
Reddit’s Plan to Recover from Its Meltdown - sbuccini
http://www.wired.com/2015/10/reddit-survived-meltdown-can-fix/
======
Karunamon
_But a decade after Reddit launched, it has blossomed into a platform for
racist, anti-Semitic, misogynistic and other hateful conversations._

My eyes just about rolled out of my head. "Blossomed?" By volume, those
"conversations" make up a minority of a minority of a minority of what happens
on Reddit.

~~~
oldmanjay
One current dominant media narrative is that any sort of intolerant thought is
intolerable, and that the emotional state of a listener is the responsibility
of the speaker. There are clear problems with this point of view vis a vi
reality, which is why it is a narrative, not actual reporting. This divorcing
from reality allows journalists to comfortably include the narrative
everywhere that it can possibly fit with no regard for the actual
applicability to anything.

I suspect that overall it's about as likely to be successful as religious
attempts to sell the narrative that teen sex is wrong. Shame and guilt don't
really ever teach the lesson that is intended, but those are the only tools
the media truly has.

~~~
eli
I don't buy the "Media vs Reddit" narrative. I don't think this has anything
to do with journalism or even intolerance.

I just don't like hanging out with racists and sexists (in real life or
online). If Reddit wants to keep me as a contributor to their site, they need
to do something about that or I will not return. I doubt I'm alone in feeling
that way.

~~~
mc32
If we live in a world, this real world, we necessarily live with people we
find tasteless and disgusting. If reddit is a world onto itself or if it's a
reflection of the real world, then there will be unsavory characters of all
types, sexually, philosophically, politically, etc.

I really don't believe in sanitizing reality. I don't believe in intolerance
for the intolerant. It's a nice, easy, euthanistic way to make our own little
pure vision of the world.

It'd be like the regular news saying, you know what, crime is disgusting, it's
repugnant, we're not going to tolerate it on the news. No more violence
reporting.

Showing news of violence is not "giving a voice to violence", or terrorists.
What would be the next step, stop misogynist musicians or filmmakers depicting
violence, etc., other than in documentaries?

Don't get me wrong, I'd prefer a world where people self moderated and would
act decently, but I also fear a world which proscribes received behavior.

~~~
dasil003
> _I really don 't believe in sanitizing reality. I don't believe in
> intolerance for the intolerant. It's a nice, easy, euthanistic way to make
> our own little pure vision of the world._

Are you comparing the internet to reality? Because the internet is not
reality, the type of behavior you see on reddit and 4chan may reflect our
nature, but it is enabled by anonymity and the complete lack of repercussions.
If people behaved the way they do on these boards they would quickly be
ostracized by society if not having the shit beaten out of them on a regular
basis.

Applying some sort of freedom ideology to internet communities like reddit is
not very useful in practice. We have to look at the shape of the internet and
recognize that freedom on the internet is not the problem—after all cyberspace
is unlimited, you can have infinite communities, and geography is irrelevant.
All groups can find a place on the internet, and they will always be able to.
We simply don't need to worry about that, and it's silly to wring our hands
over the decision to moderate this or that community.

What we do need to worry about is the ability for formerly marginalized
sociopaths to hurt other people from the safety of their basement dwelling.
Whether it's unending bombardment of harassment or actual physical harm like
swatting, we need to get a handle on this. Arguing that hate speech should not
be moderated or restricted in any way is sort of like giving equal coverage to
crackpot climate change deniers on basis of "fairness".

~~~
Karunamon
I'm not so sure that is a thing that happens with any great regularity - and I
say that because the previously bright line between "this person offended me"
and "this person is harassing me" has become a lot more blurry.

Sure, any of us can point at high profile cases, but there's that old saying
about anecdotes and data.

The problem with your entire last sentence is that it's full of value
judgements, value judgements shaped by your experience as a human and your own
knowledge and biases. One person's "hate speech" is another person's "spirited
argument", one person's "disagreement" is another person's "harassment".

You might have a very clear definition of "hate speech" in your mind as you
write those words, but I'd be willing to bet if you defined it here in the
most clear and unambiguous language you possibly could, you'd find perfectly
reasonable people disagreeing with it.

And therein is the problem - I'm on the side of that line that leaves people
the hell alone in all but the most egregious of cases, because at the end of
the day, _it 's all words on a screen_.

