
Alexis and Steve are leaving Reddit - shimon
http://blog.reddit.com/2009/10/fare-thee-well-reddit.html
======
zck
On one hand, I'm a little surprised. On the other, I'm not:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/9clji/where_did_m...](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/9clji/where_did_my_post_about_searscoms_urlhackable/c0c98im?context=3)

~~~
kn0thing
In fact, it has nothing to do with our departure. We've been preparing for
this for the last 6 months or so.

~~~
zck
It's not that I suspected that specific issue made you guys decide to leave,
It's more of I'm somewhat surprised you're leaving at all. Then again, I saw
it coming when spez posted "Ask me again in a couple of months".

Anyway, thanks for building an awesome site. Have fun in Armenia, and good
luck in whatever you do after that.

~~~
kn0thing
Ah, indeed. Well, thanks for using reddit and making it awesome. We know it
would be a pretty crappy site if only Steve and I were still submitting the
links like back on day 0.

~~~
blhack
Out of curiosity, how long after you guys started it did you start seeing a
lot of people other than you post links?

I run a similar website and it has just been my friends and I posting for
about a year now (which is fine with us)...interestingly (and one of the
coolest feelings I've ever gotten, I'm sure you can totally relate) somebody
that I had never even heard of posted my website to yours last night and told
people to check it out...Since then we've gotten about 200 signups (and 3-4
people that have been hanging out on there all day today).

Was it pretty quick after you launched reddit that you started seeing a ton of
people using it? I had quite a while ago accepted that it would likely just be
my friends and I posting on mine...

~~~
kn0thing
A little under two weeks, after a PG mention in an essay. Sounds like you got
a similar boost from a reddit appearance (oh, if only we'd had reddit to
promote on back then...). Be sure to engage those users, especially if they
write you; users who care enough to write feedback -- that's gold.

Then a week or so after that, we had a splendid day - neither Steve nor I
needed to submit any links, we just used the site like anyone else.

It was a good thing, too, because I was hitting my limit of aliases&passwords
to remember.

~~~
blhack
_A little under two weeks_

Well I definitely feel like a loser now, haha.

Glad I saw you posting here. I'm sure that it's gotten old by now (although I
hope it hasn't) but seriously good job on reddit. That website is leaps and
bounds about its competition (who is its competition anyhow? digg? fark?).
I've spent more time there than I have anywhere else...truly an awesome
awesome awesome community.

I hope you guys realize that, to people like me, you are literally a
superstar, thanks a lot for responding to my question :).

~~~
kn0thing
Like a loser? Nonsense! The important part of that sentence is "after a PG
mention in an essay." Just get PG to start a radical new kind of investment
firm and be the first portfolio company to launch, then make sure he writes an
essay where he namedrops you with a link -- easy as pie!

Seriously, though, that had a lot to do with getting reddit off to such a good
start. Who wouldn't want a bunch of PG readers to set the tone of their social
news website? :)

Hope you keep coming back to our Internet crack. I'd consider any website
trying to steal people's attention when they're bored at work competition :)
but the Internet is a big place, there's plenty of room.

~~~
astine
I thought that I'd let you know, I got so addicted to Reddit once that I had
to block it in order to get my life back. Good luck with your new ventures!
You've done some awesome stuff.

------
ivenkys
At one point,probably right at the beginning,Reddit was a bona-fide news-
aggregation site. Now, its just an outpost of 4Chan, at least the main page
definitely is. Nothing wrong with that except the contents and quality of
comments and postings have gone into a completely different direction.

~~~
theycallmemorty
If you dig deeper there is still a lot of good stuff. It turns out that the
idea of having each subreddit be a small 'community' kinda works. Each day my
wife checks out /r/Frugal just to see if there is anything new. She doesn't
really have any use for the rest of the site unless she's REALLY trying to
kill time but the Frugal reddit does a great job of aggregating stories she's
interested in.

If all you look at are /r/funny, /r/pics and /r/politics then you're missing
out.

