![]() ![]() The space is, at least by declaration, a social-convention-free zone, and many of the question-answerers try to follow along, albeit less comfortably than the pseudonymous or anonymous. Something about the site-the venue, the community, something-licenses people to say and do things that they otherwise wouldn't.Įrik Martin, Reddit's general manager, likes to say of the AMAs that "there are no rules." But that is, itself, a way of trying to release people from behaving as they normally would. There's a whole cottage content industry that merely repackages the answers from AMAs. AMAs generate some of the most compelling stories on the web, or in any medium. It's a common Twitter joke now to say, "I, ask me anything." Its syntax and abbreviations have invaded the public consciousness like Wired's aged Wired/Tired/Expired rubric. Over the last several years, the IamA subreddit has gone from interesting curiosity to a juggernaut of a media brand. Politicians tend to play things pretty straight, but the regular people and niche celebrities tend to open up in fascinating ways. These interviews can last for as little as an hour or go on for several days. Questions are voted up and down, and generally speaking, the most popular ones get answered. Then, the assembled Redditors ask whatever they want. Or " IAmA Congressman Darrell Issa, Internet defender and techie. Or " IAm Siri, award-winning porn star, 2013 Top Writer on Quora, and swinger. Or " I have climbed the Seven Summits (tallest peaks on all seven continents), skied to the North and South Poles, and am on the part-time faculty at West Point. They open a new thread on the social network and say, for example, " IamA nanny for a super-rich family in China AMA!" In fact, hundreds of people have offered themselves up to be interrogated via Reddit's crowdsourced question-and-answer sessions. The genius of the AMA: it imports the aspirational norms of honesty and authenticity from pseudonymous Internet forums into a public venue with 2.5 million subscribers. ![]() No venue could bring these people together.Īnd yet, each of these people has stood before the IamA subcommunity on the social network Reddit, and typed those immortal letters, "AMA."Īsk. Barack Obama, Jerry Seinfeld, a line cook at Applebee's, and a guy with two penises walk into a bar.Īctually, no, they would never do that. ![]()
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