4 ms·

I really don't understand the hiring decision surrounding Ellen Pao. Her personal/professional scandal already make her a rather ineffectual leader, and she doe

I really don't understand the hiring decision surrounding Ellen Pao. Her personal/professional scandal already make her a rather ineffectual leader, and she doesn't seem to embody any of reddit's ideals. They really could kill the company and they need a strong leader with vision to set the pace

minikites 11y ago
Do you think reddit currently has a good set of ideals? It's rare that I see someone say that "reddit is good" without some qualification like "make sure to unsubscribe from the default subreddits" or "only subscribe to the smaller subreddits". If reddit as it is presented to a new user is bad, where are the good ideals?
- vonklaus 11y ago
  > Do you think reddit currently has a good set of ideals? Ideals aren't granular and are difficult to assess if you ascribe morals to them. They are standards of perfection. Is freedom of speech "good"? I quite like it, at times America has stood for it, China has had a stance firmly against it. Ideals prescribe consistency. Reddit has embodied the ideals of freedom, community & recursive self-improvement. > It's rare that I see someone say that "reddit is good" without some qualification like "make sure to unsubscribe from the default subreddits" or "only subscribe to the smaller subreddits". Television is good, make sure not to watch primetime news. Mass market content caters to the lowest common denominator. Reddit tried to reposition itself as a mass market media company, sort of like yahoo[0]. The "front page" is something that "could" appeal to anyone. It is just like the ycombinator mantra "Make something a few people love rather than something a lot of people like", that is basically defaults vs. your fav "underground" sub. > If reddit as it is presented to a new user is bad, where are the good ideals? This is one of the problems with the narrative. "Reddit" is a disparate set of small communities loosely bound by some overlapping users and a URL. America is bad. Evaluate that statement. Are people in Idaho "bad" because some people in NY are "bad"? Is NY "bad" because people on Long Island, are "bad"? Reddit isn't one contiguous community. It is tens of thousands of communities. Some of them share users, but there are so many viewpoints on reddit that it is silly to say "Reddit does/thinks/is X" unless you are referring to corporate decisions, or something very general. [0] http://www.paulgraham.com/yahoo.html http://www.paulgraham.com/yahoo.html
  - minikites 11y ago
    > This is one of the problems with the narrative. "Reddit" is a disparate set of small communities loosely bound by some overlapping users and a URL. > America is bad. It's my understanding that when you visit reddit without an account, or when you first sign up for an account, you get a list of default subscriptions and it is up to the user to manually unsubscribe from the defaults and manually subscribe to different subreddits so your analogy isn't very accurate. A better analogy would be something like "every new immigrant to America is placed in Wilmington Deleware with $40 in food vouchers." Unless I'm misunderstanding, all new users get the same experience and in my opinion it is a bad one.
    - vonklaus 11y ago
      Rather than go back and forth, the main thing I was trying to convey is that I enjoy free speech on the internet. I have become accustom to expressing myself on reddit within the particular subcommunities I visit. I think that deletion of content, censorship and capitulating to groups that feel marginalized will ultimately destroy the site. Communities form all over the internet, reddit isn't "good" or "bad", but it will stop existing if they continue to capitulate like this.
      - minikites 11y ago
        Do you think the right to free speech is more important than the right of marginalized people to feel safe? The older I get and the more I learn about how tough it is to be non-white and non-cis-male, the more I agree with the European approach to free speech (i.e. with limits, like you can't say the holocaust didn't happen)
        vonklaus 11y ago
        > Do you think the right to free speech is more important than the right of marginalized people to feel safe? Yes.
        JoeAltmaier 11y ago
matt4077 11y ago
At this point, with the amount of gendered insults and misogyny that's thrown at her, it doesn't really matter how good she is. You can't let that sort of a hateful mob have power. Apart from that, I don't think anybody who hasn't worked with her gets to judge her. She was a high-level executive at one of the largest vc firms so she can't be entirely stupid.
- elleko22 11y ago
  "We shouldn't criticise person X otherwise person Y will benefit from it" hasn't been working very well historically. She can be victim of harassment and an incompetent CEO too. I also disagree with "anybody who hasn't worked with her gets to judge her". I have never worked with David Cameron either, still I feel I can judge his leadership.

