7 ms·

Ask President Barack Obama anything on Reddit (seriously)

70 points by azat_co 14y ago

rajpaul 14y ago
In the past reddit was described as a child porn site. I wonder if that will be brought up.
pixelcort 14y ago
Link to actual AMA: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/z1c9z/i_am_barack_obama_president_of_the_united_states/ http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/z1c9z/i_am_barack_obam... Reddit's ops team is going to have a fun day today. (Link's down as I post this.)
losethos 14y ago
I couldn't have done a better job, but I probably would have done a diffewrent job. How about ask God anything? Umm... can I have a cockatoo? I got my own birds, though. God says... permitted sweetened another dreaded brides variation -what Israel ways Humans seizes cleave thanks Reason publicly siege fortunes ashamed extremely drinketh win hesitate contests fortunate oil got That's_my_favorite etc unravelled hungry variance see unsound fro season occurred Enter PURPOSE 90 country indited Lastly far-distant shamelessness I'm_impressed Himself superstition Virgin's fared cheered belongeth pieces deepest seduced question distinct parted Incarnation figurative sufficest partly Me shelter password task unwholesome later crown enjoy madly
willpearse 14y ago
I can't even load the page, so... "was bubble sort the wrong way to go?" ...I hate myself a little.
baggachipz 14y ago
All questions have to be about Rampart.
jeffool 14y ago
There's already a thread above this one on the main page, and it actually links to the AMA: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4450803 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4450803
bersius 14y ago
I've never seen so many positive up-votes before. What do you think of this as a move? Do you think it makes him accesible or will it be seen as pandering?
- ericd 14y ago
  I think it's an awesome, inspired idea - a direct public forum of discussion with your leader. I can't get to the page to see how he's handling it, though.
  - pjscott 14y ago
    That would be great, wouldn't it? In practice, it turned out to be more like having a conversation with a bot: when someone asked a question that he could answer with a super-generic, achingly inoffensive rephrasing of one of his campaign messages, he did. And that's all he did. I would be disappointed, but I wasn't expecting anything more.
- the_cat_kittles 14y ago
  It depends on the answers he gives to questions. From what I've read, they are fairly generic, which is ok, but I think we expect more on the internet. Its a good step in the right direction though, I think.
- smallblacksun 14y ago
  I'm pretty sure the vast majority of Americans on reddit were already going to vote for him, and that it will have virtually no impact on anyone who doesn't use reddit.
  - philhippus 14y ago
    I'm pretty sure the vast majority of Americans ... were already going to vote for him. Is the other guy remotely viable? Really? Edit: a guy from Europe's viewpoint.
    - 14y ago
Selfcommit 14y ago
As stated in the reddit thread... He's currently out and about in Virginia - So this is a staffer pretending to be him. Sad.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- grecy 14y ago
  As stated in the top of the thread: "UPDATE: Hey everybody - this is barack. Just finished a great rally in Charlottesville" So he's doing it while on the road. This pic shows he's obviously in some kind of temp office/building: http://i.imgur.com/oz0a7.jpg http://i.imgur.com/oz0a7.jpg
  - betterth 14y ago
    I just realized that they covered that Macbook's Apple symbol with a Reddit alien. Chances of this being a staffers computer...rising. But then again, AllThingsD has an email from Alexis (admin) that says that this has apparently been floated for years and they were notified before hand. http://allthingsd.com/20120829/how-reddit-got-obama-there-are-quite-a-few-redditors-at-1600-pennsylvania-ave/ http://allthingsd.com/20120829/how-reddit-got-obama-there-ar...
    - smartician 14y ago
      Is it possible that someone from Reddit was on site and set up the "office" and everything, provided the Macbook with the Reddit alien, to make sure the POTUS would have a smooth Reddit experience? I doubt this was a spontaneous thing. If it was a staffer, he must be very good at impersonation, the style of the answers was VERY close to Obama's unscripted Q&A sessions.
  - Wingman4l7 14y ago
    Also, the mouse is on the left side of the laptop -- and according to the almighty Wikipedia[1], Obama is left-handed -- so +1 for authenticity. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handedness_of_Presidents_of_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handedness_of_Presidents_of_the...
amanvir 14y ago
I hope Reddit follows up with a blog post on how they handled the load and how it affected the amount of new sign-ups
- reddit_clone 14y ago
  Well, they are not handling it that well. The site is down right now.
- BHSPitMonkey 14y ago
  They didn't. I spent an hour and a half just refreshing the page and only ever saw "Reddit is under heavy load..."

