We apologize

SingularTier · 2時間前

Hey Ellen,

Although I disagree with the direction reddit HQ is taking with the website, I understand that monetizing a platform such as reddit can be a daunting task. To that effect, I have some questions that I hope you will take some time to address. These represent some of the more pressing issues for me as a user.

1) Can we have a clear, objective, and enforceable definition of harassment? For example, some subs have been told that publicizing PR contacts to organize boycotts and campaigns is harassment and will get the sub banned - while others continue to do so unabated. I know /u/kn0thing touched on this subject recently, but I would like you to elaborate.

2) Why was the person who was combative and hyper-critical of Rev. Jackson shadowbanned (/u/huhaskldasdpo)? I understand he was rude and disrespectful and I would have cared less if he was banned from /r/IAMA, but could you shed some light on the reasoning for the site-wide ban?

3) What are some of the plans that reddit HQ has for monetizing the web site? Will advertisements and sponsored content be labelled as such?

4) Could you share some of your beliefs and principles that you plan on using to guide the site's future?

I believe that communication is key to reddit (as we know it) surviving its transition in to a profitable website. While I am distraught over how long it took for a site-wide announcement to come out (forcing many users to get statements from NYT/Buzzfeed/etc.), I can relate not wanting to approach a topic before people have had a chance to calm down.

The unfortunate side-effect of this is that it breeds wild speculation. Silence reinforces tinfoil. For example, every time a user post gets caught in auto-mod, someone screams censorship. The admins took no time to address the community outside of the mods of large subreddits. All we, as normal users, heard came from hearsay and cropped image leaks. The failure to understand that a large vocal subset of users are upset of Victoria's firing is a huge misstep in regaining the community's trust.

BassheadPanda · 2時間前

How do you feel about this comment by /u/CaptainObviousMC.

The thing is... She's absolutely right, I 100% don't care at all about this situation, reddit, or the moderators. I'm a pretty apathetic content sponge.

That fact is deadly dangerous to reddit, because the moment the content creators jump ship, I'll follow them like the fair weather fan I am, because I don't care -- at all -- where I get my content, or about which corporation or moderators are involved. If reddit compromises its content stream by having moderators jump ship, I'm out too, not because I care, but because I don't.

So she's right -- most reddit users absolutely don't care a bit about this, or the site, or really anything. And that's why she can't afford to piss off the moderators, who are the people who do care.

What's hilarious is that the reddit administration seems unable to see that most people not caring is precisely what makes the moderators caring so dangerous: they're wielding my caring by proxy, because they hold the keys to content.

Edit: If you're going to gild this comment, just give it /u/CaptainObviousMC instead.

jordanlund · 1時間前

I would just like to know the thought process behind not having a backup plan following the termination of a key employee. I don't expect anyone to say why Victoria was fired, that's none of my business, but there had to be a reason why that information was not communicated to the rest of the community and certainly the AMA participants of that day.

In his statement /u/kn0thing stated that AMAs would go on as scheduled, but the fact of the matter is that the AMAs scheduled to go on that day were disrupted due to Victoria's absence and the entire kerfuffle was created when an AMA participant was not being contacted and was forced to message the mods to find out what was going on, which triggered their reaction of "We don't know, what's going on?"

You acknowledge "mistakes were made", but I'd really like to know who made the mistakes and what their rationale was at the time for doing so.

It's sad when I'm being encouraged to think that the best case scenario is merely incompetence. Did people responsible for the firing not know there were AMAs going on that day? Did they not know who the AMAs were with and as a result were not able to reach out? Why didn't they know?

These are some pretty basic questions that need to be answered and resolved if you want to re-build trust with the community.

cahaseler · 2時間前

Hi Ellen,

/r/IAMA mod here. First, thank you for finally making a statement about this on reddit.

Second, can you go into more detail about the direction you see for celebrity participation on Reddit in a post-Victoria age? Alexis has made some comments to us behind the scenes about your ideas to encourage celebrity participation beyond AMAs, but I'd love to have the conversation in a more public space where everyone can participate.

BellyFullOfSwans · 1時間前

Krispykrackers is the Admin who shadowbanned my first account for posting a business' phone number and called it "doxxing".

I had a 3 year old account with over 30K karma, over 10 Redditgifts gift exchanges, months of gold given and received (with years still on the books I never got back), a large friends list, etc...banned because I posted the number of a business. I didnt start a witch hunt or say anything bad about the business....I wasnt promoting the business....still, it was seen as doxxing and without anybody else hearing my case, I was shadowbanned (and not notified about it).

