9 upvotes, 27 direct replies (showing 25)
Edit: and yes, I communicated this *terribly.* As I said on modnews about my behavior....
I was stupid. I’d been talking with mods all day on subreddits I thought were restricted (only approved submitters can post, but anyone can view), not private (only approved people can view) and based on all the positive feedback I��d gotten, thought the tide was turning with the entire reddit community. And then I made glib comments that were on public subs in a bad attempt to be playful and have since edited the worst offender to acknowledge how stupid it was and remind myself to not be that dumb again.[1] Ultimately, to 99% of our users, my comment history just showed a guy being stupid, and I’m sorry for that.
Comment by OneBigBug at 06/07/2015 at 21:48 UTC
24 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Edit: and yes, I communicated this terribly.
Can you...stop doing that? Like...take a class or something? Because honestly, for as long as I've been paying attention to stuff about reddit, rather than just stuff on reddit, admins have communicated *horribly*. In like...the worst possible way. So bad that it would be better to say nothing. Which is almost impressive.
Like 99% of all the huge drama that ends up hurting this site is because you (the collective you) absolutely *suck* at communicating. It almost always traces back to that. All the decisions and actual actions that have been taken (more or less) would have been either perfectly fine, or at most a minor drama in the individual thread it was announced in if the community had been interacted with in a less ridiculous way. It goes far beyond one bad comment.
I was going on to explain, but what I wrote ended up being ridiculously long. Suffice to say that not only does the way that mods are communicated with need to change, but the way you think about decision making at reddit needs to change. These arguments for why you're pieces of shit are like a cancer. (Like that guy that got fired has. Gotta love examples that pull double duty.) Left untreated, even for a short period of time, you'll be overwhelmed by them. And some day that cancer will get bad enough to kill you.
If you think about any publicly facing action (including hirings and firings) without having a meeting where you have devil's advocates arguing with your decisions, and you formulating strong responses to the obvious arguments, and maybe even making you reconsider the action, you're doing it wrong and you'll keep having these problems.
Comment by BostonDrivingIsWorse at 06/07/2015 at 18:45 UTC
22 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I've seen you repeatedly state that giving the mods direct control over AMAs was always the intention, and that there was never any plan to monetize the format.
I just curious why the sudden shift when it seemed like the format was already working so well? It also seems like the mods lamented /u/chooter leaving, and had no desire to take over the duties she was previously responsible for. As it stands now, the mods appear to be reluctantly taking over AMA duties only to keep from having to coordinate with the admins, now that Victoria is gone.
Comment by Cacafuego2 at 06/07/2015 at 20:30 UTC
8 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Your post on /r/outoftheloop, which was spread widely, seems to say the opposite.
In that post, and in several of your early postings or mod communications, you made reference to how you were going to help coordinate AMAs, how all there was a "team" helping coordinate AMAs, and so on.
You mentioned "We're prepared to help coordinate and schedule AMAs". You didn't say anything about phasing that action out. You mentioned how some people could do AMAs without coordination, but it comes across more like trying to sooth the people upset that no coordination was happening.
If this was your intent up front it seems like it would have been more clear. Instead it seems like you were scrambling at the time and what you're saying now is just what you've come up with in the meantime; which wouldn't really make it the plan all along.
Can you share what you'd posted to /r/defaultmods that expressed that this was your aim from the start? The Outoftheloop posting definitely doesn't seem to indicate it.
Comment by HowAboutShutUp at 06/07/2015 at 18:14 UTC
21 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Do you at some point aim to define, and publically spell out the rules about things like shadowbanning, brigading, and other inconsistencies with the application of consequences to subs and users? You keep saying stuff like "we're working on" "we're looking into" and so on--do you guys even have a set policy on what will get you shadowbanned or what a brigade is? You promised us transparency months ago and we haven't seen it. If you can't deliver, deliver a timetable, or an explanation why you can't/won't do it, instead of feeding us nebulous corporate claptrap.
Comment by Ahremer at 06/07/2015 at 18:39 UTC
13 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Wait.. your goal was that the job Victoria did and you payed her for, will now be done by volunteers? Kinda smart.
Comment by that_dude_bro at 06/07/2015 at 18:04 UTC
216 upvotes, 3 direct replies
at least you're a meme on your own website now.
Comment by Joe0060 at 07/07/2015 at 14:35 UTC
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Let's analyze this.
By all accounts, Victoria was doing an outstanding job, so what do you do? You fire her.
On the other hand, you, /u/kn0thing[1], take responsibility for the poor way things were handled and you still have a job.
