SXSW — Featured Speaker: Alexis Ohanian. March 10, 2017 | 5:00PM — 6:00PM
http://schedule.sxsw.com/2017/events/PP96908
SXSW — Featured Speaker: Alexis Ohanian. March 10, 2017 | 5:00PM — 6:00PM
http://schedule.sxsw.com/2017/events/PP96908
Soundcloud Audio here: https://soundcloud.com/officialsxsw/featured-speaker-alexis-ohanian-sxsw-2017 (rough transcript)
What’s up Austin
hello — good day.
I am here I am the last speaker the day here thank you all for coming out.
Have you had a good SouthBy so far?
Okay — that’s inconclusive
Well how many of you are Redditors?
Yes thank you upload up vote, up vote, up vote, up vote, in the back thank you.
Thank you for using Reddit
Thank you also for letting everyone know you the least productive people in this room.
Very much appreciate that — it helps everything work
%HESITATION and it’s a mini miracle. it really is. I’m going talk about a bunch of things try to get through this — then we got some Q&A — it’s going to be powered by — i totally forgot the name of the web site, what’s the name of the website? what’s the website i’m plugging? Slideo — slido.dot com.
ask your questions upvote them them or like them %HESITATION and the best ones bubble up you how this goes — I’ll answer them at the end.
alright so today I wanted to talk about what the world needs now
-community
-conversation
-shitty watercolour
three pretty obvious straightforward things I will go into them.
You know we think a lot about Reddit and its responsibility and opportunity in the world %HESITATION but it’s still kind of feels like this project I was working on right out of college with my best friend. We all right now at this time are I think very much in need of perspective and of not just a bunch of megaphones but of real conversation. And I wanna try to illustrate this using something that a friend mentioned me last week. I don’t know how many of you saw some the protests that happened at airports across the country in response to president Trump’s immigration ban. Just by show of hands, how many of you saw the photos and videos and all that stuff — yes myself included yes it was personally really inspiring awesome to see %HESITATION Also how many of you saw this video of the fed ex man taking a flag that was being burned by protesters?
Just by quick show of hands…
okay
thank you for illustrating a really important point
%HESITATION this video was incredibly popular within the conservative parts of America within the the sort of Facebook echo chambers of people wanting to share videos of they’re really interested in
tens of millions of our fellow Americans saw these videos react to these videos these were the points of discussion for them and tens of millions of other Americans many of us here in this room here at South By %HESITATION saw that other video and that was our subject to discussion that was our point of reference for how our fellow Americans were feeling. And this illustrates how I think our greatest challenge and hopefully our greatest opportunity for technology which is that we’ve gotten really really good at helping people find communities in conversations that they’re interested in based on the social graphs that we have. And look as people it’s totally reasonable for us to seek out and want to connect with people who are like us maybe they went to the same college as us maybe working the same jobs may be we just randomly said okay final exit join Facebook um. but they’re all within these physical networks we run in %HESITATION but it also means that we miss out on other perspectives and I think regardless of which side and there are many it’s not just binary — um — it makes us worse off %HESITATION because it helps us get a little bit more reinforced with the views that we have had a little less in touch with the views that our fellow Americans have. So, I’m going to dig into this a little bit more first some background about Reddit, first some numbers we have two hundred eighty million monthly active users tons of screen views, very engaged. Twelve minutes per session lots of time spent on Reddit %HESITATION fifty three percent men forty seven percent women almost fifty fifty %HESITATION but overwhelmingly under thirty five lots of millennials not a lot of seniors on Reddit not yet.
Only a matter of time but a pretty a pretty broad sampling. I mean, roughly one out of three Americans will visit Reddit this month. now the seventh most traffic site in the United States according to Alexa I think number twenty in the world. And it still feels like this college project,, but we have a really great opportunity and and and I think a really great chance how to make something special. I want to start with her another sort of philosophical question which is what is in the name. What is identity. For me this was my identity and high school %HESITATION look before you judge me for the bowl cut there is some hipster in east Austin right now making this look cool alright just point a reference I was I had my time but for me I was this dorky kid I spent way too much time for the computer but yet as soon as I learned how to program since I learned how to build websites I felt like a super hero because I could go online essentially have adults who knew nothing about me other than the fact I had a skill they didn’t making websites like feeling so grateful and feeling so appreciative when I was helping them build sites. I basically built websites for non-profits for free, is was for pride — for years because behind that false identity or at least behind that wall I was only being judged based on the skills that I had, and they didn’t know that I was this dorky kid. I was someone who had who had talent great ideas what things were contributing and I think he’s a really cool
%HESITATION that made me feel really special and and something that we started thinking about not intentionally but so when we start to think about is what identity really means. We’re obviously more than our driver’s license.
it’s clearly a fake ID. but but we are more than just our government names even though that is the the sort of obvious way we talk about identity we’re complicated — right — we have multiple selves doesn’t mean we’re reading disingenuous just means that work we’re different people we go to a conference like South By them or hang out with our childhood friends or hanging out with our church group or a bowling league we have multiple selves within our self and just one government name.
