Founder of IAMA shuts down sub-reddit with nearly 500k subscribers
reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/ju5cf/goodbye_iama...Posted Aug 25, 2011, 5:06 PM UTC
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67
It takes huge balls to give up control over 500K people.. I've seen mods of smaller subs troll the shit out of their users and abuse their little bit of internet power..
To just give it up is something I see as very mature. He knows the community is pretty much worthless anyway.. It's got just about every member of reddit in it. That's not a community as much as it is, well, reddit.
29
It's so strange to see that the vast majority of those who posted in the thread just cannot see it that way. I've never been a dissenter in the middle of an angry mob before (never seen a mob really), but it felt really ugly being in the middle of all that hatred.
11
I think I've been here about a year and a half now. In the past 12 months I've noticed a change in the kind of posters.. A move to more immature posting and a more immature entitled attitude to using reddit.
It's really ugly and it's going to be the death of reddit eventually.
It's the exact same thing that happened to Digg. People blame redesigns on the downfall of digg but it was just as much their community that caused the downfall.. The hivemind destroyed its self.
Banks are too big to fail? Maybe reddit's too big not to fail.
17
And that population came here...
I was just thinking the same thing about reddit. It just seems to come with any internet population that experiences that type of growth. With reddit's limited resources, it's a serious possibility.
8
But why couldn't he just have de-modded himself and left it to the other mods? That way he gives up control and can forget about it if he wants. Giving up control is mature, but unilaterally taking the subreddit with you is anything but.
10
I think doing something you know will piss off half a million people because you know it's right is very mature.
Anyway, he started it. No one wants to see their baby grow up to be a crack dealer or on the pole.
I don't think that's his reasoning, mind. But it's another take.
13
Perhaps this cancer that is killing reddit, to reference the old /b/ meme, is leaking into r/ToR as well, because I noticed you got downvoted for voicing your opinion in a mature and respectful manner.
3
I think doing something you know will piss off half a million people because you know it's right is very mature.
How do you figure that? And on what grounds is this decision more "right" than passing the torch to someone who actually enjoys the community? There is absolutely no reason for him to be pissing people off when there is a more peaceful solution that still gets him what he wants: absolution from all modding responsibilities.
I find this move to be very immature, frankly, and I think a lot of ToR redditors find that they just cannot pass up the opportunity to be smug towards a community of people they see as inferior.
3
It's got just about every member of reddit in it. That's not a community as much as it is, well, reddit.
this should be on the banner. either this, or:
Reddit: An Internet website for people from the Internet
3
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1
500,000 internet strangers, yeah.
1
500K is just the tip of the iceberg.
0
Apparently I am in the minority, but I think this is a good idea.
32bites clearly couldn't handle it anymore, and doesn't want to see what for him (or her) was likely a source of pride go downhill.
Furthermore, for all the people complaining about trolls/fakes in IAMA, with IAMA shutting down, new communities will pop up, and until one becomes the dominate community, the quality of these smaller IAMA's will be excellent.
edit: kind of forgot to finish a sentence there...
44
I'm kind of happy. Not elated or anything, but there's plenty of opportunity here. I was happier when IAmA was more focused on everypeople with interesting occupations and stories to tell, not a celebrity-fueled and celebrity-starved place.
Reddit kicks and screams a lot when something like this happens or they don't get what exactly they want (the Daniel Tosh AMA request for example). Though I'm not sure I would have made the same decision, 32bites makes some valid points regarding the state of the subreddit. Is he really 'going on a power trip' when he's essentially eliminating the very thing he had power over? He's going back to being a regular old civilian now, unlike other troublesome mods who are satisfied abusing their power on a regular basis. As another redditor wryly said in the thread, he's 'taken his ball and gone home,' but considering it was his ball in the first place he's well within his rights to do so. It's not like shooting a child for not turning out the way the parents wanted, as someone so sensationally put, but rather him disassembling a LEGO creation and leaving the pieces for someone else to try their hand.
All that's left to do at this point is to figure out what IAmA's strengths and weaknesses were, and start fresh. No point in being bitter and wallowing. This subreddit may be dead, but there's plenty of room for a new place for one to take the stage talk about oneself and one's life story.
