
An open letter to Alexis Ohanian (Reddit co-founder) - marcamillion
http://marcgayle.com/2010/05/28/an-open-letter-to-alexis-ohanian-reddit-cofounder/
======
coryl
I thought his letter was really distasteful and out of touch. I mean, does he
know for sure that this was a VC motivated initiative?

Coincidentally enough, I'm working on a site (howl.com, check the ask HN
section) that pretty much exactly the same as what Digg decided to evolve
into: more personalized sharing. I don't know Alex, but maybe he just got a
bit big headed in assuming what Digg was doing was simply a hack of popular
features.

In my eyes, I already know the new features together make sense, its something
I wanted, thats why I'm building it. It may feel like a bunch of hot functions
thrown together, but that doesn't mean it wont be good or give value to users.

~~~
kn0thing
I don't know for sure - I said that in the very first sentence of my post. I'm
out of touch by my own admission.

To me, the simplest explanation is: a company that's already raised a SeriesC
with VCs impatient about getting that grand return they'd dreamed of. The CEO
left bc of it and the burden is now on Kevin. FWIW, I think he's absolutely
capable of filling the void between our 'real' facebook friend networks and
the vast twitter network for an optimal signal to noise ratio with
serendipity.

I just don't think VCs care about that so deep into their investment.

But I hope it does make digg even stronger - or that Howl crushes everyone
with a killer execution - bc we'd all benefit.

Also, my name is Alexis.

------
dmix
Bottom line is that evaluating a startups product based on it's similarities
to macro-level competitors is a bad idea. It's about what clicks with the
companies own customers.

Digg will launch the product and find out quite quickly whether or not these
social features works well with its users.

It's possible the development of these features was based off of significant
data drawn from testing existing social features with its userbase.

~~~
marcamillion
Not only that...but basing your opinion on the 'proper direction' of the
product on just a video shown of some of the features, will likely lead to a
misjudgment.

Then further insinuating about the motives of creator of the product is, quite
frankly, reckless.

If you have inside information, or have used it extensively, then feel
free...but not just based off of one video.

------
brianwillis
> RSS feed readers suck!

No. They dont. You'll pry Google Reader from my cold dead hands.

I would like to have seen Marc flesh out this argument.

~~~
marcamillion
I hear you....but I respectfully disagree.

I have not seen RSS feed readers gain momentum as the hype around them
suggested they might.

Some people like them, some don't.

I guess you can tell which camp I am in ;)

~~~
teaspoon
You're acknowledging that RSS performs the same general function as Digg v4,
that you can't identify any concrete differences between the two, and that RSS
readers ultimately didn't "gain momentum". How does that square with an
argument that Digg v4 is going to be "game-changing"?

~~~
marcamillion
Did you even READ the post, or are you just commenting on the comments?

I thought I laid out the argument pretty clearly.

Let me know if I am mistaken.

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bdevil1
Great post! Totally agree.

I dreamt up an idea for a site based on many of these concepts (with some
slight variations) only a week or two back. I've been so excited that I've
been furiously hacking together a prototype ever since. I think Kevin's really
on to something here. Of course, as you said, execution will be key -- I'm
confident that I can do it better...

~~~
marcamillion
bdevil1....well, given your enthusiasm, when you launch would you like to come
on my podcast and talk about it?

I am doing a podcast about various ideas/projects/stuff that HN members are
working on.

Or, you can even come on before and give a sneak peek too - if you would like.
I think the community would love to hear more about your story.

I put up the first episode and am pivoting based on the feedback I got from
the HN community: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1379942>

If you are interested, email me: marc {at} ideatin {dot} com

Thanks.

~~~
bdevil1
I'd be thrilled to. I'm not quite ready for show and tell yet, but I'll be in
touch...

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brianwillis
Alexis Ohanian's central complaint wasn't that Digg is copying features that
exist elsewhere. Instead, he feels the design of Digg V4 is motivated by VC
interests, rather than a desire to do what's right for Digg's users.

~~~
marcamillion
His complaint was that the direction of the product was not one of Kevin's,
but rather of the VC interests.

That is the central tenet I disagreed with, and I highlighted why.

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bobzimuta
> Imagine…now, as a publisher, I have 200 ‘followers’ whose sole interest is
> in seeing the links/stories that I publish. ...So far, there is no other
> tool that ‘aggregates’ all your content and pushes it directly to an
> audience like digg v4 is suggested to do

I think Tumblr already does this well.

------
pramit
I will not take the Michael Arrington route and attack Reddit's co-founder for
speaking what appears to be true. As it is, Techcrunch is never known for
insights.

During the past 4 years, I have followed Digg and critized its functioning
often on my Mediavidea blog.

In summary, two things that can make Digg good again:

1\. Bring back the Top 100 users, but with better controls, tracking,
something like Techmeme Leaderboard.

2\. Give some top users power and incentives to be proper Topic Editors.

------
willz
I don't use Digg. Do you guys use it, regularly? If you don't use it
regularly, how can you judge?

I think Alexis is probably right because it's part of his business he looks at
this everyday.

I like dmix's point. "It's about what clicks with the companies own
customers." VC will always meddle, but if their meddling doesn't click with
the customers, they just lose more money.