~~~
mc32
Perhaps the rise of microaggression complaints is exaggerated, but one has to
wonder where we're headed as a society when the smallest insignificant things
are labeled as (micro)-aggressive[1].

I'm loath to live in a culture where people have to walk on eggshells so as to
not offer the semblance of offense. I think it's childish and also
hypocritical --as if we can expect no one to think or say anything that would
ever offend anyone. They never try to be mean to an ex-lover, they would never
think bad of someone who ignored them unwittingly, etc.

[1][http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/09/the-
rise...](http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/09/the-rise-of-
victimhood-culture/404794/)

~~~
learning_still
This is a huge problem and has actually destroyed something very near to me,
video games. The oversensitive attitude you mentioned has poisoned online
gaming. Personally, I love to talk shit. A well spoken insult is a thing of
beauty to me. It is an art, a craft, a science. Talking shit in video games
used to be half the fun of playing, now it's unacceptable. What was once a
staple of the culture is now it's greatest crime. Gamers today have this word
"toxic". We used to have an antonym for that word, it was called "being a
pussy". It's like one day everyone just decided to start taking the internet
way too seriously. I can't talk shit in my favorite video game, some college
student is facing charges because of a joke he made on twitter, and the
presidential candidates are getting asked questions from facebook. What the
fuck is going on.

~~~
tomlock
The internet is growing up.

~~~
mc32
The question is, is the locker room, the powder room, the boardroom, etc.
growing up?

There is a place for civil discourse and there is a place for people to be as
ugly as they want to be or are. Else you're just pretending it does not exist
or that you can wish it away.

This is like religious people thinking that if you only think pure thoughts
all will be well in the world.

The same people who want to see crime-ridden neighborhoods bulldozed over to
bring about the new society where everything is resplendescent, bright and
tame and only the good people live and there is no Other. There are no drug
abusers, misogynistic men, cruel women, or human traffickers.

~~~
tomlock
I don't really think that the action of sanitizing reddit could be
characterized as "pretending it does not exist or that you can wish it away".
Its pretty likely that the people that are trying to do that are acutely aware
of the presence of the Other.

I also find it curious that you're using the capital o Other. Is that a
deliberately existentialist term?

~~~
zyx321
The capital-O Other is our capital-E Enemy. They stand for everything we don't
stand for.

Jokes aside, it seems that has been a growing awareness for the concept of
"othering," as in emphasizing the difference between your ingroup (AKA Us, AKA
people like you) and an outgroup (AKA Them). Unfortunately it has little to do
with the relatively benign idea you might be thinking about.

------
NovaS1X
>“ When we see harassing behavior, we can speak up to challenge it,” the
authors wrote. And that’s true. We can. But if we aren’t white men, it’s
likely we won’t be heard.

Here. This doesn't make sense. Why are people, or do people feel the need to
link their identity to their thoughts online. If you're pushing for equality
then why are you assigning a gender, race, or political affiliation to your
comments? If we are all equal then why separate yourself with labels?

This is why having your online identity linked with your real identity is a
bad thing in lots of cases. This is why anonymity is important.

Every conversation I've had on 4chan I have no clue what gender the other
person is, what race they are, where they live, how much money they make, what
organizations they support, or what their name is real or not. The only thing
that matters is what they're saying or what pictures they're posting. Even
identifying yourself as a female results in "tits or GTFO" responses. You can
see this as hate speech against women or the community saying in it's own
fucked up way "we don't care and you shouldn't announce these labels to us".
But in the end it pushes away the labels that people have such a problem with.
And nobody's comments are getting downvoted so there goes the echo chamber
mechanic built into Reddit.

In an ironic twist the "internet hate machine" can be far more inclusive than
Reddit.

~~~
return0
People keep focusing on Pao's gender, but IMHO the main reason Pao was not
liked in reddit is not her gender or race, but rather that she was _too old_
for the role. Plus her business background was not really exciting. She could
barely inspire the rebelious youngsters that frequent reddit. I believe a
younger asian hipster girl would be a much easier sell for the changes she
wanted to bring about.

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
> People keep focusing on Pao's gender, but IMHO the main reason Pao was not
> liked in reddit is not her gender or race, but rather that she was too old
> for the role. Plus her business background was not really exciting.

Grasping at straws. She was met with a massive, organised campaign of hatred.
This isn't explained by being "old" or having a "poor business background".

