WebProNews

Tag: Reddit

  • StumbleUpon Subreddit Is Banned, But It Doesn’t Have To Be

    StumbleUpon Subreddit Is Banned, But It Doesn’t Have To Be

    Apparently there’s not a lot of interest in StumbleUpon community on reddit, but perhaps that’s because the Stumbleupon subreddit, at /r/stumblupon has been banned.

    It’s nothing new. The subreddit has actually been banned for quite some time, and if anyone cares enough, they can probably get it going again. So, in hopes that this article reaches the hardcore StumbleUpon users, this is a message to you. Just because it’s banned, doesn’t mean it can’t be re-created.

    A reddit spokesperson tells WebProNews, “The subreddit was created a couple years back and nothing was ever done with it. It got automatically banned by our spam system, and no one has asked for it since.”

    StumbleUpon subreddit

    “People can request control of banned and/or dormant subreddits in /r/redditrequest,” he says. “/r/stumbleupon would be handled exactly the same as any other banned/dormant subreddit.”

    In other words, if you want to start a reddit community about StumbleUpon, go for it. There is a form here, which will allow you to request control of the subreddit.

    It’s entirely possible that there is no interest in a StumbleUpon subreddit, but it is interesting that there is an active to semi-active subreddit for most other social sites on the web. You’ll find subreddits for Facebook and Twitter, of course, as well as for Tumblr, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, Myspace, etc.

    The StumbleUpon subreddit has apparently been banned for two years. StumbleUpon has gone through a lot of changes in that time, so even if there was zero interest back then, who knows at this point? I wonder how much interest there would be if there wasn’t a big “banned” message on the destination. Most people that happen to stumble upon this subreddit in the first place (who may have been interested if there was something there) probably won’t take the time to actually request control of it and get the community started. If someone were to take it on, would there be enough interest to generate enough content to sustain a small community?

    StumbleUpon, while it has plenty of social elements, isn’t the most social of social services. Reddit has only gained popularity in the time since the subreddit was banned. Perhaps it would make a good place for StumbleUpon users (of which there are still many) to talk about StumbleUpon. There are still StumbleUpon stories being submitted to reddit. Most aren’t getting many upvotes, but they’re coming from different users. Perhaps they would do better if they were in a StumbleUpon subreddit.

  • Reddit Releases AMA Stats, and Actors Dominate

    Reddit Releases AMA Stats, and Actors Dominate

    Reddit has a big 2012. Really big. Like, 37 billion pageviews big. The site has made its way from simply a popular site among the internet community to mega-popular site among the internet community that also gets talked about on CNN. Sarcasm aside, it’s hard to go a week these days without a major story that has some sort of reddit spin to it.

    And part of what’s thrown reddit into the national dialogue is the site’s AMA Q&A sessions.

    From politicians like Al Gore and President Obama, to NFL players and Snoop Dogg – it’s been a big year for Ask Me Anything.

    AMA mod karmanaut spent some time analyzing data from a lifetime’s worth of AMAs, and reddit has just published his findings in a blog post.

    The data charts the 400+ AMAs with over 100 comments that took place over the last three years (give or take), and organizes them by category.

    And actors/entertainers win with 80 AMAs. That group is responsible for the most successful AMAs (apart from ‘other’ of course). Next is directors with 39 AMAs and political figures with 38.

    Check out their chart below:

  • EFF Joins r/Gaymers’ Fight Against Trademark Holder

    EFF Joins r/Gaymers’ Fight Against Trademark Holder

    One reddit community, with the help of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is taking on a trademark holder who they say was wrongfully granted a trademark registration for a term that belongs in the public domain.

    Gaymer is a broad term used to describe members of the LGBT community, who also happen to be avid gamers. The terms has been around since the early 90s, according to the EFF.

    r/gaymers is a subreddit with over 21,000 subscribers. There, members of the gaymer community discuss games, host video chats, schedule multiplayer sessions – you know, gamer stuff. A lot of the content posted to r/gaymers doesn’t necessary have to do with gaming – some of it centers on the LGBT experience. They’ve been under attack from Chris Vizzini, “gaymer” trademark owner and operator of the website gaymer.org. He sent a cease and desist letter to r/gaymers back in August of 2012, requesting that reddit “cease and desist any further use of gaymer in association with reddit’s services and requested that reddit respond to the letter by assuring Registrant of reddit’s compliance with the terms of the letter.”

    Instead of complying with that request, members of r/gaymers lawyered up and now they have the EFF on their side, who have filed a petition against Vizzini’s registered trademark on the “gaymer” term.

    You can check out the full petition here.

    Vizzini has taken to reddit (about 4 months ago, around the time of the cease and desist letter) to defend his position:

    As a trademark and word mark holder, it’s my responsibility to defend the marks, otherwise I could lose them.

    I started Gaymer.org in 2003 and began to build Gaymer as a brand. Thats why I trademarked and word marked the name. At that time, there was only one other site around dedicated to gay gamers. I have spent countless hours and thousands of dollars on Gaymer.org. I have done so gladly as it’s brought happiness to many people.

    I have received many nasty emails and comments on my site, not to mention what’s been said on the reddit site.

    I cannot stress this enough. I have no problem with other gay gaming sites. I think it’s great others exist. The only problem I have is when the Gaymer name is used. That infringes on the word mark. A perfect example of this is gaygamer.net. Its a great website for gay gamers but does not use “gaymer” in its name therefore I have no problem.

    He went on to say that he didn’t want the r/gaymer subreddit removed, just renamed.

    Member or r/gaymer and the EFF don’t buy it, however.

    “This registration should never have been granted,” said EFF Intellectual Property Director Corynne McSherry. “Gaymer is a common term that refers to members of this vibrant gaming community, and we are happy to help them fight back and make sure the term goes back to the public domain where it belongs.”