But we also have social networks that ostensibly let us express ourselves and connect right there all about connection and yet I mean let’s be real we take fifteen minutes to take a photo of our soup and then edit it so it looks perfect this is actually my Instagram a putting myself on blast here — this was a perfectly good bowl of soup — it was delicious. I wish the probably fifteen minutes I was there with a friend and I was like well like you just move your shadow is on the way my soup, l want to make this thing look perfect so everyone Instagram knows how wonderful my life is click. But this is what we do right we spent a decade with social networks that have us connecting and effectively a very superficial sort of way.Right? These are networks created in order to create FOMO with peoples that we show up at the office stay there like how you can say it’s amazing right. We use Facebook to show off how cute our kids and puppies are so that our friends in college can feel jealous. Now again this is still connecting I still clearly a billion six people in the world want this I get that but I’d argue that’s just the start of human connection. This is the we’re at the cocktail party stage of social networking right we’re all still at the party we’re all still just exchanging pleasantries and talking about our vacations.
Social networking ironically hasn’t connected us much deeper and yet there’s so much depth to human connection. And getting down there requires a certain amount of security — it requires time to get that security or requires maybe an extreme circumstance to create that security or maybe just requires a lot of alcohol to get that security but one way or another you have to feel secure enough with a person to share your full often cells and when it happens though it’s pretty magical right it’s pretty special you can actually talk about how he might be struggling in your marriage or or maybe just can’t stand your daughter today and just want someone to talk to about this or or maybe you just have a genuine question about I don’t know where the ice cap icebergs are going. There are opportunities for this kind of depth they generally don’t happen when you’re worried about how many hearts you’re gonna get or how he likes you’re gonna get or what your uncle Bob is gonna think and what we found is Psuedonimity doesn’t roll off the tongue but anonomity with identity it made up username fluffy bunny seventy two can actually be the basis of real community at first this may seem counterintuitive can you see in saying no no no no course we have to be I have to be Alexis Ohanian to connect let alone create a community with another person right? Absolutely — it’s him it be unthinkable that fluffy bunny seventy two could have a relationship an intimate authentic moment with purple turtle sixty four and yet it happens every single day people are falling in love people getting help with their homework people are relating to one another because through that alter ego they can really fully express themselves. They can go from talking about what a to stupid trade it is stupid trade the %HESITATION Texans made — or smart — bringing his side you’re on too to jumping about a great conversation about RuPaul’s drag race to to talking about us some amazing science post “ask science” this fluidity of persona is really easy when you’re purple turtle sixty four %HESITATION it’s a lot harder when you’re physically limited by connection which is been historically the case for us, and we actually got this is kind of unique I I actually thought this was unique thing right Psuedonimity as a basis for community and identity it’s way too expects press yourself fully and I realized how wrong I was because we sponsor drag con last year should be no surprise read is how the largest LGBTQ communities on the internet and RuPaul’s drag race happens to be an amazing TV show and an amazing community of fans and we decided let’s sponsor and let’s meet a bunch of Redditors. So we spent the day talking to folks at hand I remember bringing up this theory of Psuedonimity with a drag queen — and I thought it was I thought was the most clever thing she just rolled her eyes if you like really think this is a novel thing really. Because the pseudonym the identity that I’ve created means a lot more to me than the one of my driver’s license. Right I have built a community I’m a part of the rich culture that’s been around well before the internet that’s entire basis you pseudonymous right? The entire existence of this all the connections all the commuting all the everything is because people are able to construct something they feel is truer to them. Since analysis how drag explains Reddit and so we have a hundred and fifty thousand or a hundred forty five thousand communities people across every interest and passion in topic were fluffy bunny sixty four is talking to purple turtle fifty two in open an authentic way and the result is is amazing content that gets people so engaged in so excited that’s the only reason Reddit has thrived for over a decade in spite of a lot which I’m gonna have to get into. So just meters to people who just love beards, Right? I’m obviously member this community love beards if you don’t like beards it’s fine will grow on you. Come on Redditors I thought you liked puns. But hey you can have open an authentic discussions about facial hair problems and and and peered routines I mean this isn’t right seven seven seven Louise deal is probably not their government name and awake but dreaming also probably not a government name but people feel so much of a connection because the only thing they know about one another is their ideas and their experiences and their shared interests which at the end of the day is not all that we are as people — right — you cut through everything else it’s our ideas our experiences and our shared connection and we see this happening — it’s not just about beards sometimes it’s about amazing television I know there’s Westworld fans here — yes — such a good show there no spoilers don’t worry don’t worry but if