8
They think 'he's gone on a power trip' because he's taken something away that they feel they rightly deserve.
There's also a tendency to cry power trip when ever someone in power does something unsatisfactory. It's like Hitler name-calling. People just default to it out of some knee jerk reaction.
1
But isn't that selfish? 1 person's wants against 500000s?
2
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12
It would take the same amount of time for 32bites to transfer ownership to one of the other mods.
One person's pride shouldn't be allowed to cause half a million people to pick up and move and deal with that inconvenience.
8
But that's the thing, people were inconvenienced. The whole point was to make the reddit community take a look at itself in the mirror, and have them hopefully try to correct what they have become. Simply walking away changes nothing. Kids stay in their parents house until they are kicked out, governments are corrupt until a massive overthrow, people stand in front of tanks or live in trees. Sometimes grand gestures actually are required or nothing gets done. I'm not saying this person was correct, I'm just saying the action isn't in itself immature.
17
I think this is where the break is though, and where most of the "controversy" stems from; does IAMA belong to 32bites or to the community?
If it belongs to the community, then yes, 32bites is being selfish and rather mean.
However, and this is how I feel on the issue, 32bites created the community, and has invested his time and energy in maintaing the community up to this point, where he has decided he no longer can maintain the same level of quality. I believe that IAMA belongs to 32bites and not to the community, and thus it is 32bites' decision, and his alone, to decide the future of IAMA.
8
What does it even mean to "belong to the community"? If 32bites believes that the community has gone down hill, and feels this is the best way to make it re-evaluate itself, why would he/she have to bow to the opinions of said community before doing so? Although, its a bit of an exaggeration, if a mob decided to tear up a public park does the park "belonging to the community" make that action OK? Philosophers have come to the conclusion over and over again that the mob must be protected from itself by the guidance of more enlightened individuals.
The real question is to assess the overall benefit of the action vs. the detriment created.
4
I think, going with your park idea, this situation would be more like if a person who created the park destroyed the park. Is it his park or the community's? If it's his, he can do whatever he pleases with it, if it is the community's now, then what he did is extremely rude.
3
with IAMA shutting down, new communities will pop up, and until one becomes the dominate community, the quality of these smaller IAMA's will be excellent.
This is what I'm hoping. It's really going to pain me if the admins step in and give iama to someone else.
1
It's already happened now. If this pains you, you're likely to be pained by the same kind of thing happening over and over as life goes on.
4
I pity the people who think this is the biggest tragedy of their life. I imagine they're incredibly young, and haven't realized yet that life just sort of loops around until you die. But they clearly don't realize that the phoenix eternally rises from the ashes.
Younger people wear blinders for many things. They think that just because they found it a certain way, that's how it will always be; that the internet started out a free information paradise, and it will stay that way forever.
Things collapse on the internet even faster than they do in real life. We've been around now for several years. The implosion feels like it's right on time.
2
You have generalized and mis-characterized people in opposition to 32bites actions.
1
I think shutting down a sub-reddit that so many people enjoy instead of just resigning as mod is pretty selfish and callous.
35
I agree that he should have handed it off to someone else.
However, I unsubscribed from that shit hole months ago and haven't looked back. At least back then, an unacceptable number of highly voted posts were confirmed fakes, so much so that it made it impossible for me to enjoy the content. I guess a lot of people weren't bothered as much as I was.
And now, peeking back in there it takes virtually no time at all to find allegations of people faking credentials and using fake posts to generate traffic for personal financial gain. I don't personally view the shuttering of r/IAMA as a big loss, but when you have a community that large it's not appropriate to unilaterally kill it. If it sucks, individual readers should unsubscribe.
27
However, I unsubscribed from that shit hole months ago and haven't looked back.
Yup. Likewise with all the mega-subreddits. They sucked, pure and simple and it's not the mods fault because most of theose subreddits are run by good moderators. But when a community gets that big, it's impossible to enforce good content, unless you want an army of mods, which comes with its own set of problems.
I'm not going to miss it. If only the r/Pics guys would do the same.