    And here’s what r/gaymer mod ozuri had to say in a lengthy post:

    Personally, I rely on intellectual property law for my livelihood. I work in video games and my career benefits directly from the existence and enforcement of trademark and copyright law (though I am acting here simply as an individual and do not represent my company in any fashion). So I’m not someone who is anti-intellectual property protection. For me, digital IP protection is about not penalizing creative people in the digital space simply because they lack the ability to protect their ideas the same way they can in the physical world. I also believe that spurious claims like the one asserted by gaymer.org undermine the legitimacy of the system and give breath to a vocal group of individuals who believe that the system is inherently broken.

    Second, reddit is not a haven for trademark infringement. They will not protect you if you infringe a trademark. But this case isn’t about infringement, it’s about harassment and the enforcement of an illegitimately granted trademark. Specifically, we believe that an entity should not be allowed to co-opt a group’s identity for personal enrichment, power, or ego.

    So the actions we have taken are not because we don’t believe in intellectual property protection. They are because we believe the term “gaymer” is a word that should remain in the public domain, free for use and not “owned” by any particular individual or organization.

    It’s an interesting case, as it appears that reddit’s LGBT gaming community isn’t backing down. What do you think about the trademark? Should the term “gaymer” be able to be registered?

  • Aaron Swartz’ Loved Ones: Suicide Product Of Justice System

    Aaron Swartz’ Loved Ones: Suicide Product Of Justice System

    As you may know, Aaron Swartz, who developed RSS 1.0 and founded Infogami, which merged with reddit in the popular social news site’s early days, was found dead after hanging himself at 26 years old.

    Swartz had been in some legal trouble, after being arrested in 2011 for allegedly downloading millions of documents from JSTOR with intent to distribute them. It’s looking more and more likely that this incident ultimately led to his suicide, with Swartz losing hope just days before killing himself. The Wall Street Journal reports that his hopes for a deal with federal prosecutors, who threatened to put him in prison for 30 years, fell apart before his suicide.

    According to the report, Swartz’s lawyer had initially discussed a plea bargain with Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Heymann back in the fall, but was told that Swartz would have to plead guilty on every count, and that the government would insist on prison time. When the two lawyers spoke just this past Wednesday, the situation remained unchanged. The Journal also spoke with Swartz’s girlfriend:

    With the government’s position hardening, Mr. Swartz realized that he would have to face a costly, painful and public trial, his girlfriend, Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, said in an interview Sunday. The case was draining his money, and he would need to ask for help financing his defense; two of his friends had recently been subpoenaed in the case. Both situations distressed him, she said.

    A Tumblr has been set up to honor Swartz’s memory, and provide a way for his family and friends to share their memories. On that, an official statement from his family and partner was released. That says:

    Our beloved brother, son, friend, and partner Aaron Swartz hanged himself on Friday in his Brooklyn apartment. We are in shock, and have not yet come to terms with his passing.

    Aaron’s insatiable curiosity, creativity, and brilliance; his reflexive empathy and capacity for selfless, boundless love; his refusal to accept injustice as inevitable—these gifts made the world, and our lives, far brighter. We’re grateful for our time with him, to those who loved him and stood with him, and to all of those who continue his work for a better world.

    Aaron’s commitment to social justice was profound, and defined his life. He was instrumental to the defeat of an Internet censorship bill; he fought for a more democratic, open, and accountable political system; and he helped to create, build, and preserve a dizzying range of scholarly projects that extended the scope and accessibility of human knowledge. He used his prodigious skills as a programmer and technologist not to enrich himself but to make the Internet and the world a fairer, better place. His deeply humane writing touched minds and hearts across generations and continents. He earned the friendship of thousands and the respect and support of millions more.

    Aaron’s death is not simply a personal tragedy. It is the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach. Decisions made by officials in the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s office and at MIT contributed to his death. The US Attorney’s office pursued an exceptionally harsh array of charges, carrying potentially over 30 years in prison, to punish an alleged crime that had no victims. Meanwhile, unlike JSTOR, MIT refused to stand up for Aaron and its own community’s most cherished principles.

    Today, we grieve for the extraordinary and irreplaceable man that we have lost.

    Swartz had been using an MIT network for his alleged downloading of JSTOR articles, and MIT put out a letter to its community on Sunday about its role in the ordeal. In that, L. Rafael Reif writes:

    Although Aaron had no formal affiliation with MIT, I am writing to you now because he was beloved by many members of our community and because MIT played a role in the legal struggles that began for him in 2011.

    I want to express very clearly that I and all of us at MIT are extremely saddened by the death of this promising young man who touched the lives of so many. It pains me to think that MIT played any role in a series of events that have ended in tragedy.

    I will not attempt to summarize here the complex events of the past two years. Now is a time for everyone involved to reflect on their actions, and that includes all of us at MIT. I have asked Professor Hal Abelson to lead a thorough analysis of MIT’s involvement from the time that we first perceived unusual activity on our network in fall 2010 up to the present. I have asked that this analysis describe the options MIT had and the decisions MIT made, in order to understand and to learn from the actions MIT took. I will share the report with the MIT community when I receive it.

    Aaron Swartz was known for a lot of things, and among them were his contributions to the anti-SOPA/PIPA movement, a cause for which he founded DemandProgress.org. Here’s a keynote from Swartz at F2C2012, called “How We Stopped SOPA” (via BusinessInsider on YouTube):

    DemandProgress.org is calling on those seeking to make donations in his name to consider doing so by giving to GiveWell, which the organization says Swartz had a “deep respect” for.

