Politics & Government
Obama Starts Q&A on Reddit, Crashes Site
The president submitted an "AMA" ("Ask Me Anything") on the social bookmarking site at around 1 p.m. Wednesday. Hundreds of commenters responded within minutes. What do you think of the move?
The loyal fanbase of the social bookmarking site and cultural phenomenon Reddit got a surprise Wednesday afternoon when President Barack Obama popped up in the news feed.
Obama submitted an "AMA" on Reddit, which stands for "Ask Me Anything" and is one of the site's popular features. Usually posted by someone with an interesting story, career or claim to fame, "Ask Me Anything" allows users to post questions and hold a direct conversation with the submittor in the comment stream.
Within minutes, the response from users overwhelmed Reddit's servers and crashed the site. Obama verified his identity on the site by tweeting and posting a photo. The president said he would be taking questions for 30 minutes starting at 1:30 p.m., PST.
Find out what's happening in San Rafaelwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The Washington Post reports that Obama's post drew 3.8 million page views on the first page, 2.6 million unique page views on the first page (which is still going) and over 22,000 comments.
Find out what's happening in San Rafaelwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
What do you think of Obama's move? Is it simply a political student to woo younger voters? Or is it a natural part of campaigning in an online world?
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