When I did figure out what had happened and why I was suddenly talking to myself, I had to look up ways of getting a hold of Reddit. They dont exactly have a customer service hotline (you know, like real businesses with real customers do).

That was a pain, but was able to finally reach somebody. It was Krispykrackers. Her one word reply? "Why do you think it is OK to post personal information?"

And that was it....I never heard another word, I never got an answer back from Reddit Gold about my paid-for months of gold I still had...and /u/gekokujo was lost to me over a non-issue.

There was no accountability, no transparency, and no recourse for grievance. As a Reddit Gold user at the time, I was a PAYING CUSTOMER...and as you could have seen from my comment history then (or now), I am not a troll.

Leaving Krispykrackers in charge of fixing your out-of-control staff and unfair practices is worse than letting the fox run the henhouse. Foxes arent evil, they just eat chickens. On the other hand, humans like Krispykrackers have their own sense of social justice and a license to be judge/jury/executioner with no witnesses and only the shadowbanned-mute voices of her opposition to speak up.

There is no solution as long as Krispykrackers is playing a major part. She is as big of a part of the problem as Pao herself and I can prove that (with my own experience and that of others...some involving chat logs from past controversies).

Fix the problem....dont promote the problem to a place where she will further abuse her power and your site.

desmunda1 · 2時間前

So anyway why did you go on to give detailed statements to thirdparty newsfeeds first, before speaking to us? The place with the tagline 'the frontpage of the internet'? The people you slighted in the first place? Hell even buzzfeed got info before this statement from you...

Edit: Ellen responded to me, but I anticipate she will be heavily downvoted so here's the reply

"It was hard to communicate on the site, because my comments were being downvoted. I did comment here and was communicating on a private subreddit. I'm here now."

CaptnRonn · 2時間前

A few things beyond a PR statement that would restore my faith in the admins:

Stop shadowbanning users - It was a tool made for spam bots, not to silence dissent. The mere fact that a perfectly legitimate user can be shadowbanned without their knowledge is ridiculous, and it has been happening more and more in the past few months/year
Stop subreddit favoritism - You want to have anti-harassment rules? Great. Enforce them in every. sub. equally. Other meta-reddit subs have to use np links. Why does SRS get away with being able to post direct links with obvious brigading?

Also, /u/ekjp, as much as I would like to think that things are business as usual with you as CEO, you have made some very questionable statements regarding free speech and sexism in tech from a position that is seemingly vacant in logic. The fact that you feel you must talk to major news sites before actually acknowledging your userbase is troubling to say the least. You have done nothing to earn my trust or support, and in fact have done several things to reinforce the opposite. So... prove me wrong?

Simple_Tymes · 2時間前

The average users don't care about moderator tools. What matters to the passionate non-mod reddit community is:

PAID CONTENT: Will AMA and other reddit subs have content paid by sponsors? Will you disclose if reddit receives money for specific corporate posts to receive higher placement/votes? How far are you willing to go to monetize reddit?

CENSORSHIP: Will you delete subs based on advertisers' requests? Will you ban users who don't agree with specific speech/content guidelines?

POOR MANAGEMENT: The firing of Victoria may, in fact, be completely justified. But the pure business of of firing the head of AMAs (arguably Reddit's highest profile sub) was simply terrible management. Why didn't you know how your business is run? Why didn't you have a transition strategy in place for Victoria's departure? Why didn't she introduce her replacement to her important clients/mods? How is this not business 101?

TRUST: Reddit is run by the good will of unpaid moderators. How can they trust you that their content won't be regulated based on corporate sponsorship? The rumors regarding Victoria's firing over disagreement about turning AMA into a money machine must be addressed. And "we don't discuss firings" isn't good enough -- what is Reddit's plan for the future of the AMAs? And why should we trust you to continue to support a site that doesn't seem to respect your intelligence?

Simply, if these issues aren't addressed, then it's time to move somewhere else. If Reddit wants to turn the community into an advertiser platform (and do it in the most unprofessional, mismanaged way) then there's no sense in supporting a site that no longer shares our beliefs. Why should we trust you to do the right thing?

ucantsimee · 2時間前

You've been promising mod tools for longer than I care to remember and they are still "coming soon." At this point your word alone means nothing. Actions will be the way to make it up to the community. Not words. Get to work.

xwm · 1時間前

This reads very much like a "This is turning out to be way worse than we thought, how can we string them along while we slap something together last minute to appease them."

