Steve Huffman co-created Reddit. Is he trying to quash what's made it so special?
Huffman dismissed the mod protesters with similar language to how he referred to the mobs that came for Ellen Pao (“a toxic minority”). Huffman’s scramble to increase revenue underlines something he’s previously admitted to—that he isn’t really sure how to run Reddit like a business, and he’s adjusting his leadership style to try to get there
Even Slate can’t get the framing right. It’s not that Reddit wants to charge for API access, it’s they set an absurdly high rate that signals the intent is to kill those 3rd party apps. And Ellen Pao didn’t have a disastrous tenure. It is that she was setup to fail. She was given marching orders to do what Huffman and other Reddit execs were too frightened to do. When the backlash from the hate users came, Huffman and Reddit threw her under the bus rather than say, “we’re cleaning up for an IPO and this needs to be done.” Spez then walked in saying, “look at me! I’m your savior!” The idiots on Reddit didn’t realize they’d been duped. Remember, Spez never reversed any of Pao’s policy decisions.
The Reddit admins, and Huffman in particular, have a problem telling the truth. That’s the core of the issue.
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Even Slate can’t get the framing right. It’s not that Reddit wants to charge for API access, it’s they set an absurdly high rate that signals the intent is to kill those 3rd party apps. And Ellen Pao didn’t have a disastrous tenure. It is that she was setup to fail. She was given marching orders to do what Huffman and other Reddit execs were too frightened to do. When the backlash from the hate users came, Huffman and Reddit threw her under the bus rather than say, “we’re cleaning up for an IPO and this needs to be done.” Spez then walked in saying, “look at me! I’m your savior!” The idiots on Reddit didn’t realize they’d been duped. Remember, Spez never reversed any of Pao’s policy decisions.
The Reddit admins, and Huffman in particular, have a problem telling the truth. That’s the core of the issue.
Kinda sucks they dropped the ball on that specific point because much of the article is great.