the Internet had reached a level of professionalism and maturity where this kind of thing didn't happen any more. In a way, it's kind-of reassuring to see that the old Clueless spirit is still alive and kicking.

"Do you have any idea what you're talking about?"
"No. Why, does it sound like I do?"

rab!dmonkey

Drama? On Reddit? No way…

Kovu

What? No seriously, I need a little help here.

Reoil

And you post this in After Hours?
Hahahahaaa.

_Kaiser_

I have to admit, I don't "get" Reddit. Seems like far too much effort for very little return.

But the idea that the Internet has matured is hilarious.. if anything it's getting worse! The rise of social media and nonsense like Selfie's, challenges and stuff going "viral" so on has gotten so bad that it now infests mainstream news sites.. often displacing far more important stuff in the process.

Cheap broadband and smartphones coupled with shyte like FB and Twitter means that now every idiot can have their 15 minutes

bnt

Reoil wrote: »

And you post this in After Hours?
Hahahahaaa.

I wonder if AH ever gets mentioned on Reddit? Oh, that would be ... something. Possibly.

catallus

What we are witnessing on Reddit is the dictatorship of the proletariat, whereby the elite eats itself by starving its slaves.

gordongekko

I don'tknow what a tracker mortgage is and even less idea what you're talking about.

jester77

Their big problem is that have a CEO who is totally clueless. She's in there to monetise the platform, but she has totally no understanding of the user base. All she will do is drive them away and leave nothing there to monetise.

Herpes Cineplex

What is the obsession with that rubbish Reddit site? Even worse are the people who mention it here. An automatic ban for people who bring it up would be nice imo.

Enjoy Heroin Responsibly

bnt wrote: »

I wonder if AH ever gets mentioned on Reddit? Oh, that would be ... something. Possibly.

They have carried rants denouncing Boards in general although it should be borne in mind that many people confuse AH with boards in its entirety.

trellheim

Victoria from IamA got fired with no warning. Since she was extremely popular and was for many a nice face of the corporate/admins which are viewed as toxic , this has happened . No decent reason has yet been advanced as to why although paid AMAs may be out there..
Since reddit is viewed as one of the source sites for a lot of the "cat pictures" part of the Internet this is important.

Anyone who wants to click into the drama minefield

https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/3bxduw/why_was_riama_along_with_a_number_of_other_large/

best humour of last night was when circlejerk went private , with this announcement to people who wanted to complain "please contact circlejerk at: berniesandersforpresident@reddit.com

jester77

Herpes Cineplex wrote: »

What is the obsession with that rubbish Reddit site? Even worse are the people who mention it here. An automatic ban for people who bring it up would be nice imo.

You obviously don't understand it. It's very far from rubbish, there is endless amount of subreddits on all sorts of topics. Subscribe to a topic you are interested in and you will quickly see what a fantastic resource it is. It my second go to site after stackoverflow for all things development related.

Mr Rhode Island Red

You think Reddit is bad?

4chan

catallus

God bless 4Chan

FlyingIrishMan

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

I have to admit, I don't "get" Reddit. Seems like far too much effort for very little return.

How is it any more effort than boards?

Carlos Orange

I only skimmed a page about it but I get the impression that is just the last straw. The unpaid mods seems pissed about the lack of support they get from reddit in general.

Old Perry

Fear not op. this is after hours, where you can get professionalism and maturity by truck load.

Tar.Aldarion

Herpes Cineplex wrote: »

What is the obsession with that rubbish Reddit site? Even worse are the people who mention it here. An automatic ban for people who bring it up would be nice imo.

Because certain subreddits have much more interesting and factual discussion than most places, you will get experts from every field on there for instance. When you see some research paper and are talking about it, chances are the people who wrote it might pop up to answer questions. If it is BS the first post will tell you and explain why. Boards is better for community but it is better for debate and knowledge. The upvote/downvote system is great for the best posts going to the top, other forums you have to merely read things in order. (still have that choice on reddit)

Micky Dolenz

Whatever. Noone said a word when i got sacked.

Darkglasses

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

The upvote/downvote system is great for the best posts going to the top, other forums you have to merely read things in order. (still have that choice on reddit)

I like reddit for a lot of things, but not the upvoting/downvoting of comments. Bad for actual discussion, just reinforces group think over time. Prefer the thanks system here.

