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Former Reddit Executive Sees 'No Hope' For Reddit (nymag.com)

An anonymous reader quotes former Reddit product head Dan McComas: I think, ultimately, the problem that Reddit has is the same as Twitter and Discord. By focusing on growth and growth only and ignoring the problems, they amassed a large set of cultural norms on their platforms. Their cultural norms are different for every community, but they tend to stem from harassment or abuse or bad behavior, and they have worked themselves into a position where they're completely defensive... I really don't believe it's possible for either of them to catch up on the problem. I think the best that they can do is figure out how to hide this behavior from an average user.

I don't see any way that it's going to improve. I have no hope for either of those platforms. I just think that the problems are too ingrained, in not only the site and the site's communities and users but in the general understanding and expectations of the public... I don't think that they're going to be able to turn these things around...

I fundamentally believe that my time at Reddit made the world a worse place. And that sucks, and it sucks to have to say that about myself... I've got a lot of advice for start-ups, and it's not very fucking complicated. It's just: Think about the impact that you want to have on your users and on the people consuming your content and do the right thing... Don't be idiots about it. You're people, you see what's going on, you see trends that are forming, just fucking do something. It's not that hard.

2 of 177 comments (clear)

  1. I guess ... by PPH · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... if Reddit fails, this will leave only 4chan to carry on the high moral standards and intellectual discourse of the Internet.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  2. Re:I read the entire thing. . . . by Jarwulf · · Score: 3, Funny

    It was vague but essentially he doesn't like free speech or donald trump, like the rest of the reddit admin but the article is him pissing and moaning that even they didn't do enough to stop them.