70 points by azat_co 14y ago

In the past reddit was described as a child porn site. I wonder if that will be brought up.

Link to actual AMA: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/z1c9z/i_am_barack_obama_president_of_the_united_states/ http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/z1c9z/i_am_barack_obam... Reddit's ops team is going to have a fun day today. (Link's down as I post this.)

losethos 14y ago

I couldn't have done a better job, but I probably would have done a diffewrent job. How about ask God anything? Umm... can I have a cockatoo? I got my own birds, though. God says... permitted sweetened another dreaded brides variation -what Israel ways Humans seizes cleave thanks Reason publicly siege fortunes ashamed extremely drinketh win hesitate contests fortunate oil got That's_my_favorite etc unravelled hungry variance see unsound fro season occurred Enter PURPOSE 90 country indited Lastly far-distant shamelessness I'm_impressed Himself superstition Virgin's fared cheered belongeth pieces deepest seduced question distinct parted Incarnation figurative sufficest partly Me shelter password task unwholesome later crown enjoy madly

willpearse 14y ago

I can't even load the page, so... "was bubble sort the wrong way to go?" ...I hate myself a little.

baggachipz 14y ago

All questions have to be about Rampart.

jeffool 14y ago

There's already a thread above this one on the main page, and it actually links to the AMA: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4450803 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4450803

bersius 14y ago

I've never seen so many positive up-votes before. What do you think of this as a move? Do you think it makes him accesible or will it be seen as pandering?

ericd 14y ago
I think it's an awesome, inspired idea - a direct public forum of discussion with your leader. I can't get to the page to see how he's handling it, though.
- pjscott 14y ago
  That would be great, wouldn't it? In practice, it turned out to be more like having a conversation with a bot: when someone asked a question that he could answer with a super-generic, achingly inoffensive rephrasing of one of his campaign messages, he did. And that's all he did. I would be disappointed, but I wasn't expecting anything more.
the_cat_kittles 14y ago
It depends on the answers he gives to questions. From what I've read, they are fairly generic, which is ok, but I think we expect more on the internet. Its a good step in the right direction though, I think.
smallblacksun 14y ago
I'm pretty sure the vast majority of Americans on reddit were already going to vote for him, and that it will have virtually no impact on anyone who doesn't use reddit.
- philhippus 14y ago
  I'm pretty sure the vast majority of Americans ... were already going to vote for him. Is the other guy remotely viable? Really? Edit: a guy from Europe's viewpoint.
  - 14y ago

Selfcommit 14y ago

As stated in the reddit thread... He's currently out and about in Virginia - So this is a staffer pretending to be him. Sad.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
grecy 14y ago
As stated in the top of the thread: "UPDATE: Hey everybody - this is barack. Just finished a great rally in Charlottesville" So he's doing it while on the road. This pic shows he's obviously in some kind of temp office/building: http://i.imgur.com/oz0a7.jpg http://i.imgur.com/oz0a7.jpg
- betterth 14y ago
  I just realized that they covered that Macbook's Apple symbol with a Reddit alien. Chances of this being a staffers computer...rising. But then again, AllThingsD has an email from Alexis (admin) that says that this has apparently been floated for years and they were notified before hand. http://allthingsd.com/20120829/how-reddit-got-obama-there-are-quite-a-few-redditors-at-1600-pennsylvania-ave/ http://allthingsd.com/20120829/how-reddit-got-obama-there-ar...
  - smartician 14y ago
    Is it possible that someone from Reddit was on site and set up the "office" and everything, provided the Macbook with the Reddit alien, to make sure the POTUS would have a smooth Reddit experience? I doubt this was a spontaneous thing. If it was a staffer, he must be very good at impersonation, the style of the answers was VERY close to Obama's unscripted Q&A sessions.
- Wingman4l7 14y ago
  Also, the mouse is on the left side of the laptop -- and according to the almighty Wikipedia[1], Obama is left-handed -- so +1 for authenticity. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handedness_of_Presidents_of_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handedness_of_Presidents_of_the...

amanvir 14y ago

I hope Reddit follows up with a blog post on how they handled the load and how it affected the amount of new sign-ups

reddit_clone 14y ago
Well, they are not handling it that well. The site is down right now.
BHSPitMonkey 14y ago
They didn't. I spent an hour and a half just refreshing the page and only ever saw "Reddit is under heavy load..."