I’m presuming when he says “we” he means the royal “we”, ie “I”. I’m not expecting him to negotiate on it. The next CEO will, though, in a couple of months.
this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2023
104 points (100.0% liked)
Technology
12 readers
1 users here now
This magazine is dedicated to discussions on the latest developments, trends, and innovations in the world of technology. Whether you are a tech enthusiast, a developer, or simply curious about the latest gadgets and software, this is the place for you. Here you can share your knowledge, ask questions, and engage in discussions on topics such as artificial intelligence, robotics, cloud computing, cybersecurity, and more. From the impact of technology on society to the ethical considerations of new technologies, this category covers a wide range of topics related to technology. Join the conversation and let's explore the ever-evolving world of technology together!
founded 2 years ago
"Only kings, presidents, editors, and people with tapeworms have the right to use the editorial 'we.'"
- Mark Twain
Yeah, so which is spez again?
While that quote has been attributed to Twain (and several others) over the years, there is nothing to suggest that Twain used this particular phrasing nor was he the originator of it. That credit goes to George H Derby, under the pseudonym John Phoenix, back in 1855.
The trifecta of “kings, editors and people with tapeworm” has been widely attributed to Mark Twain, but like so many witticisms credited to him, there’s no record he ever said it. It’s also unlikely that Henry David Thoreau ever made the remark once ascribed to him: “We is used by royalty, editors, pregnant women and people who eat worms.”
Worms, or more specifically tapeworms, figure prominently in we-related humor. The earliest known joke to combine parasites and pronouns comes from George Horatio Derby, a humorist from California who assumed the pen name John Phoenix. “I do not think I have a tapeworm,” he wrote in 1855, “therefore I have no claim whatever to call myself ‘we,’ and I shall by no means fall into that editorial absurdity.”
You're right. Another source is here: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/06/13/we/
Thanks for sharing that!
load more comments
(1 replies)
The tapeworm
load more comments
(1 replies)
"We" as in Reddit's VC backers.
load more comments
(3 replies)
The pigheaded doubling- and tripling-down on this is impressive in a way. Let's see in a couple of months how many actual content creators left reddit and came here or somewhere else. I do hope spez is left with an empty site full of lurkers and bots, after all people who actually provided content for free for years leave him in the dust...
Then again, I'm not going back there anyway, so to be completely honest I don't care that much - the fediverse is my new home (even though I'm repulsed by the name).
I can't go back; they banned my account, after 12 years, and a few hundred thousand karma. I like to think that, in some small way, I helped make reddit a better place than it had been. And now I couldn't contribute, even if I wanted to.
But really, why would I want to? The point of contributing to a community is to make it better for everyone. Huffman/spez has made it clear that these contributions are not valued, even though they're the currency that allows them to make money by selling advertisements.
load more comments
(1 replies)
the fediverse is my new home (even though I'm repulsed by the name).
The name doesn't bother me as much as not reeealy understanding how it all works together. Like, I know kbin and lemmy are different things, so I'm not sure why kbin is all full of Lemmy content.
I'll have to wait for it to solidify in my brain a little bit more.
load more comments
(2 replies)
As Louis Rossmann quite rightly points out, nobody has ever gone to war with the internet and won.
This guy is a founder of Reddit right? One seriously has to wonder what the hell happened. The damage control by Reddit so far has been nothing short of shambolic and in large part because of their treatment of its users.
I mean, it’s like he’s never browsed Reddit before.
Yeah he is one of the founders, but Huffman was always in it more for the profit. Aaron Swartz was the one with the vision, he was an activist and believed in free information. Sadly Swartz committed suicide after being arrested for sharing academic journals from a secured computer at MIT. Federal prosecution decided to make an example of him for multiple felonies.
and silo'd academia has only gotten 100x worse since then. i can't even imagine how much progress has been lost thanks to greedy academic "journals" keeping anyone from reading their papers, stopping widespread peer review, and destroying scientists' ability to assemble wide bodies of evidence
load more comments
(3 replies)
He's one of the founders but it seems not the smartest of them.
load more comments
(1 replies)
"Now if you'll excuse me, my ship and I have an appointment to keep at the bottom of the ocean."
load more comments
(1 replies)
This guy is a real piece of work. I don’t know why anyone would continue using Reddit at this point.
Yeah i left on the 12th and haven’t been back. I’ve only automatically opened Apollo two or three times lol
What is wrong with this guy? He has cause irreparable damage to the brand and the platform.
For someone who said it’s the app developers who aren’t willing to work with reddit to reach an agreement, it sure sounds like he was (surprise surprise) lying.
I mean, we knew he was lying before the Blackout ever happened. The Apollo dev made it pretty clear in their thread.
Truth be told, he doesn't give a shit about us, the money is in selling ads to show to people who want to go on an app to look at cats and memes.
Absolutely no judgment on those people, but the sort of people who get upset over APIs are not who spez wants to cultivate as a userbase, as a deliberate business move.
load more comments
(1 replies)
I wish people would cut down with this noise(see what I did there). F him and his platform, coming here and having to read about him everyday, it kinda annoys me.