you were watching the show you were probably on this Reddit community before during and after every episode or maybe you’re reading the fan theories on Buzzfeed three days later but all of the richest conversations were happening here and what was so amazing about this was it actually let content creation not just happen from the top down a notch topping from the bottom up actually, both Because you have the show runners he had his creators like Jonah Nolan who are creating this content and frankly Jonah was worried he was worried because he knew first showed me successful ahead I have a bunch of people who loved it rathas just generally how the business works and doing so is a creator you often have to make content that appeals to the lowest common denominator so we can appeal to the broadest audience possible this was a huge shift because for the first time ever in real time you had a community of hundreds of thousands of people were anyone of us could stand up and be like I have an idea I actually think no spoilers this intricate fan theory which it turns out was true is the thing for this show is the Lynch pin of the show and it’s as though now — at least for me — we have a smart friend who we can turn to when a bunch of the show goes overhead in the ending credits come up we had to hear we head to here. The second screen that is Reddit — it and someone who’s smarter than us who was that film major just pays more attention is like actually I’m I think I’ve got an idea. And if enough people rally around it it becomes the discussion of the day and what’s so exciting now is his Jonah realize this and so he’s a Redditor and so naturally he started engaging with the community to and so you’d see these popular fan theories as well as smaller undiscovered ones we would go to the comments and be like oh here’s something that might interest you a user asked what happened all of Dolores’ painting — it’s not a spoiler there like what happens to all of the horses paintings I need answers and some Redditors are marking all Jonah’s not reading this don’t get it your good luck and %HESITATION him journaling to this gift this is unreleased footage from the show never saw the light of day that he submitted directly to Reddit — directly to the Westworld community because he wanted to play this game with viewers. Not argue this existed back during “Lost” maybe it could have avoided that shows terrible terrible outcome but this is exciting now because as a creator you don’t have to pillows come to nominator because there is some great idea there some person out there in the viewing audience who can have that idea make that connection that really subtle inference and share it with everyone and get an audience and this just makes me happy because I think it’s gonna mean better content this is this is a food community in their bunch on Reddit are slash food and this is Rahman I clearly love soup but you know you slash fowlinay / again not a government name decided that they wanted to forego all those Facebook likes all those Instagram hearts all of those Hey that Raman looked great last night comments at the office the next day to submit a photo of soup
to a community of millions of people this person has no connection to other than their shared love of food. right? on the one hand this seems impossible but every day this is taken for granted because this is just par for the course on Reddit because that is what binds them. This shared interests and this gets really really exciting we start to really engage this community two weeks ago in response the immigration ban I wrote an open letter which is a very personal statement from me talking about how great it would have been possible without the benefits of immigration in United States my father’s side of the family were all refugees from the Armenian genocide my mother was actually herself undocumented so I’m very grateful for the United States immigration policy and I said as much
and at the very end of this post asked Redditors to share their family stories because we are after all a nation of regrets and so thousands of stories showed up over one point six million people saw this thread and saw stories from real people opening up in a way that they can feel comfortable doing only because they knew the purple turtle sixty four it’s fluffy bunny seventy two they felt liberated by the fact that this was a space for them to share openly and honestly to an audience of millions and I think this gets the empathy and understanding arm one of the benefits of having a platform this diverse is perspective so I am not Muslim %HESITATION I subscribe to our slash Islam and it has been such a fascinating lands for the last few years to see what this community thinks about whatever’s going on this is the zeitgeist for the English speaking Muslim Redditor world are slash Islam and by spending time in this community you start noticing things %HESITATION you notice this %HESITATION which seemed like a simple gesture at the time but there was someone there who wanted to actually create a headscarf emoji hejob emoji I thought hello
I did I never would have guessed this was the thing that people cared about I am not a woman I’m not a Muslim and my own ignorance stop me from everything considering like there are probably alot of people who appreciated this existed and I was so thrilled when the person behind this campaign responded to my reach out and so yeah come on Reddit — do an AMA — this actually got approved you know that’s the hejob emoji is in the next the Unicode release — there’s a whole approval process gets voted on but it happened and the lone behold the person behind as a teenager
she’s really from Saudi Arabia was living in Austria she had a laptop and internet connection and you said you know what they should exist in the world and you found an audience — and it’s a thing it’s happening and and this is where that perspective I think really helps all of us arm because we all have blind spots and we’ll have communities we just don’t have access to in our normal lives online as well as offline.