The last few weeks has shown precisely what the admins/glorious leader feel towards users: condescension. This play doesn't read any different.

JonasBrosSuck · 1時間前

so this is like a regular AMA, where real questions won't get answered? :/

Elle-Elle · 1時間前

[RESOLVED, THANK YOU, CARRY ON]

In 2010, I won the Reddit pumpkin carving contest with my Doc Brown pumpkin from my now deleted account /u/ooolalalauren

I was supposed to win a t-shirt. The mods of the contest assured that I would get it. I never did. They told me that /u/alienth was the admin in charge of getting that to me. I contacted him. Never got a response.

So, I don't care about Victoria or any of this. I'm just butthurt that I didn't get my shirt. That's the real issue here.

EDIT: Getting my shirt!! Thank you, /u/kn0thing! Lolol I can't believe it.

FOUND! PICTURE OF MY DOC BROWN PUMPKIN

yurisses · 2時間前

If you're truly sorry for what you've done, do an AMA so you can answer the hard questions. Like what you have to say about shadowbanning people who so far as mention your lawsuit.

DoctorDank · 2時間前

Your second to last paragraph is spot on.

These are just words.

You haven't actually instituted any reforms yet. To be honest, this just feels like corporate newspeak. You're just telling us what we want to hear. I think you'd ve a better response if you actually instituted the reforms you speak of, instead of just talking about how you're going to do them.

Because talk is cheap.

But, at least you acknowledge that the way you went about dismissing Victoria was utterly tone-deaf, and very disrespectful to the (unpaid, hard-working) moderators who relied on her in order to make their subreddits the very best.

Oh wait no, you totally didn't do that either. You just say you're acknow ledging a "long history" of mistakes, without actually acknowledging them at all!

More newspeak.

So, I don't really know what to make of this "announcement." Guess we'll just have to wait and see if you put your money where your mouth is, won't we?

Edit: much thanks to /u/alloutpenguinwar for guilding my comment!

Edit 2: for those of you telling me software development takes time? No shit. I know that. That doesn't mean reddit inc couldn't have laid out at least some sort of timetable, as opposed to nebulous promises of mod tools being available in the future. And yes, you can have timetables for software development. Happens all the time. So sorry, that's not a legitimate excuse for, well, anything.

imh · 48分前

Since the admin responses are getting so downvoted, can the commenters asking questions please edit their questions to include the responses? That way we can see them without having to click a bazillion "load more comments" buttons?

xdrg · 1時間前

i gave up on this site when i heard ekjp on npr talking about how reddit was no longer meant to be a "free speech" platform.

i'm just waiting until the dust settles to see what the best alternative will be.

vorpib · 2時間前

How about apologizing for calling your strongest user base insignificant ?

thejellydude · 1時間前

Look, I'm not the most active mod of /r/funny, but I've been around for a while, and I pay attention to the backroom when things like this happen. Are you really acknowledging all the issues here? And I don't just mean mine as a mod, but those of the users. Mind explaining to me how you're going to handle:

Shadowbanning and how it negatively affects content producers in niche subreddits?

The constant lack of listening to mod requests by the admins? (I still remember how much we had to fight to let /u/Kylde moderate more than just 3 defaults. That was insane.)

Restructuring the reddit site-wide rules to be more transparent and clear?

Why you aren't working with the current modtools providers on how to integrate their product? (They've said time and again they would love for you to steal from them)

How you think Krispykrackers, working alone, will be enough for 6,000+ mods? We've already said we don't think this is going to work, and I've heard no response to this.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. It's hard for me to take a post like this serious when you don't address any of the issues that have been outstanding, but only the ones brought up by the recent event.

rfbandit · 2時間前

Thank you for finally apologizing on here, instead of through media interviews. Should've come to your community first, instead of the press. But you also miss the point. You say a majority of reddit users don't care. But, those of us who create content for the lurkers care. Acting flippant isn't a good way to get us on your side.

AdamKeiper · 2時間前

Dear Ms. Pao –

In the interest of transparency, I wonder if you might answer a question or two. Setting aside any personnel matters that you understandably cannot discuss, would you please confirm or deny the claim made several days ago that Reddit, under your leadership, wishes to undertake "a bunch of highly commercial things around AMAs"? Is that characterization correct, partially correct, or entirely incorrect? And, while still eschewing any discussion of individual personnel, would you say that your colleagues — the administrators of Reddit — have largely shared that goal, or has there been substantial pushback and disagreement?

