6 ms·

Reddit Names Marty Weiner, Early Engineer at Pinterest, Its First CTO

77 points by sarahkpeck 11y ago

r721 11y ago
There are comments from /u/spez and /u/jedberg on the reddit thread: /u/spez: "I cannot overstate how excited we are for Marty to join us!" /u/jedberg: "Omg /u/spez. Worst decision ever! I am of course totally kidding. I've spent a lot of time talking to Marty about both technology and engineering culture (even specifically reddit's technology) and I can't think of a better choice than Marty to be CTO of reddit! Just don't let /u/MrWeiner anywhere near a console." https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/3hgni3/reddit_names_marty_weiner_founding_engineer_at/ https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/3hgni3/reddit_n...
bhouston 11y ago
I met Marty Weiner last summer. Really nice down to earth guy.
dominotw 11y ago
ok
optimusclimb 11y ago
What is a "founding engineer"? It must not mean founder, since then one would just say "founder". It's clearly not Director of Engineering, CTO, or VP o E. I had just assumed this was new phrasing used by recruiters and business people trying to get early engineer hires that they don't want to give a real title to (because if/when the company grows they'll bring in adults to run things and get those titles.) Note, seriously asking - and not trying to take imply anything negative about Marty's (whom I don't know) abilities, or contributions to Pinterest.
- bitsweet 11y ago
  likely first or second employee that joined the company
- jonjenk 11y ago
  Former head of engineering at Pinterest here. Marty was one of the first three engineers at the company. He is an amazing guy -- smart, personable, fun to work with. This is a boon for Reddit and as a Reddit user I'm very excited. Fortunately Pinterest has a strong bench and can afford to share the wealth of their amazing engineering team.
- worklogin 11y ago
  Same way the Mercury Seven were "founding astronauts": the first class, the inaugural group, etc.
- dang 11y ago
  Ok, since "founding" is misleading (or at least distracting) we've replaced it with "early" above.
  - sarahkpeck 11y ago
    Interesting, since the TechCrunch article uses the phrase 'Founding' Engineer
    - dang 11y ago
      The HN guidelines ask submitters to use the original title unless it is misleading or linkbait. In the latter cases it's standard practice for us to change them here. I don't really think the Techcrunch title was misleading, and you were certainly right to post it as is. But the word "founding" did spark an off-topic subthread, and in cases like that we've found it's easiest to just remove the objection.
- hkmurakami 11y ago
  Basically "Engineer hire #1" (or similar) that was on board super early but wasn't part of the founding team when the team itself was formed. I am guessing the distinction is to delineate the fact that the engineer did not join 1+ year from company founding, which is often the case for Engineer #1.
  - optimusclimb 11y ago
    So basically founder minus the shares?
    - x0x0 11y ago
      and not promoted to direng/cto or (s)he would have use that title, though maybe the company has a policy of not promoting interally
    - hkmurakami 11y ago
      Well in the case I saw it was founder minus the shares plus quite good pay.
boomzilla 11y ago
What are the technology challenges is Reddit facing? Clearly not scaling as it's been pretty reliable. New features? What more feature does one need from Reddit? It's pretty good for what it's doing.
- dublinben 11y ago