Penn

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

Whatever. Noone said a word when i got sacked.

"Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha" counts as a word.

wp_rathead

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

I have to admit, I don't "get" Reddit. Seems like far too much effort for very little return.

But the idea that the Internet has matured is hilarious.. if anything it's getting worse! The rise of social media and nonsense like Selfie's, challenges and stuff going "viral" so on has gotten so bad that it now infests mainstream news sites.. often displacing far more important stuff in the process.

Cheap broadband and smartphones coupled with shyte like FB and Twitter means that now every idiot can have their 15 minutes

Fecking "Social Experiments" and "Click Bait" are two horrible legacies of the Internet

Rabies

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

Whatever. Noone said a word when i got sacked.

It's all gone wild over there

bnt

No need to over-analyse the OP, it's just a "human interest" story. I've only stuck a toe in to Reddit, and this story is teaching me something about the whole culture of subreddits, mods and so on.

Vandango

jester77 wrote: »

You obviously don't understand it. It's very far from rubbish, there is endless amount of subreddits on all sorts of topics.

And you don't understand that this is Boards.ie and most Boarsdies couldn't give a crap about that shyte site.

Darkglasses

bnt wrote: »

No need to over-analyse the OP, it's just a "human interest" story. I've only stuck a toe in to Reddit, and this story is teaching me something about the whole culture of subreddits, mods and so on.

Yeah, I find the moderator role over there quite interesting. They're responsible for soooo much content creation it's ridiculous.

pablomakaveli

bnt wrote: »

Went on Reddit this morning, and thought I had travelled back in time to 1995, the year Alicia Silverstone would, like, totally pause for Stop signs. Rage-quitting, subreddits going "dark" (private), and general first-world-problem whining. All because the lady who organised AMA (Ask Me Anything) interviews has been laid off from Reddit without advance notice. Here's one version of the story on Reddit.

I really thought the Internet had reached a level of professionalism and maturity where this kind of thing didn't happen any more. In a way, it's kind-of reassuring to see that the old Clueless spirit is still alive and kicking.

"Do you have any idea what you're talking about?"
"No. Why, does it sound like I do?"

There's a reason why. A lot of subreddits also counted on here to verify and organize stuff for AMA's that were being run. The fact that she was let go without anyone being told or an announcement made has basically messed up some planned AMA. It's not people having a hissy fit for the sake of it.

You know most of the news you see here? The vast majority of links from Cool Vids & Pics? A large portion of the conversation topics here? They started on Reddit. Anytime there's a major news story breaking, then chances are that there's someone from that is a member.

There's a reason that Reddit is referred to as the Front Page of the internet.

You get surreal moments where Madonna is doing an interview and Snoop Dogg joins in, Chevy Chase explaining the origin of a famous catchphrase completely randomly on a photo of his.

The AMA section has seen amazing interviews with Bill Gates, Obama, Channing Tatum, Ethan Hawke, Edward Snowden, to name but a small few. These are the kind of interviews you'd never see anywhere else and gives people an unrivaled and unprecedented opportunity to engage with someone that they never ever may have.

And you look at the Q&As and the vast majority say, Victoria is helping me out.

She was fired without notice and the AMA section was made private, which means that a section, which is loved by so many extremely influential people, is gone.

So, in solidarity, at least 60% of the sections on Reddit made themselves private, some of them being the largest, and likely cut off millions in traffic that the site would usually get.

pablomakaveli

Darkglasses wrote: »

I like reddit for a lot of things, but not the upvoting/downvoting of comments. Bad for actual discussion, just reinforces group think over time. Prefer the thanks system here.

Boards is pretty bad in some ways as well. The thanks function is abused on here regularly for circlejerking. Also the layout on Boards means a single poster can derail a thread. On Reddit a troll can be simply downvoted off the page where they no longer impact on the thread itself.

Both sites have their good and bad points.

r93kaey5p2izun

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

Boards is better for community but it is better for debate and knowledge. The upvote/downvote system is great for the best posts going to the top, other forums you have to merely read things in order. (still have that choice on reddit)

Really? How do you do that? I think reddit is really interesting but I hate the upvote system so I just give up.