Thank you.

fritzly · 2時間前

Are we just suppose to pm /u/krispykrackers?

54CymruBeats · 2時間前

Okay.

RedditAckount · 1時間前

This is a simulated discussion.

The damage is done, the community is now weary. Monetize, make your money, and move on to the next "Reddit" style website. If money is your goal (and it is) then just do it and don't pretend to care long enough just to pander to your sites users, the ones who actually are responsible for the creation and submission of the content of your site.

Many of us are already done. Moving on. In 5 years, the future of reddit will be nothing but astroturfers, clickbait articles, the exact same wikipedia links posted to til, and premium memberships.

We can't trust you not to dismantle, edit, delete, or hide content that we deem to share. We'll find another outlet, another 4chan, another reddit, another anonymous board. Communities will always find a way to come together. Your model was good, but your goals have changed.

You've lost our trust. You've lost our input. You're on your own.

geocitiesdreaming · 1時間前

Yeah, but no. What I'm about to say is absolutely going to be buried, and that's fucking fine, but I just need to say it somewhere

MOD TOOLS ARE A PROBLEM, BUT A MUCH BIGGER PROBLEM IS THE FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE THAT IS HAPPENING TO REDDIT; THAT WAS NOT ADDRESSED HERE, AND IS NOT ONLY CONTINUALLY NOT BEING ADDRESSED, BUT CONTINUALLY BEING BURIED UNDER "MOD TOOLS" AND THE REDDIT COMMUNITY IS PRETTY MUCH FALLING IN LINE.

Long time lurker, don't even particularly care about reddit that much, but when I see this many people simply not getting what is a very obvious situation, I have to say something. For clarity and brevity I will try and do this in list form:

Generally agreed upon roblems with reddit

Censorship
Commercialization
No transparency
No communication
No Respect

I think that's pretty much the long-and-short of it. But look at this post carefully, then look at everything she and Alexis have been saying to media sources in the past two days. They have entirely been spinning this problem as "oh, we're sorry, we don't know how to communicate! We really screwed up with mod tools, we're so sorry!" And I get why some random reporter from another news site would bite that, but that fact that so many redditors are completely buying that as the primary, and ostensibly only, issue is fucking mind boggling. Yes, mod tools are an issue. Yes, I want the mods to get what they need, but there is a gigantic difference between one problem that can essentially be solved with a dedicated and competent staff, and another problem which is a group of leader fundamentally changing the ethos of an entire website, not only are the nowhere near close to having the same importance, but when most of the reddit hivemind seems to follow this Pao party line that the "mod tools issue" is the primary issue, then it almost becomes black comedy.

And I completely understand that she can't talk about Victoria being fired. However, from the few things we do know about that situation, we can deduce a few things:

Obviously it was a bad firing since Victoria happily stood aside while reddit burned over her firing.
While not an undeniable fact, anyone with common sense can deduce that she was likely fired because she was the person stopping them from commercializing AMAs

THIS IS A HUGE DEAL

The Victoria firing is not a catalyst, or in any way an isolated issue. None of these are isolated ideas. Increased censorship plays for the case of commercialization, (And my "censorship" I don't only mean the FPH business, i mean for the past two days I have been looking at the differences between the top posts and the front page and it is remarkable how many incredibly-upvoted anti-reddit posts are not making it to the front page. This is very clearly website manipulation to make it seem like it's business as usual). Victoria being fired plays for commercialization. Mods not having the tools they need makes them less powerful which also plays for the case of commercialization. COMMERCIALIZATION IS THE BEGINNING AND THE END OF THIS WHOLE MESS. Unless you guys want a reddit where every post is an advertisement, something has to be done about this now.

Everything about how they have spun the narrative, to how they manipulate the front page, to their business practices, to this awful marketing class PR memo they crudely labeled as an "apology" smells disgusting.

And what about that leaked screenshot of Alexis talking to mods where he explicitly said that all AMAs while be coordinated through an AMA email address, but would not give an answer on who that person is. That's essentially a smoking gun that is on gawker, digg and god knows where else, but is for some reason unable to make any traction on reddit. And I know that it's partially because so many power users are drinking kool aid, but it's also because, frankly, it seems like this entire website is being manipulated with ease from corporate HQ. I mean, that's the new plan with AMAs, sponsored AMA working through Alexi's weird nerve point email address which will likely be housed by a team of PR/marketing aficionados who will ensure that AMAs will be glorified commercials.