    Related: Anonymous Hacks MIT In Honor Of Aaron Swartz, Academics Protest With #PDFTribute

    Lead image: DemandProgress.org

  • Aaron Swartz Found Dead After Committing Suicide

    Aaron Swartz Found Dead After Committing Suicide

    Aaron Swartz, who is credited with developing RSS 1.0, and founding Infogami, which merged with Reddit in the popular site’s early days, was found dead in a Brooklyn apartment. According to various reports, police say he committed suicide by hanging. He was only 26 years old.

    In 2011, Swartz was arrested for the alleged systematic downloading of millions of documents from JSTOR with the intent to distribute them. According to The Tech, he was allegedly using the MIT network and a laptop hidden in a basement closet in an MIT building. He pleaded not guilty just this past September.

    Swartz had worked for Avaaz Foundation founded DemandProgress.org to help combat SOPA/PIPA.

    Philipp Lenssen at Google Blogoscoped has an interview with Swartz from 2007 in which he talks about his time at reddit, and his exit from the company:

    For Christmas, I went with some friends to Europe. Towards the tail end of the trip I caught a cold and holed up in my old apartment in Boston for a week. I headed back to San Francisco over the weekend and when I came in Monday morning I was asked to leave. I spent a little while trying to figure out what had gone on, but without too much success. Eventually, I decided that I should just accept this as an opportunity. And not look a gift horse in the mouth too hard.

    …

    I was with the Reddit team back when we were coming up with the idea, in the months before the first Y Combinator Summer Founders Program started. We eventually began working together full time around that November and started a port of the site from Lisp to Python shortly after that.

    There were three founders – me, Steve, and Alexis. Steve and I did the programming and Alexis handled promotion and customer service and office management and business development and the myriad of other tasks that came up. Christopher Slowe also worked with us part-time as he finished up his physics Ph.D at Harvard.

    It was an exciting time, but working at an office job was quite different.

    Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land remembers Swartz as one of the earliest Google bloggers, indicating that he was the first person to have a blog exclusively about Google, called the Google Weblog.

    Swartz’s trial was scheduled to begin in April.

  • Nicolas Cage Turns 49, Reddit Celebrates Their OneTrueGod

    Nicolas Cage Turns 49, Reddit Celebrates Their OneTrueGod

    If you spend a little while on reddit (or browse AllReddits), you’re bound to come across a strange subreddit or two. Some of them are awful, just awful. They know who they are. Some are wonderful (I just landed on r/fiftyfifty yesterday, it’s like flipping a coin with the devil). And some, well, some are indescribably wonderful for reasons you can’t quite articulate.

    One such subreddit is r/onetruegod, a subreddit entirely devoted to Nicolas Cage. Yes, he’s their one true god. Every submission is Nicolas Cage based. It’s a truly spectacular place.

    As you would expect, r/onetruegod is currently celebrating Cage’s birthday with some great photoshop jobs. I present to you, the one true god in all his glory:

    (image)
    [via makeheadlines]

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    [via nwcolbert]

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    [via egoslam]

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    [via PrustenPatel]

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    [via mexifro218]

    And for your entertainment, the best Nic Cage video on the entire internet. Happy birthday you crazy, amazing man.

    [lead image via bballer1304]

  • Imgur Boasts 364 Billion Image Views in 2012, Reveals Top Image

    Imgur Boasts 364 Billion Image Views in 2012, Reveals Top Image

    Image-hosting powerhouse Imgur has just unveiled their year-end statistics, including the top 12 images of 2012. Why 12? Well, Imgur started this wrap-up in 2010 with the year’s top 10 images. Last year it was the top 11 images of 2011. I see a trend emerging…

    Anyway, Imgur has a lot to be happy about. According to the site, they counted 364 billion image views in 2012. Not only that, but 300 million new images were uploaded this year alone.

    That all totals out to 42 petabytes of data being transferred.

    And the leading image, with just over 1.5 million pageviews, belongs to a brave Kenyan named Omari:

    Here’s Imgur’s story behind the photo:

    At the end of January, we met Omari, a hero who single-handedly defended the Faraja Orphanage in Kenya from attackers, and, in doing so, was hacked in the face with a machete. OP, who was in Kenya for an internship, posted this initial image with the title, “Think we could raise the $2,000 needed for the remainder of the cement/barbed wire wall to keep both him and the children safe?” Not only was his call to action answered, the goal was far surpassed. $80,000 was raised online for the orphanage. Omari’s assailants were never caught, but the donations allowed the orphanage to complete the wall as well as purchase two cows, food, medicine, bunk beds, an alarm system, guard dogs, a guard, and allowed them to look into purchasing their land. Not to mention Omari’s lovely mug has been viewed 1,553,236 times now. The power of the Internet is strong!

    The next top image on Imgur belongs to Tard, or grumpy cat. You may know him from every single cat meme from the last few months. Rounding out the top three is the President, whose reddit AMA proof photo has generated over 2 million views.*

    Back in October, Imgur launched a pretty significant update, with a focus on sharing. One of the goals of the update was to help Imgur break out of the reddit shell. Imgur is the top image host for the majority of reddit users, so a significant amount of its traffic comes from reddit.

    “The interplay between Reddit and Imgur is interesting as well, so no doubt Imgur giving its community the ability to bypass Reddit and share images directly on Imgur will be perceived as a shift,” Imgur told WebProNews at the time.

    *Note: Imgur’s “Top Images” list is editorial, and doesn’t simply rely on views.

  • Reddit Sees 37 Billion Pageviews in 2012

    Reddit Sees 37 Billion Pageviews in 2012

    I think it’s safe to say that 2012 was a landmark year for reddit. Of course, the user-generated content community has been growing exponentially for a few years, but 2012 saw the site become a true cultural powerhouse. There’s the good, like hosting the President of the United States for an AMA question & answer session. And then there’s the bad, like controversial subreddits r/jailbait and r/creepshots shining a (very public) negative light on the site.

