Looks like they just came on board as Reddit debuted the new user profile format [0]. I just got a message to turn it on as a user this past week. It seems like it'll be a nice feature for not just users, but brands/organizations as well. I hope it sticks to user engagement/meta-type posts (IAMAs) rather than being an account that acts as an auto-submitter of WaPo headlines to r/news/politics/worldnews.<p>That said, one of the challenges of having an official Reddit account that constantly engages with users (it's been actively commenting and replying to users), I would imagine, would be having to be in IAMA mode 24/7. That's fun until something a controversial question/challenge comes up, in which case hours/days of silence will be seen as an admission of guilt/coverup (see r/AMADisasters).<p>[0] <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/6bu4vg/what_are_reddit_profiles/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/6bu4vg/what_a...</a>
Hmm, seems like they don't quite understand how Reddit is supposed to work. I mean yeah, they're not breaking the rules yet. Their articles are mostly being posted to their own profile rather than subreddits (though the way it's going now, the 10% rule will be shattered sooner rather than later).<p>But they're making the usual company mistake on the site. Treating communities as a pure advertising platform rather than a place to engage with the members on their own merits.<p>They could be commenting on threads that relate to their industry or topics they've wrote about with interesting answers or sharing things that help make them appear as more 'in touch' with the public (like say, Sonic the Hedgehog and Wendy's do on Twitter). Or moderating a Washington Post subreddit where they feature submissions they think help out their publication.<p>But they're not. They're just advertising the site endlessly on their user page, and making sure every post they make outside said page is an ad for their publication.<p>Honestly, they're lucky Reddit is going down Facebook/Twitter/whoever's route and trying to be a company friendly advertising platform at the expense of a community or community platform. Otherwise this kind of behaviour would have got them kicked out near immediately, especially on an old school forum or mailing list.
I'd prefer reddit die and something replace it. I go to the website every day, mostly for sports and gaming subreddits, but as a platform, it's hopelessly mismanaged.<p>They're technically lost. Look at the trouble they've had making a proper phone app (they still don't have a good one). The user interface is lacking at best (as evidenced by RES being needed to use the site for a long time now). People have been asking for better moderation tools for nearly a decade. The recent CSS dustup shows they don't even understand how people use their site. Then there's the lack what would be super helpful features (the ability to do a subreddit poll, vote for moderators, and access more than your last 100 posts easily).<p>The leadership is completely tone-deaf to the userbase. Just look at the drama when they fired that AMA mod. Many times various CEOs from Ellen Pao to Steve Huffman have acted more like spoiled 6-year-olds than chief executives. That's before you start talking about them pushing their politics on the site.<p>And spoiled 6-year-old isn't too far off from the truth. Keep in mind Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian were essentially gifted their success. They applied to y-combinator with no idea of what to make. They were given the idea for reddit. They couldn't make it work so they had Aaron Swartz forced on them (in what was by all accounts a strained relationship). Aaron fixed the site and made it what it is today then they all got paid. And those two have just been coasting on that ever since. It's nearly a "born on third and thought they hit a triple" situation.<p>If I were a VC I'd be throwing money at a reddit replacement. It's not hard to envision a better platform, it just has a high barrier to entry because you're likely not going to be profitable for years while you grow your userbase. The payoff is huge though. Reddit is one of the largest websites in the world and makes next to no profit because of its management.
I had an 8 yr old Reddit account and was recently shadow-banned site-wide for criticizing AMC's video player on an AMC 'sponsored content' post.<p>The Washington Post is sadly just another corporate nail in Reddit's free speech coffin.
I'm surprised no one has commented on this. Reddit has 270m monthly actives? Doesn't that make it as large as twitter/instagram/Snapchat?
Interesting, imho this clearly goes into the Twitter direction of following certain accounts, not "thematic subgroups".<p>Not sure if a widespread use of this would encourage my reddit usage, I usually visit certain subreddits for certain topic - and that not very often. But then again following tweetstorms and hashtags on Twitter is pretty much useless to me, that's why I follow certain people.
Looking at the comments on some on those stories, it feels like they are being swarmed by the pro-Trump accounts that permeates through a lot of reddit in an organized manner. I wonder what step online communities can do to protect against such brigading meant to alter and direct opinions, without sacrificing the freedom they offer their user to have an opinion and discuss it.<p>Machine learning for automatic fact correction seems like a nice answer, until you realize it would definitely go wrong, or be used to control opinion in an even stronger way.
Is this just another way to link to articles?<p>I do like the fact that a newspaper equates itself with any Joe with a resdit signon. How many steps in between wapo and "Average Joe and his facts and opinion?" maybe 3??
pretty interesting, seems like one of the first examples of news organizations "advertising" on reddit. I wonder how it will go down and if any others will follow.
Any current/future investors might be interested in the fact that a Reddit admin has been caught today testing a vote bot: <a href="http://archive.is/odx8z" rel="nofollow">http://archive.is/odx8z</a>
Washington Post and Reddit.<p>Now that's a match made in heaven. Or Hell. Or whatever.
Now Washington Post will have another outlet to tell Millennials why we need to invade Iraq again. Or Syria. Or Ukraine. Or wherever they are stirring up the pot for.