1: https://www.reddit.com/u/kn0thing
Can you explain this logic?
Comment by El_Zombie at 06/07/2015 at 17:57 UTC*
320 upvotes, 4 direct replies
Uh huh.
Popcorn tastes good.
Edit: (CTRL+C, CTRL+V Apology Paragraph)
Comment by _supernovasky_ at 06/07/2015 at 18:26 UTC
10 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I don't mean to sound crass or insulting but... How could you, an admin of reddit, not realize that the places you were communicating were private? We need our admins to understand how to use the site better than the average redditor. I find this even harder to believe given that the font page was filled with screenshots of your posts due to the fact that nobody could read them because they were in private subreddits.
Comment by CoolRunner at 06/07/2015 at 22:04 UTC
7 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I trust that *you* have the proper understanding of the culture on reddit to craft it's future, but nobody ever answers this question. Why is Ellen Pao considered qualified for her position as the head of the company?
Comment by [deleted] at 07/07/2015 at 03:13 UTC
6 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I wish I could royally fuck up at my job and make glib, playful jokes about it.
Although, I suppose we've learned that you can't either.
Comment by Sakki54 at 06/07/2015 at 18:43 UTC
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Just wondering, what is your favorite brand of popcorn? Are you an Orville Redenbacher, Pop-Secret, Act II, or movie theater type guy? I need to refill my popcorn stash, and since you seem to be an expert on it I was wondering what your thoughts on the subject were?
Comment by raxcitybitch at 06/07/2015 at 19:54 UTC
4 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I'm confused - you're replacing one person with a team, why weren't they included?
To me, that seems redundant. I wouldn't replace a person who is fluent in C++ with a group of 5 who is fluent in VB.NET, to do the exact same task and more.
Comment by stationhollow at 06/07/2015 at 23:58 UTC
6 upvotes, 0 direct replies
You realize that you can say that it was your plan from the beginning over and over but it comes off as completely disingenuous, right? It honestly sounds like you got caught and now the excuses and half assed apologizes get wheeled out.
Comment by Bratmon at 06/07/2015 at 20:44 UTC
4 upvotes, 0 direct replies
That was our aim from the start
Once again, I'm not entirely sure that's true.
Comment by Zezombye at 06/07/2015 at 18:28 UTC
7 upvotes, 0 direct replies
on subreddits I thought were restricted (only approved submitters can post, but anyone can view), not private (only approved people can view)
...didn't you check even ONCE one of the subreddits?
Comment by [deleted] at 07/07/2015 at 00:05 UTC
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
How is that popcorn tasting?
Comment by mrv3 at 06/07/2015 at 18:02 UTC
34 upvotes, 1 direct replies
How did the popcorn taste?
Comment by ICanHazAnswersPlz at 08/07/2015 at 04:28 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
How in the fuck is the community ever supposed to trust you to know what the hell is wrong with this site when you can't even be assed read the god damn sidebar of one of the biggest cancers on this site?
If you don't get that the /r/modtalk and /r/defaultmods community is a huge source of angst among the community then you don't get reddit anymore than /u/ekjp.
Did you figure out that /r/modtalk was private before or after you proposed some sort of tricameral legislature of powermods?
Equality is a bwitch.
Comment by SolarAquarion at 06/07/2015 at 18:36 UTC
4 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Thank you for owing up to your mistakes
Comment by 91civikki at 06/07/2015 at 19:14 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Was the popcorn really that good?
Comment by Wikkiwikki420 at 06/07/2015 at 23:33 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Give all users the ability to edit ours ourselves. It should remain as we wish to see what was said. Eff censorship.
Comment by AFabledHero at 06/07/2015 at 18:11 UTC
-2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
At least read what she has to say before downvoting. She's saying she made mistakes. Isn't that exactly what you want to hear?
Comment by The_Year_of_Glad at 06/07/2015 at 18:44 UTC
-5 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I’d been talking with mods all day on subreddits I thought were restricted (only approved submitters can post, but anyone can view), not private (only approved people can view) and based on all the positive feedback I’d gotten, thought the tide was turning with the entire reddit community.
In the interest of transparency, will you allow a trusted third party, such as a mod of a default subreddit like /u/karmanaut, to have access to your comment log for the purposes of creating an unexpurgated log of your comments during that time interval, for the purposes of verification of your claim?
Comment by MutthaFuzza at 06/07/2015 at 18:41 UTC
0 upvotes, 0 direct replies
You know at any other company you would be fired for acting like you did.