    But the bottom line is that all of that attention led to a lot of pageviews. Reddit, like many other sites, has given us a look at their year-in-review, by the numbers. And those numbers are pretty impressive.

    According to reddit, the site saw approximately 37 billion pageviews in 2012.

    Those pageviews cames from around 400 million unique visitors, who crafted 30 million posts. Those posts received 4 billion votes and 260 million comments.

    Reddit has also unveiled the top ten posts of 2012, and number one shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone: President Obama’s AMA generated 5,598,171 pageviews to take the top spot. We know from a previous post that the President held sway over 30% of reddit at one point during the AMA.

    The next two top posts of the year belong to r/AskReddit posts, “What’s your ‘picture you can’t see without laughing?’” and “What’s your favorite picture on the whole Internet?.” both with a little over 2 million pageviews. In fact, r/AskReddit dominated the top ten, holding six spots. Two more AMAs finished in the top ten, with PSY’s coming in 8th and Snoop Dogg Lion’s coming in 10th.

    Reddit: from humble beginnings to internet superpower. Here’s the fun story of how it all began:

  • Snoop Gave the Best Answer in Reddit AMA History Yesterday

    Snoop Gave the Best Answer in Reddit AMA History Yesterday

    If you weren’t on reddit at any point yesterday, you missed a truly great AMA featuring Snoop Dogg Lion. Although his responses were mostly brief, Snoop took a lot of time to answer dozens upon dozens of questions on everything from music, weed, his shift to “Lion,” and video games.

    There were a lot of gems to come out of the AMA, but with one response Snoop won the internet yesterday. He also proved that he is enough of an internet-lover to get a classic self-referential meme.

    Here’s the Q&A:

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    Beautiful. Snoop gets it:

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    We also learned that Snoop smokes 81 blunts a day. I don’t really have words for that. You should go check out the AMA.

  • TIL How Reddit Was Born [VIDEO]

    TIL How Reddit Was Born [VIDEO]

    Before reddit was serving up billions of pageviews and hosting the President of the United States for Q&A sessions, it was just a simple link aggregator being artificially pumped up by its creators. Well, it’s still just a link aggregator, but as you probably know, that narrow definition doesn’t really come close to explaining reddit’s current influence on news and culture.

    If you have never heard the story of reddit, here it is from its creators. The story takes us from the University of Virginia dorms, to Harvard, through dealings with Y Combinator, failed startups ideas, and finally the launch of frontpage of the internet.

    If you are a frequent reddit user or simply have an interest in internet culture, this sitdown with site founders Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman is well worth your time:

    [A TOTAL DISRUPTION via The Verge]

  • Redskins Take to Reddit as First NFL Team to Schedule Series of AMAs

    Redskins Take to Reddit as First NFL Team to Schedule Series of AMAs

    Reddit AMAs: They’re so hot right now. Everybody’s doing them – Al Gore, the President, Congressmen. Once reserved for brave internet denizens, the reddit Q&A sessions have gone mainstream. Gasp.

    Figures from the sports world have participated in AMAs before, but today marks the first time that an NFL team has worked with the site for a series of official Ask Me Anything sessions. First up on the front page of the internet: The Washington Redskins.

    “These AMAs are a perfect opportunity to get a one-of-a-kind interview with your favorite Redskins players. Today’s is the first of at least three scheduled interviews, so stay tuned for future opportunities,” says the team on their official blog.

    Today’s AMA is currently going on, and it features Redskins linebacker Ryan Kerrigan. He’s responding to questions via the username Redskinsdotcom. Yes, that’s him participating in the AMA in the photo above. Mashable confirms that the other AMAs will feature breakout star running back Alfred Morris on December 6th and Lorenzo Alexander on December 12th.

    Awesome, except I want to ask RGIII if he’s thrilled that he singlehandedly won me hundreds of dollars in my fantasy leagues. I’m sure he would be happy for me. Though I can’t wait to find out whether Alfred Morris would prefer to fight 100 duck-sized horses, or one horse-sized duck.

  • Rep. Darrell Issa Seeks Input On New Bill From Reddit

    Rep. Darrell Issa Seeks Input On New Bill From Reddit

    Rep. Darell Issa has been one of the few guys in government that Internet freedom fighters actually like. He’s been very outspoken in regards to SOPA, and co-sponsored its alternative – the OPEN Act. He now has a new bill in the works, and wants the Internet to help him craft it.

    The new bill from Rep. Issa is called The Internet American Moratorium Act, or IAMA. The name is intentional as Issa has set up an AMA on the Technology sub-reddit seeking input from its readers. For now, the AMA just features a link to the proposed bill in question. Issa wants Internet users to read through it and post their thoughts in the comments today. He’ll start an AMA tomorrow morning at 10:30 to directly engage with Reddit.

    The purpose of Issa’s IAMA bill is to prevent the legislative or executive branch from proposing any Internet regulation for the next two years. The bill has two obvious advantages. For one, it would give people time to craft a bill that actually took Internet users’ rights into account. Current bills are more like knee-jerk reactions to issues that aren’t as big as lobbyists claim. Secondly, it would force Congress to stop wasting time with Internet regulation, and instead focus on matters of more importance.

    Before the AMA starts tomorrows, citizens can start making changes to the bill today. The current IAMA bill is being hosted on the same crowdsourcing platform that Issa had built for discussions on his OPEN Act. It allows users to directly edit the bill along with the others while adding notes on why they made a specific change. Users can also highlight parts of the bill and ask what they mean.

