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By the general reaction on reddit I would imagine this was an extremely successful PR move. From an objective standpoint however it was exactly that: PR. No rea

By the general reaction on reddit I would imagine this was an extremely successful PR move. From an objective standpoint however it was exactly that: PR. No real answers or interesting points were raised anywhere within the thread. In fact the most interesting questions (for me) were sidestepped like: - stance on drug legislation - SOPA and copyright laws - Assange persecution (bradley manning) The most disappointing thing for me personally though was to see how effective it was. I'm not American, but a lot of reddit was literally walking on air for days after the event singing his praises. Nothing new was said though, he was just ... present. That being said I would probably vote for him myself, given the alternatives.

s_henry_paulson 14y ago
How are you gauging it as "successful"? There's plenty of backlash in tons of the subreddits for exactly what you point out. There was a recent bestof post that attempted to paint the picture that at least one of the answered questions was planted there deliberately. Then there were multiple negative articles about the whole thing in Forbes, Business Insider, and other publications. It definitely generated a lot of PR (good and bad), but I don't see a clear notion that this was "effective".
- ErrantX 14y ago
  I agree. On the other hand; the frickin president of the USA did an AMA on Reddit. He might only be feeding his policy lines, but that's a major part of his public job anyway - especially in election year. This time it might not have managed to corner him on difficult/key issues. But it's good to start somewhere; and this has to be one of the most accessible moments for the president ever. Maybe next time it will be a longer QA - or his opponents feel they have to respond with similar sessions. All of this can only be good; exposing him to you and you to him. I wish the politicians here (UK) would do the same.

s_henry_paulson 14y ago

How are you gauging it as "successful"? There's plenty of backlash in tons of the subreddits for exactly what you point out. There was a recent bestof post that attempted to paint the picture that at least one of the answered questions was planted there deliberately. Then there were multiple negative articles about the whole thing in Forbes, Business Insider, and other publications. It definitely generated a lot of PR (good and bad), but I don't see a clear notion that this was "effective".

ErrantX 14y ago
I agree. On the other hand; the frickin president of the USA did an AMA on Reddit. He might only be feeding his policy lines, but that's a major part of his public job anyway - especially in election year. This time it might not have managed to corner him on difficult/key issues. But it's good to start somewhere; and this has to be one of the most accessible moments for the president ever. Maybe next time it will be a longer QA - or his opponents feel they have to respond with similar sessions. All of this can only be good; exposing him to you and you to him. I wish the politicians here (UK) would do the same.