Most active commenters

    ←back to thread

    Reddit CEO admits to altering user comments that were critical of him

    (www.reddit.com)
    668 points wildmusings | 13 comments | 24 Nov 16 00:50 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
    Show context
    JorgeGT ◴[24 Nov 16 01:04 UTC] No.13027099[source]▶
    And without an "edited" mark, which means that any comment of any user can be covertly modified by an admin. Very concerning since Reddit comments have provoked even Congress hearings: http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/296680-house-pan...
    replies(7): >>13027119 #>>13027125 #>>13027136 #>>13027240 #>>13027734 #>>13028391 #>>13033721 #
    dhruval ◴[24 Nov 16 01:29 UTC] No.13027240[source]▶
    He changed a 'F U CEO' (upvoted by 1.6k users) comment to 'F U unpaid reddit moderator', without any indication that the comment was edited.

    Very juvenile and unprofessional way of dealing with the situation, really erodes trust in the platform (simply deleting the comment would have been a better response).

    Would maybe expect this from the founder of a young fledgling startup, but the 33 year old CEO of a company like Reddit ought to know better.

    replies(7): >>13027341 #>>13027345 #>>13027894 #>>13028550 #>>13028557 #>>13031901 #>>13032509 #
    1. yuhong ◴[24 Nov 16 01:48 UTC] No.13027345[source]▶
    To he honest, he was one of the founders of Reddit.
    replies(1): >>13027499 #
    2. harryf ◴[24 Nov 16 02:19 UTC] No.13027499[source]▶
    And here he is boasting about knowing "all your dark secrets" at TNW - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lALKRayDLuk - meant in jest but shows incredibly poor judgement as a CEO
    replies(3): >>13027567 #>>13027742 #>>13027870 #
    3. alexc05 ◴[24 Nov 16 02:35 UTC] No.13027567[source]▶
    Mark Zuckerberg had a similar indiscretion as a young man.
    replies(1): >>13027600 #
    4. Domenic_S ◴[24 Nov 16 02:43 UTC] No.13027600{3}[source]▶
    Sure, but Zuck was what, 18? Spez could conceivably have a 18-year-old kid at his age.
    replies(1): >>13027964 #
    5. Fricken ◴[24 Nov 16 03:18 UTC] No.13027742[source]▶
    Anybody can go through the comment history of any redditor and know their dark secrets.

    I don't mind Reddit fucking up. If they were competent they would have monetized the users a long time ago and it would be an broken mess that feeds daily spam to my inbox like every other social media platform. Reddit is too valuable to take seriously.

    replies(3): >>13027904 #>>13027970 #>>13028738 #
    6. daodedickinson ◴[24 Nov 16 03:48 UTC] No.13027870[source]▶
    Well, Obama joked about weaponizing the IRS and he did it through Lois Lerner and then Podesta BFF Peter J. Kadzik at the DoJ was personally responsible for clearing her of any charges.

    I know someone in high school who joked about murdering someone and he's doing 25 to life for it now so I've learned to realize that someone joking about something is in no way proof that they wouldn't do it.

    Also, in what way would he NOT be looking at dark secrets of people? Reddit makes money on selling packages of personally-identifiable information / and IPs so that you can pay them and be able to link reddit accounts to facebook accounts and google accounts and so on. People think they have some sort of anonymity on Reddit but if you pony up cash Reddit will strip anyone's away for you. And I'm sure he's looking at what he's willing to sell to others. If anyone posts something juicy but anonymous on Reddit, he's looking at their real name attached to their facebook account.

    replies(1): >>13027953 #
    7. thekevan ◴[24 Nov 16 03:54 UTC] No.13027904{3}[source]▶
    Not if you always post with the realization that the one day you could be doxed, no matter how anonymous you think you are being. If I can dark secrets, I don't upvote, comment on them or include them in my comments on reddit.
    8. ◴[24 Nov 16 04:01 UTC] No.13027953{3}[source]▶
    9. Melk ◴[24 Nov 16 04:04 UTC] No.13027964{4}[source]▶
    Spez isn't emotionally adept to handle the abuse you get as a reddit CEO. Yishan wrote before that he was good at the technical side of the job but he's neither a strong businessman nor a community leader.
    10. flashman ◴[24 Nov 16 04:06 UTC] No.13027970{3}[source]▶
    But they have your upvotes, saved links, private messages, and at least some idea of which outbound links you've clicked (you can turn some of that off).

    It's like an ISP knowing a significant portion of your web browsing behaviour.

    replies(1): >>13030082 #
    11. caseysoftware ◴[24 Nov 16 07:03 UTC] No.13028738{3}[source]▶
    > Anybody can go through the comment history of any redditor and know their dark secrets.

    And since now we know that the CEO (at least?) has edited comments, users' comment history should be considered suspect..

    12. oneeyedpigeon ◴[24 Nov 16 13:02 UTC] No.13030082{4}[source]▶
    Of course they have that data - you have chosen to send it to their website. It would be physically impossible for that website to run if the data could not be read. Obviously, it's preferable if only 'the right people' can read it, but it's much safer to assume that isn't the case.

    If you're concerned about the outbound link issue, disable javascript. A cursory look at the page source should convince you that that's the only way they can track outbound clicks.

    replies(1): >>13033208 #
    13. flashman ◴[24 Nov 16 22:33 UTC] No.13033208{5}[source]▶
    The parent commenter was saying anybody can go through your comment history, and by extension admins have no special access to 'dark secrets'. I was pointing out that that's just not true.