

Are we still talking about this? - jaybol
http://alexisohanian.com/are-we-still-talking-about-this-response-to-m

======
SlyShy
This was my favorite part.

"Michael, just because you put a question mark after things, doesn't make them
evidence to support your headline of 'Guy Who Copied Digg Slams Digg For
Copying Twitter.'"

That might be because I find the rhetorical question incredibly annoying
outside of a Socratic setting.

On a different note, I'm disappointed that Arrington would fuel this little
drama production, but of course, that is his MO.

~~~
ohashi
Drama creates pageviews.

------
grandalf
They all copied slashdot and the idea of a purely voting/community driven site
was discussed frequently on slashdot for years before digg or reddit. So there
:)

~~~
jsz0
Does anyone else remember kuro5hin? If my memory is correct it pre-dated Digg
by several years but of course didn't have the same level of success. Digg
deserves a lot of credit for making the idea work on a big scale.

~~~
lftl
kuro5hin definitely shared the voting element, but other than that it was
pretty different than the reddit or digg. It was more like a social blog, you
didn't post links, you actually posted full essays and people voted and
commented on them.

~~~
jrockway
If by essays you mean right-wing conspiracy theories, then yes, that's what
Kuro5hin was.

~~~
lftl
I really didn't pay a ton of attention to kuro5hin... but what I did read
there wasn't what I would call right-wing. Essays like one that was abused to
create the recent Wikipedia pedophile scandal were much closer to what I
remember.

~~~
jrockway
Yeah, OK, that sounds about right.

------
theli0nheart
Alexis, you sound like an awesome guy. If this were someone else, this would
probably turn into a shouting match, but you were above that, and instead
offered him a t-shirt. That's just the right thing to do.

I respect that a ton.

~~~
kn0thing
Thanks! The way I see it, it's all sticks & stones. I got to learn that early
as an overweight kid with a girly name and fondness for videogames.

I just wish I could get the TC Comments to work for me (why aren't they using
disqus?) so I could chime in there...

~~~
jaybol
I will take you up on the Reddit t-shirt offer

------
ojbyrne
Well, since we're throwing mud, remember that Arrington is the one who just
held a startup contest that gave a $50k prize to a company with $8 million in
previous funding. Attacking the establishment is not something he's known for.

------
j_baker
Yes, yes you are still talking about this. I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm
just pointing out the irony that you're trying to put an end to the
conversation by continuing it. Michael does these kinds of things because they
get attention. Perhaps the best thing to do is just ignore him rather than
giving him more attention?

(For what it's worth, I agree with you and my blog post would have been a lot
meaner. :-) )

~~~
kn0thing
Oh, it's indeed ironic. If it weren't for the misrepresentation, I'd have
ignored it, but that kind of thing is particularly irksome - especially as I'm
looking at the evidence in my inbox. In that instance, it was worth it to get
the facts straight. Call me whatever you want, but don't make stuff up.

~~~
random42
Can you share the email with us? I know its private communication, but it
would be educational for many of us to know how was the thoughtprocess of 2
successful entreprenuers, in the early days.

------
staunch
The naming of Reddit: reDDit like diGG seemed the most obvious reason to
suspect it was inspired by Digg.

Since they say they didn't consciously copy Digg I take them at their word. I
doubt they'd lie about it. I wouldn't be surprised if they're misremembering
though. People are always teaching me things I taught them a week earlier.
Memory is faulty and that was probably an especially stressful time for them.

~~~
kn0thing
Fun fact: it was between "reddit" and "reditt" while I was a senior at UVA
sitting in Alderman library. I asked my friend (and library buddy) Melissa for
which one made more sense for the way "read it" oughta be misspelled. She
picked reddit.

We ended up considering a number of other names once we got to YC (PG wasn't a
fan of reddit) but I persisted and I think Steve just realized he had better
things to do.

I've got the email I sent to Steve about digg (subject line: READ THIS on
7/11/05 at 11:48pm (we launched reddit on 6/23/05).

I'm not lying or misremembering, which is what motivated me to respond.

[http://alexisohanian.com/are-we-still-talking-about-this-
res...](http://alexisohanian.com/are-we-still-talking-about-this-response-
to-m)

~~~
arn
fwiw, arrington first heard about digg only 5 days before reddit's launch.

<http://techcrunch.com/2005/06/18/profile-digg/>

------
binspace
Wow, who cares?!?

~~~
kn0thing
Dude, I couldn't agree more.

~~~
jrockway
I was going to respond with some remark like, "this thread has become very
reddit-like". Then I read the username :)

