"Let's not kid ourselves, we're not doing this to save the world or even improve things or not do evil, we're trying to get filthy fucking rich." -- Alexis Ohanian (reddit co-founder)

kn0thing

Which video? Pierre is wearing a fogbugz shirt (it was a Joel on Software Conference) and I'm wearing a destructoid shirt at MIT.

kn0thing

Always happy to give out stickers! Thanks for sticking them.

kn0thing

Thanks. They were definitely part of the inspiration; though, everyone at the conference was in on this joke, unlike the great Yes Men.

kn0thing

Thanks! That's exactly who I stole the idea from. The inspiration came not long after the Colbert Show came on the air. I was watching a day of startup pitches to angel investors and one of them in particular struck me as perfect for a Colbert-esque lampooning. Then I got a chance at BarCamp Boston to try out the talk I linked to above - Pierre's parts were written by me and most of the slides by Aaron Swartz, then an employee at reddit.

The talk linked to in the submission was for a Pecha Kucha competition at Joel Spolsky & Neil Davidson's Business of Software Conference. I was the only one doing a comedy bit (everyone else was, you know, trying to teach something interesting), but I'm pretty sure everyone in the audience knew I was joking, too, especially because I started out by introducing my alter-ego...

kn0thing

The person you should be applauding is Pierre Francois, the character I was playing during the talk. He's the real American hero.

kn0thing

I think Pierre would need you to explain how it's going to involve the Twitter, first.

kn0thing

Excellent! That means I did a great job with the satire.

kn0thing

It was indeed a joke. Pierre Francois is an alter-ego, as stated at the beginning of the talk.

kn0thing

I've always aspired to be a Christopher Walken wannabe :(

kn0thing

I want to high5 you right now.

kn0thing

Thanks! It was intentional, since it was satire.

kn0thing

Not if it's an uncorporation like breadpig!

kn0thing

You should've seen their decadent offices. On my visit to DirectRelief, I could barely walk through it without stepping hookers and knocking over the mountains of cocaine.

kn0thing

That was satire :(

kn0thing

I had this really lengthy response that I typed up to anonomon, hit save, then deleted, because I can't believe any of this is actually being taken seriously.

BTW, this is Alexis Ohanian here. I'm really hoping he's just trolling, but just in case, here comes the reality-check:

Pierre Francois is 100% pure satire. Here's another talk I/he gave at Barcamp Boston. Same schtick. Here's me giving a real talk (as myself) at MIT.

Update (for anonomon): While I agree that Steve did all the useful work when we started reddit (at least give me credit for the logo) and our users have always been the people responsible for making reddit everything it is (something we've never shied away from mentioning) - you're clearly some combination of an impressive troll and/or someone who really needs some help. Whoever you are, I hope you get it. You're absolutely entitled to your own opinion, just not your own truth. Yes, I borrowed that quote.

(Though, I think you just need a breadpig shirt to change your mind about our porcine hero - I'm happy to send one - I started the company to donate 100% of the profits, we've given away $95,000 in the last 2 years and with your help maybe we can break $100,000!).

kn0thing

I think your satire-detector is broken.

kn0thing

It is. Frankly, I've always felt a bit detached from this side of my heritage (contrary to the norm, the Armenian side of my family is rather small, I don't speak the language, and I grew up in suburban Maryland with no Armenians in sight and a lot of very confused people when I told them the origin of my odd surname). As soon as the plane landed here, though, it felt strangely familiar.

You should have seen how happy my dad was to see just that photo of his son and Ararat. He'll be making his first trip here in April.

kn0thing

The Trail of Tears was a horrible name for a cruise ship.

kn0thing

Thanks. Just a small cog in the great machine :)

kn0thing

We've certainly benefited from growing up in a place where criticism of the state is not only a right, but an important part of progress (despite the periodic attempts to stifle this freedom).

And hey, as recent-immigrant-descended Americans, even though our forefathers didn't enslave blacks or contribute to wiping out the American Indians, those events are still a part of our historical narrative as Americans. Not that we're guilty of those crimes (or that descendants of those Americans are) but that we all ought to learn from these atrocities and treat other countries' citizens the same way.

edit: I hope you're right :) Also, you wanna get together and argue over Greek/Armenian/Turkish coffee sometime?

kn0thing

You know, I'm supposed to also be tacitly pushing the Fellows program while I'm here...

kn0thing

Whoa! You win - I only joined in early 2008. Do consider at least joining Team Reddit if you haven't already. I can't criticize a donation in honor of FSM. Ramen.

kn0thing

I've known the rule to be -yan and -ian, but I'm in no position to be determining this ;) so I'll give you partial credit and honorary status. Heh.

kn0thing

I concur! And not just collective history to be shared, but a peaceful future -- Armenia and Azerbaijan in particular really have more pressing internal needs than warfare with one another.

kn0thing

My pleasure. Do consider all the Kiva fellows a resource for any of your Kiva-related questions. And may I strongly recommend you join our kiva lending team (originally started by a random redditor, in fact).

kn0thing

TROPHY CASE

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