~~~
kn0thing
This is something we still need to improve. Too few visitors to reddit
understand or even know about how this vast network of user-created reddits
should work. See, here I go wanting to mock a new redesign up in photoshop...

~~~
teach
I've been a reddit lurker for 4 years, and I was one of the hordes clamoring
for tags back in the day. When subreddits were introduced instead, I was a bit
disappointed. But now, these many years later, I can see how the subreddits
become independent communities in a way that tags would _never_ have
accomplished.

I'm still proud of you guys for that decision. Thanks for a great site that I
still spend way too much time reading every day.

------
larrykubin
Congrats and good luck on your next adventure.

Reddit is still my favorite site on the internet. I can't count the number of
times I've laughed out loud while reading AskReddit and IAmA. My wife probably
spends 2-3 hours a day on reddit. We both have reddit t-shirts. Yeah, I'm a
fan.

~~~
potatolicious
Am I the only one who has the opposite impression of Reddit? Maybe I should
read more of the humor reddits instead of the "serious" ones, 'cos my
impression of Reddit's userbase is a group of judgmental, yet poorly informed
people, yelling and screaming at things about which they know little.

I actually installed a Greasemonkey script to filter for words like tazer and
Sears :S

It's still incredible how much throughput reddit can push for content of all
types - but I've long since given up trying to read the comments (Slashdot on
the other hand, seems to be maintaining its quality of discussion fairly
well).

~~~
quizbiz
No you are not the only one. I guess Reddit comments in most part are not to
be taken seriously?

~~~
potatolicious
But good, insightful discussion and commentary is infinitely more interesting
than any source article by itself. 'Tis why I read Slashdot and HN.

------
theycallmemorty
Alexis and Steve: how much of this had to do with the 'censorship' you alluded
to when the atheism/front-page and sears/'hacking' issues happened?

I see to recall a comment from one of you saying that you couldn't talk about
it much now, but you would be able to 'in a couple months.'

~~~
larrykubin
I thought they were leaving due to it being the end of their vesting period

~~~
theycallmemorty
Sure. But they probably had the option to stay longer and possibly could've
left earlier if they wanted to violate their contract and lose money. (This is
speculation on my part. I have no idea what the terms of the conde nast sale
were)

------
prakash
Congrats, Alexis & Steve! Can't wait to see what you come up with next.

~~~
kn0thing
Thanks! I'm going to try and get my <http://breadpig.posterous.com> going, but
there's always <http://alexisohanian.com> if you'd like the scoop on what
we're working on next...

reddit is going to be hard to top, or even match, so please keep your
expectations measured :)

It's funny how much weight we put in past success as an indicator of future
success, no matter how much we may repeat the mantra that it's not. Going from
spec-ing out features for reddit with Steve in an apartment to acquisition
16months later is the kind of thing that can only happen with a tremendous
amount of chance.

~~~
iamelgringo
Congrats! You guys made something that really has changed the internets. I'm
convinced that Ron Paul wouldn't have even been on the political radar this
past fall had it not been for Reddit. That's pretty impressive when you think
about it.

And, I'm going to be launching a social news site soon geared towards
business/financial topics. I'd love to be able to pick your brain a bit about
the process of building reddit. I think you guys would have some pretty
amazing insights to offer. I'd love to pick your brain over coffee and/or beer
at some point. If you're interested, ping me: iamelgringo at
google's_email_service dot com

~~~
kn0thing
I hope you're taking advantage of our open-source reddit code.

<http://code.reddit.com>

Email on the way. I've always encouraged folks to bring on the competition :)
social news is far from done.

------
brown9-2
Can someone explain what benefit Conde Nast sees in owning reddit?

I'm not trying to be offensive or anything, I just don't understand how reddit
fits into the Conde Nast business.

(and yeah, I realize this question is about three years late to the party)

~~~
dc2k08
I think the demographic that uses reddit is often regarded as the most
difficult and skeptical demographic to market to. Owning reddit probably gives
them some fairly useful data and allows them to monitor trends and perhaps
better position their more-for-retail brands to attract this user-base.

~~~
kn0thing
I agree with this sentiment, though I wish the reality were more like your
theory for smarter brand positioning. On paper, it's a very attractive
demographic -- 26 median age, pre-dominently male, affluent and well-educated.

It's oft pitched as Wired readers, only about a decade younger (Wired is an
extremely well loved brand by advertisers).

