9 years ago
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Reddit's /r/IAMA Subreddit set to private as key employee fired
The self-styled "Front Page of the internet" suffers a setback as it's unique "IAMA" subreddit is temporarily closed. The subreddit was a host for such memorable IAMA's as President Obama, talk show hosts, comedians, actors and statesmen as Reddit employee, Victoria, has unexpectedly been sacked.
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+21Submitted 9 years ago by picklefingers
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+9Submitted 9 years ago by bogdan
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+8Submitted 9 years ago by Nautilus
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+7Submitted 9 years ago by ubidoob
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+6Submitted 9 years ago by Nautilus
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This drama seems huge. Just checked and it looks like subs are going private all over the place. I don't want to say that its another Digg Exodus, but this is one piece of major drama after another. Things aren't looking too good for reddit right now.
I think reddit is starting to crumble. The admins are trying to make it a 'safe for everybody' sort of place as opposed to a free speech sort of place. As comments above have made clear, it's going to be interesting to see how it all plays out.
I agree. You cannot please everybody, someone's going to get offended anyways. People need to learn to be tolerant of other opinions, and accept that the "safe for everybody" will not work. But still, it's going to be interesting seeing where the members will go. My first guesses would be Voat and here.
If you've been here for a while, can you comment on whether or not the snap community is more free-speech oriented?
We are free-speech oriented but harassment against. You shouldn't ever have any fear of being suppressed if you have a controversial political opinion, but if you start harassing people who disagree, you're out.
Reddit is trying to make it "safe for the advertisers". They wanted to turn IAmA into a video interview thing (even hired a crew to do it, which did an AMA about it, in which they answered no question).
Victoria opposed this and this is probably why she was fired.
Indeed. I guess we (and other sites) should prepare for an influx. I guess now the time's to start more heavily promoting our tribes?
You should also plan for the September 30 influx. Why September 30? Because it's the deadline they gave /r/AskReddit for the new mod tools. The mods took it very seriously and put that deadline into their sidebar.
If things aren't delivered by September 30, /r/AskReddit is going dark again, others will likely follow, and it'll be harder for reddit to cajole the mods back into reopening shop.
Darn, you are right. We better prepare our servers for a potential influx after that date. And of course, prepare the welcoming committee.
They recanted the date today, saying that had no internal talk about what to do and no idea when it'll be done.
It's inevitable for these kinds of sites. I mean, what came before Digg? Fark? But, the fall of Reddit isn't matter of if, but when.
Personally, due to the subreddits I subscribe to, I still enjoy my Reddit experience. However, I can see why a lot of people are having issues with Reddit's management, because what Reddit Corp. is doing obviously isn't for the greater good.
True. I just try to avoid saying its an exodus because every reddit drama people say its an exodus. However, now that its been about 24 hours, I can definitely say its some sort of exodus. Maybe not Digg-level, but its like somebody poked a huge hole in the barrel that is reddit.
OOOOHH BOOOOY. My reaction when... http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/THISGONBGUD.gif
EDIT: All of these are now private, holy crap.
/r/Iama
/r/science
/r/movies
/r/circlejerk
/r/gaming
/r/history
/r/art
/r/videos
/r/books
UPDATE: /r/askreddit had done it as well. MY GOD removes sunglasses.
UPDATE 2: /r/law is now private aswell for some reason.
UPDATE 3: So is not only about Victoria. This is /r/history's stament: " In light of recent developments in reddit staff change and our own troubles in getting the proper support we need from reddit as a company we are setting this subreddit private. We will open up to the public again once we have figured out what course we want to take in the future.
http://i.giphy.com/GjYjLvGErsggg.gif
Oh boy, reddit is slowly imploding. How easy something can fall when money gets involved.
What? No. You can make a successful product AND have happy customers/end users. Saying that money is the reason is just wrong. Incompetence is the reason.
They are trying to clean up Reddit to make it safe for "real" advertising from what I've been reading.
A site operating purely off donations given to them without any pressure on the userbase to donate (ie donate to remove ads), is a happier more stable place than one that does, or at least that's my view on it. Success doesn't mean swimming in cash Scrouge McDuck style, Success means that you have met or exceeded your goals. If having happy customers is one of those goals then that's an added bonus.