16
Yeah, I've gotten out of all the really big subreddits, and when I want to see them I just go to r/all. It's like having two completely different websites. I highly recommend it.
11
I blocked all the mega-subreddits long ago and reddit improved drastically. My r/New queue moves pretty slowly because most of the subreddits I subscribe to are under 20K users. It's worth it though. Sweet Snoo, is it worth it.
7
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7
Couldn't agree more. I'm all for more strict moderation. That's why I like this subreddit. Because all that shit stays out there although the more popular this one gets, the more I fear for it.
This recent trend where when the mods do their job and get hanged for it is very disturbing. It makes me afraid to do my own job, even though the biggest subreddit I moderate is only about 20K.
The problem is that reddit users are so goddamn entitled. They don't realize that there are rules and regulations in place for a reason. They just want their goddamn memes, screencaps, and cats and get so furious when those are taken away, especially when they post their garbage to the wrong subreddit. I mean, if you're gonna post that trash, fine. But at least post it to the relevant subreddit.
10
I think r/IamA was mainly crap, but I am sad to see it gone.
Imagine, if you will, r/pics r/IamA r/F7U12 and r/AskReddit as the equivalent to /b/ on 4chan. When /b/ used to go down, the quality of all the other boards degraded significantly as its inhabitants flooded some of the less popular and subsequently more enjoyable sections.
So, I think if r/IamA is to be destroyed because it has become garbage, that nothing will be achieved unless its posters are removed also.
Which is another matter entirely.
7
I disagree that the crap would suddenly flood other subreddits, but I agree with that first statement (perhaps for a different reason): It was mostly crap, but it had some great AMAs as well.
1
I think ruining a subreddit with scams and unwanted sharing of personal information is pretty selfish and callous... unfortunately, those people get to stay on reddit as long as they want.
If a moderator decides he has put up with enough of that shit and the admins of the website aren't capable of fixing it.. he is well within his right to shut down his own personal subreddit that he created.
14
Bullshit. I think it's the correct thing to do and although it is not the same situation, nearly the same results came to fruition over in r/jailbait with violentacrez.
The point is - one day this guy thought it'd be cool to start something up like he did. Without that thought, it never would've happened. 32bites is well within reason here. People can't be pissed at an inventor for inventing something and then choosing not to make it if it's not going to be used for what he intended - but they will be.
7
I think it's the correct thing to do
And this is what is considered selfish. It doesn't hurt you to just turn your back and walk away, but it hurts 460+K people.
10
It hurts 460k+ people who got comfortable and used to the convenience brought by this man's creative thought to set something up like this.
This is the same argument we have when reddit is down. It's not technically your right to reddit (I wouldn't venture to guess) but shit, I feel as if it's my right to. So when reddit is down I think that's pretty fucking selfish that a company can't even keep a website up if a post gets over 8000 comments and 1000 images in one thread. The lack of programming oversight is selfish too when 504 errors occur and even 502s.
I read IAmA, and I'll miss it - but I'll remember that 32bites was smart enough one day to think that 'Hey, this might be cool,' and it was.
Half of the allure of the whole shebang is that going to IAmA should be at r/IAmA (not anywhere new) because you're used to it; define selfish again please?
9
From Wikipedia the source of all knowledge
Selfishness denotes an excessive or exclusive concern with oneself, and as such it exceeds mere self interest or self concern. Insofar as a decision maker knowingly burdens or harms others for personal gain, the decision is selfish. In contrast, self-interest is more general. Self-interest is merely including one's own needs and desires in the schema of priorities, and is inclusive of both cooperation and selfishness.
Yes he came up with the idea, and 400+K people agreed that it was cool. It is a selfish act to block 400+K people when you are dissatisfied with what came of it. It harmed him in absolutely no way to just walk away and hand it over to someone else, but it harms 400+K people by closing it.
4
What he did here is the very definition of selfishness. I can't work out how you can't see that?
