6 ms·

> Is spez (Steve Huffman, CEO and cofounder) going to lose his job over this? If spez wasn’t fired on the spot for abusing his power to manually edit posts cri

by koolba 3y ago

> Is spez (Steve Huffman, CEO and cofounder) going to lose his job over this? If spez wasn’t fired on the spot for abusing his power to manually edit posts critical of him, why would you expect them to sack him over something that actually has a legitimate business angle?

robbiet480 3y ago
Good point, I totally forgot that he was caught editing posts directly in the production DB https://www.theverge.com/2016/11/23/13739026/reddit-ceo-steve-huffman-edit-comments https://www.theverge.com/2016/11/23/13739026/reddit-ceo-stev...
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
  - shp0ngle 3y ago
    [flagged]
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
- Firmwarrior 3y ago
  I hate Reddit, Reddit Admins, Reddit Mods, etc more than most people. Especially how they love to gaslight you and subtly screw you over/sabotage you, as we saw with their attacks on the_donald. BUT if you take the edits in context, there was nothing wrong with them. Dozens of people were talking shit, and he responded by very lightly and very obviously trolling them. There were still a lot of old school internet users/4chan types running the show back then, so they should have been able to deal with a tiny bit of counter-trolling without losing their minds.
  - rvba 3y ago
    [flagged]
  - kstrauser 3y ago
    It would be impossible for me to disagree more. Editing someone's comments to put your own words in their mouth is despicable. Basically, he impersonated those users and put them on record as saying something they'd never said. It's like the text version of a deep fake recording.
    - qup 3y ago
      I don't disagree with this take, I just disagree with your implied evaluation of how important that is. Who cares if he put some usernames on record as saying something they never said? I know that you do, and you have your reasons, but...well, I don't. I think people are taking reddit commenting way too seriously if heads need to roll over a comment edit.
      - kstrauser 3y ago
        I almost can't believe you're serious here, but I'll reply sincerely. Suppose dang edited your post to say "I like to get drunk at work", and there it is for the world to see. You never said that, but anyone looking at Hacker News would see: "qup 10 minutes ago: I like to get drunk at work." No, that's absolutely not OK! Now, consider that spez could just as easily edit some old Reddit comments someone wrote years ago to say something horrendous. Do you often go back to verify that all your old comments are unchanged? I certainly don't. I have no way of knowing exactly which comments spez edited, or how significantly he changed them. And honestly, the not knowing is simply inexcusable. All we know is that he has tampered with the production database, not how often or how much.
        koolba 3y ago
        > All we know is that he has tampered with the production database, not how often or how much. Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus.
unsupp0rted 3y ago
My memory on this is murky, although do I recall correctly that his reply to criticism of the production db comment edit amounted to something like “it was just a prank bro”?
- bombcar 3y ago
  Basically, and if it was a small-time forum, it would be more "reasonable". But Reddit is and always has pretended to be a "big name" company like Youtube, Facebook, etc.
- pbasista 3y ago
  It seems to me that some people have no regard for the law, the ethics, the morals, etc.. If it benefits them to break it, they will do it, as long as they know they will face no or minimal consequences if caught. They would even feel good about it because they have managed to obtain an unfair advantage and get away with it.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
mustacheemperor 3y ago
This seems like an even more egregious act, it's like attempted character assassination of a developer beloved by the community. This app got shouted out in WWDC and Spez's decision shortly after is to concoct an alternate reality where Christian is a villain and present it as fact, and then get caught almost immediately. It seems apparent Spez is burdened by a serious lack of ethics, and I think that burden is now compromising Reddit as well much more than before. As far as I know, going to IPO with a crook at the helm usually only works if they haven't been caught multiple times first. Edit: Really, what an especially awful thing to do to a developer whose full-time job your policy change has just shut down - tell the world they're an extortionist liar from your comfy office.
- conradev 3y ago
  I feel like it is much, much simpler than that Reddit makes money off of ads, and Apollo doesn’t show ads. The same was the case for Twitter and Tweetbot. In some ways, Christian is directly capturing revenue that Reddit otherwise would. I would agree that the proposed API pricing is not a workable starting point, but I do think Apollo (and, by proxy, its users) will eventually have to pay Reddit something.
  - detaro 3y ago
    ... then require apps to show ads to users that don't pay reddit for ad-free access?
    - dmix 3y ago
      What does this look like in practice? Reddit devs extend their ad platform into the API and then make a mandatory design guideline, which they require with whatever app has x API demand level? I guess the Reddit premium users just have to use Reddit apps to get it ad free?
      - detaro 3y ago
        > What does this look like in practice? Reddit devs extend their ad platform into the API and then make a mandatory design guideline, which they require with whatever app has x userbase? Pretty much. Long tail of tiny-userbase clients probably doesn't matter that much, I suspect a small number of apps that can reasonably be spot-checked if it complies is the vast majority of traffic. > I guess the Reddit premium users just have to use Reddit apps to get it ad free? No reason third-party apps couldn't be allowed to be ad-free for premium users too. (or if the API is explicitly pushing "show ad URL X to user in this context" the API can take care of adjusting that)
mvdtnz 3y ago
What an extremely strange equivalence you've drawn.
popey 3y ago
He's doing an AMA about the API changes tomorrow. Bring popcorn. https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/144ho2x/join_our_ceo_tomorrow_to_discuss_the_api/ https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/144ho2x/join_our_ce...

by koolba 3y ago

robbiet480 3y ago

Good point, I totally forgot that he was caught editing posts directly in the production DB https://www.theverge.com/2016/11/23/13739026/reddit-ceo-steve-huffman-edit-comments https://www.theverge.com/2016/11/23/13739026/reddit-ceo-stev...