And so what is this really come down to is the conversation so you have these communities how do you create a conversation well first and foremost for gonna be around on Monday we’re doing IRL conversation with twitch over this Reddit house you come visit. If you’re more of a an online fan who’s gonna go home on Monday that’s fine.
Reddit has become this global water cooler right this is where all those conversations happen where people’s minds actually get changed about things and historically those water coolers were all disconnected and those conversations could never scale like they can today and what’s amazing is that with two hundred eighty million people every month ninety nine point nine eight percent of all these conversations of all these messages of all these posts never gets reported by another user so we have a content policy and according to content policy their are rules of the road next to every piece of content you can click a little report button and flag it for being a violation two hundred eighty million people ninety nine point ninety percent the time no user says this is a problem.
how did we get here okay so two years ago Steven I come back to Reddit content policy was first unless we do think ended up creating rules for the road created a trust and safety team did have that before critic community team that was actually free to do community building sorts of stuff — started an anti evil team like the seal team six of engineers ago after all things evil that’s like spam that’s content policy violations that’s harassment that’s all the things we want some of our best engineering minds working to solve problems and we’re making a long term decision here right in putting these people towards these problems we’re scaling back on potential short term growth of things like revenue and traffic because this is the long term investment right we could have these engineers working on things directly tied to growth we want them working on this because this is where the long term value is going to be because right now we have this monopoly on online conversation right there is no other platform at the scale of hundreds of millions of people with these conversations happen news websites are shutting down the comments every day most social media ironically is really anti social if you have an account of any scale of any size the comments on it are either something you ignore or something you run from, because none of them are designed for actual conversation and so you have you have a bunch people with bull horns who were shouting and no one actually talking and this is where I hope we can make progress because it is clear we have a lot of people with bull horns with a lot of things that they want to say but no one is hearing no one is conversing there is just just lots of bull horns and I’m I’m this is the best stock art I could find for lots of people with bull horns not proud of it but it’s just thoughts all I had.
and this this dials into that authenticity the right but I touched upon earlier which like I said is unlocked through this alter ego through the Pseudonimity that lets people be there full and authentic selves and it’s actually kind of helpful for a few reasons one of which is best summarized by this cartoon dog which is that sucking is the first step to being sort of good at something one of the other advantages to this is in the creative process because when all of us are creating something new for the first time there is a natural hesitation to want to share it especially with our close friends with our family even go online and see if that’s me I made this arts hope you like my YouTube video and what we can do because of Pseudonimity is actually allow us to be a little bit more playful is allow us to actually take a few more chances in a few more risks and feel more confident sucking at first because we all do we start out with whatever we do and take that chance and actually start making something that maybe you could be liked by a few people maybe hundreds of thousands of people I don’t know how many you know Hector Jens van rensberg I mean probably not no one yet one or two now now known famous artist better known as you know shitty watercolor %HESITATION we what just happened there this whole room full of people knew that pseudonym I didn’t know better results that’s interesting that’s very interesting read this the same person introverted Britt who just got up one day and said you know what come to create an account and I’m the star drawing shitty watercolors. It’s also a good excuse I don’t know how many times the word shitty been used at a South By talk
but I have full license because it is in fact his username what was so interesting was he was actually pretty by me not terrible but not great either over the years first doing portraits of people selling someone would post that this was an engagement photo of two Redditors and I’m like please make a portrait out of this use lecture of course you go shitty but go for it
and people humor him I’m this is nicer and it’s amidst the Dennis Conner shitty but okay size I mean come on man this scenario but but it’s gonna charm to it AMCU quickly Hecktor, or shitty begin to build an audience and following begin to build are almost a language in a culture that he was creating through his art right for those of you who are active on Reddit I could just showing you this art and you would probably known it was his.
He did a portrait for the President United States getting better one year much bigger than the other but charming still and you can see the path of progress to this day where he’s actually become I would I actually only refer to him as water color now because I I think we all agree he’s graduated beyond ‘shitty’ this is like five years that he spent and he’s not going up on stage is he’s not doing book tours, are going on late night shows but now he’s he’s making are you still in school and he has an audience he has a following he has a voice thanks to this platform that I don’t think we would have heard if not for him feeling like you have the creative freedom to just make. I mean he’s very self aware to his credit and now we can get rid of the brand — Shitty Watercolor which you have to imagine is a hard conversation has of his parents when he’s trying to explain all this fame in like he’s doing that and he’s like yeah I chose Shitty Watercolors money
good had any name on the internet when with Shitty watercolor but this thing got a charming about their right and Hector is an amazing young man who I don’t think would have found an audience without a whole he gets paid to do this are working on the B. B. C.’s commissioned paintings from him like he he makes money doing these watercolors and I don’t think he ever would have found that audience had it not been for that creative freedom and all it took was a silly slightly profane username and I want to live in a world where everyone can find their home and their voice on Reddit.