2
Actually, [32bites created r/IAmA](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/8nrqs/i_just_made_riama_this_is_where_the_i_am_an_x_ask/) for the same reason that [syncretic created r/aaaaaatheismmmmmmmmmm](http://www.reddit.com/r/TheoryOfReddit/comments/j8lpu/i_am_attempting_to_remove_rage_comics_from/). He just wanted to funnel IAmA's out of r/AskReddit. He certainly didn't invent the concept of IAmA, in fact he disliked them.
10
Yup. Putting up a lightning rod is a novel idea, but having it too close to home would have anyone fed up eventually.
3
At some point, the invention takes on a life of its own, beyond that of its creators. When something is as big and well-known as r/IAmA, reddit and the community gain a significant amount of value regardless of how low the signal:noise ratio may be.
For one non-accountable person to be able to decide that a half-million people lose a medium of their choice, it certainly demonstrates an innate flaw of reddits moderating system.
9
IamA helped reddit grow over the last year. I wonder what the admins think of one of their crown jewel communities just disappearing.
7
I am also quite curious to see how they respond-- it would be in their interest to step-in and take over r/IAmA (or hand it over to interested parties) but certainly against the basic reddit principles as I understand them.
3
What happened with r/jailbait and violentacrez?
3
VA demodded the other mods (that had been added after him) and added the people who modded r/circlejerkers (who'd previously been banned from reddit, apparently). Admins banned r/jailbait and said they wouldn't reinstate it as long as VA refused to unmod the "troll mods".
I'm sure the murky legality of some of the content posted there (and the potential for illegal content to be posted by the "troll mods") had something to do with it as well.
4
Can't say I'm sad to see that sub go away.
2
You know, that Halo game didn't turn out exactly the way Bill Gates wanted, so he's going to shut down the whole Xbox division.
This makes as much sense.
-6
Horrible analogy. 32bites is not shutting down reddit, he is shutting down his personal subreddit that he created.
If Bill Gates started a clan in Halo and it ended up being filled with annoying kids that used racist/gay slurs all the time causing him to decide to disband the clan... that would be analogous to this situation.
10
OK good point, new analogy:
Bill Gates is sad that Xbox Live is full of annoying kids using racist/gay slurs all the time, so he's shutting down Xbox Live.
-1
Wow, jesus fuck that's a huge deal. r/IAmA was in the top 10, wasn't it? I loved the subreddit. Oh well, let's see how this turns out. It's easy to create a new subreddit, but how to let people know? What will be the different subreddit be like? Will there be several subreddits, for jobs, celebrities and experiences? This is a huge opportunity to start anew, better.
grabs popcorn
24
If the community can't help themselves but upvote scam posts and obvious lies as well as overreaching IAMA requests for, like, the queen of England, then good riddance.
23
And then the Queen of England does an IAMA, and the top ten comments are in-jokes.
3
Oh god. Did you see where someone in gaming managed to get 10 questions with Ellen McLain who is the voice of GLaDoS and asked that abominable question about bondage just because it was upvoted by the community for some insane reason?
Will edit when I find the link.
Edit: Here it is
2
Makes you think really, despite half a million users submitting and shaping the content on a sub, one or a few people can take it all away. Who really owns a subreddit: loyal users or mods?
That being said, I do sympathise if he has to see things like >IAMA request: Someone who has slept with Snooki
ಠ_ಠ
18
This is what's known as right of closure in land use laws. People's entitled attitudes are pretty irrelevant, you have no claim to ownership by visiting and posting on a subreddit.
17
With all the attention-whoring (fake posts, mundane posts, etc) and [comment] karma whoring (reposting meme after tired meme or 50 comment pun threads) that went on in IAMA, it's very, very easy to see 32byte's view. Now, I don't know that I really necessarily agree with his actions, but I 110% agree with the reason. It's the same reason why I don't know if I can find a sub other than AskReddit in my front page with more than 20k subscribers; as the sub gets bigger, the content seems to go downhill and the discussion gets a much lower signal to noise ratio.
8
To be fair, one person having total ownership of a subreddit is also an entitled attitude. I keep seeing this word "entitled" thrown around without any real thought behind it.
0
To be fair, one person having total ownership of a subreddit is also an entitled attitude. I keep seeing this word "entitled" thrown around without any real thought behind it.
