Comment by dredmorbius | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dredmorbius | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

As I've noted previously on HN:

- Spez and Reddit created that so-called "landed gentry" through their own rules and policies, and were more than happy with it until about two weeks ago. <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36352719> Irony of actual power-elite labeling volunteering serfs as a power elite also noted.

- A "small number of users" discounts the activity, value, role, and influence of those people, and ignores the pervasive power-law relationships in virtually all of media, online or off. Compare against HN where a small fraction of profiles contribute the overwhelming majority of both comments and front-page stories. More deets: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36348493>.

Whatever else his CEO skills, crisis communications and adroit use of metaphor are not spez's strong suit.

As for the effectiveness of the strike and protests: Reddit has now been front-page news in national and international media, leading up to a planned IPO, and Not In A Good Way, even if the coverage of interviews is ham-fisted and one-sided. Which reads as a win for those protesting to me.

(Late edit: noting of irony.)

I generally fall into the same opinion. If he's so upset about how things turned out, then why did he deliberately structure everything to turn out this way?

Absolutely nothing of reddit has come as a surprise. Not their past dramas and not this current protest. People observing the situation have accurately predicted each stage. The only thing that hasn't been surprising is how willing Spez has been to put his foot in his mouth.

So I'll throw in a few more predictions:

1. Reddit will IPO, despite legitimate concerns about their inability to turn a profit and the very real likelihood that new AI-driven services will render its model redundant. Spez will get the payday that he's so steadfast upon.

2. The IPO will first buoy, then go into a long decline as it becomes clear that the site has no direction, nothing to leverage into new markets and will struggle to maintain dominance and relevance in a world were information is increasingly tailored via AI-driven tools.

I'd just addressed the IPO question in another comment: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36365450>

On changing moderation criteria and conditions: I'd pointed out issues with moderation (in part at Reddit) previously. My personal subreddit's presently closed, but thank you Internet Archive:

"Content rating, moderation, and ranking systems: some non-brief thoughts" (2014)

<https://web.archive.org/web/20200629055317/https://www.reddi...>

"Reddit and Community -- what works, what raises flags" (2014)

<https://web.archive.org/web/20150709003845/https://www.reddi...>

Reply on news.ycombinator.com