We have a lot of work to do I know that but that is all working toward that’s the only reason Steve I came back that’s that is the thing that drives us because we know the potential that Reddit has we’ve seen it we’ve seen it happen almost in spite of itself for years that’s why I’m so I’m grateful any time I meet people who have been Redditing because you all have done so much for so long and we did have a mobile website until a year ago so people were pinching zooming the desktop site in the mobile browser
that is ridiculous why did we make you do that?
I’m sorry but thank you because that is a testament to the communities and the conversations I mean this is the first version of Reddit I don’t I’m that many probably not many of your recognizes it only lasted for about a week this is ready back in two thousand five we started we just mean Steve at this point and I submitted the first link and then you can see on the far right I’ve negative one karma that’s because Steve is a dick and Steve spaz Hoffmann CEO down voted the first ever submission on Reddit by me sitting across the room from him, only use only the two of us in that room like I knew who it was — and he still didn’t care. it’s funny but over the years read it slowly evolved this is red circa two thousand six slowly evolve antics of voters I rarely I don’t like showing the stuff because it’s it’s well obviously embarrassing.
I’m the one responsible for the way it looks on you can start to see in two thousand seven we have this notion of defaults which is suppose to be like a stopgap solution because we weren’t letting users create their own communities yet but we were creating some of them as you see programming, and science and politics and here’s in two thousand eight
in other you can tell they’re more committees there because a little more but underneath but basically salute the site %HESITATION two thousand nine was a big year for us up no nothing really changed and then two thousand ten two thousand eleven two dozen twelve two thousand thirteen these are literally the same image, I’m just trolling now basically, didn’t change as I’m saying okay so didn’t change at all but look alright in our defense you all remember the first version a Facebook right yes I miss it too hot hot why did we ever upload photos to this like you see Zucks’s if I know that Zucks’s facing the top right but I can just imagine him being like I have this great idea I put my face looming over all the people when they upload their personal private photos we’ll cover it ones and zeros the like it’ll — they’ll trust it — feel like a good hacker building like thankfully Cheryl stepped in when they got rid of that because of a man — really that’s the first Facebook but it worked janke is good enough if it solves a problem. Twitter same thing yeah yeah I know the stock just take another ten percent let’s I’m just getting it can’t possibly fall any faster. so what I like about this though what I love about this actually is it’s clearly someone who just took like a clip art class or a photo shop class because like why would you put condensation on your logo for those of you in the back the Twitter is sweating — I don’t know can awkwardly it uses a little and then and the oozes a little, not a physicist but it looks like there is a strong breeze blowing bad news from the side again makes no sense but people were okay with it right it solves a problem and and we’re finally involving is the good news after being like frozen in carbonite for six years arm in the last year and a half Reddit it has shipped more code that in all of Reddit previous years like eleven years combined that’s a testament to Steve and executive team all the engineers we’ve hired like it’s been awesome there’s mobile lab now for have stars like I was an enjoyable gets we still have a lot of work to do but there’s been so much progress and I’m so so proud and grateful for all the folks who got us this far — because we’ve learned a lot too I’m this is us when we started read it %HESITATION who we don’t even have a product yet and I already had a tee shirt with our mascot which was the wrong idea don’t do that and now we’re a little bit more mature we sometimes wear suits those holiday party on but we’re very very excited about the potential of Reddit because we’ve seen we’ve seen what can happen in again in spite of itself and we know that we all need more exposure to new communities and a more conversations and to more shitty watercolour on because I think it will make all of our lives better and we have this opportunity and we’ve seen now in the last couple of years how much progress we’ve been able to make and I’m just excited to see how much more we can do going forward and you know this topic comes up often now because I feel like we really are living in two or maybe more America’s and I had the privilege of spending a bunch of time in %HESITATION on this bus I in the heartland of America doing of the bus tour back in twenty twelve %HESITATION about the silicon prairie and met a ton of folks who love technology arm but but you know lived in the middle the country %HESITATION spent gosh — five months on this bus for my book tour going universities all over the country meeting founders and techies all over the country and the more of those conversations that I was able to have I felt the more and better a perspective I had because every city we went to every time we went to there was a Reddit meet up that I could go to and I can go to the R. slash Birmingham meet up and meet with Redditers who live there and have a few drinks and try to understand a little better and this obviously does not scale although I do recommend you get a chance in your life to go on a bus tour do it alot of fun but it does not scale and what I wanted to try to unlock are these things that do scale and one of the strongest signals I have is actually community on Reddit that I hope you all subscribe to called “change my view” now it’s already got millions of visitors it’s r slash change my view and what happens here is nothing short of magic army was actually a research study recently done %HESITATION by Cornell and some researchers looked at this subReddit because every single post is a person you know purple turtle fourteen who shows up and says I believe x — change my view do anything they can be I believe the sun revolves around the earth change my view I don’t think that’s a thing but I’m sure someone probably believes it. It can be anything and then in the discussion in the conversation you see arguments well made arguments citations and one not the best ones vote up to the top and often shockingly often actually thirty percent of the time the person who originally post the thing actually says you know what you changed my view I actually you know what I got