But whatever, clearly these people won, clearly you guys are fine with spending all day on a glorified home shopping network that poses as a forum. I'm off to fucking Voat anyway, but I had to fucking put this somewhere, just for my own fucking sanity, because I am really just astounded that no one can put this together.

Godspeed

TotesMessenger · 2時間前

I'm a bot, bleep, bloop. Someone has linked to this thread from another place on reddit:

^{If you follow any of the above links, please respect the rules of reddit and don't vote in the other threads.} ^(Info ^/ ^Contact)

freebytes · 1時間前

I have decided to stay for now, but your comments related to the 'vocal minority' of Reddit are so disturbing, though. I have lost trust in Reddit. You have severely damaged the brand for me with that one comment.

The minority of Reddit posts the comments. The minority of Reddit posts the links to content. The minority of Reddit are the ones that care about the success of the site. The millions of 'unique page views per month' could care less if Reddit stopped existing. The vocal minority, though... These people are the lifeblood of the community. You cannot hand-wave their discontent and expect everything to be fine. You cannot afford to lose one loyal member. It is best to treat everyone with dignity and respect.

Do you know how Netflix started?

The genesis of Netflix came in 1997 when I got this late fee, about $40, for Apollo 13. I remember the fee because I was embarrassed about it.

Blockbuster was their own downfall. They thought they were too big to fail. It was not Redbox that caused them to fail. It was not online streaming movies that caused Blockbuster to fail. Blockbuster was their own enemy. They were arrogant and did not respect their customers.

All it takes is for the same arrogance and disrespect to continue within Reddit, and it will suffer the same fate as those that came before it. As we speak, many users are jumping to other platforms. If there was a similar, solid platform already in place that was stable and could handle the load, Reddit would be in very bad shape at this point.

You are fortunate that your vocal minority wants Reddit to succeed, and you are fortunate that your vocal minority is willing to give you even more changes even though you continue to be disrespectful and arrogant.

7084701770 · 36分前

I work in a larger company dealing with many ~~large~~ massive companies and the one thing I've learned by doing my job, and that is sticking out at me here; is Disassociating Pronouns:
"WE screwed up..."
"WE haven't..."

It concerns me that the issue as I see is we, as the whole, have pinned the problems at hand on one person, who I believe the post is by (however another problem is the lack of any sort of introduction, another Disassociating Behavior) but admittedly do not know enough about the workings of this to comfortably say so. Furthermore, this lone named actor is not owning much responsibility to the issue at hand.

What's bothering me is this feels like a very side-stepping statement; carefully crafted to appear apologetic, but in a deeper (and possibly a more subconscious level) is at least attempting to deflect the majority of the issue of onto others, as in, reddit the company as a whole.

As I often say in meetings, I feel this is nothing more than a weak pandering to demands which contains not only little to no concrete answers but only stands to, at best, further muddy the view point; and at worst, push the involved parties further into a sense of disconnect and displeasure with the involved actor.

UpstateBrah · 2時間前

Well this doesn't sound like an HR memo at all. /s

opticon · 2時間前

"We fucked up, and we've been fucking up for a long time. We made promises we didn't keep. But we promise that from now on we're going to really try to not fuck up."

Nah. You have have no idea what you're doing. You have shown no understanding of Reddit and shown no interest in its well-being. You seem to care more about your personal politics and social agenda than the business of running this operation. You've got a terrible reputation not just here but in your personal life as well. Between you and your husband you have no credibility and Reddit has zero confidence in your intentions or ability to follow through with these promises.

Your best move now is to resign and be the scapegoat Reddit needs. This apology is meaningless and you will never have the goodwill of this community.

vubbz · 2時間前

TL:DR Version

boobookittyfuck69696 · 1時間前

Our team is ready to respond to comments.

What team? I've been here for 15 minutes and I've already seen another 2000 replies go up. Who's reading this? Who's answering our questions??

TheGreatRayPape · 2時間前

I like how your apology over a lack of communication wasn't delivered to the people who needed it until you told every other press outlet first.

