Gadgetory

our next guest you may not know him as a human being but you certainly know his website where you find all of your favorite memes and animated cat gifts please welcome one of the founders of Reddit Alexis Ohanian I love you you brought props I like anybody who brings props uh-uh-uh-uh-uh taught me well use a carrot top taught use a prop comic please leave the record for shortest interview ever yeah now first up can I ask you anything yes he's ready joke come on guys there were three a bit off only three redditors in the audience yes seriously very sad so let's talk a little bit I want to talk about the creation the ideation the birth of Reddit hmm you've co-founded it in 2005 who are you who your partner's Steve Huffman just Steve yeah yeah me and Steve done each other we got together in an apartment months about a month after we graduated from UVA and got started trying to create the front page of the internet and you know a lot of fortunate things came together and here we are today and here you are could you can you imagine that you could you have ever thought you'd be sitting talking to me incredible climb what a success story really my big concern is I know it's only downhill from here it really is everything will seem boring and horrible after this because I'm going to ruin it for you so so what was your what was your thought like when you were building right what did you want to do you know in all frankness Steve and I were friends since the first day of college when he thought I was a girl because of my name on the door and you have a lady's name I was I was actually it was I was named after he Nicaraguan boxer named Alexis Arguello who was a dude but you know at a very early age realized I needed to embrace my effeminate name so yes I am eliminated uh-oh every day but so most importantly Steven I really just wanted to perpetuate our college life we really loved being able to eat pizza drink beer and work on fun projects and we thought let's try to do this by starting a company and you know we didn't set out to do a lot of the things that reddit has done in the way of philanthropic work or political work I'd be lying if I said we did we just wanted to create a place where we could find what was new and interesting online that's really interesting you just wanted a place to find hilarious stuff and collected and informative as well but oh come on cats so cats can be instruct no no that's true they can they can and and why do you think it's why do you think it's become you know you call the front page of the Internet why do you think it has actually you know really become the front pages in it I mean it has turned into something that is I mean based on what you're telling me maybe you guys didn't even predict but it has turned into something really big and special what is that how did that happen black magic we made we made deals it deals with various individuals um well you know what I you know we when we started read in 2005 social media wasn't even a phrase you know Facebook was still sort of relegated to colleges and many of the things we can't live without today didn't exist and we just hit oh goodness are you okay now obviously to drink but it's alcohol so is mine it's alcohol supposed to go into the lung I all right not a duck okay we can edit this right I was busy trying to remember all my Heimlich training yes I could have read he died you just sat there I was I was ready to jump an axe sorry so I became yes what it was Nick I think a lot of it was timing and here's the thing I'm not to take anything of it Steve did a brilliant job actually building reading by the way we're open source so take a look at his work the the work that went into it you know there was a ton of it but the other day we had a lot of really great timing and we we came about at a time when people were still starting they were just now starting to realize that user-generated content was a thing of value and it turned out there were a lot of people interested in submitting links and voting on them and having discussions on the Internet far more than we'd ever experienced then you know we caught things at the right time and I think the overarching ethos the spirit of Reddit that Steve and I knew we had to continue was that the two of us sitting in an apartment we're never gonna be able to find the best stuff on the internet there we tried for the first couple of weeks because we were like submitting things ourselves and there was no way we'd be able to find it all so we needed to be good to our users because if our users weren't excited about submitting to Reddit and in providing good content they'd never do it and we wouldn't have a site that was worth anything so so being good to those users I think is what helped reddit continue to grow for all these years and you've had you've had a lot of competition you've had competition out there at one point Digg kind of seemed to occupy the space that you guys occupy maybe actually when I think about dig it didn't seem to go as deep and maybe that's just the way our culture is moving but reddit seems to go reach deeper into not both the dark heart of the internet and outwardly to things like policy but but but Digg was at one point very much on top and they made some pretty substantial changes I feel like you guys saw kind of a flood of users who were looking for refuge what did