Will this undermine most of what makes IAmA special? Probably. But Reddit leadership has all the funds they need to hire people to perform those extra tasks we formerly undertook as volunteer moderators, and we’d be happy to collaborate with them if they choose to do so.
Reddit fired Victoria because they didn’t want to spend any cash on this kind of thing.
They fired Victoria because they were trying to aggressively monetize IAmAs in ways that were going to fuck community interests, and Victoria pushed back. Think Rampart, except companies can pay to ensure that it doesn’t become a PR fiasco, so it’s guaranteed astroturf.
Reddit has been classy ever since.
Which makes no sense, because the high-profile AMAs she made happen certainly broadened reddit’s public appeal by quite a bit.
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