
Why I'm Deleting My Reddit Account If Huffman Stays - threepipeproblm
https://www.reddit.com/r/MetaHub/comments/5f769h/deleting_my_account_unless_huffman_resigns_or/
======
TheGrumpyBrit
While he shouldn't have done it, the fact that he did isn't really the issue
for me. The fact that he was able to is a much bigger deal.

How is it that he was able to do this? Is it a standard ability granted to all
admins? As a CEO, I wouldn't expect that editing user content is a part of his
job, or that he would have access to the database to edit it directly, so I
have to assume it is a standard permission.

The ability to delete posts I can understand - that's a normal administrative
activity, and it's pretty harmless. Editing posts to make it appear as if a
user said something they didn't is potentially incredibly harmful, especially
since we have no idea how such a change is audited.

We live in an age where governments can and do routinely monitor online
activity. Knowing that anything you post on Reddit could be edited without
your knowledge or consent, and that you would appear to be responsible for
that content, is an incredibly dangerous situation. Even if the change is
logged as having been made by an admin, that only helps you if the authorities
actually order Reddit to provide the logs. If they simply print out your post
history as evidence against you, good luck convincing them that you weren't
the author of that content.

Yes, it's a far fetched scenario, but we know now that it's possible. That
makes Reddit an unsafe community to participate in.

~~~
inimino
> How is it that he was able to do this?

I suspect some Reddit users take Reddit a lot more seriously than is
warranted, but I still find this sentiment more than a bit odd.

What kind of architecture did you think they had where the CEO wouldn't be
able to run some UPDATE statements against the live database? Were you
expecting a system of three administrators with interlocking physical keys who
all must be present in the flesh?

Did you think Reddit was put together by the people who write software for
banks?

Is the principle of least privilege, rigorously and scrupulously applied, all
the way up to and including the CEO, something that startup culture has
somehow led you to expect?

~~~
TheGrumpyBrit
I would certainly expect that any reasonably well managed company would have
appropriate access controls in place, and yes, that includes the CEO not
having direct access to a production database. You don't need to be a
financial institution to observe basic security practices.

------
nsebban
Do people really have to tell the whole world when they decide to stop using a
service ?

~~~
threepipeproblm
nsebban I think it's one thing to criticize a service for technical reasons,
it's another to do so for abuse of users (for example, as you did here --
[https://twitter.com/nsebban/status/614109289121226752](https://twitter.com/nsebban/status/614109289121226752))

Since both kinds of posts are commonly accepted at HN, I guess I'm curious if
your tacit acceptance of Huffman's actions here is because he targeted Trump
supporters? In other words, if he had targeted a different group would you be
okay with them? Or am I misreading this and you genuinely feel that criticism
of such services does not belong on HN?

------
threepipeproblm
TL;DR If Jeff Bezos (or any Amazon employee) edited Amazon reviews, I'd be
outta there too.

------
johncoltrane
Well goodbye.

~~~
threepipeproblm
Are you not concerned about a CEO's abuse of users? What would it take to
cross the line, in your mind, johncoltrane?

For example, suppose this happened on Hacker News. Would you leave if PG
edited your comments? Other user's comments if you were sympathetic to them?
Other user's comments that you disagreed with? Or do you lack any principle in
this area?

~~~
threepipeproblm
So you downvoted instead of answering the question? Shocker. I take it that
you do lack principled position, then.

~~~
dozzie
Hint: the person you're replying to cannot downvote your reply. This is a
mechanism that prevents retaliation in the heat of discussion.

~~~
threepipeproblm
There is a reason I phrased it as a question. Thanks for clarifying this;
comment redirected to the downvoters who haven't seen fit to articulate a
response.

Out of curiosity, what does one have achieve on HN in order to get downvoting
ability in the first place?

EDIT: No, I clearly screwed this up by presuming and I apologize to
johncoltrane for that.

It doesn't change that no downvoter, nor johncoltrane, has been able to
justify their position. Are they against criticism of this kind on HN? Because
I think that's a tenuous position. Do they believe it's not really a risk to
users when CEO's set a tone by editing for their personal agenda, or that such
isn't relevant to HN?

To me, those would be reasons not to upvote... but in this case, downvoting
without comment suggests that these are simply liberals who dislike Trump
supporters and cannot separate that from the involved principles.

~~~
grzm
Karma > 500