enough evidence okay change my view and the research this over the span of a thing for five months and saw that thirty percent of the time it actually happened now I don’t know about you but I am very very very very rarely offline given the conversations who were at the end of them, I’m, like you know what point made I change my view I would like to be that person. I presume a lot of you would be but the fact that it happens this often online again at scale is attested to the fact that there are ideas and there are voices to be heard and that when they get that momentum of other people saying actually have this is good and when the person going into that discussion is open to hearing that conversation amazing things happen like things that we don’t expect happen online or offline are happening the happening pseudonymously they’re happening on Reddit. This is the stuff that we want to scale and it’s gonna be a lot of work that’s why we’re hiring by the way because when you learn how to do this but this is our opportunity and this is where I hope we can really make an impact and the thing that we repeat all the time around the offices is that come for the cats stay for the empathy this is what I hope can be our legacy for Reddoit as we go forward. We’ve learned a lot in the last year and a half and we learned a lot over the last decade of our careers but especially last year and a half since coming back and I am so so so grateful to all of you seriously for getting ready to where it is today.
I hope you will help us get to where I know we can go and where it can make the impact that I know and hope it can have/
And now we’re gonna do questions. If you have follow up questions, you can message me on Reddit — twitter, facebook, foursquare,
QUESTIONS -
Q #1: Number one question would you rather fight a horse sized dog or a hundred dog sized horses
A. Well Alexander %HESITATION you know I used to be I use to be a no brainer horse sized duck guy because I felt like I have a mental advantage over the dock I I enjoy eating doc all the time I feel like it would intimidate me they don’t have teeth horses even small ones kinda scare me a little %HESITATION I’m I you know now I’m still sticking with I’m going with the Horse Sized Duck, I want the one target I’m not I don’t wanna mess with Hundreds Horses.
Q.#2 okay Jordy how can we stimulate people to have the pseudo connections in real life instead of just online
A. That’s a good question I think what we’ve seen we have actually seen happen our relationships and connections that start online that start on
Reddit that become offline right that become a phone call or Skype or meet up on I think it’s I think if you’re having if you’re having these conversations face to face it really starts getting into how do you create that trust where people can feel like they speak freely and authentically how do you build that instantly is just really hard %HESITATION that’s one of the advantages that software has any username has because it it creates that natural increase natural wall fearful and yet open enough to share — but I think as a general rule if we have opportunities I mean I use thanksgiving is my favorite example right we as Americans actually every year have a ritual more we confront people generally speaking whose views we probably don’t agree with and it’s called thanksgiving and those conversations are couched in this idea of togetherness and not being thankful which you get things — but I really feel like become I mean that at the core is the opportunity for us and these are difficult conversations to have these are these are conversations that I’ve struggled with that’s why I love using Reddit all the time because it’s a lot easier to have them but they’re so so so important
Q,#3 Michael Pratt what’s the future of Reddit Twitter Facebook
A. wow- okay well I hope read it can be I hope read it can occupy a space
for all of those deep — for those types of connections where you’re trying to find — you want the best information you want to know what the Raman community thinks is actually the best Rahman in Austin or or you just you want to meet someone who understands the subtleties of great eye shadow like you do right those types of connections happen on Reddit because we’re not bound by that social graph and and I think like I said Facebook provides a really important role for people I’m I’m I’m dismissive of it but I’m not I don’t dismiss it right it’s it’s still important but it’s the depth that were chasing after and that’s the reason why I think people trust the content they find their why people go out of their way to be this is read it helps people decide which shoes to buy %HESITATION what what what just do what movie to go see it has it has influence because word of mouth that authentic word of mouth has always made the difference that’s been the reason you’ve done those things those water cooler discussions never scale before and now they can -I can’t speculate on the future of Twitter or Facebook I mean they will probably there will probably be around for a long time %HESITATION and again I think they’re all part of an ecosystem I just wanna read it to be much bigger part of it
Q.#4 who is my personal hero — anonymous
A.Tom if I see my parents are gonna be like that was lame but it’s my parents -awe- it’s true I they they %HESITATION they they I think my dad barely understands even what I do to this day %HESITATION but the foundation that he my mom provided have made me everything that I am so my parents then with you that the real the real hustle being a founder by comparison was a lot easier
Q.#5 how can brands get involved in the platform
A.this is Felix Morgan talking brands involve the platform beyond just buying ads what the opportunities for deeper engagement given how remarkable the community is? Great question Felix. This is something we’ve wrestled with because there are there are brands that users want to hear from right there are brands that people genuinely like most of these brands are ones that have been developed in the last ten years because they had to be making something people wanted because if they didn’t they wouldn’t exist probably %HESITATION but what makes Redditt it’s what makes this community so special is it’s just a place for fans it’s an organic place that we want to always be that way so the goal is gonna be to create something that doesn’t compromise the value of those communities being organic authentic spaces for fans and still let’s let’s brands have a voice just one that’s like clearly delineated as that brand %HESITATION so I think I think it’s at separation that balance it’s going to be the important one to figure out
Q.#6 Michael: What was with — what? — did I? Michael said: “What was with your gushing over trump after his address to Congress?”