    It should be noted that this isn’t the first time that Issa has taken to Reddit. The congressman did an AMA about eight months ago that featured questions ranging from his stance on Internet regulation to his own private investments before entering Congress. At that AMA, Issa was quiet on a lot of important, but politically taboo, subjects. His latest AMA will be focused solely on his new bill, but you can expect some people to bring these questions up again.

    Regardless, Issa’s AMA should be interesting. His previous AMA drew over 2,000 comments and over 1,000 upvotes. In comparison, Zoe Lofgren’s recent attempt at seeking Reddit’s input didn’t fare so well. She only received 118 comments, and 498 upvotes. Granted, she posted in the politics sub-reddit, and her past doesn’t raise quite as many flags as Issa does among Redditors.

  • Rep. Zoe Lofgren Wants Reddit’s Help In Crafting New Bill

    Rep. Zoe Lofgren Wants Reddit’s Help In Crafting New Bill

    Reddit is something of an unstoppable force on the Internet. The site has attracted the attention of those big and small, and even the President dropped by for an AMA. It’s an incredibly influential site, and one lawmaker wants to leverage that power in crafting a new bill.

    The Hill reports that Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, the sponsor behind ECPA 2.0, will be crowdsourcing ideas for a new bill on Reddit this afternoon. The bill would be aimed squarely at putting a stop to the unwarranted domain seizures as part of the Justice Department’s “Operation in Our Sites” campaign.

    For those unaware, the DoJ and ICE started up “Operation in Our Sites” in 2010 to shut down Web sites found selling or spreading copyrighted content without consent. The campaign has led to over 700 Web sites being shut down.

    It should be noted that Lofgren doesn’t have a problem with copyright infringing Web sites being taken down. Her problem lies in the fact that there’s no due process and no chance for targeted Web sites to defend themselves. The DoJ just takes down a Web site without warning, and those affected have no real recourse in proving their innocence.

    Of course, just throwing a bill into the House might not solve anything, and it may make matters worse. That’s why Lofgren is asking for Reddit’s help in crafting the bill. Those who live and breathe the Internet would have a much better idea on how to preserve the Internet versus those in Washington that have shown time and time again that they know nothing.

    Lofgren’s Reddit post is not live just yet, but we’ll update this story when it does. It should be interesting to see what ideas the users of Reddit bring to the table. The community has proven in the past that is has a good handle on law, especially when it concerns the Internet.

    UPDATE: You can check out Lofgren’s Reddit post here. There’s only 10 comments after three hours, but that may be due to Lofgren’s poor choice of posting in the /r/politics subreddit where topics are quickly replaced.

  • Al Gore Just Finished an AMA; Here’s the Best of It

    Al Gore Just Finished an AMA; Here’s the Best of It

    Reddit, who previously snagged the President of the United States for one of its Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions, has just capped off another interesting Q&A. This time, the guest was former Vice President Al Gore.

    As would be expected, Gore fielded a variety of questions regarding climate change, energy sources, and his failed 2000 Presidential bid.

    Here are some of the best questions and his responses:

    Are you in favor of nuclear energy as a possible energy alternative for the future?

    It will play a role, but probably a limited role. I think the waste issue can probably be solved, and Fukushima notwithstanding, the safety of operation issue an pobably be solved. But the cost is absurdly high and still rising. Moreover, if we model it as the path forward, and encourage developing countries to head down that road, we would create a massive security challenge.

    During the eight years I worked in the White House, every single nuclear proliferation threat we had to deal with was connected to a reactor program. The technologies are different, but if you are the dictator of a country that has a reactor program and a fuel cycle, you can secretly orde the same people to enrich the fuel to weapons-grade over time and build bombs. Bad outcome. New reactor designs hold promise but they are all at least 15 years away. Meanwhile, solar pv is riding a “Moore’s Law Jr.” costdown curve. Wind and efficiency too, though not as steep. We need to get to scale on renewables quickly and make the transition.

    For people that may be skeptical about global warming, what is the one undeniable scientific fact that you feel backs it up the most effectively?

    There are at least 15 deeply researched separate lines of evidence that all confirm man-made global warming. They are all consistent, each with the others. Every National Academy of Science on the planet agrees with the consensus. The Academies describe the evidence as “indisputable”. Every professional scientific society in every field related to climate science and earth science also agree. And 97-98% of climate scientists worldwide most actively publishing also agree. Animals and plants also agree — in that they are moving their ranges by latitude and altitude to find climate niches similar to the ones in which they evolved.

    Even if you leave climate science completely out of it and just measure extreme temperatures, the statistical record of global temperatures shows that three-standard deviation events have increased from 0.25% of the time (from 1951-1980) to 10% of the time now. There is as strong a consensus as you will find in science, with the possible exception of the existence of gravity.

    On internet infrastructure…

    Our national information infrastructure is no longer competitive. We need to invest in more bandwidth, easier access, and the rapid transition of our democratic institutions to the internet. And we need to protect the freedom of the internet against corporate control by legacy businesses that see it as a threat, and against the obscene invasions of privacy and threats to security from government and corporations alike. Please think about this: almost everytime there has been a choice between privacy/security on the one hand and convenience on the other, the mass of folks have chosen convenience. I for one believe the “stalker economy” on the internet is undemocratic and anti- American. Are folks at the gag point on this yet? Thanks, btw, to the Reddit community for fighting off Sopa and PIPA. Keep your powder dry; more big struggles ahead.

    On advice to President Obama dealing with partisan roadblocks…

    Stand on principle. As Mark Twain said, “Do the right thing! You’ll ratify your friends and astonish your enemies.” Start with climate.

    I understand you and Tommy Lee Jones were roomates in college. What was he like?