(I had previously quoted the wrong person so deleted that post, apologies)

pablomakaveli

Deleted User wrote: »

So, in solidarity, at least 60% of the sections on Reddit made themselves private, some of them being the largest, and likely cut off millions in traffic that the site would usually get.

It is funny to think how the likes of buzzfeed and ladbible will be starved of content while r/funny is closed.:pac:

Darkglasses

pablomakaveli wrote: »

Boards is pretty bad in some ways as well. The thanks function is abused on here regularly for circlejerking. Also the layout on Boards means a single poster can derail a thread. On Reddit a troll can be simply downvoted off the page where they no longer impact on the thread itself.

Both sites have their good and bad points.

I don't think you can compare the circlejerking on Boards to Reddit though, on a lot of subreddits you only ever see one opinion, and everything else gets downvoted to invisibility. At least here you can read every comment equally unless it breaks a rule.

pablomakaveli

Darkglasses wrote: »

I don't think you can compare the circlejerking on Boards to Reddit though, on a lot of subreddits you only ever see one opinion, and everything else gets downvoted to invisibility. At least here you can read every comment equally unless it breaks a rule.

Thats certainly true. Ultimately though both Boards and Reddit have their good and bad points.

The Moldy Gowl

Vandango wrote: »

And you don't understand that this is Boards.ie and most Boarsdies couldn't give a crap about that shyte site.

Reddit is far better than boards. Far more interesting stuff on there and easier to organise than the way threads go here. I'll read the first few posts and leave the tread because it's too long.

Far better for pictures and 'funny' stuff. Even our ylyl thread is 2 days behind reddit and the reposted stuff isn't funny anymore.

You have way more people over there from different countries, compared to Dublin, and everyone else here.

Darkglasses

pablomakaveli wrote: »

Thats certainly true. Ultimately though both Boards and Reddit have their good and bad points.

Oh yeah for sure, nothing's perfect. I do like reddit for some things, like no matter what you're into, you can find an active place to discuss it. There's really nowhere here on boards to discuss e-sports, but there's countless active subreddits to chose from.

SmilesInMass

I just hope nofap stayed up or there will be a whole lot of ectoplasm and spooky ghosts around later.

The Moldy Gowl

pablomakaveli wrote: »

It is funny to think how the likes of buzzfeed and ladbible will be starved of content while r/funny is closed.:pac:

What will the you laugh you lose thread do?

Gowlasauras Rex

Gowlasauras Rex wrote: »

What will the you laugh you lose thread do?

Hell, what will the vast majority of Cool Vids & Pics do?

What I love is that one of the posts on the front page says, "with 60% of Reddit in the dark, this might be my only opportunity to get on the front page".

Earthhorse

A popular and effective employee was fired without prior warning and as a result the subreddit that relied most heavily on her for its functioning went dark and with it many other popular subreddits in solidarity.

This creates a headache for the owners of the site and sends a message far stronger than mere debate ever could. The idea that this could be seen as immature is unfortunate in a world of at will employment where heads of corporations no longer feel they answerable for their actions.

Aimead

There has been a lot of distrust between users of Reddit and the management for a long time now, with the moderators to a large extent getting trapped in the middle. The sacking was just the final straw that broke the camel’s back.

In trying to monetise the site the management have killed some of the key aspects that made Reddit a success in the first place. By trying to ‘sanitise’ it to appease advertisers, for example, they alienate those users for whom Reddit was a bastion of free speech or to discuss unpopular opinions. Lately it seems that criticising management actions would get you shaddowb&. The tone being set by management has filtered down in extremely troubling ways to some of the moderators/administrators. For example, there was a thread featuring a comment by Totalbiscuit that had garnered over 26,000 comments from Reddit users – and the image of a massive wall of deleted comments just screamed “something’s not right here”.

If the latest rumour is true that Victoria was sacked over the Sharpton then the management may be a completely lost cause.

Caliden

It's a load of white knights coming to the rescue of a 'maiden in distress'.

American employment law is vastly different to here and you can be let go for very minor things (downsizing, company going a different direction).

The volunteers for each subreddit seem to think they aren't replaceable and are staging a protest. Upper management in reddit is indeed crap and the new CEO is a troll but this just seems like it will hurt the site without achieving anything else.