  The moderation tools are absolutely archaic. Moderating any subreddit of sufficient size requires a small army of bots and third party tools. Basic forum moderation tools like IP banning persistent troublemakers and spammers are still not available.
  - tallerholler 11y ago
    hello, what challenges in particular? Are you a moderator? edit: I saw you posted a few challenges :) I don't work for reddit but if you're a moderator Id be interested to PM you about something around that...
    - dublinben 11y ago
      I am a moderator of several large (300k plus) subreddits. Same username here as there, or also @gmail.com. I'm happy to chat about the challenges of moderating these large communities.
    - amyjess 11y ago
      It's widely held that modmail is horribly designed. The admins have recently made some changes to that (threaded modmail), so there's definitely some improvement in that direction though.
- dntrkv 11y ago
  Maybe one day they will fix search?
  - boomzilla 11y ago
    Most people I know just use Google for site search by adding the site name to the query. More sophisticated queries can use site:reddit.com syntax, but usually adding reddit to a query should have the desired effect. If any DuckDuckGo guy around here, is there a command for reddit search, like !rd or something.
piotrjurkiewicz 11y ago
It is clear that Reddit is facing some problems with scalability. I often get server errors during peak hours. But I think that politically-based censorship, which is being enforced by many moderators (with the help of Reddit admins), will kill this service sooner than scalability problems. Users will simply left Reddit when they will become censored. Many users I knew already did that. Moreover, moderators of many subreddits want to have more powers, including ability to see user IP address, ban users basing on IP address and ban users globally (not only on subreddit they moderate). Granting them these privileges will accelerate the decay. https://np.reddit.com/r/Leakeverything/comments/3c0d9e/some_freshupdated_rmodtalk_leaks_cancer_mods_want/ https://np.reddit.com/r/Leakeverything/comments/3c0d9e/some_... It is no coincidence, that /r/europe mods are the ones who ask the most loudly for more powers. They massively ban users on their subreddit, for variety of reasons, but the most common last months is criticizing current EU immigration policy. Some users create new accounts and come back after few days. That's why they want to have the ability to ban IP addresses. It is much harder to change IP address. Exemplary user stories: https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/3b86ws/mods_of_reurope_stop_sweeping_islamist_violence/ https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/3b86ws/mods_of_reur... https://www.reddit.com/r/subredditcancer/comments/374s5i/this_week_i_was_banned_from_400_subreddits_in_a/ https://www.reddit.com/r/subredditcancer/comments/374s5i/thi...
- kevando 11y ago
  Yeah, it's kinda sad to see this happen to Reddit... I feel like there is so much potential to create unique revenue driving efforts beyond the standard ad based concepts that Reddit should be exploring..
- diyorgasms 11y ago
  There is no need to bring reddit intra-site politics here. I doubt readers could care less about SJW vs anti-SJW factions on another site. Furthermore, the actions of certain moderators have nothing to do with this staffing announcement, so you are doubly off-topic. It would make me happy at least if we could contain reddit politics to reddit itself.
  - 11y ago