"to give someone a legal right or claim to receive or do something" Usually implied here, as a result of welfare debates of the late 20th century, is the political connotation of entitlement - that one claims to be owed something but is, in reality, not owed that thing. I'll say this. 32bites created the subreddit. He maintained it, sorted through the spam, verified posts, and did all the other little things that come with the post. The word is loaded. If anything, 32bites is entitled to do what he wants with the subreddit, at least in the traditional Lockean sense of property, whereby someone who creates something has ownership of it.
And now the readers are claiming that they have more of a right to decide what happens than him? I'm torn because it seems like democracy vs authoritarianism, but reddit is not a political system. We are not endowed by knothing with alienable rights. We aren't going to have a glorious revolution where we overthrow the bourgeois mods and have a glorious socialist reddit utopia. Would anyone in their right mind argue that readers of a newspaper have a legal right to take it over if the owner decides to shut it down? No, but you would say that they should feel free to start another one if it does or if they disagree with the content. The same idea applies here I think. A wise mod will always keep himself aware of the leanings of the crowd. In the end though, he has to make the right choice, not the popular one.
This event is indicative of a larger problem. The default subreddits have no quality control. There is little course of action for a mod who wishes to improve the subreddit beyond nuking it and starting over. Making it common practice for admins to involve themselves in moderating decisions will only make this worse will only institutionalize them (in much the same way that bailing out banks who engage in destructive practices provides little incentive for them to change their behavior). This will result in a two tiered system - default subs, with terrible quality and no chance of changing, as the public face of reddit, and the hidden subs.
1
Okay then write the code that decides who owns subreddits and make it so part ownership is possible. So far I've seen no one even suggest this much less step forward and put their effort where their complaints are.
0
intellectual dishonesty is dishonest. Just because I can't re-code reddit doesn't mean the argument is invalid. It's a bit like saying "My airplane wings are upside-down? Well why don't you make new wings? You can't? then don't mention any flaws".
For the record, I and others have criticised the total-ownership system before, and offered alternatives.
1
Bad question to ask here. A lot of r/ToR readers believe in the almighty guidance of the mods and that the mouth breathing users of their precious subreddits can't feed themselves.
-3
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0
I didn't say anything about rules, I just pointed out that whenever somebody makes a point that users aren't moronic masses that can't govern themselves, they get heavily downvoted here. Your point is very much unrelated to what I was saying.
4
[deleted]
-1
Good.
10
Being there are so many ad revenue streams coming from the sub... I fully expect that the sub will be transferred over to someone else to moderate.
The Admins wouldn't be doing their job if they didn't manage the community.... thus thank 32bits for his contribution and then hand it over to someone else.
My conspiracy senses are lighting up though. It was just a day or two ago when reddit hired on redditgifts. Maybe there are moderators of large subreddits at also want a piece of the pie? So, 32bits shuts it down as he doesn't get any money and probably spends a lot of time dealing with people complaining about the quality. And let's be honest, there has been many sponsored Iama's that generate revenue for reddit.
I'd guess there are probably ad deals pending for iama's... are they going to walk away from that revenue? There could also be potential contract problems if they did.
It's interesting. But I hope common sense prevails.
9
I humbly submit my subreddit, /r/VerifiedIAmAs, for inclusion in the "replacement" category. I created it 3 months ago as a link-dump, but there's no reason it can't serve as a replacement subreddit.
Let me know what you think :)
7
If you want people to subscribe, now is the time. You could post something to the main page of reddit and likely get a good boost if some one hasn't beaten you to the punch already.
3
IAMA is a cool idea, but it really does not work well in a subreddit type system. User moderated, user voted, user questions. user verification.. it's far too ripe for spam, cons, fakes and abuse.
Twitter basically gained it's popularity by being the first celebrity IAMA. It was the first time ever that celebrities were "accessible" to the masses... random people can ask questions and get them answered. There are verifications, better done by twitter than here (though slower as a consequence).
The problem with twitter is similar to reddit, too many stupid comments, too many trolls, spam links, offensive messages etc.