A. You’re going to have to remind me when this was — ’cause I’m pretty sure that wasn’t me. Is there a link. Ok. Tweet me the citation cause I’m pretty sure — have I ever….
Q. #7 Mrs purple duck forty two excellent user name “have you ever won a point off of Serena”
I have never picked up a tennis racket purple duck forty two, so it now I will I have never nor would I %HESITATION
Q #8: is there a community you know that’s not on Reddit and you wish were
A. Man yes everything like just about every non-English language can %HESITATION like there’s only a handful that are non English language because we’ve never done anything to internationalize we want to it’s just not unfortunatly a priority right now so that’s the dream I would love I would love there’s gonna be I mean for every English language community on Reddit for every R/beards and that’s not the only Beard related communion Reddit shot out our slash beard porn safe for work mostly %HESITATION right there is a version of that in German and Japanese and Chinese and Spanish etcetera %HESITATION so that would be fundamental
Q.#8 if I could have dinner with three Reddit users who are they and why
A. yeah Bill Gates there we go just did a great AMA amazing amazing human %HESITATION man %HESITATION my fiance that’s good I want to have dinner with her and %HESITATION I want my dad that’ll be good
yeah but we have never — Bill will be like what the hell am I doing here
he’d be so disappointed a okay %HESITATION
Q.#9 anonymous can you expand on how you prevent harassment on the platform
A. Well, less it’s less about preventing and more about stopping when it happens I mean as a general rule the content policy outlines like harassment is not allowed here is like here is harassment %HESITATION and with that policy and then with a trust and safety team that forces it %HESITATION it’s pretty straight forward and you know enough users get bannedwe have our anti evil team doing some pretty clever things on the back end to the make sure that even though they try to evade the ban we still twart them %HESITATION it get preview pretty handily takes care of it %HESITATION one of each things we learned which was a learned a lesson from YouTube was how important it was to actually separate from if you are considering building social sites how important was to separate the community team from the trust and safety team
because community teams role is generally a more public facing like Hey I’m fluffy bunny like let me help you grow your community on Reddit let me help you grow r/slash beards or or to to make the kind of to facilitate the kind of magic stuff that happens when you have hundreds of thousands of
At scale so they have an identity I thought the trust and safety team it’s really important to not have them having identities that it comes specifically from red ink that makes enforcement much more straight forward because then when the person who is getting you know if the enforcement is getting the punishment are they see coming from Reddit inc they don’t see it coming from an individual even fluffy bunny seventy two so there’s no real recourse
%HESITATION it gives the trust and safety team the ability to do the job they need to do and separates it out from the community team which does the job they need to do and this is something that YouTube had a lot of success with many years before us since we just all the playbook from them %HESITATION everything is a everything’s a remix
Q.10 Ann Durand underscore — Did the website you made for people for money look is bad as historic Reddit
A. be clear and Ann Durand underscore two I did not make them for money if these were non profits so I was just doing them for pride like I had on my resume %HESITATION they were pretty bad though %HESITATION I found if you go if you could probably dig up that the nonprofit — there wasn’t was like 501c3 — called — free the bird dot org and I’m hoping the Wayback machine doesn’t still have it, now that I’ve said out loud but you got it like he had a giant image map on the side in this was like two thousand
I took no ninety nine — was I mean it was took forever to load now like no it’s got a beautiful picture it but I didn’t I was everything was in tables no divs like it was bad so where the websites I made that as bad as Reddit, yes they were but the good news is most websites back then were pretty ugly that was your Facebook two thousand four okay we just didn’t update and %HESITATION I drew the mascot which looks nice I think we can agree snew looks okay okay good keep my job another week with yet another estimate terrible designer — verdana, that’s a hideous font. Don’t know what I was thinking. Font nerds know I’m talking about. No one in their right mind is like verdana is a good font.