This has nothing to do with your race, gender, sexual orientation, weight, height, eye color, or any other physical attribute or personal preference in any arena; no matter what light your behavior and decision-making is used to examine your choices here, they universally identify you as completely incompetent as a CEO of a site built on community data aggregation.

brock_lee · 2時間前

Just remember what happened to Digg.

stagecraftman · 2時間前

Why was Victoria fired?

asslurker · 1時間前

Is u/ekjp = Ellen Pao?

Garethp · 2時間前

Thanks for the announcement. I wasn't expecting it to actually come. Quick question: Will those devs be communicating with us at /r/Toolbox?

Keltino · 1時間前

Wow,you have really swayed me. Signed the petition.

SalamanderOfDoom · 1時間前

Look at Ellen Pao's history and tell me why anybody should believe anything she says. Seems like fake corporate bullshit to save face and nothing more.

sonofaitch · 2時間前

The main issue, clearly, is the divide between Reddit the website and Reddit the business. Finding a balance to please both can obviously be quite difficult, but you'd be surprised to see the positive feedback and ideas the communities will have that could prop up the business side if you actively listen. I hope we can better the site thru this.

Some ideas, of course, are crazy (https://www.reddit.com/r/CrazyIdeas/comments/3cauxn/community_buyout_of_reddit/) but at least some are trying

MarshallMelon · 2時間前

Hmm.

Provide some more info as to why exactly the events of July 2nd even needed to occur in the first place and maybe then we'll take you seriously.

UnholyDemigod · 2時間前

(please note: my status as a mod has zero bearing on my comment. This is from me, and me alone.)

Ellen - /u/ekjp - I have defended you (and the entire admin staff) for a long time. When people made comments about how you were turning reddit into a SJW haven, I told them to shut the fuck up. When the FPH people made you out to be a nazi, I went through threads and did my best to tell these people how they were wrong, and you were actually doing good by reddit. But with your recent comments to the media, you have made it very hard to continue to defend you. For example, you say it's only the vocal minority who cares about this. This and other things you have said lead me to believe one of two things: you either do not understand the reddit userbase, or you do not care. If the former is true, do you plan to rectify this? If the latter is true, and you don't care about this site, why did you take the job?

Davedeaux · 1時間前

Could you take a look at this please. Reddit would appreciate your support

MaskedxAvenger · 2時間前

It's absurd how many days it took for this to happen.

ecafyelims · 1時間前

Instead of calling us "insignificant users," you should really be grateful that people are complaining. People stop using businesses all the time without saying a word; the fact that people are screaming for change is a sign we still care and want Reddit to be fixed.

The alternative is that active users just leave without complaint, and we leave reddit to digg its own grave.

It's too bad I have 3 months of gold left on my account. I can't even protest by not renewing.

However, I see a lot of gilds in this thread, so maybe you're a super genius who knows how to generate real revenue from users suffering from Stockholm syndrome or something. If this is the case, send me a PM to confirm. I promise to keep it a secret.

Sunhammer · 36分前

Communication: u/krispykrackers [3] is trying out the new role of Moderator Advocate. She will be the contact for moderators with reddit and will help figure out the best way to talk more often. We’re also going to figure out the best way for more administrators, including myself, to talk more often with the whole community.

....So you all picked the admin most legendarily nasty to moderators and users for this

uuuuhh

HazMat68W · 1時間前

but also over the past several years

Since you've been in power. Let's be real here.

slickdealsceo · 42分前

This will probably be buried in the depths of this thread, but as someone who is a steward and community advocate at Slickdeals, I thought I might be able to relay some of the insight we've garnered as we've built our community.

I was one of the original founders, former CEO, and now the Chief Product Officer and as such I've had the opportunity to put a lot of process in place, as well as help ask the right questions whenever we do things. Naturally all communities have their nuances and differences, but in the end it boils down to respect. Respect the community: honor your users and content contributors for the work and effort they do.

Often this results in us taking a tradeoff in what we call "Technical Debt vs Community Debt" where instead of creating friction for our users, we take on a technical burden instead. For instance, we launched a redesign recently, and instead of forcing everyone over, we maintained a classic version of the website, and told ourselves that we would maintain two versions of the site for the foreseeable future, and do our best to improve the redesigned version to the point that it compels people to switch ("lets make it so much better that they willingly switch").