you learn from that what did you see there and what were your takeaways from it you know we didn't we saw a significant bump after Digg version 4 it wasn't world-changing reddit has always steadily grown and I think what it did was it really reinforced this belief we had that we didn't need to care about our competition we need to build the best site we could for our users and like I said do right by them and and the real fatal flaw to dig for was taking away user submission was taking the very last bit of that democratic platform away from the people who like I said added all the value and as we moved closer towards giving users more power I feel like they moved further away until it eventually undid them well part of their thing was was they felt like some users had too much power yes and what are you do to combat I mean how are you trying to fight super users we well we work I mean there is a karma system on Reddit and I hope many of you work hard to get lots of reddit Karma but it really means nothing it doesn't bias your votes every redditor all all Reds are equal no redditors are more equal than others that was something in our FAQ from day zero and we wanted to make sure that we had a system where if you wanted to come on for the very first time and it happens every day on reddit submit a post say I am a blank ask for anything you could be on the front page that evening and the next morning on the Today Show and that literally actually happens now because we can let anyone who doesn't have any clout on the internet but who's got a good story or has found some good content you know get the fame internet fame that he or she's idea dessert that's actually this is actually leads in perfectly to my next question so you recently banned some publications a lot of news stories you banned the Atlantic some other guys for abusing reddit and you know we run a publication The Verge we are occasionally on reddit which is wonderful and I wanted to get some tips from you I feel like if there's gonna be a source on how not to abuse read it as a publication that you're the guy to ask so let me just have a couple of questions here all right how many accounts is is normal for one person to have would you say I'm gonna give you a few ranges okay had between 20 and 40 between 40 and 60 mmm where do you feel is the comfort zone for one individual to have a count this is gonna sound crazy but one I will say I will make I'll add in a 100 and you hit the nail on the head it's it's things like this we pay have always paid very close attention to it's kind of an arms race we're always trying to keep one step ahead of the cheaters but that's a really obvious way to be bad on reddit is to create lots of shill accounts and up vote your content you know I'll I'll certainly agree that everyone needs a fake account so they can say the things they may not be comfortable saying the stuff no no I don't really nasty stuff I I was I was thinking more like they asked me any things where you know candor's sort of required in being honest but the the the the fascinating thing is we we've always tried really hard to keep that kind of cheating down and you know we had publications that disregarded it and and I think partly because our predecessors actually sort of encouraged it we've had to sort of undo that mess okay when using multiple accounts IP spoofing yes or no no no don't don't don't do that oh and and in general my final question in this extremely serious line of questioning how many verge links should I be submitting on a daily basis again I'll give you a range okay 20 to 40 40 to 60 or unlimited because it's all really great stuff I I think in the Verge's case it should be that submissions of verge content yeah in a nutshell the best secret I tell publishers is is and I think people often forget this when they go on the Internet is just act like you would in real life don't act like a jerk don't act like yourself promoting your own content don't do that because that wouldn't fly in real life and it doesn't fly on the internet so you know we could stop we get worried I mean honestly like Reddit I mean look we're a new site right so we're growing and when we see something on the front page of Reddit like the traffic is crazy and it's not just that it's new traffic I'll just get a little serious with you for a second even though I was clearly just a really serious sinner it is very serious um but but it's not just that it's traffic it's that it's a lot of new traffic mhm you know a lot of people who've never who never heard of The Verge before and so we're actually like really I don't want to screw it up you know there are times when we're like hey art stuff is you know it's got a bunch of votes like go check it out like vote it up if you're on Reddit like and I don't want to be the kind of guy who abuses what you guys are doing because I think what you're doing is really special and really important and and and I mean yes I'm going to continue to use multiple accounts and spoof their ip's but I'm gonna do it in a way that is almost undetectable to bring it and that's the important thing so okay so if you guys are the front page of the internet mmm and by the way you have a lot in common with 4chan if you're the front page or they like the back door of the Internet Wow I mean are they I mean do you how do you cuz I feel like there's like always