Reddit at least has a voting system so improves comment filtering, but realistically a completely dependant and well run site, with a fast and effective verification by people that have constant jobs dedicated to do so. Comments rated by popularity/likes/upvotes are still needed, but strong moderation by a large and dedicated team of constantly working moderators.
6
While it's surely debatable if killing the subreddit was a good idea, I think 32bites is spot on in his reasons for why he wanted to. That reddit in particular has strayed pretty far from the reddiquette. Just note how his post, which by all means should have been the top in the subreddit, is -500 in karma. A community that so blatantly can't comprehend what the up/downvote system is for probably can't make a subreddit like IAMA very valuable.
5
If you have Reddit Enhancement Suite.
You could see that the up/downvote problem isn't only for big reddits. This thread most of the post that believe he doesn't have the right is downvoated.
As long as the subreddit produce quality post it should stay.
2
This: "He is giving the subreddit back and putting karmanaut in charge."
Aaaaand looks like we're back. Okay then.
4
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1
I think IAMA would work better as a network of specialized IAMAs, similar to the -Porn network.
3
Some reddit users could benifit from learning how to adapt and move on. I can understand the romanticizing over r/IAMA to a point, But what I don't understand how people can get so sensitive over the issue of a subreddit shutting down. Everybody is still alive, your wife still loves you, you dog still wants to go play, you still have access to the internet... life moves on. Besides look on the bright sidem It took less than 24hrs to create r/explainlikeimfive and attract 30k readers. I don't see why a new IAMA couldn't do something similar.
Even if a new subreddit doesn't emerge, there are thousands of subreddits out there. IAMA still carries the same meaning through-out all of reddit. The subreddit may be gone, but IAMA can be posted anywhere, and personally I think that would make more sense.
These are just my feelings on this issue.
3
While I totally agree with his assessment of the subreddit I don't think his decision to shut it down is justified, not when he can easily hand it over.
It sounds more like the guy is trying to make a statement about the general status of things around here.
3
I am wondering, IAMA is in the 11 subreddits over > 500.000 users, people are automatically subscribed to it, will this be in the future still be a subreddit you will be auto-subscribed to?
3
No. It's the ten most active subreddits which are default.
1
Given how much attention/traffic IAMA attracts outside of Reddit, I don't see it going anywhere.
2
Reinstate mercurialmadnessman -- it was when he left that the sub started circling the shitter.
2
I 100% support the moderator in this case.
The hate and nasty comments filling the announcement thread are enough for me to know he is making the right decision.
Too many redditors are entitled assholes... sorry.. it's just the way it is. We have thousands of people that act like the celebrities/athletes they wish they were and can only be on the internet.
r/IAMA doesn't belong to the community. It belongs to 32bites.
If the concept is popular, it can be easily recreated in another subreddit with a different name. The name "IAMA" is not what made the concept popular, it was the content.
.....
"The community" that believes the subreddit belongs to them is the same community that flooded the subreddit with crap content, scams, troll threads, spreading of personal information, etc... Now they are mad because their actions had consequences. Fuck those people. Congrats to the moderator for making an unpopular decision because it was the right thing to do.
EDIT: Further evidence 32bites made a good decision. I'm ashamed to be a part of the community that includes these people.
There ya go. The community ran itself into the ground. That subreddit has been a shithole for quite some time now. The community can only blame itself.
EDIT: I am torn on what should happen now. On one hand, the Admins could override 32bites and appoint new, dedicated moderators. It wouldn't change the (low) quality of content though. It'd be the same AMA it always was unless they wanted to find 60 or 70 mods to constantly check submissions.
On the other hand, perhaps it should stand as a Monument as to Why We Can't Have Nice Things. Keep it public and let everyone see what happens when a community completely crashes and burns on it's own accord.
EDIT: An Admin offered to take it over. This comment has since been deleted after being up for about 15 mins. or so.
EDIT: Looks like /r/WorstOf is having a field day with it too.
EDIT: Orbixx wants it back. But this is the original request.
EDIT: It's even in the Lounge now too. Sheesh.
EDIT: Here's the r/AskReddit thread.
EDIT: Here's the obligatory stupid meme and stupid meme thread.