Oh my goodness. I didn't expect it to explode to this degree. Yikes.
Neither did Reddit, I guess. Not that they seem to care, there are some comment from Reddit's management members on there that shows how they see all this.
I'll give you a hint : one said he's eating popcorn.
Reddit doesn't give a damn about its community.
Welp, I've only been browsing /r/AskReddit sub and now I guess I just won't reddit anymore.
Now, I worry about reddit.
I also brought down /r/captainfalconnips and suggested to most subreddits that I frequent that they close down, about half of them have.
Wait a second, what was that subreddit?
http://oi46.tinypic.com/2jagb5z.jpg Captain Falcons nips
Alrighty then....
It looks like the corporate part of reddit is now doing everything to monetize as much of the site as possible. I have a feeling we might be welcoming a lot of new peeps in the next couple of days.
You are absolutely right. I came over a while ago but got sucked back in to reddit. Looks like I'm here to stay this time.
I use this, Voat, and Reddit (I guess I just like to talk a lot). Truth be told, I hope Snapzu grows much larger. It's not a Reddit clone and the site is just intuitive and well-thought-out.
Just joined this morning when I learned of the Reddit shit show. So far, this place looks good. I'm excited for it to grow and I can get back to my more obscure interests.
Also, I would love an app for my Amazon Fire phone.
Oh definitely. I'm such a person, and honestly I'm wondering why I didn't switch sooner. I'm really enjoying the community and UI here.
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I just joined following a link in one of the threads explaining the current drama. I was one of the first to find Reddit island after jumping off the sinking Digg raft. I feel like the tide is turning and I need to find a new home before Reddit implodes.
Marc Bodnick from Quora has some speculations in exactly this direction:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CI9iYW7VAAAzzJN.png
Uh oh... And if you take a look, the science and movie subreddits have gone private in solidarity. This is ramping up in severity. Well, I guess we'll have to prepare for another influx here.
Sorry... This is a really cool website though. Really enjoying it. Sorry we gave you guys the ole reddit hug of death. It may be one of the last!
It's alright juzz. Once we can upgrade our servers enough, hopefully this shouldn't happen as much. I'll be worried more about other sites suffering from a potential Snapzu hug of death...
This is gonna be bigger that before. Last time, users who only cared about their own subs could effectively ignore all the drama going on elsewhere in the site. If their favorite sub is now private, it's gonna force them find out what's going on and possibly migrate to other places.
I was once again reminded why Reddit is awful
Reddit used to be a great place, and the community itself is nice as well. I'm just disappointed with the recent changes.
Yeah, it's mostly the corporate structure and admins of reddit that have gone downhill. The community isn't any better or worse than it has ever been.
Much like I spent years on digg and watched it burn to the ground in a single evening, I am now bearing witness to the same thing on reddit, a website I have visited daily for years. I have learned a lot and laughed a lot, and now it seems its time to find a new home.
Hello everyone!
Seems to be the life cycle of these types of sites. I was on digg as well and could see the signs on Reddit.
I feel the same.
The king is dead, long live the king!
I, myself haven't been through an extinction event on sites like this, so this came across as a pretty big shock. I'm just thankful I came to this place when I did!
You mentioned digg died in an evening? What happened that was so drastic to trigger an exodus of that degree?
Now the admins have said something:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comme...admins_have_broken_the_silence_with_posts_to/
/r/pics has then reopened, the users are furious and wnat pics to shut down again. I need more popcorn! xD
If this is true...hoo boy...
What's worse is the message "from" the r/pics mods freaking read like someone else talking out of their mouths, before it was removed. This is getting scary!
edit: oh (another edit: apparently this was false, according to sources I've read. Sorry!)
I think another wave of members might be coming soon. Quick, start recruiting more users!
Quick, start up new tribes and promote! Be welcoming all!
Been looking for an alternative for months but there wasn't any strong push to make me leave until yesterday. Took me a few hours to find a code that worked so that wave has came.
Indeed they are!