you know there's almost a you feel like it could go for Chan at any moment not that that would necessarily be a bad thing but it would be a little bit more chaotic than what you have going on now I mean the you know what the the moderation system that's in place the pseudo anonymity so unlike 4chan you're renters have identities they're anonymous you you have a username it could be Alexis Ohanian or it could be fluffy bunny 26 you still have an identity that's me that was yeah spoiler and so I think that has helped preserve it and and what's been really fascinating is you know reddit is a platform like Twitter like tumblr like all these others we use and communities form and use this platform to share links about everything from I subscribe to Redskins read it cuz I happen to be a die-hard skins fan and a masochist and and that community has its own culture it has its own ethos it submits a certain type of links has its own inside jokes and that's how they choose to use the platform and it's those moderation tools that I think encourage that great behavior that we see bubbling up into great things like the philanthropy and the political work I mean are you doing this on purpose your segue and perfectly into my next question I am so so you are so you are very active me you guys were very outspoken on SOPA you are you were referred to as the mayor of the internet and as a landslide election you I don't know but you you guys laugh but he had a chief of staff here backstage but but how do you take the kind of rage and anger and disillusionment that you see on reddit you know which I feel and I think a lot of us do when you're like watching these stupid piece of the legislation getting pushed and people kind of who don't get the internet trying to legislate the internet how do you take that rage and the stuff that bubbles up to the front page and turn it into something that's that they creates real action how do you go from from reddit to to activism you know I am not entirely sure we have your the my sorry and it took a lot of chickens a ton of chickens to get that mayorship I all over the internet I read I don't know I think I think if you see if you see any any of the stuff that starts out as a reddit post and ends it with real world action again whether it's activism or philanthropy there's just stuff that happens it's some person who starts with a random idea and it starts snowballing and what the internet does such a great job of is sort of giving us all ways to help I use the metaphor to talk a little all back about everyone getting the chance to be their own Batman or bat woman we know there are lots of things screwed up that we want to try and fix I create vigilantes take to the streets at night I only deal violently with criminal only if they're wearing this mask what is this you brought this along because I because I want to carry this metaphor in the real world because we all have we all have our little figure to have Gotham's can we get it yeah oh yes and this is not promotion for the film although I highly recommend you all see it have you seen it no I really no we don't get accident I think the entertainment industry does not do me any favors there goes my hair yes this is really comfortable by the way I will say my eyes supposed to be in Batman's Batman have bad sight is that what he's like I think you're the Joker stop me without committing crimes nice that is that I'll be using the bedroom later to note is law protecting the people at the bedroom obviously from Josh Topolsky but that's there is no there is this really empowering thing it just suddenly became a role play it really is there it that's the really empowering thing is that you can be sitting there you know just yesterday we saw this video of this woman on a bus up in Queens Newark being harassed by a bunch of students and 24 hours later after that story that video front pages on reddit she has literally two hundred thousand dollars donated to her from people all over the world who simply said this is wrong I want to do something about I got to get harassed is a lucrative make sure it's videotape yeah I like this I wish we had more time oh so much more to talk about well you know what I'm I was a little bummed I didn't get to sit down with Lavar but you know it I you can't disappoint a picture and maybe it's better that is fear to meet them that's very mean you you say Alexis thank you so much thank you thank you gonna come back is awesome this is awesome what is this I'm sorry we need to get to this this is a I'm a book publisher this this come on started it's like a Newman's Own foreigner it's called breadpig we our goal or specified aims to make the world suck less we could we get this on camera on camera and in table show this this is this area ceremony breakfast cereals so Zack Wiener wrote this it's a webcomic one was popular on the Internet we published the book for him he gets a majority of the profits it's published under a Creative Commons license and our profits all get donated to donorschoose.org specifically to classroom projects in math and science now that's not totally benevolent you know why because little kids who don't learn about math and science don't grow up into being the geeks who will read this book so we can make more geeks we'll sell more books it's just the long term I fully support that go buy this about you right now