EDIT: An interesting development.
http://i.imgur.com/aHN4t.png
Screen cap thanks to user: Poes_Law_in_Action
I have to agree with 1001yearsold, even though it's a big "fuck you" to the community, it's their (32bites) right to shut it down if they so choose.
It's also the right of the community to set up another one on their own.
I think the gist of it is that, yes this is a bit of a "fuck you" to the community, but it's one that they deserve. The community is not an intelligent being, it's a wild animal. It is out of control, and you have to show it the back of your hand once in a while.
I don't think you can stop a community from going to shit, but breaking it up and causing it to reform will definitely slow it down, and possibly undo some of the damage.
It would set a precedent for admins to get involved with moderator/creator matters.
Unfortunately I feel this case may be different.
Reddit is first and foremost a business and I imagine that r/iama generates a significant amount of revenue, what with sponsored AmAs and the large audience for ads. Ultimately I feel that it is in the admin's interests to keep that particular subreddit open, whatever the "moral" cost. Not to mention the overwhelming support from the majority of the userbase.
Thank you. And also it sets a precedent for moderators to facilitate domain squatting.
Wordsmith is such a hypocrite it hurts.
it is not unreasonable to have 60-70 mods for a ~500k subscriber subreddit. Thats 1/100th percent.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying. And in retrospect, even that number is pretty low. Maybe even 150 mods or so.
I swear I saw a [deleted] comment on her overview, but it's gone now.
I thought bites remove it, not 100% now.
shrugs
Anyway, thanks for putting up the r/APA. I got your back if the trolls decides to hound you or anything.
I think it belongs to both. I just started my own sub, but I don't look at my role so much as ownership as it is responsibility. r/Iama is a huge sub and I'm sure the moderating must take up a lot of time, time that he considers wasted when he sees that community going to shit. I feel for him, but think there were better options on the table than to just take his ball home.
Whatever, I'm sure some high-speed Redditor will gladly take on the responsiblity just to get that green text and little bit of authority.
I don't support someone taking their ball home because they were picked last or nobody will let them take a shot.
I do support someone taking their ball home because a lot of players ignore the rules of the game and try to use the ball to annoy/harm others. Those people can use their own ball if they want to.
Wow, absolutely perfect way of summing it up.
Or, you know, since the ball was free you could just give it to them to play with and go home.
Ok this analogy's getting retarded but you see my point. He could have just given the reigns over to someone else and walked away. People might have taken it as a wake-up call and changed (doubtful) but Reddit wouldn't have lost a community which has contributed to Reddit overall. It was Community of the Year 2009 for Christ's sake.
Except it wasn't free. It was built by hand with hard work over the period of a couple of years.
If he was leaving because he just didn't have enough time to manage it, I would agree. He is leaving because some members of the community make him feel like the time spent is not worth it. In that case, I wouldn't leave my work behind either.
Like I said in my first comment.. I applaud him for making the tough decision. The easy decision would be just to pass the buck and let the subreddit continue on its current path. Taking this opportunity to hold a mirror up to the community and show them their actions have consequences is the right thing to do. Sadly, this place is so much of a circlejerk, the people most responsible for the shortcomings of the subreddit will ignore the message and surround themselves with people that agree with them.
It really doesn't, it belongs to the founder and he has decided to close it, make your own subreddit or do without.
Ugh, those comments remind me why I'm unsubscribed from the big subreddits. Am I really on the same website as these people?
ericthecro
redditor since 2010-01-27, last seen today user page - rss comments - rss submissions
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Missing from your so-called analysis: time stamps.
That's not an analysis, it's a copy-paste from his current subscriptions.
Truthfully? Do you really want to know the truth? I was testing you guys. I am one of those people that game reddit. This was just data collection. From what I see, in this "intelligent" subreddit, 9 people "approved" of the generic elitist statement I made, yet one (you) was obsessive compulsive enough to check me on it (why I can't comprehend). Now when people see this back and forth, I will watch how many people read this exchange a day later and downvote me.
