Reddit & the Commodity of a Digital Community
Why can’t senior execs understand? When running a website whose main attraction is its ever-active community, the one thing you must never do is piss off said community. Only now has the highly divisive former CEO of Reddit Ellen Pao realised this golden rule, after her recent apologetic announcement and subsequent resignation.
News sites and tech blogs have been reporting on what is arguably the biggest online fiasco in recent years. With the appointment of the now ex-chief executive, a swift crackdown on certain subreddits deemed harassing in nature followed by the sudden firing of a respected employee triggered an uproar that few across the web could ignore.
Incidents like this are not unheard of in the world of social media. A large portion of Reddit’s populace are former refugees of the now historic decline of Kevin Rose’s Digg — once the dominating force of social news aggregators. A gross misstep in its overall design — apparently making it more ‘Twitter-esque’ — caused outrage amongst members already aggravated by the introduction of obnoxious ‘sponsored’ stories. What happened thereafter was something akin to a biblical mass exodus, with the vast majority of users making good on their threat to leave Digg behind in favour of the then emerging alternative Reddit.
‘Big deal’ according to Pao, who went on to say that most Reddit users are apathetic to this digital unrest. Whilst it is true that most people come to Reddit not to comment, post or engage, but simply consume — or ‘lurk’ as web terminology goes — it would be naïve to assume that another Digg-like migration would leave little consequence.
As the figurehead of the company, it shouldn't be rocket science to understand that millions of visitors come to Reddit every day for the wealth of content created by its dedicated community. Take that aspect away, and what are you left with? More algorithms generating throwaway content with little to no substance or social cohesion. It’s a recipe for failure.
Of course I'm aware that, like most websites, Reddit is a business and a business must make money — I can’t criticise execs for making that their priority. But as such one must treat their unique selling point —what generates the most revenue — delicately. In this case, when overseeing such a passionate community, any slight upset is going to cause shock-waves.
Too much change in too short a time will unavoidably trigger a backlash, and an intelligent woman like Pao ought to have foreseen that. Closing down subreddits and dismissing key staff — all in the space of a few weeks — will never have gone down well with the majority of Reddit’s populace. It is human nature to be resistant to change, and as such any executive decision like this must be performed more as a gradual transition than an immediate clampdown.
It’s of no surprise then that after such aggressive censorship, Pao’s apology was met with little more than collective disdain. A 300 word post — no matter how heartfelt it may have appeared — was clearly not enough to satisfy an increasingly dishevelled user-base. And so a continued tirade of abject criticism led to the conclusive decision by which Mrs. Pao finally agreed to step down.
It’s a shame it had to end that way, as it is clear Pao also contributed a lot of positive growth to the company. But perhaps the remaining execs at Reddit should consider themselves lucky that the likelihood of another Digg situation is small, what with the lack of considerable competition currently out there.
Meanwhile, as an observer on the sidelines of what has been one of the biggest online maelstroms this decade, never has the phrase ‘don’t rattle the hive’ been particularly apt.