We often sit down and ask ourselves the following questions, in no particular order or priority:

Is what we're doing impacting the way the community uses the website? How does it impact all the different types of users: casual users, frequent visitors, lurkers, content contributors, power users, etc.
Are you moving someone's cheese? Are you changing something that users are very used to or have been conditioned to? Is there a way to transition it smoothly?
Does it impact the way our mods use the website? How about our editors, or other internal staff?
Does it impact the way our content contributors use the website?
Does it impact the integrity, trustworthiness, or authenticity of our brand, content or community, even if its just the perception of such?
Does it impact the sense of community, their sense of ownership, pride or involvement with the website?
Are you addressing the needs of the community, especially ones that were explicitly requested? Did you make a tradeoff? If possible, can you address both your goals and the communities needs at the same time? At the very least, do not ignore what your community is asking for.
What do you anticipate the negative feedback to be like or about? How will you respond to it?
Are you releasing a "complete" product (is it finished?), if not: what is missing and why did you choose to omit things?
How are you communicating these changes or reasons to the community? Did you solicit their feedback before, during and after the change? We've learned that communication is key: frequent and open communication. Users may not always agree with us, but they are usually reasonable and will at least understand it if you explain why you need to do something. One of the best ways to manage change, in my opinion, is to solicit that feedback and actually act on it quickly. You wont make everyone happy, but the fact that you listened, considered and ultimately acted lets the community know that you're listening and working -with- them.
What is the plan immediately after the change? Who will handle interacting with the community, collecting the feedback and making action items for them? Do you have resources set aside to quickly respond to the user feedback and fix bugs or issues as quickly as possible to minimize the risk/impact to the community?

chaanach · 2時間前

your mind tricks won't work on me

ademnus · 1時間前

Firstly, this was a long time overdue. You spoke with the media long before you spoke with us, and it's really not appreciated. When we have to turn to the tabloids online to find out what's going on, we become convinced you really are not invested in communication. Trying to solve a debacle in communication by ignoring the community in favor of the press is just compounding the situation with more poor communication choices.

Secondly, and maybe more importantly, there are far more users of reddit who are not moderators than who are. However, when most of the main subs went dark in protest to mistakes on your end, we were the ones caught in the middle. So far, I see mods and you communicating with each other, but I think the many users affected by this should be addressed at some point as well. No, we're not owed anything, but then, no one is -we don't owe anyone our patronage and donations either.

But finally, I also want to say that as far as the users are concerned, the cornerstone issue is not about mods and communication, but rather the firing of Victoria. Now, here's where we really are not owed any explanations, neither from you nor her, and if neither party is comfortable doing so, we understand completely. Just know that a great many users feel strongly about her loss and want to stand behind her, and ask for her to be re-instated, and should neither party want that, I hope one of you let's us know in some way, at some point, because in the end it's just leaving a bad taste in everyone's mouth and is helping to build a lot of negative sentiment around here.

I think you can tell we come here because we love it here. If we hated it, we would be elsewhere. They say hate is the other side of love's coin and if we seem passionate about these things it's only because we care about reddit and all it can do. I for one don't want a war between users, mods, and ceo/staff so let's do what we can to clear the air, reassure people all around and get back to what we do best.

Cat pictures.

brokenearth03 · 1時間前

I don't (and I bet many many others) care about mod tools. They don't affect me as a non-mod.
What does affect me is someone saying that I shouldn't be able to view some content because its about YOU. Your history is public domain, but you delete and ban people who mention it? What kind of megalomania is that?

chartier · 42分前

Could you explain your plans for Alien Blue? It's a fantastic app and a smart purchase, but Reddit is letting it languish. It still looks like iOS 6, it still has a custom share sheet instead of the new and fantastic iOS 8 sheet, it lacks an app extension for sharing from other apps, and iOS 9 is almost here.

ThePatrickSays · 2時間前

But remember: most of us aren't interested in this.

jjlew080 · 2時間前

I think you need to understand Reddit can go the way of MySpace or Digg in a heartbeat if things continue to operate like this. This is a user driven site. Without content providers, Reddit is nothing. I suggest weekly blog posts about ideas and changes need to be communicated way in advance, with a solid plan to keep subs running smoothly. This post is a good first start. I don't think you have many strikes left, to be honest.

Anon2971 · 2時間前

You're right. They're just words. The same kind of words you've been saying for years.

It's appreciated that you're now apologizing and try to make amends, but I personally won't be believing it until I start to actually see these changes happen, like an explicit explanation/timeline/development details of what tools are being made, or the moderators themselves saying that communication has improved.