Q 11: has read it considered implementing live video like the other social media sites have
A. well anonymous we’ve talked about it the problem with live video is that most of the content is just not interest so like live use really interesting if it’s a unique event right it’s a it’s an E. sports match or any sports match or words are like a cultural moment — right like someone is there’s a state of the union or there’s a thing like this something going on there
but there just isn’t there isn’t enough to really sort the signal from the noise for most Iive video and what ends up being shared are like clips of live video and so we’re thinking alright we have limited band with one of the things we need to focus on four Reddit for the next year live videos just not anywhere on the top list I think it’s really interesting that the stuff is happening and I’m I’m obviously friends with a twitch founders because we went through YCombinator together I think they’re doing some really interesting stuff going beyond e sports It’s still yet to be seen like even though you know the I think that signal/ noise differences there is gonna be the thing to crack if someone can figure out how to make that experience really great so whenever you’re tuning in to whatever that app is you know it’s a pretty good certainty that at that moment in time maybe it’s not even live maybe it’s quasi live but that moment there something good there
Q. #12 How may read accounts do I have totally
A. Totally not unidan — and I hope it’s you unidan — we were at the university being together we had a good time %HESITATION I have
sure I probably made hundreds over the years but I really only have one and I occasionally have another call post under — yeah it’s like it’s really just one active case come I’m paranoid I wouldn’t wanna — like — one and a half but I rarely posting alone and there’s a bunch other ones because we created read it we didn’t have any users of Stephen I just posted under different user names so the front page looked like it was full of submissions we have comments so it’s not like I was like great comment Alexis it wasn’t that bad but like I would submit a New York Times article as purple turtle and then I would spend another article is me in another exit if you came to it for the first time again remember two thousand five
ever just thought read it was an ugly blog back then than people realized okay there’s like all these contributors anyone can submit and and sort of grease the wheels army that after a few weeks we don’t have to do anymore
Q. Taco’s or Ribs
A. Oh man, i’m going to get into so much trouble for saying this but its ribs I I love tacos and I know I nor am I see god this is a tough issue talk or barbecue town your spoiled %HESITATION yes it deftly rose. Bay is all about about tacos.
Q.#13 what’s the biggest failure life that changed how you do things positively/
A.Wow, when I think of giant sales setback it would be getting rejected from YCombinator — %HESITATION that was the one that was the most pivotal one because Steven I were working on a whole different company I was gonna I was like oh five new smartphones will be new phones were thing so you could text in your order was the plan using the call my mobile menu. And you could never wait in line again and it’s gonna change everything unfortunately the folks why YCombinator were smarter than us or fortune I should say they’re smarter than us and said no no it’s too early for this don’t do it they rejected us and then they’re they’re like the early stage incubator that made Airbnb, Dropbox and die and they called back the next morning it was Paul does a hello he was like Alexis we still hate your idea — I was like really you called just to say that like were hung over on the way back to Virginia and is it gonna know now we like you to come up with another idea and will invest. Whatever it is yeah sure sucker — and and we %HESITATION we’re like alright and we made them and read it was basically it %HESITATION they give us a check for twelve grand and said : “Alright go make that” good luck and it change our lives — so thanks Paul and Jessica.
alright one more question
Q.#14 one existing features you’re going that can bring people out of their existing groups how might we use Reddit’s gets… alright: anonymous what new features are you building that can bring people out of their existing groups how might we use ready to get the two Americas in the same conversation.
A. automatically subscribed to r/slash change my view, One of the primary things we’re looking at right now is front page relevance and so we want to be really smart about making sure that when you’re reaching for your phone and you’ve got five minutes to catch before the bus shows up you open the Reddit app and you find something that is stimulating that is engaging and what’s interesting is this kind of content is actually really really engaging for a lot of people and and now I think there’s an opportunity for us depending on how we sort of message it to a new user to actually really get them thinking and looking forward to an expecting this type of content %HESITATION we’ve only started don’t we do a ton of AB testing now we’ve only started testing a lot of the stuff — so it’s still in its infancy arm but a lot of this comes down to that. And I think also just the combination of that with just better marketing we don’t actually have a marketing team at Reddit so our sales in our com’s teams do double duty effectively marketing Reddit and all the things on it and so we wanna get communities like change my view — there are just some amazing was on there — into bigger venues. On to television in partnerships with media organizations so that people can see this great content realize it’s there and see that there’s another way to even you know challenge their own views.
And well it’s it’s a okay thanks everybody you can get me
on Twitter just kidding %HESITATION I’m yeah I’m u/kn0thing (on Reddit)
and thank you so much thank you very much.