President Obama Visits the Virtual Community of Reddit

President Obama is now on Reddit, taking questions on an Ask Me Anything Thread. (You can see his responses on his Reddit account "President Obama" here.) This is a landmark in Internet culture, the most prominent appearance of a real world person in a pseudonymous, virtual community driven by virtual rewards -- in this case, Upvotes and Karma. (Past milestones include Governor Mark Warner visiting Second Life in 2006 when he was a Presidential hopeful). Last January, I wrote about Reddit's growing influence over social media sites for Internet Evolution, and while I'm hardly the first or most prominent person to suggest this, I ended the essay with these words:

I'll be very surprised if President Obama and his GOP rival don't take their cases to Reddit -- while advocates of social media helplessly wonder why so many people have shifted their energies to a virtual community far from the din of context-less Tweets and the restrictions of real-name Facebook postings.

Mitt Romney, the virtual ball is in your court.

Comments

[Dave Bell]

The obvious difference between SL and Reddit is that SL struggles to cope with more than 40 avatars per region. So somebody hoping for a large audience is out of luck, even before figuring in the number of residents who can vote in a US election.

Though I must admit that the idea of a major politician being bombarded with gargantuan flying penises does have a certain appeal.

[Nalates Urriah]

2016: Obama's America - Is worth seeing. It is the first anything that provides an explanation of Pres Obama's motives that fits with his actions.

[Metacam Oh]

Well after last nights convention we know the Republican side isn't going to show. Too much internet access means you can google their lies and respond too quickly.

[thinkb4youtype]

@Metacam

I guess with the Reddit thing, one has a direct line to the liar in chief. Whats the difference?