Also, a direct response to the Victoria scandal would be good. You don't need to tell us why /u/chooter got fired, but you could at least say if there's now a new point of contact for mods to go to when it comes to arranging these AMAs rather than leaving them high and dry.

jdalex · 2時間前

I like how you say we've "lost" trust in you, implying that we trusted you at some point. Given your history, I don't think redditors had much trust in you in the first place.

SpontaneousLightBulb · 2時間前

What about censorship? Your post is all about placating moderators (which are essentially unpaid employees and do deserve attention). However there is NOTHING about the overt censorship occurring on Reddit. Posts about Ellen Pao suddenly disappear, Reddit censorship, and other issues that are most certainly NOT harassing anyone end up in shadowbans for users.

Your apology is not accepted.

edit: spelling

LeeHarveyShazbot · 1時間前

POPCORN TASTES GOOD

brzt6060 · 2時間前

You missed the most important points, censorship and transparency.

errl_dabbingtons · 2時間前

i don't want your team to respond to comments, why are you apologizing for "the past"? reddit has taken a sharp downturn since you took the helm and envisioned some new Utopian hug palace, removed freedom of thought, and employed shady tactics. You have a history of throwing a hissy fit when you don't get your way but I, along with plenty of other users of this site don't want "change" we want you to stop trying to fix something that isn't broken.

You are such a narcissist that you think that you can fix what's "Wrong" with the internet, but you're only fanning the flames against you. You took control of a beast of a website for resume fodder and it's not going your way. listen to what the actual complaints are.

Censorship needs to cease. you know that word, it's the word that comes before "desist" in all of those letters you've been sent in your life. i'm not saying stopping removing ILLEGAL content, but to completely do an about-face in the way reddit has ALWAYS been communicated is a great way to ostracize the community.

Mass deletions of negative stories about you, SHADOW-BANNING those who dare dissent needs to stop.

I know i'll probaby be shadow-banned for the past two comments i've made in regard to you. and I'm prepared for that. It's a good thing i'm archiving the post right now. so when in the future I can join the thousands you've had silenced like a discount dictator.

karmaranovermydogma · 2時間前

I know it's minor, but I appreciate how direct the wording of the apology was. No "I'm sorry if you were upset" or "I'm sorry you feel that way" unlike many "political" apologies; rather it was a straight to the point nostra culpa "We screwed up."

Be interesting to see where this goes.

NYCBluesFan · 1時間前

You act like this is a new lesson for you. It's not. This feedback has been consistent across your tenure at Reddit. Even this response is tone deaf. We don't want your changes - we want the exact things you took away from us. These attempts to placate the angry public are hollow. At this point, even restoring what was taken from us would not restore our faith in your ability to lead.

Reddit is a platform. We are the product. You're selling us to your advertisers. Your biggest responsibility is to keep us happy. Learn to give the people what they want, not what you think we want. Stop talking. Listen. Act on the response.

It should not be this hard.

DunnyKruger · 47分前

Some questions:

What took you so long to address the community?
Why you did the traditional media tour first?
Why are some forms harassment allowed and others banned?
What exactly is a "safe place"?

Anyway, for a part of the community damage is already done and no matter how much you apologize will fix the issues and this so called apology is very scripted.

I'd been in reddit for many years with different accounts. But I am leaving. It will be hard to replace reddit but yeah... I don't like this place anymore. You might not care, you might think that for every user that leaves two more come. Might be true. Whatever.

Woahtheredudex · 43分前

Oh? You're sorry. Well then that changes everything!

BobCrosswise · 42分前

If you're sincere, then it can only be the case that you and the admin are so blatantly incompetent that you sincerely did not know that you were undermining the community until just now.

If, on the other hand, you and the admin did know what you were doing and what effect it was having on the community, then your apology is obviously insincere and self-serving.

So which is it?

Dransel · 38分前

Nice comment section presence, /u/ekjp ...

But seriously, your primary goal needs to actually involve getting these mod tools into place. You need to take sole responsibility for this. Reddit is counting on you, and honestly, we don't have a lot of faith. It would be great for you to prove everyone wrong, hell, you might actually gain genuine support. All I ask is that you do whatever you can to maintain these digital communities that have been the homes to countless discussions and incredible memories. I just wish that you were someone we could rely on, like we could with Victoria. People are holding you accountable for this incredible breeding ground for ideas, stories, and communities. So, stop letting us down. Please.

vuke69 · 33分前

Bullshit

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