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
- shp0ngle 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
Firmwarrior 3y ago
I hate Reddit, Reddit Admins, Reddit Mods, etc more than most people. Especially how they love to gaslight you and subtly screw you over/sabotage you, as we saw with their attacks on the_donald. BUT if you take the edits in context, there was nothing wrong with them. Dozens of people were talking shit, and he responded by very lightly and very obviously trolling them. There were still a lot of old school internet users/4chan types running the show back then, so they should have been able to deal with a tiny bit of counter-trolling without losing their minds.
- rvba 3y ago
  [flagged]
- kstrauser 3y ago
  It would be impossible for me to disagree more. Editing someone's comments to put your own words in their mouth is despicable. Basically, he impersonated those users and put them on record as saying something they'd never said. It's like the text version of a deep fake recording.
  - qup 3y ago
    I don't disagree with this take, I just disagree with your implied evaluation of how important that is. Who cares if he put some usernames on record as saying something they never said? I know that you do, and you have your reasons, but...well, I don't. I think people are taking reddit commenting way too seriously if heads need to roll over a comment edit.
    - kstrauser 3y ago
      I almost can't believe you're serious here, but I'll reply sincerely. Suppose dang edited your post to say "I like to get drunk at work", and there it is for the world to see. You never said that, but anyone looking at Hacker News would see: "qup 10 minutes ago: I like to get drunk at work." No, that's absolutely not OK! Now, consider that spez could just as easily edit some old Reddit comments someone wrote years ago to say something horrendous. Do you often go back to verify that all your old comments are unchanged? I certainly don't. I have no way of knowing exactly which comments spez edited, or how significantly he changed them. And honestly, the not knowing is simply inexcusable. All we know is that he has tampered with the production database, not how often or how much.
      - koolba 3y ago
        > All we know is that he has tampered with the production database, not how often or how much. Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus.

unsupp0rted 3y ago

My memory on this is murky, although do I recall correctly that his reply to criticism of the production db comment edit amounted to something like “it was just a prank bro”?

bombcar 3y ago
Basically, and if it was a small-time forum, it would be more "reasonable". But Reddit is and always has pretended to be a "big name" company like Youtube, Facebook, etc.
pbasista 3y ago
It seems to me that some people have no regard for the law, the ethics, the morals, etc.. If it benefits them to break it, they will do it, as long as they know they will face no or minimal consequences if caught. They would even feel good about it because they have managed to obtain an unfair advantage and get away with it.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]

mustacheemperor 3y ago

This seems like an even more egregious act, it's like attempted character assassination of a developer beloved by the community. This app got shouted out in WWDC and Spez's decision shortly after is to concoct an alternate reality where Christian is a villain and present it as fact, and then get caught almost immediately. It seems apparent Spez is burdened by a serious lack of ethics, and I think that burden is now compromising Reddit as well much more than before. As far as I know, going to IPO with a crook at the helm usually only works if they haven't been caught multiple times first. Edit: Really, what an especially awful thing to do to a developer whose full-time job your policy change has just shut down - tell the world they're an extortionist liar from your comfy office.

conradev 3y ago
I feel like it is much, much simpler than that Reddit makes money off of ads, and Apollo doesn’t show ads. The same was the case for Twitter and Tweetbot. In some ways, Christian is directly capturing revenue that Reddit otherwise would. I would agree that the proposed API pricing is not a workable starting point, but I do think Apollo (and, by proxy, its users) will eventually have to pay Reddit something.
- detaro 3y ago
  ... then require apps to show ads to users that don't pay reddit for ad-free access?
  - dmix 3y ago
    What does this look like in practice? Reddit devs extend their ad platform into the API and then make a mandatory design guideline, which they require with whatever app has x API demand level? I guess the Reddit premium users just have to use Reddit apps to get it ad free?
    - detaro 3y ago
      > What does this look like in practice? Reddit devs extend their ad platform into the API and then make a mandatory design guideline, which they require with whatever app has x userbase? Pretty much. Long tail of tiny-userbase clients probably doesn't matter that much, I suspect a small number of apps that can reasonably be spot-checked if it complies is the vast majority of traffic. > I guess the Reddit premium users just have to use Reddit apps to get it ad free? No reason third-party apps couldn't be allowed to be ad-free for premium users too. (or if the API is explicitly pushing "show ad URL X to user in this context" the API can take care of adjusting that)

mvdtnz 3y ago

What an extremely strange equivalence you've drawn.

popey 3y ago

He's doing an AMA about the API changes tomorrow. Bring popcorn. https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/144ho2x/join_our_ceo_tomorrow_to_discuss_the_api/ https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/144ho2x/join_our_ce...