I encourage people avoid lumping this in with all the recent Pao hate and Reddit censorship controversy and defer judgement and anger until Reddit has had time to put out a statement -- which they will almost certainly do, considering the backlash. People come and go from companies for myriad reasons. Maybe they made a rash decision because of the disastrous Jesse Jackson AMA, but it's also possible this has been a longtime coming.
Regardless of if the firing was justified, the reason so many people are upset is not only because Victoria was fired, but rather because there's no transition in place to help with AMA's. She was so integral, and now there are many mods, and people who are supposed to do AMA's in the coming week that are just left hanging.
Pao is steering the ship. It's her fault, directly or indirectly.
i wouldn't be so sure on the admins issuing a statement. they've dropped the ball on things like this in the past, as well.
one of the admins commented on the issue and said that they have a team in place currently to help out with AMAs, and apparently that "many of the people who come on to do AMAs are excited to do them without assistance".
i'm not really sure what the admins' plan is. they seem to be willfully ignoring basically all the issues brought up to them in the past few months.
Looks like Reddit is...
Digg-ing its own grave.
Two comments from two different sources seem to sum up things.
This is absolutely amazing, I'm glad that mods are setting their subreddits as private in protest of this.
I think know we are really waiting to see how the Reddit mods will handle the situation, and I don't think they're going to do that well (as they have never managed to do that in the past).
Jeez. I posted this last night before i went to bed. Got up. Reddit is burning to the ground.
Well bloody hell. I stay away from here, and Reddit due to being busy in that real life place. Then upon returning the shit has really hit the fan.
The more subreddits that protest, then the more media coverage Reddit gets. A trending topic on Twitter is just going to make more traffic Reddits way. The longer this continues without official word on what has happened, and the plan for the future then the more people try to second guess and post bizarre theories. More posts, more traffic. Yes plenty are leaving the sinking ship, but many, many love some drama.
Also Reddit has changed as its admins are so out of touch with the community. They don't join in so as a result don't know what makes it tick. When was the last time you saw a post about a new hire on the Reddit team and they actually interacted with the community? Plus new hires are not webdevs or software engineers. They are middle management, with backgrounds in advertising, or marketing. It's all bloat with only one aim to make money from Reddit regardless of who gets hurt. It is beginning to sound very similar to what happened at Digg v4 now. This all started to happen around the time they moved away from their New York office, and if I recall correctly wasn’t there some problem about people being forced to move or resign?
A simple way to solve this issue would be to hire a few people from within the Reddit community, some with software and website experience. But is there any talent left? Plus would the current people in charge listen?
Here's my take on this, Victoria's biggest function was ensuring that AMA's went smoothly and that the people doing them weren't PR but the actual people themselves. Reddit's Admin response mentioned something about how many people were excited to come do AMA's without assistance. Leading me to believe that Reddit was losing money because she wouldn't allow the Public Relations people to do the answering much like what happens on twitter. Reddit had to put the kibosh on that.
And here I was thinking everyone on Reddit went back to status quo after all the drama last time. Every time something else happens I see Reddit growing closer and closer to going the way of Digg; unless some major changes happen. This may be the biggest thing yet now since the mods are in on it and are actively affecting the function of the site by shutting down the most popular subs. Short of taking over those subs and replacing the mods; admins really can't ignore this or brush it off this time. I look forward to their next /r/announcement post with popcorn bucket in hand.
I kinda want to see it all implode at this point.
Wow. This is exciting. I don't go there often but it's been slowly going downhill. Too much ego coupled with to many changes to quickly.
And I though banning FPH was the biggest drama that could happen.
I think even worse was that the privatisation was done right in the middle of a key figure's AMA session. He was fuming about it on his Twitter. Regardless of the reason behind Victoria's dismissal, couldn't they at least wait until he was done before making /r/IAmA private?
On a separate note, it might appear that the wave of subreddit privatisation is waning.
A lot of subs are coming back out of blackout mode, mods are already caving in. I think it's sad that they couldn't even manage to riot for longer than a day online, it's not like they were physically out on the streets protesting.
I for one am glad about this drama, because it's the reason I found out about this wonderful site :)