But being a 1) female, 2) asian person who had 3) recently lost a highly-
publicised gender discrimination lawsuit and 4) enacted an anti-harassment
policy _would_ explain the hatred. There is a large number of people who are
misogynist, racist and/or openly hostile to what they view as "political
correctness". And a much larger number of people who will listen to and
possibly be pursuaded their lies.

~~~
return0
That's one way to see it , but one's truth is somebody else's lie. Pao was
particularly bad at communicating her intentions - even a white male would be
met with rage in this case. She made her position worse by bringing identity
politics into it and playing the victim card. I think if she had used a better
style of communication she could have stayed. Also, i m not convinced from
what i read that there was some global conspiracy against her. Herd mentality
is not organized.

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
> Also, i m not convinced from what i read that there was some global
> conspiracy against her.

The word "organised" was a poor choice on my part. "Mass" might be more
accurate.

Though I know it wasn't an entirely disorganised thing.

------
rustynails
This is quite a poor article. I'm surprised it made it here. "Just like that,
most of Reddit went quiet." I'm not a big reddit user, but I never noticed
that. Most discussions I am interested in are still going.

Also, the word "misogynist" is one of my litmus tests - it usually indicates
prejudice by the author. Most people here have translated that term to sexist
but it is usually used to imply "the comments are negative and directed at
women". I usually find such articles stereotype men in a negative way (ie. The
people who use this term are often hypocritical).

~~~
redwards510
Agreed. It reads like a loving puff piece designed to make investors happy. I
don't understand the claim that reddit is a "bastion of free speech" while
saying misogynists and racists are nothing but violent, vile trolls. What
exactly do they think free speech IS? It means supporting speech you don't
agree with!

~~~
thescribe
To quote SlateStarCodex "I can tolerate anything except the outgroup"

------
twblalock
I think reddit's issues stem from a simple case of failing to manage
expectations -- the users got the idea that Reddit was a bastion of free
speech where they could post anything, no matter how offensive. Apparently the
corporation never really believed that, despite some of its representatives
making statements that seemed to confirm it.

Reddit ought to have been more straightforward with its content policy from
the beginning. Some would argue that such a policy would have restricted the
growth of reddit, but I think that as long as the content policy was not
enforced in a heavy-handed manner, it would not have caused issues.

~~~
TarpitCarnivore
One thing I've always found interesting with Reddit related news is users will
say things like "You (Reddit) never told us..." or other similar statement. It
just always came across as an odd sense of entitlement as if Reddit should run
every idea, change or whatever by their users for approval.

~~~
twblalock
Some users seem to feel like they are the true owners of the site, and that
the corporation exists to serve them and fulfill their needs. This is another
example of the corporation's failure to manage expectations. They seem to have
lost control over the site they created.

~~~
dgritsko
Isn't there an element of truth to that sentiment though? The situation with
Reddit is reminiscent in some ways to Digg's downfall with the release of v4
(which ironically contributed significantly to Reddit's growth). What is
Reddit without its users?

~~~
TarpitCarnivore
Is Reddit now directly comparable to Digg v3 -> v4? I feel like because Reddit
has so many subs it can easily survive without people in some of the larger
subs. When all the drama was happening a few months some sub reddits I read
had a fair amount of members who had no clue anything was going on.

I guess the way I'm thinking of it as is the vocal majority the right
representation and worry for reddit? Think about the petition they tried to
get going. The number of signatures was minuscule comparative to the total
number of users.

~~~
jtuente
I think that just exacerbates the problem though as the "power users" of
reddit move away from the vitriol of the default subreddits, the vitriol
becomes more visible on the surface. So the larger subs end up less and less
attractive to users new and old.

------
yk
As a avid reddit user, these two sentences scare me more than any of the stuff
that happened this year:

> Huffman believes Reddit can be mainstream, embraced by the larger world. But
> for that to happen, he’ll need to clean up the product so that it is more
> straightforward for new users to try it out—without alienating the existing
> community members.