77 points by sarahkpeck 11y ago

r721 11y ago

There are comments from /u/spez and /u/jedberg on the reddit thread: /u/spez: "I cannot overstate how excited we are for Marty to join us!" /u/jedberg: "Omg /u/spez. Worst decision ever! I am of course totally kidding. I've spent a lot of time talking to Marty about both technology and engineering culture (even specifically reddit's technology) and I can't think of a better choice than Marty to be CTO of reddit! Just don't let /u/MrWeiner anywhere near a console." https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/3hgni3/reddit_names_marty_weiner_founding_engineer_at/ https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/3hgni3/reddit_n...

bhouston 11y ago

I met Marty Weiner last summer. Really nice down to earth guy.

dominotw 11y ago

optimusclimb 11y ago

What is a "founding engineer"? It must not mean founder, since then one would just say "founder". It's clearly not Director of Engineering, CTO, or VP o E. I had just assumed this was new phrasing used by recruiters and business people trying to get early engineer hires that they don't want to give a real title to (because if/when the company grows they'll bring in adults to run things and get those titles.) Note, seriously asking - and not trying to take imply anything negative about Marty's (whom I don't know) abilities, or contributions to Pinterest.

bitsweet 11y ago
likely first or second employee that joined the company
jonjenk 11y ago
Former head of engineering at Pinterest here. Marty was one of the first three engineers at the company. He is an amazing guy -- smart, personable, fun to work with. This is a boon for Reddit and as a Reddit user I'm very excited. Fortunately Pinterest has a strong bench and can afford to share the wealth of their amazing engineering team.
worklogin 11y ago
Same way the Mercury Seven were "founding astronauts": the first class, the inaugural group, etc.
dang 11y ago
Ok, since "founding" is misleading (or at least distracting) we've replaced it with "early" above.
- sarahkpeck 11y ago
  Interesting, since the TechCrunch article uses the phrase 'Founding' Engineer
  - dang 11y ago
    The HN guidelines ask submitters to use the original title unless it is misleading or linkbait. In the latter cases it's standard practice for us to change them here. I don't really think the Techcrunch title was misleading, and you were certainly right to post it as is. But the word "founding" did spark an off-topic subthread, and in cases like that we've found it's easiest to just remove the objection.
hkmurakami 11y ago
Basically "Engineer hire #1" (or similar) that was on board super early but wasn't part of the founding team when the team itself was formed. I am guessing the distinction is to delineate the fact that the engineer did not join 1+ year from company founding, which is often the case for Engineer #1.
- optimusclimb 11y ago
  So basically founder minus the shares?
  - x0x0 11y ago
    and not promoted to direng/cto or (s)he would have use that title, though maybe the company has a policy of not promoting interally
  - hkmurakami 11y ago
    Well in the case I saw it was founder minus the shares plus quite good pay.

boomzilla 11y ago

What are the technology challenges is Reddit facing? Clearly not scaling as it's been pretty reliable. New features? What more feature does one need from Reddit? It's pretty good for what it's doing.

dublinben 11y ago
The moderation tools are absolutely archaic. Moderating any subreddit of sufficient size requires a small army of bots and third party tools. Basic forum moderation tools like IP banning persistent troublemakers and spammers are still not available.
- tallerholler 11y ago
  hello, what challenges in particular? Are you a moderator? edit: I saw you posted a few challenges :) I don't work for reddit but if you're a moderator Id be interested to PM you about something around that...
  - dublinben 11y ago
    I am a moderator of several large (300k plus) subreddits. Same username here as there, or also @gmail.com. I'm happy to chat about the challenges of moderating these large communities.
  - amyjess 11y ago
    It's widely held that modmail is horribly designed. The admins have recently made some changes to that (threaded modmail), so there's definitely some improvement in that direction though.
dntrkv 11y ago
Maybe one day they will fix search?
- boomzilla 11y ago
  Most people I know just use Google for site search by adding the site name to the query. More sophisticated queries can use site:reddit.com syntax, but usually adding reddit to a query should have the desired effect. If any DuckDuckGo guy around here, is there a command for reddit search, like !rd or something.

piotrjurkiewicz 11y ago

It is clear that Reddit is facing some problems with scalability. I often get server errors during peak hours. But I think that politically-based censorship, which is being enforced by many moderators (with the help of Reddit admins), will kill this service sooner than scalability problems. Users will simply left Reddit when they will become censored. Many users I knew already did that. Moreover, moderators of many subreddits want to have more powers, including ability to see user IP address, ban users basing on IP address and ban users globally (not only on subreddit they moderate). Granting them these privileges will accelerate the decay. https://np.reddit.com/r/Leakeverything/comments/3c0d9e/some_freshupdated_rmodtalk_leaks_cancer_mods_want/ https://np.reddit.com/r/Leakeverything/comments/3c0d9e/some_... It is no coincidence, that /r/europe mods are the ones who ask the most loudly for more powers. They massively ban users on their subreddit, for variety of reasons, but the most common last months is criticizing current EU immigration policy. Some users create new accounts and come back after few days. That's why they want to have the ability to ban IP addresses. It is much harder to change IP address. Exemplary user stories: https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/3b86ws/mods_of_reurope_stop_sweeping_islamist_violence/ https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/3b86ws/mods_of_reur... https://www.reddit.com/r/subredditcancer/comments/374s5i/this_week_i_was_banned_from_400_subreddits_in_a/ https://www.reddit.com/r/subredditcancer/comments/374s5i/thi...

kevando 11y ago
Yeah, it's kinda sad to see this happen to Reddit... I feel like there is so much potential to create unique revenue driving efforts beyond the standard ad based concepts that Reddit should be exploring..
diyorgasms 11y ago
There is no need to bring reddit intra-site politics here. I doubt readers could care less about SJW vs anti-SJW factions on another site. Furthermore, the actions of certain moderators have nothing to do with this staffing announcement, so you are doubly off-topic. It would make me happy at least if we could contain reddit politics to reddit itself.
- 11y ago