It was like this for a few months on Mastodon when Twitter did the same. At least spez doesn't have any kind of celebrity status: I was able to go out with some friends last night and not a single person raised this topic. (A couple of them know what Reddit is, but none of them really use it much. And I'm sure no one in the group other than me knows who its CEO is.)
I just hope we have a good network of people here after this story fizzles out of the news. I'd be happy with kbin never becoming as popular as Reddit, so long as there's a healthy bunch of curious people sharing and discussing interesting links.
I think reddit is more replaceable than Twitter. It seems the stickiness of Twitter has to do with the specific individuals on there. People don't want to leave not because they get news about famous people, but because the actual famous people are on there. And the famous people don't get the same status recognition on other platforms, so they want to stay their too. I can get my news from anywhere, and reddit was just the best tool to facilitate that. Lots of communities used Reddit, but you can build that community other places too, reddit was just a really suitable place to do so.
I think you've hit the nail on the head a bit, Reddit users were for all intents and purposes anonymous - you'd find usernames you recognise but it's among a sea of thousands of others, and the posts would all blur themselves into one. By and large, you go into a thread on a topic, not because Person X posted it, but because it's a topic you want to read about, and you upvote a comment because you liked it rather than because Person Y posted it.
Twitter is all about who you follow and you curate a follow list that matches what you want to see, and by return you engage with the people who engage with you. If the people who you'd want to follow on a replacement for Twitter aren't there, or nobody can or will engage with you, it's a shitty replacement for Twitter for your purposes. This is especially true with Mastodon, whose model is that you only see posts from the follow lists of people already on your instances, so if it starts off sucky then absent some external force, it stays that way.
load more comments
(2 replies)
Did this guy wake up on the wrong foot some time ago?
Nah, I think he just wants to burn the bridge as he's crossing it.
load more comments
(2 replies)
I don't even give a shit about the future of reddit or going back anymore. reddit is dead to me. what I am wishing to see, though, is spez being ousted as ceo and looking even more like a dumb bitch. that will be hilarious news
load more comments
(3 replies)
“The problem with this one is it’s not going to change anything."
Translation: "I support people being able to voice their opinions, as long as it doesn't affect me being able to do whatever I want".
Yep. Because them forcing/strong-arming subs to reopen definitely speaks to the Reddit admins believing this is not changing anything.
Even if a vast majority of people don't protest because they're simply lurkers, the problem is it's the power users, the ones who generate quality content and moderate their subs for free who are protesting.
If I were Reddit, that's the bit I'd be worried about.
I actually think they're being realistic to say this will blow over, but from their perspective, not ours.
Power users are looking for alternatives, but inertia will keep a lot of users for them, and I'm sure many of the lazy "I have nothing to hide" people that think user tracking and targeted ads are just fine don't even care about this. And moderators are replaceable, even by dictatorial fiat. I expect there must be a lot of would-be "little kings" ready for the "prestige" of moderating subs they like.
I expect Reddit to lose a lot of their best users, but they don't need them. They just need eyeballs to serve ads to. As a business, it's not necessary for Reddit to have good content, just to serve a lot of content of any quality. A large shithole is still a profitable shithole, and I think they're fine with being a profitable, lobotomized shithole.
Honestly, that would be similar to the Twitter Migration. A lot of the good users left, and a ton of eyeballs remained at Twitter. Twitter became worse, Mastodon got better.
Reddit will lose a lot of the best users, keep a bunch of eyeballs. If the best users come to the fediverse, then it's still a win for the fediverse because they've made it better here.
Long term it will be harder to keep people around if the quality content is somewhere else. At this point, it's probably too early for most people to be interested in joining this space, but if over time this is where the content is, then more people will switch. Otoh, repost bots will keep things looking alive, so casual lurkers might not even notice. But if someone is just worried about quarterly bonuses, so what if they website dies a slow death over the next couple years?
It's not like reddit's main characteristic was quality if the first place, it was the massive size and momentum that made it the de facto place to go to if you need to find a community or any info. It is definitely not going to die, especially if it's just the users rioting and not the actual content creators that add OC to reddit. I'm just hoping this whole thing is enough of a kick to get alternatives like kbin and lemmy started, reddit doesn't have to be gone for us to have a nice community here alongside it, it's just a question of whether we have enough people to make it so.
Now its well established, like facebook, i think it'll just settle to a rump of users who want the convenience of downloading an app and just getting straight on.
I agree. I've left reddit and ended up here in the fediverse, i wouldn't use official app and hate adverts.
My wife, who's a regular lurker and occasional poster, uses official app and didn't even know any protest was happening as it didn't disturb her little corner. She and those groups will just carry on.
Plenty of us are done and out. But enough will stay for it to 'blow over' as well, as u say
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
It's not? Well, Paint Hufferman, I'm right here on Kbin along with thousands of others. Evidently, something has changed.
The Lord of Snoo is locked to the IPO, hopefully the IPO will fail and the board of the Snoo Platform, Inc. fired him.
This guy is setting himself up to fund the IPO from authoritarian state sponsored VCs. They're going to be most impressed by his hardline stance
load more comments
(1 replies)
view more: next ›