    He is, first of all, a terrific friend. He really is an amazing guy. As good at directing as at acting, btw. Check out his performance in Spielberg’s Lincoln. Incredible! I hope he gets another Oscar for it. I’m biased, but I sure think he deserves it.

    Some years ago you were asked if you thought the 2000 election was stolen. You said: “There may come a time when I speak on that, but it’s not now; I need more time to frame it carefully if I do. In our system, there’s no intermediate step between a definitive Supreme Court decision and violent revolution.” Are you ready to address that question now?

    I haven’t ruled out addressing that at some point in my life, but no, I don’t believe now is the time to do it, if that time ever comes.

  • A Lot More People Are Using Reddit, And It Needs More Money

    A Lot More People Are Using Reddit, And It Needs More Money

    Reddit announced in a blog post today that it reached 3.8 billion pageviews and 46 million unique visitors in October. The site continues to see tremendous growth. In August, it was at 3.4 billion pageviews and 42.9 million unique visitors.

    As reddit grows, however, it also needs money to sustain that growth. CEO Yishan Wong is giving users a choice: they can start seeing more ads, or more people can become reddit gold members (or in other words, become a subscribing member).

    “Our server costs also continue to grow, so we have a choice to make,” says Wong. “We can start running a bunch more ads, or we can give you, the community, more reasons to support the site with your own money through reddit gold. Advertising will probably always be a part of our revenue, but we want to be ultimately beholden to you, the users.”

    “Reddit gold was started a couple years ago to great initial success,” writes Wong. “While many people have continued to purchase gold, gift reddit gold to each other, or send in postcards, we’ve never really promoted the program, so a lot of active redditors don’t even know about it. Today we want to announce a recommitment to reddit gold, a program we’d like to expand and promote.”

    They’re launching comment saving and filtering saves by subreddit, and the ability to give gold to other people’s comments (which they’re calling “gliding”). Also listed are “some upgrades and fun stuff in the members-only lounge that may or may not exist” and possibly “a remote-controlled office robot you can drive. Under construction.”

    Wong says reddit will eventually migrate the features to the whole community, if they’re determined to be beneficial to the whole community.

    Wong talked about the situation more in a reddit post, saying, “Actually, reddit is NOT one of the most profitable sites on the web at all. In fact, we are not profitable. This is because increased traffic results in more server usage, which primarily increases costs, not revenue. In theory advertising revenue should/could scale with traffic, but since we never tried very hard to sell our advertising inventory, we only run ads on a relatively small percentage of our pages and they do not cover our costs. When Obama comes to ‘chill on the weekends,’ that increases costs, not revenue.”

    Reddit is also talking to some “reddit-friendly” companies about possible perks or access to stuff for gold members. We should learn more about what these might include in the future.

  • Apple No Longer Hiding Samsung Statement On Its UK Site

    Apple No Longer Hiding Samsung Statement On Its UK Site

    Apple’s Samsung statement has been the subject of repeated court rulings and Internet mockery. Its the latter that may have changed Apple’s statement once again.

    CNET is reporting that users on Reddit and Hacker News both pointed out that Apple was hiding its Samsung statement below the fold, if you will, on its UK Web site. Users visiting the site would have to scroll down to see the statement and a link to the apology. After pointing this out, Apple seems to nulled the code that was hiding the statement.

    When visiting Apple’s UK site, users will now see the site in its entirety, including the statement:

    Apple No Longer Hiding Apology On Its UK Site

    CNET found that the code originally used to hide the bottom half of the site is still there. Apple merely inserted a stopper to keep the code from being called when the page loads up. The change could have been due to Apple deciding to change the design of its Web site, but others are taking it as preemptive action to prevent any further court orders.

    The current statement in regards to Samsung is set to run on Apple’s UK site until sometime in December. The company has also been printing the statement in newspapers and magazines across the country. Apple originally published a passive-aggressive statement, but a court order forced Apple to replace it with the statement you see now.

  • Imgur Launches Major Update, Looks To Rely Less On Sites Like Reddit

    Imgur Launches Major Update, Looks To Rely Less On Sites Like Reddit

    Imgur has unveiled its biggest update to date, seeking to make Imgur more of a destination site and less of just a place where people upload photos to share elsewhere (though this shouldn’t be a problem either).

    “The upgrade means images and memes can spread even faster,” a spokersperson for Imgur tells WebProNews. “Where sharing on Facebook may elicit a handful of likes from your close-knit community, positive or negative feedback from communities where sharing is so deeply engrained, like Reddit and Imgur, can generate tens or hundreds of thousands of responses.”

    “The interplay between Reddit and Imgur is interesting as well, so no doubt Imgur giving its community the ability to bypass Reddit and share images directly on Imgur will be perceived as a shift,” she adds.

    Imgur gets 1.2 billion views per day, and there’s no question that a significant portion of those come from Reddit.

    With the update, Imgur is bringing its image gallery to the forefront, essentially making it the homepage, and users will be able to share images directly from the site with a new icon in the navigation bar on every page. The company says the update “sharpens the company’s focus” on creating an image-sharing platform upon which anyone can share with everyone.

    Imgur Homepage Gallery

    In the past, users have had to share images on other social sites (like Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) to get many views, but now, the company says, images will have a better chance to go viral because users will be able to discover, vote, share and discuss images on the site itself.

    It seems to me like the sharing on Reddit, Facebook, etc. would make them go more viral, but okay.

    “This is the biggest update we’ve made to Imgur since we launched, and we’re stoked! Our community has been asking for this and we’re committed to giving them the absolute easiest and best way to share images, and to give those images a chance to go viral,” said Founder and CEO, Alan Schaaf.