Thing is, reddit is incredible fractured and all of the value I get from the
site is because it is incredible fractured. I am not subscribed to any of the
default subs (sub forums new users get subscribed to automatically) and in
general I avoid /r/all which is just a cesspool of shallow memes. However
behind this a some fantastic niche communities like r/worldbuilding and the
history community (I avoid r/history though). And I believe, these communities
thrive to a large part because reddit is fractured and I fear that a more
mainstream reddit would look a lot more like a boring version of the current
/r/all.

~~~
Domenic_S
> _I am not subscribed to any of the default subs (sub forums new users get
> subscribed to automatically) and in general I avoid /r/all_

Say that to any non-techie (say, to the average Facebook user) and I'd bet
real money their eyes glaze over and they make it a point to forget Reddit
even exists. _That_ is Reddit's problem.

------
dpc_pw
"Huffman believes Reddit can be mainstream, embraced by the larger world."

It might sound hipster-like, but whatever: mainstream is boring, stupid and
brings all the worst type of people. Best online communities are niche, small
and focused. Reddit for a long while was just a big pool of niche communities.
They were good subreddits, there were ugly subreddits, and things were OK.

But with time it grew popular and now it needs to "take a stance on political
correctness, social justice etc", "people get offended", it's bad for
business, while the company needs to monetize after so many years ... so rules
needs to be imposed, etc. etc.

Racist people will move elsewhere, hate will move elsewhere, they won't
disappear - that's for sure. But most creative people will also move as they
were on reddit for what it used to be. There's a reason why these "awful"
places like 4Chan and Reddit were the source of most of online trends and
interesting action: "Pretty Flowers Grow In Shit".

Reddit is doomed, just like digg was. It won't happen over night (digg.com is
still around), no, but it will.

Hopefully something p2p and decentralized (zeronet maybe?) will replace it
this time, so it won't be owned by any entity to impose some stupid rules.

------
hint-water
I started a subreddit called Life Pro Tips. Initially I seeded it with some of
the best content I found through browsing reddit and kind of forgot about it.
I submitted it to their self-serve advert program and it just kind of
developed into what became a default subreddit.

At the same time I started it, I registered the domain with the intent to some
day build a standalone site out of it.

That day finally came and I finished the site (I work on side projects like
this in my spare time outside of work and always have).

Since it was a subreddit that I created, I thought I could write my own rules
for it. We ended up having a community discussion and only allowing self links
due to people spamming unworthy "TOP ___ life hack" lists.

When I launched the site, I had an Automoderator rule approve anything that
was submitted from the site I built. One member discovered this, reported it,
and before I knew it, I was shadowbanned and told to remove everything. Reddit
didn't even tell me about the shadowbanning (I found out due to another mod
making the discovery of it). They claimed that it was violating their TOS
because the site had ads on it (I have lots of reasons why I disagree with
this, and how they treat certain sites preferentially, but I'm not interested
in explaining it, honestly).

Considering I have a career and this was a side project, I gave up on reddit
and it was the best thing for me. I've spent countless hours of my life
moderating and contributing to making that subreddit a nice part of reddit
(ultimately helping them create content, for free), and there was never any
kind of gratitude (aside from a reddit gold I randomly received, which is
worthless to me) expressed to me.

At this time there is nothing compelling enough on reddit for me to return,
and I have a feeling the company and its employees know they are in trouble.

~~~
tinalumfoil
> I had an Automoderator rule approve anything that was submitted from the
> site I built. One member discovered this, reported it, and before I knew it,
> I was shadowbanned and told to remove everything.

I don't know why this came as a huge surprise to you. Reddit has always been
strict about posting stuff from your own site. The following statement has
been on the FAQ page since 2010.

> It's not strictly forbidden to submit a link to a site that you own or
> otherwise benefit from in some way, but you should sort of consider yourself
> on thin ice.

------
Animats
"Tired" starts out by telling us there was a day when "Reddit wasn't there",
as if they had a major outage. That's never mentioned again. The article is
mostly about their struggle to be more politically correct to satisfy
advertisers.

------
pc2g4d
Whatever happened to the idea that the best way to combat speech is with
speech? Yet the "bastion of free speech" Reddit feels it must shut down
various communities, probably just sending them elsewhere. Society could
benefit from the conversation between those who say unapproved things and
those who disapprove of them.

------
thieving_magpie
I can't really fault Reddit for trying to figure out how to monetize the site
and I'm certainly not in favor of pervasive hate speech, but I can't help but
feel annoyed at all the gimmicks they're introducing like upvoted.com or the
not-so-subtly promoted casual celebrity drop-ins to askreddit threads.