Links234

Caliden wrote: »

It's a load of white knights coming to the rescue of a 'maiden in distress'.

*Cringe*

She was an incredibly popular mod and was the driving force behind one of the absolute best parts of reddit by far, people aren't being "white knights" at all.

c_man

I just don't know how I'll go on... The world has changed forever, I'm too old to learn the new ways.

Tar.Aldarion

Emerald Tight Dime wrote: »

Really? How do you do that? I think reddit is really interesting but I hate the upvote system so I just give up.

(I had previously quoted the wrong person so deleted that post, apologies)

Go into any post and at the top there is sorting, by default it is best, what you want is to sort by "old", All the top level comments will start from the first written then.

Darkglasses wrote: »

I like reddit for a lot of things, but not the upvoting/downvoting of comments. Bad for actual discussion, just reinforces group think over time. Prefer the thanks system here.

Thanks system on boards is no different, it's generally worse because you see the same people thank the same people and you see the same popular opinions thanked. You can also see when certain people aren't thanked anywhere based on their views on different topics. This is because of the community aspect, and is both good and bad, same as anonymity of reddit is good and bad. And the problem with a linear format is it descends into mayhem pretty fast (you can't really talk to somebody who posted post number 200 if the current post is 500 here,), threads with large numbers of posts are completely unmanageable and go off topic into nothingness, yet I can skim through 10000 posts on a reddit thread easily and simply collapse the sub-discussion topics I am not interested in. I find it so handy to have everything indented and one subdiscussion all together.

hardy_buck

Aimead wrote: »

There has been a lot of distrust between users of Reddit and the management for a long time now, with the moderators to a large extent getting trapped in the middle. The sacking was just the final straw that broke the camel’s back.

In trying to monetise the site the management have killed some of the key aspects that made Reddit a success in the first place. By trying to ‘sanitise’ it to appease advertisers, for example, they alienate those users for whom Reddit was a bastion of free speech or to discuss unpopular opinions. Lately it seems that criticising management actions would get you shaddowb&. The tone being set by management has filtered down in extremely troubling ways to some of the moderators/administrators. For example, there was a thread featuring a comment by Totalbiscuit that had garnered over 26,000 comments from Reddit users – and the image of a massive wall of deleted comments just screamed “something’s not right here”.

If the latest rumour is true that Victoria was sacked over the Sharpton then the management may be a completely lost cause.

What is the Sharpton?

In fairness you really can't compare the Thanks here to the up/downvoting on Reddit. As much as it annoys people, the Thanks doesn't destroy a discussion/conversation and doesn't stop it from happening. Not only do people on Reddit downvote you for simply expressing an unpopular opinion, it will actively insure that it is brought down to Oblivion.

Links234

hardy_buck wrote: »

What is the Sharpton?

It wasn't Sharpton, but Jesse Jackson did an AMA and it was a disaster, some people have speculated this as the reason she was fired, but supposedly it was because she disagree with management over monetizing /r/IAMA and running video AMAs among other issues.

Links234

Links234 wrote: »

It wasn't Sharpton, but Jesse Jackson did an AMA and it was a disaster, some people have speculated this as the reason she was fired, but supposedly it was because she disagree with management over monetizing /r/IAMA and running video AMAs among other issues.

What happened that made it a disaster?

It's funny when you see those awkward ones. Kevin Sorbo's one was also one of notoriety.

catallus

Maybe the mods of boards should emulate their reddit brethren

Tar.Aldarion

Woody's AMA was the worst disaster, and that is because she wasn't working on it. People don't know how to use the internet or reddit a lot and she was very helpful in explaining and he;ping.

Deleted User wrote: »

In fairness you really can't compare the Thanks here to the up/downvoting on Reddit. As much as it annoys people, the Thanks doesn't destroy a discussion/conversation and doesn't stop it from happening. Not only do people on Reddit downvote you for simply expressing an unpopular opinion, it will actively insure that it is brought down to Oblivion.

I never really find that - I can see that it is possible all right, people do downvote things they don't like. I generall find it's how you post and not what you post that matters. i post about veganism all the time over there (a very unpopular opinion with the masses), the level of discussion compared to here with non-vegans is night and day, and always get upvoted loads even when people disagree with me. I'd say I only have a handful of posts in 4 years that are negative.