minikites 11y ago

Do you think reddit currently has a good set of ideals? It's rare that I see someone say that "reddit is good" without some qualification like "make sure to unsubscribe from the default subreddits" or "only subscribe to the smaller subreddits". If reddit as it is presented to a new user is bad, where are the good ideals?

vonklaus 11y ago
> Do you think reddit currently has a good set of ideals? Ideals aren't granular and are difficult to assess if you ascribe morals to them. They are standards of perfection. Is freedom of speech "good"? I quite like it, at times America has stood for it, China has had a stance firmly against it. Ideals prescribe consistency. Reddit has embodied the ideals of freedom, community & recursive self-improvement. > It's rare that I see someone say that "reddit is good" without some qualification like "make sure to unsubscribe from the default subreddits" or "only subscribe to the smaller subreddits". Television is good, make sure not to watch primetime news. Mass market content caters to the lowest common denominator. Reddit tried to reposition itself as a mass market media company, sort of like yahoo[0]. The "front page" is something that "could" appeal to anyone. It is just like the ycombinator mantra "Make something a few people love rather than something a lot of people like", that is basically defaults vs. your fav "underground" sub. > If reddit as it is presented to a new user is bad, where are the good ideals? This is one of the problems with the narrative. "Reddit" is a disparate set of small communities loosely bound by some overlapping users and a URL. America is bad. Evaluate that statement. Are people in Idaho "bad" because some people in NY are "bad"? Is NY "bad" because people on Long Island, are "bad"? Reddit isn't one contiguous community. It is tens of thousands of communities. Some of them share users, but there are so many viewpoints on reddit that it is silly to say "Reddit does/thinks/is X" unless you are referring to corporate decisions, or something very general. [0] http://www.paulgraham.com/yahoo.html http://www.paulgraham.com/yahoo.html
- minikites 11y ago
  > This is one of the problems with the narrative. "Reddit" is a disparate set of small communities loosely bound by some overlapping users and a URL. > America is bad. It's my understanding that when you visit reddit without an account, or when you first sign up for an account, you get a list of default subscriptions and it is up to the user to manually unsubscribe from the defaults and manually subscribe to different subreddits so your analogy isn't very accurate. A better analogy would be something like "every new immigrant to America is placed in Wilmington Deleware with $40 in food vouchers." Unless I'm misunderstanding, all new users get the same experience and in my opinion it is a bad one.
  - vonklaus 11y ago
    Rather than go back and forth, the main thing I was trying to convey is that I enjoy free speech on the internet. I have become accustom to expressing myself on reddit within the particular subcommunities I visit. I think that deletion of content, censorship and capitulating to groups that feel marginalized will ultimately destroy the site. Communities form all over the internet, reddit isn't "good" or "bad", but it will stop existing if they continue to capitulate like this.
    - minikites 11y ago
      Do you think the right to free speech is more important than the right of marginalized people to feel safe? The older I get and the more I learn about how tough it is to be non-white and non-cis-male, the more I agree with the European approach to free speech (i.e. with limits, like you can't say the holocaust didn't happen)
      - vonklaus 11y ago
        > Do you think the right to free speech is more important than the right of marginalized people to feel safe? Yes.
      - JoeAltmaier 11y ago

matt4077 11y ago

At this point, with the amount of gendered insults and misogyny that's thrown at her, it doesn't really matter how good she is. You can't let that sort of a hateful mob have power. Apart from that, I don't think anybody who hasn't worked with her gets to judge her. She was a high-level executive at one of the largest vc firms so she can't be entirely stupid.

elleko22 11y ago
"We shouldn't criticise person X otherwise person Y will benefit from it" hasn't been working very well historically. She can be victim of harassment and an incompetent CEO too. I also disagree with "anybody who hasn't worked with her gets to judge her". I have never worked with David Cameron either, still I feel I can judge his leadership.