~~~
jrockway
It says a lot about society in general when you consider Reddit users to be
"well-educated".

------
Alex3917
Funny, it doesn't seem like that long ago that Aaron wrote that post about
going out to celebrate Halloween right after they were acquired.

~~~
fleaflicker
and _...scrunched up [his] face to look a little angry, and said "I'm a dot-
com millionaire" with utter seriousness_

<http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/theafterparty>

~~~
kn0thing
I'd forgotten about this. I trust none of you take/took this as hard
journalism, but it's good story-telling. I do remember that particular quote,
though. I'm more of a Jack Sparrow guy myself (Hurray for 3 years of costume
recycling! Gotta love sequels).

Re-reading this, three years later, I'm struck by how incredibly guilty Aaron
appears to feel on the night of our acquisition. More than anything else, I
know I felt relieved. Make no mistake, when you're working through it, there
is nothing glamorous or care-free about slogging through a startup acquisition
(yet I hope you can all enjoy that suffering one day with your respective
startups).

~~~
aaronsw
I had a bad case of survivor's guilt that month. I got over it pretty soon
afterward, though.

------
ajju
Good luck with your next endeavors guys. I still remember when kn0thing sent
me some free reddit stickers for submitting feedback, back in '06.

~~~
kn0thing
Stickers, pins, and shirts are the currency of web 2.0 - I'm happy it left a
lasting impression on you. Though I told myself (and probably a few others)
that this kind of thing helped, it's nice to hear some anecdotal evidence.
Thanks (and for using reddit for so long).

~~~
ajju
The stickers had symbolic value. The fact that you acknowledged my feedback
with something more than an automated thank you email was what left a lasting
impression.

The reddit alien was my first bumper sticker. At some point I thought about
what made me put it on my car and I realized that the flattering human
acknowledgment I received to the feedback made me feel like I was responsible
for a tiny bit of all that was good with Reddit.

I have since used this approach (it's almost insulting to call it a tactic) to
my own advantage with my startup. So thank you, for what the stickers taught
me :)

If I had met you at a party and you had given me some free Reddit stickers it
would not have meant as much.

------
fjabre
Would have done exactly the same thing in their shoes.

And just remember, without Reddit, all we'd have is Digg and ultra cool Kevin
Rose hipsters dancing in the streets.. What an awful world that would be..

Best of luck to Alexis and Steve and thanks for your awesome contribution to
the landscape.

------
niyazpk
Am I the only one feeling bad?

Thanks you guys for building such an awesome community. The internet was
different after reddit.

For me it is very difficult to love a startup after the founders have left.
Not very logical I know. I guess I will use reddit again, but for now I have
given up my dream of buying a t-shirt from the stores. I don't feel like doing
so.

~~~
blhack
Don't feel like that! What makes reddit so awesome is the community that these
guys have built. It's not like they're going to suddenly stop being funny
because the founders left!

I'm sure they'll both keep posting and using the site...keep in mind that it's
been their baby for like, 4 years. I'll bet they use it everyday; it would be
like me trying to give up reddit, pretty much impossible since I've used it
every day for the last couple of years.

I say get a narwahl shirt, it makes other redditors easier to spot!

------
catch23
I bet they're applying for the YC W09 round!

~~~
kn0thing
If you get a chance, do ask Steve what Twitter-app he's working on for the new
YC round :)

------
gaborcselle
Congrats Alexis & Steve!

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ALee
On to Breadpig! We all know that will be worth a lot more than Reddit.

~~~
kn0thing
Somehow I think there won't be a liquidity event with breadpig...

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rms
Congrats guys!

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staunch
Thank you. Good job. Good luck.

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clistctrl
At the Startup Bootcamp, I thought he was alluding to this.

~~~
kn0thing
Curses! What tipped you off?

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bdfh42
Leaving long after any of their user base over the age of sizteen I would have
thought.

~~~
kn0thing
Ahh, sweet sizteen, to have that year all over again...

~~~
nir
Kind of ironic for someone from Reddit to nitpick over a typo...

~~~
aquateen
Actually, when Reddit first added comments, I read many meta-comments about
grammar/punctuation/spelling. I remember being surprised by how much people
cared considering they were comments on a website.

