Bozicus

joined 2 years ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Yeah, at first I was like, "well, they probably have a separate receiving email, which is not that weird..." but on a paper letter?! Send them back an ad for fire insurance or something. (Not shredded paper, that can damage post office sorting equipment).

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

That's possible, but I feel like if they did understand, they would use that understanding to suck a little less hard. It's not just the bad policies, or the bad implementation, or even the bad timing, it's that they're not even taking PR seriously as part of the process. It would not be difficult or even particularly expensive for them to hire one (1) person who is good at PR, and take their advice. They don't seem to have bothered, which really suggests they don't know it's important.

Yes, they might think investors won't understand why users are upset, and they might be right. But most people seriously considering putting money into a social media platform are at least vaguely aware of the fact that it's not going to make money if the users leave, and they will notice bad PR. The API protests have shown up repeatedly in at least three publications that serious investors follow. If anyone at Reddit was really paying attention to the interpersonal parts of the scenario, it would have occurred to them that some problems are easier to avoid than they are to hide to investors, and interpersonal conflict is one of them.

(Edited to add: "how and when to avoid pissing people off" is taught in business school, I think. Point being, it's possible Huffman thinks investors are too stupid to evaluate his decisions, but I think investors are, on average, likely to understand that Reddit needs some way to hold users other than just "we have lots of content," since people who have careers in business and finance deal with human factors a lot).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Tough crowd, I guess. :-(. But you did have a couple people join, which is a couple people more than would have joined before. That's not zero.

We're all used to these massive platforms with 9-digit numbers of users, but there's no need to be that big for everyone to have a good experience. I doubt anyone on Reddit regularly interacted with more than a tiny fraction of the total userbase, even if they hung out in the big subs.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

I'd say it's mostly formatting, and what brands have to do to get them. Sponsored posts are the ones disguised as regular posts, which is easier on some platforms than others.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

You mean if the stable state is to have a layer of management on top of daily operations, and the management never mixes with operations? Yeah, although to be strictly fair, someone has to do the annoying financials, and those people would not be helpful to people doing other kinds of work. I think that's just a way of restating the problem.

I think another part of the problem is that business don't want to have a stable state, they want to grow constantly, which becomes a problem for an increasing number of people no matter how a business is structured. It never really surprises me when ambition gets businesses in trouble, though sometimes I wonder how they manage to make the mistakes they do.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (4 children)

A company whose billionaire quits can usually get a millionaire replacement, without much loss of utility. CEOs get shuffled around all the time without any particular effect on the company they "run." I think they mostly run lower executives, who run managers, who run lower/middle managers, who run supervisors who know something about what the company actually does, and run the people who do tangible work. The CEOs who get into the news for doing something dramatic to a company are the exception.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

She's not just chilling, she made a press release saying Twitter just had its most successful day (I think by user engagement, I don't remember the metric she mentioned) right when Threads was blowing up. If she wasn't straight up lying, she was looking at some reeeeallly well-massaged data.

...of course, there's a market for CEOs who do that, too, but I admit, I was a little shocked. I thought she was supposed to be the Responsible Adult (TM) here.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago (4 children)

No, they're going to start with some kind of sponsored post arrangement similar to Instagram's, iirc, and put in ads when they get a bit bigger.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

To "hail a taxi" is to wave, shout, or otherwise catch the attention of a cab that is rolling down the street looking for customers. It's like requesting a Lyft/Uber, except that you don't need a smartphone, and you don't have to wait.

[/feeling very, very old, lol]

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

They certainly do if the tree is an Ent.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (5 children)

Oof, soon this is going to be a dad joke primarily because only dads are going to remember why it's a pun.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

"I was sure my new bustle would make my butt look bigger than Amelia's, but she showed up to the first ball this season with the biggest lobster tail I've ever seen! Her train was a solid three feet behind her, and all the men in the room were staring!

Probably they just wanted to see her bump into something (she hit a gentleman's knee once, but I think that was on purpose, may she rot in Hell), but still. I had to sit out half the dances, and it was the most humiliating experience of my life."

view more: ‹ prev next ›