I am one of those people that use this information to profit. I will scribble some shitty reddit in-joke on a receipt, say it was my cute waitress, and reach the front page. I will find generic pictures of kids and think of creative topic titles to reach the front page. I will forge very popular AMAs.
I don't do this for sadistic purposes. Well not completely. It's actually quite funny to watch how stupid the reddit community is. They rank right next to the generic "Southern trailer trash" in my book personally. I work for a marketing group. Let's say a client was...Lufthansa. I would get to walk around one of their planes. Find something to take a picture of (some design that looks like a lolface) or stage something (like a flight attendant trying to hide playing a 3DS on a flight. Yes, we will actually set up "photo shoots" that we take with an average camera for stuff like this). These pictures will be submitted to reddit with titles such as "Really Lufthansa?" or "Lufthansa trying to troll us" or something of that nature.
Even then, I can easily forge a "customer letter" to them filled with memes and in-jokes, and make up a response with memes an in-jokes back from somebody who sounds higher up. This is also potentially front page material.
I hope that answered your question. I rarely, if ever, post authentically to reddit. Quite honestly, this website sickens me with it's hypocrisy, and perceived elitism. But I have no qualms destroying the integrity of this site to game it. It deserves it.
I have no idea what you're talking about when you say you're gaming reddit and you're making posts that make the front page. You don't have enough link karma to have made the front page even once. But it pretending to be someone else than you actually are is working out for you, then good for you.
I don't even get where you see hypocrisy and elitism, all I see is mob-like mentality and boring predictive hivemind. I agree that stupidity and low value content are all over this site, but that is to be expected since the site got big. However, I believe that the subreddit system be used to filter the content I see, so it's all good at the end of the day.
Um, is this another test?
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I read the thread you linked. The impolite, vitriolic, downright rude hatred that reddit demonstrates is enough for me to side with you. r/IAMA deserved to get shut down. I usually expect to see this kind of comment on r/f7u12 where someone would be in a minimum wage-class job and some rude costumer would ruin their whole day by saying nasty things.
For shame, self-entitled Reddit.
How is that evidence that 32bites made a good decision?
From the original post:
His decision was based on his disappointment in the community. The community has spoken... and the vocal majority has confirmed that his opinion is accurate -- if not understated.
This is why we can't have nice things.
We can't have nice things because when nice things get taken away, people are understandably upset? That "logic" sounds pretty contorted and full of smug sadism.
So you support the destruction of all the content that has built up in that subreddit, good or bad? Just poof, all gone, and that's fine? No way to link to that hilarious train wreck that time? Or that really interesting and enlightening post you loved?Destroying information in a hissy fit and telling the users who generated it that it's their fault is not cool.EDIT: Apparently he's leaving it as a dead monument. Better than nothing, I suppose. Still, kind of a dick move to make everyone in the world change everything over to something new just because he can't be bothered to step aside gracefully.
Pretty sure nothing has been mentioned about deleting the old content.
Just in case, hopefully someone has a backup of the best AMA ever.
Just look at the backlash though. I think the angry mob are the dicks here. All because of the...inconvenience. The people who are threatening to quit are the ones who should quit reddit. If this keeps them away, the site will be better for it.
Id have to say I agree
Can you show me where please?
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/ju5cf/goodbye_iama_it_was_fun_while_it_lasted/
I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm so fucking sorry. It's the original post and I just didn't click it. Then before I got your message I realized and felt like an idiot. Thanks, my bad for widely missing the boat.
Jesus. Unsubscribing from r/IAmA, this is just too much. People are fucking disgusting.
This is absolute nonsense. 500k people are subscribed, not 1.
I'm not part owner of Apple just because I bought an iPod.
You are if you bought stock.
And also, you're a member of a community by being a member of a community. Which subreddits are referred to.
Seriously, the idea that one person gets to decide in opposition to 500k people is completely retarded.
Not only that, it's a default subreddit making it, well, reddit.
r/IAmA belongs to reddit, and reddit decides to configure its system such that the person who starts the community continues to own it. If reddit decides to change the way that works, they can.
Had they not finally convinced 32bites to give it up, I have no doubt that having such a popular and default subreddit disappear on one person's whim would have forced exactly such a change.
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