I haven't visited in a few days and that trend is likely to continue. And
honestly, there's no tangible reason for my loss of interest. I certainly
don't have any better ideas as to how to solve these very real problems. All I
know is I just want to forget about it.

~~~
6stringmerc
When I realized I was spending more time reading r/guitar and
r/wearethemusicmakers than playing guitar or making music, I deleted my
account and only drop in about once a month to see if I've missed much of
anything. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Just my take on it.

~~~
sotojuan
Same with me and programming. I'm fine just browsing HN every other day and
checking out slow small community boards like Lainchan.

------
daveloyall
I'm not really part of this conversation, but my GF has previously complained
that Reddit isn't worth using because "you're just scrolling down looking at
cool shit, and then BAM, you get murder-rolled. [What?] It's like rickrolling,
but it's a picture or video of somebody getting murdered."

Various client-side solutions to this occurred to me, like identifying domains
that will host such media (gotta be just a few, right?) and null routing them
on her computer, but then it turned out that she doesn't have root on her
"computer", so she just quit using reddit.

~~~
marssaxman
What on earth subreddits is she subscribed to that this is a thing that
happens _at all_? I think I have seen such a post roughly zero times in the
last five years.

~~~
drzaiusapelord
When you make an account, you auto-subscribe to the current defaults. For a
long time /r/wtf was a default sub. Its pretty much murder and disfigurement
porn. She's probably still seeing that. I believe /r/wtf's tenure as a default
tied it with a period of a lot of new traffic, so lots of people still see
/r/wtf in their feed.

Whoever decided to move /r/wtf into the defaults back then was crazy. I have a
thick skin and have seen more than my share of awful things on the internet,
but a lot of that content is challenging even for me, especially anything
involving injured, abused, or even dead children. I can't imagine what its
like for someone not already exposed to that.

~~~
marssaxman
Oh, wow. Yeah, I can understand how that would create a lot of negative Reddit
experiences.

------
VLM
How do we police everyone's thoughts, without offending anyone?

Whaddya mean there's more than one cultural definition of correct thought, and
sometimes the definitions disagree?

~~~
lghh
> How do we police everyone's thoughts, without offending anyone?

No one is trying to police thoughts.

> Whaddya mean there's more than one cultural definition of correct thought,
> and sometimes the definitions disagree?

Just because there is more than one cultural definition of correct thought
does mean there is more than one _actual_ definition.

~~~
copsarebastards
> No one is trying to police thoughts.

Except all the people on Reddit who don't want people to use the word "rape"
because it's "triggering".

> Just because there is more than one cultural definition of correct thought
> does mean there is more than one actual definition.

Yeah, but there's nothing that proves that there is only one actual
definition, either. You've literally said nothing here.

~~~
lghh
People don't argue about using the word rape on reddit, that place is a
bastion for anti-trigger warning rhetoric much like tumblr is a haven for pro-
trigger warning rhetoric.

Also you are severely misunderstanding what 'trigger warnings' are. Nobody
says you can't talk about rape, just give people a heads up before you do. If
you live next door to a veteran that you know suffers from PTSD, you ask
him/her about using fireworks before you do it, right? Trigger warnings are
the same thing except on the internet and instead of not talking about it the
person just knows to stop reading.

