Yishan Wong is Reddit's new CEO

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mk · 4963 days ago

Seriously though, I think reddit is great, so I'm not looking to implement any "big, bold new directions" or redesigns. Right now I am trying to make sure I learn all the nuances and subtleties of the community and product so that I don't fuck it up (see TL;DR from above).

http://www.reddit.com/r/blog/comments/qnyy7/new_reddit_ceo_r...

That sounds good.

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Laurelai · 4963 days ago · link ·

>so I'm not looking to implement any "big, bold new directions" or redesigns

Then none of the reasons why I hate reddit will change.

+discuss+discuss

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GoatFood · 4963 days ago · link ·

Out of curiosity, how would you change reddit if you were the CEO?

+discuss+discuss

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Laurelai · 4963 days ago · link ·

Good question, I would ban all hate speech and stalking/harassment. Reddit's infamous "witch hunts" would be stopped. I would change the position and functions of admins to be more in line with traditional forum admins and they would be different from reddit's employees. The hands off policy would altered to a degree, the admins would be more available to help moderators when they are overwhelmed with an issue while still allowing the mods to run their community as they see fit.

+discuss+discuss

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dublinben · 4962 days ago · link ·

This kills the site.

In all seriousness, such a drastic imposed change to the culture of the site could be devastating.

+discuss+discuss

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Laurelai · 4962 days ago · link ·

If they don't do something reddit will simply implode from the growing eternal september.

+discuss+discuss

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dublinben · 4962 days ago · link ·

Having observed these kinds of users in real life, the site is providing exactly what they want from it. Just by talking about this we separate ourselves from the passive masses who consist the bulk of reddit's traffic now.

+discuss+discuss

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Laurelai · 4962 days ago · link ·

Perhaps we do.

+discuss+discuss

GoatFood · 4962 days ago · link ·

I see the eternal September as part of the natural life cycle of a user-driven site. It begins as a small, niche community focused around certain interests and types of discourse. Content that gets pushed to the top is the content that's most popular, which has the effect of catering to the lowest common denominator. Therefore, as the user base grows larger favored content tends to be what requires the least effort to appreciate. Hence, more people who like easy to appreciate content will be driven to the site, i.e. almost everyone on the internet. Reddit's advice animals are the perfect example of this. They are easy to create and can be understood by anyone. They take zero intellectual effort to produce or consume, yet they appeal to broadly appreciable emotions and experiences, so they're easily rewarded. Naturally, if advice animals are what gets promoted on reddit then more people who like that sort of thing will come there. Quality degrades exponentially. The old users no longer have their niche community that caters to their specific interests, so they leave.

Maybe the structure of Hubski solves some of these problems, maybe not. Or maybe Hubski will never become popular in the ways reddit, digg, or even 4chan did. I guess we'll find out.

+discuss+discuss

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mk · 4962 days ago · link ·

This is one of those effects that I am keenly aware of. Personally, I'd love to have an outlet that didn't degrade in quality over time. It's definitely a goal that I have.

On that topic, I am planning on dropping the 'most popular hubs' from the discover page soon, and replacing it with something else. (I actually plan to change that page quite a bit.) I want Hubski's community structure to be dynamic and organic, not centered around a list. If someone's hub is popular, it should be because they attract a lot of followers through their posts and shares, not because they have preferred real estate on the site. It was useful to get things moving, but I think it could become detrimental in time.

+discuss+discuss

mk · 4962 days ago · link ·

TBH, I was just saying that this (IMO) is a good stance for a new CEO to take. It would be wise that he gets a better feel for everything behind the scenes before he starts making bold new changes. Of course, I don't think Reddit doesn't have its flaws. But, if improvements are going to be made, it will take some serious thought on strategy and implementation.

He should eventually be bold, but although the problems are easy to identify, the best solutions might not be.