Ask Me Anything

755 Pages·2015·4.92 MB·English

by  Reddit

ASK ME ANYTHING
A collection of some of Reddit’s best AMAs from r/IAmA.
Vol 1.
Reddit Powered by Booktrope
Seattle WA 2015
Copyright 2015 Reddit
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative
Works 3.0 Unported License.
Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor
(but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
Noncommercial — You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
No Derivative Works — You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.
Inquiries about additional permissions should be directed to: [email protected]
Unless indicated below, all illustrations copyright © Dante Orpilla
EPUB ISBN 978-1-5137-0747-1
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Introduction
About this Book
The AMAs
INSPIRING
Bassem Youssef
Joseph Kim
Denzel Washington
Mischka & Badgley
Idris Elba
Eric Glisson
Nichelle Nichols
Cyndi Lauper
Bill Murray
Kristin Beck
INFORMATIVE
Survived in Nazi Germany
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Ben Eisenkop
The Mortician
Senior Staffer to a Member of Congress
Former Nuclear Missile Operator
PROVOCATIVE
Jen Briney
Barack Obama
David Zetland
Daniel Ellsberg
David Belk
Ann Coulter
Ronda Rousey
Spike Lee
FASCINATING
Buzz Aldrin
Jason “Singer” Smith
My Ex Tried to Kill Me
Allena Hansen
Raised in the Rainforest
Double Dick Dude
The Man Who Died Twice
BEAUTIFUL
Ethan Hawke
Zach Phelps-Roper
Sir David Attenborough
Rosario Dawson
Nick Pyenson
Jeff Bridges
COURAGEOUS
Randi Gill
Damien Echols
Carl Estersohn
Peter Moore
Mohammad Usafi
Hubert Buchanan
HUMOROUS
Jon Gnarr
Chris Rock
Andrew W.K.
Madonna
Waffle House Grill Operator
Martha Stewart
Channing Tatum
INGENIOUS
Elon Musk
Louis C.K.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee
Bill Gates
RZA
Matthew Markus and George Bonaci
Brian Wilson
Wolfgang Puck
Tilda Swinton
Acknowledgments
More Great Reads from Booktrope
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to Ask Me Anything from the current moderation team of
r/IAmA.
We are the people who write and implement the policies that, in
conjunction with user voting, keeps r/IAmA running smoothly. With
over 8 million subscribers, some moderation is required to maintain a
balanced signal-to-noise ratio. As moderators, we are in the unique
position to facilitate some of the most fascinating content on the web.
This foreword provides an overview of the history of r/IAmA, from its
inception to its current position as one of the most successful crowd-
based interview platforms on the Internet.
Reddit is a social networking website containing content and
submissions that are driven to prominence thanks to votes cast by the
user base. The site is broken down into sections, commonly referred to
as “subreddits,” with each focusing on a specific subject matter.
r/IAmA (as well as more than 10,000 other active Reddit communities)
thrive on this voting system: popular and insightful content rises to the
top, while less interesting content fades into obscurity. This sets the
site apart from other social media platforms since users determine the
fate of the content posted to the site. Every user has helped to shape
fate of the content posted to the site. Every user has helped to shape
and grow r/IAmA with their posts, votes, and questions.
Like many subreddits, IAmA began as an idea elsewhere on Reddit, in
this case in raskreddit. There, users started Ask Me Anything (AMA)
posts in which users were encouraged to ask interesting questions of
the postee. Eventually, this lead to the creation of r/IAmA to give these
popular threads their own subreddit. The small community grew quickly
(gaining 20,000 subscribers in its first four months) and garnering a
wide range of posts, topics, and questions.
With the increasing popularity of the format, users began to request
certain people and topics for AMAs; over time this has led to numerous
AMAs that might not have happened otherwise. At the same time,
Reddit employees also began reaching out to well-known individuals to
participate in AMAs to answer questions for Redditors. These early
“celebrity” AMAs were posted on Reddit’s blog, were generally
restricted to certain topics, and the questions answered limited to the
top ten.
With the explosive growth of the subreddit, issues arose with users
creating fake AMAs. In response, the moderators began to encourage
users to provide proof with their posts, and also offered confidential
verification when the AMA host was uncomfortable putting their proof
out publicly.
As r/IAmA grew it began to face obstacles. An ever growing and diverse
user base led to differences in opinion over the future of the subreddit.
The initial creator, u32bites, became unhappy with the quality of the
posts and the direction the subreddit was taking. At this point, u32bites
made the decision to close r/IAmA with the hope another subreddit
would take its place. This shutdown did not last long. The community
expressed their extreme disapproval and in further moderator
discussions, ukarmanaut was tapped to take over as head mod. This led
to some significant changes in r/IAmA standards and policy that
improved the platform and shaped the subreddit into the cultural
juggernaut it is today.
All AMAs were required to provide substantial proof, which moved the
subreddit away from the interpretation that r/IAmA was an opportunity
to showcase creative writing (no more fake or joke AMAs!). r/IAmA also
developed two new guidelines for content—submissions must be either
something uncommon that plays a central role in the poster’s life, or a
truly interesting and unique event. This meant that all posts were now
required to be verified, and also paved the way for AMAs that were
credible. This change attracted more celebrities and public figures to
r/IAmA.
As the number of celebrities coming to Reddit and r/IAmA grew, Reddit
user uchooter, also known as Victoria Taylor, was brought on as the
Director of Communications for Reddit. Working in collaboration with
the r/IAmA mods, her background in public relations helped familiarize
individuals with r/IAmA’s format and opportunity. Since beginning work
with Reddit in 2013, she’s assisted with more than 2,000 AMAs.
Even as r/IAmA continues to grow and evolve over the years, the
community still stays true to its roots by desiring an authentic
interaction with any poster. Attempts to treat r/IAmA like a standard
media stop by selecting only softball questions or aggressively
advertising can be shut down, unmercifully at times, by the users. The