    The company had this to say about image and comment sorting in a blog post:

    This new gallery also allows for easier and, dare we say, better sorting. Use the header to change from new (images being added in real time to the gallery) to hot (highest scoring images) to top of the week, month year or all time. You can also sort by virality, score or time. Virality is a score that combines views, votes and time into one to give you the most popular images at the moment.

    Images will still be added based on the popularity algorithm that is part of the “old gallery.” The difference is that these images are no longer considered new. They have already been shared around the web and stood the test of time, therefore they are added straight to the hot section. The “new” section you are used to is now hottest images sorted by time.

    By implementing a smarter algorithm to sort comments, we hope to combat the idea that the first post will be top comment regardless of its overall quality compared to the other, later comments. Introducing the “best” ranking. Simply put, it uses lots of math to come up with a confidence score for each comment that does not factor time. When a few people have voted on a comment, you get a rough idea of its quality. A comment with 100 upvotes but 50 downvotes has a lower confidence rating than a comment with 30 upvotes and 0 downvotes, despite that it has more overall points. The algorithm will create a hypothetical situation and assume that, if everyone were given the chance to see the second comment, it would be ranked higher. We hope that this improves the quality of top comments and make your votes count more.

    The update goes live for all users on Monday, October 29th.

    When we spoke with Imgur earlier this year, the company indicated that we’d see mobile apps this fall. When asked about it again, we were told that a mobile app is “still coming at some point in the future, but no official word yet.”

    Obviously, this new update would have a significant impact on the nature of an app.

  • Reddit Down for Some Users, Blames “Network-Related Issue”

    Reddit Down for Some Users, Blames “Network-Related Issue”

    UPDATE: It appears that a problem with Amazon Web Services EC2 in Northern Virginia. You can check out AWS’ Service Health Dashboard here.

    Those of you looking to browse reddit right now may be out of luck. That’s because the site is down, and has been for at least a couple of hours.

    According to Reddit Status on Twitter, the site began having problems around noon ET, and those problems expanded to taking down the whole site a little past 1:30 pm. Reddit says a “network-related issue” is to blame.

    What’s bad news for reddit and redditors is good news for a couple of other sites. The “reddit is down” page includes a couple of suggestions for people while the site is down. At the bottom right-hand corner there’s a link to imgur and the scrolling message asks users if they happened to see today’s XKCD comic yet.

    It also tells you just how impatient you are, by noting how many times you’ve refreshed. Thanks, reddit, but we already know how lost we are without you.

  • Reddit Challenges Policymakers on the Open Internet, Creating Jobs

    Reddit Challenges Policymakers on the Open Internet, Creating Jobs

    This year’s internet blackout and the fights against SOPA and PIPA show that the community of the internet, as diverse and weird as it can be, does have a common intrest in keeping the web open for everyone.

    Reddit, the popular social news and entertainment website, led the charge for the internet blackout protest and has now embarked on a tour across the middle of the U.S. The Internet 2012 Bus Tour has traveled from the first presidential debate in Denver, Colorado and made its way to Danville, KY, where the vice presidential debate will take place tonight.

    Along the way, the tour has held panel discussions highlighting local internet businesses in places such as Lincoln, Nebraska and Des Moines, Iowa. Last night, the tour held its final panel discussion about the “Future of Local Communities” at West Sixth Brewery in Lexington, KY and WebProNews was there to take in the event. The discussion emphasized that the internet is creating jobs all across the country – not just in coastal cities.

    Do you or does someone you know have a job that was created by the internet? Tell us about it in the comments.

    FARK founder Drew Curtis led the panel, which consisted of Reddit General Manager Erik Martin, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, and Michael Beckerman, CEO of The Internet Association, a new policy advocacy group founded by some of the biggest internet companies around.

    The panel preached the virtues of the internet, lamenting that politicians too often don’t understand the technology or its culture.

    “There’s no instruction manual, there’s no puppet master at the top,” said Martin.

    “All of the best stuff that has come out of Reddit has come from people that don’t work at Reddit,” added Ohanian. He pointed out that President Obama’s Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) interview took place on a section of the site that was user-created.

    It’s easy to see how a system with no appointed leaders might seem foreign to politicians. However, those same politicians will soon be making decisions and implementing legislation that could affect the structure and freedom of the internet for decades.

    “Politicians saying they don’t understand the internet is like someone in 1980 saying they don’t understand TV,” said Curtis. “That’s how long this technology has been around.”

    Beckerman made a point of stating that internet freedom isn’t just about the great content it produces. Those jobs that politicians are always speaking about creating could, given an open internet, be found online.

    “It’s about jobs and growth, and we’re gonna tell policymakers about it,” said Beckerman.

    The panel also encouraged attendees to build their own local communities and experiment with their own internet startups.

    “The communities we have online are not that different from the ones we have offline,” said Ohanian.

    Zach Cohn, a representative from Startup Weekend, told the crowd that starting their own internet business could be easier than they imagine.

    “If you do something, something happens,” said Cohn.

    Startup Weekend is a global organization that helps individuals and teams create startups in only 54 hours.

    After the panel, the tour settled in for beers and more personal chats with the people at the event. Betsy Barrett, the communications director for The Internet Association told WebProNews that the goals of The Internet Association are very similar to those of the Internet 2012 tour.

    “We want voters, the public, and congressional members to understand that there is a unified voice, there is a public policy advocacy group on behalf of the internet for internet freedom, for economic development, and for empowering users on the internet,” said Barrett.

    The Internet Association’s policy stances are driven by its members, which include companies such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook.

    Martin and Ohanian, when chatting with WebProNews, reemphasized that the internet revolution and startups don’t have to just benefit New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

    “With the internet, you now have the ability to start a company anywhere,” said Martin. He went on to explain that successful startups need talented people, money, and a supportive community surrounding them, which are things that could be cultivated in places such as Lexington.