Also, this isn't policing thoughts. Think whatever you want. Say what you
want. Understand the consequences. I will think what I want and respond how I
want and understand the consequences.

~~~
copsarebastards
> People don't argue about using the word rape on reddit, that place is a
> bastion for anti-trigger warning rhetoric much like tumblr is a haven for
> pro-trigger warning rhetoric.

Sure, if you ignore TwoXChromosomes, Shit___Says, etc.

Reddit is not one community, and talking about Reddit as if it is a bastion of
anything only shows your ignorance on this topic. Certain subreddits certainly
are bastions of full-on sexism and racism, but others are the diametric
opposite.

> Nobody says you can't talk about rape, just give people a heads up before
> you do.

This is simply incorrect. _Most_ people don't say you can't talk about rape,
but there are definitely people on Reddit who say you can't talk about rape.

> If you live next door to a veteran that you know suffers from PTSD, you ask
> him/her about using fireworks before you do it, right? Trigger warnings are
> the same thing except on the internet and instead of not talking about it
> the person just knows to stop reading.

 _If_ I know my neighbor is a veteran with PTSD, I probably just wouldn't
shoot off fireworks. I'm not an asshole.

But Reddit isn't my neighbor, it's a cross-section of the entire internet, and
there's no way I can possibly avoid triggering all of the myriad of possible
mental illnesses people could be experiencing on the internet. Completely
sanitized content is not something you can reasonably expect in a diverse
community.

People who don't want to see content about rape can definitely go to
Subreddits that enforce these kinds of rules. None of the subreddits I
subscribe to allow hate speech, and talk about rape would be deleted because
it's off topic. I've managed to avoid "triggering" content completely
unintentionally, just by subscribing to subreddits that are on topics that
interest me. People who are at risk for being triggered by talk about rape are
just as capable of that as I am. It's much more reasonable to simply subscribe
to reddits with content you care about than to try to force every community on
Reddit to participate in the treatment of your mental illness.

> Also, this isn't policing thoughts. Think whatever you want. Say what you
> want. Understand the consequences. I will think what I want and respond how
> I want and understand the consequences.

It isn't about policing thought _for you_. You sound like a reasonable person.
Unfortunately not everyone involved in this discussion is so reasonable.

------
unethical_ban
>Reddit has a bad reputation for being a repository for hate speech. Because
for all of the world’s-largest-secret-Santa programs and for every lonely teen
able to find friends on Reddit, there is a small and vocal minority of bad
actors trying to ruin it for everyone. And let’s face it, you’re much more
likely to come into conflict with them if you are not a wealthy white man.

What a garbage article. Reddit's full of horrible content, but it's mostly on
/r/atheism and /r/politics. the hate speech is there, but it's more hidden
than it's ever been. And wow, it's the internet, where people can say anything
they want. Where's the hitpiece on Berners-Lee?

~~~
ambler0
Last I checked, Reddit was hosted on private servers. Hence, what you can say
on their site is dictated by their TOS. The Internet is not a place where you
can "say anything you want". It's a collection of servers. If you want the
ability to say anything you want, start your own server. Reddit is not the
government; it is not their obligation to protect free speech.

~~~
unethical_ban
I didn't claim it was my Constitutional right to say what I want on reddit. I
just find it abhorrent that free speech is being attacked on Wired, regardless
of host. And there are plenty of places on the Internet - large, small - where
there are very liberal speech policies. That they are making mountains of
molehills on reddit is frustrating.

~~~
vacri
The bigger an internet entity is, the harder it is for them to maintain free
speech purism. The places with very liberal speech policies are small, niche
places, sometimes mostly-abandoned places.

------
steven2012
Great article except for the whole "rich white men" part, which I found
asinine and distracting.

------
mundo
The most interesting thing in this article is that Reddit's CTO is the little
brother of SMBC creator Zach Weinberg(!)

~~~
JTon
I was curious about this, so I went to the SMBC site. It says by Zach
Weinersmith; not Weinberg. Also the CTO of Reddit is Marty Weiner. That's
three different last names. I think you're a little confused!

~~~
cambion
Zach Weiner changed his name to Weinersmith when he got married. I think the
parent was mistaken when he said Weinberg, but Marty Weiner being Zach
Weiner's brother does make logical sense (I don't know if it's true though).

~~~
stephaniepier
It is true!
[https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/3hs3v4/im_ma...](https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/3hs3v4/im_marty_weiner_the_new_reddit_cto/cua27tb)

------
trhway
>But a decade after Reddit launched, it has blossomed into a platform for
racist, anti-Semitic, misogynistic and other hateful conversations.

blaming the mirror ...

------
lackbeard
The Reddit PR blitz is on!

------
EGreg
Reddit is like Craigslist 2.0 -- stark, text based with arcane cultural
conventions, there is a lot of gold out there but also a lot of crap. Whereas
craigslist is for locals to meet up, this is for online denizens to comment.

~~~
bendev_test
Sturgeon's law applies.

------
sirtastic
I've seen worse hyperbole.

------
chejazi
I wonder how often fallen-out relationships between cofounders get reconciled.
It seems like the force driving change needs to be pretty compelling...
something much larger than the two individuals.

~~~
LesZedCB
I think they both love reddit. I know as a user I love reddit, and despite the
myriad problems with it, if I was in a position to give it some TLC and make
it a place I would want to be, I would put aside interpersonal differences to
make that happen.

------
SilasX
They still have tons of users and an extremely active community that doesn't
show signs of dying, with lots of untapped revenue opportunities.

If that's a meltdown, I don't want to be solid.

~~~
ProAm
But we can agree this is the beginning of the end? Reddit is to big for a
quick death, but it's peaked.