    “What we’ve seen from Denver to Danville is Americans all over care about this issue – they care about internet freedom, and the are going to make their voting decisions based on it,” said Ohanian. “So I hope that every politician, no matter what district they represent, no matter what state they represent, knows that their voters are going to care about how they decide the fate of the internet.”

    How will the issues surrounding internet freedom affect your vote? Let us know in the comments.

  • Teacher Accused of Posting Suggestive Photos of Minors on Reddit’s “Creepshots” Subreddit

    Teacher Accused of Posting Suggestive Photos of Minors on Reddit’s “Creepshots” Subreddit

    On a site that relies on user-submitted content, there’s bound to be some areas that the general public finds distasteful, perverted, or even criminal. When that site is reddit (which generated 3.4 billion pageviews last month), it’s a mathematical certainty.

    Reddit has seen its share of controversy regarding the content of the links posted to the site. Earlier this year, it was the r/jailbait subreddit that drew media scrutiny. On that subreddit users posted photos of minors, often accompanied by sexual provocative language. The photos regularly featured the minors in sexually suggestive poses, but site moderators upheld a strict no-nudity policy. Even so, the subreddit toed the line of child pornography – enough so to force reddit to make a sweeping policy change that banned any and all suggestive or sexual content featuring minors. r/Jailbait was shut down, but plenty of other subreddits popped up in its place.

    Now, it’s another subreddit that has made the news. A substitute teacher in Georgia has been accused of submitting photos of students to r/creepshots (NSFW).

    Creepshots hosts user-submitted candid photos of attractive women. “Creepshots are CANDID. If a person is posing for and/or aware that a picture is being taken, then it ceases to be candid and thus is no longer a creepshot. A creepshot captures the natural, raw sexiness of the subject without their vain attempts at putting on a show for the camera. That is the essence of the creepshot, that is what makes a true creepshot worth the effort and that is why this subreddit exists,” explain the moderators.

    According to FOX Atlanta, the teacher has been relieved of their duties and is no longer on the substitute rotation in the school district.

    r/Creepshots moderators have acknowledged the story, saying,

    “Unfortunately, we have again made the news in a sadly negative light as a teacher was rightfully arrested for posting pictures of his students on our beloved subreddit. Please do not post any pictures of anyone under the age of 18, at all. The pictures will be immediately removed and we’ll also report you to the Admins straight away (who may take it even further and contact local law enforcement agencies).”

    They have also posted a defense of the subreddit, comparing it to the activities of paparazzi sites like TMZ:

    While there will no doubt be many complaints and moral outrages about this subreddit and how the theme of this subreddit is disgusting, etc… there is absolutely no difference between the types of images that are submitted on r/CreepShots, and between what paparazzi photographers do, around the world, for thousands of newspapers and magazines every single day. Some of the biggest sites on the internet, like TMZ.com rely on candid snaps of celebrities otherwise they wouldn’t even exist. Take your indignation there first.

    People constantly have their pictures taken, without their consent, and used in publications without their knowledge. When you are outside and in public space, you do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy.

    Also, please note: the moderators in this subreddit are very active and we regularly remove rule-breaking/illegal submissions. However, removing a thread only removes it from the public listings of the subreddit so that it no longer shows up. It can still be accessed through a users profile page, or if someone else has the link. This is not our fault, but a Reddit issue which is common to every single subreddit. We do report images to Imgur for removal, but can’t do anything about whether the images are removed from there or not.

    There is nothing illegal about this subreddit, whatsoever. Creepy, sinister, skin-crawling and generally downright distasteful… yes.

    But nothing illegal.

    While posting photos of minors is an obvious violation of reddit’s aforementioned policy, what about photos of adults? Do the members of r/creepshot have a point? Is what they’re doing any different from a tabloid magazine?

  • Reddit Launches Bus Tour to “Promote the Open Internet”

    Reddit Launches Bus Tour to “Promote the Open Internet”

    Emboldened by the part it played in combating the SOPA legislation earlier this year with an “internet blackout,” Reddit has officially announced that it is taking to the road with a bus tour in support of the open internet.

    In a post over at the Reddit blog, Reddit GM Erik Martin today announced the Internet 2012 Bus Tour. Martin, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, and other Reddit staff will board a half red, half blue bus and tour across the Midwestern U.S. From the blog post:

    This isn’t just about Silicon Valley and big web companies. Start-ups, local governments, small businesses and web savvy individuals across the country are using the platform of the Open Internet to start new businesses, learn new skills, earn extra income, and make their budgets go further. If you have a story like this, please post it to /r/Internet2012. The Internet 2012 Bus Tour will collect, document and share these stories from the American heartland. We will have 10 journalists from major outlets on the bus, as well as our own documentary crew to capture and tell these stories.

    In order to finance the tour, a fundraiser has been started on IndieGoGo. Perks for the fundraiser include a DRM-free download of the documentary, posters & stickers, a phone call/drunk dial from the tour, having your name on the bus, a ride on the bus, or your very own tour stop (for $36,000).

    A partial itinerary of the tour is already complete, and it starts on October 3 at the Presidential Debate in Denver, CO. From there the bus will make a stop each day, going to Boulder, Co; Lincoln, NE; Des Moines, IA; Iowa City, IA; Kansas City, MO; and Lexington, KY, where an event will take place on “The Future of Local Communities” with Drew Curtis‘ FARK. The last currently scheduled day will see the tour stop in Danville, KY, where the Vice Presidential debate will take place.

    The tour organizers are currently collecting stories of how the open internet has helped local communities over on the tour’s main subreddit. One of the first posts to that subreddit happens to be the trailer for the bus tour, seen below, which includes more details about the tour.