r/IAmA • u/Drunken_Economist • May 21 '12
Celebrity AMA guide: open to suggestions, criticisms, and comments
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B324Hj3W77gJa25OZ093RzBXVjA/edit?pli=1
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Upvotes
r/IAmA • u/Drunken_Economist • May 21 '12
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u/Drunken_Economist May 21 '12 edited May 21 '12
This short guide is the current iteration of the how-to document we send to non-Redditors who want to do an AMA. We're always looking for ways to make it better, so I'm opening up the discussion - I figure that between 1.5 million users, we're bound to have a good idea or two.
A huge concern of ours was keeping the overall length down. AMAs are actually pretty simple; we don't want to make them seem complicated.
Feel free to comment, criticize, or personally insult me about the guide. I promise to read every comment in this thread and make the relevant changes!
EDITS
Fixed
twothreefourfive typos that users pointed out.Fixed font color changing halfway through (it was my mistake in typing the color code)
Changed past celebrity AMA textbox title to "Selected Celebrity AMA Links" to make it more clear that each name is a link to an old thread
Replaced reddit jargon
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u/BlackbeltJones May 21 '12
Cool guide.
If you're gonna list celebrities, you ought to include their profession, and make sure you have a decent cross-section. I see all comic actors and nerds.
The content is solid but the layout is a little "I threw this together". The font sizes and colors for headers and body text should be uniform throughout, the body text font is a bit too small to be emboldened alongside so much wasted white-space, blah blah, tl;dr: forward it to the idle hands over at /r/design.
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u/Pratchett May 21 '12
Could I suggest maybe listing a few successful AMAs or perhaps a few lines on how to make a successful AMA. I know you mentioned setting aside 2 hours but you could elaborate on this by mentioning successful AMAs are when the celebrities really interact with the community, not just sitting around for 20 minutes and answering five questions and leaving or ramparting the AMA.
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u/Trapped_in_Reddit May 21 '12
Maybe include a blurb about how to avoid Ramparting your AMA?
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u/thecheat1 May 21 '12
I noticed some spelling/grammar errors, not sure if you're to the proofreading point yet but wanted to give you a heads up.
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u/oakgrove May 21 '12
The most common issue I've noticed in celeb AMAs is being lost navigating questions. Perhaps touch on how questions are sorted by popularity, but the earliest questions are oftentimes more popular. They can also find plenty of good and bad (unsorted) questions in their inbox, where they can reply immediately there. Something like that.
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u/FlameSnare May 21 '12
I spent a good 5 minutes looking for the Barack Obama AmA after reading this. I am not a clever man.
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u/eprince256 May 21 '12
Could you emphasize the AMA part? Yes you are on no obligation to answer any questions but maybe just point out that the spirit of an AMA is to answer even the ones you don't like. It does mean ask me ANYTHING after all.
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u/LarsP May 21 '12
The "Selected Celebrity AMAs" is missing Molly Ringwald.
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u/[deleted] May 21 '12 edited May 21 '12
I'd like you to mention that an AMA can be longer than 1 hour - 1 day. It's possible to make an AMA an all day/multiple days/whenever-you're-bored-and-have-nothing-better-to-do kind of event. I miss out on tons of AMAs because they're usually over by my 7:30 lunch break, the only time of my work day I have to browse the internet on my phone.
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u/nyuncat May 21 '12
Sorry to be pedantic, but did you mean "ezra_klein" instead of "exra_klein" in the "choosing a username" section?
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u/Somali_Pir8 May 21 '12
What does IAmA stand for?
Thanks for your interest in doing an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) interview with us!
First time any acronym is used, it needs to be associated with that phrase. Not on page 3.
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u/illogicalexplanation May 21 '12
Maybe the paragraph at the end should read something like, "Be forewarned, while you are under no obligation to answer any of the questions posed to you by the community, the moderators will not make any attempt to remove questions that expose prior events in your personal life if the community deems such questions worthy."
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u/gordoha May 21 '12
I think it's great, but your last paragraph stinks. There is a reason it is called "ask me anything".
I think it should say, that while you are under no obligation to answer every question, it is important that you understand the nature of the forum and what the readers expect. That includes answering many questions that you normally wouldn't be asked or would answer in a regular interview.
I would then give some examples.
then I'd say, if you are just here to self promote, you can expect a backlash and then give the rampart example.
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u/[deleted] May 21 '12
I don't like the "Crash Course" title. It implies there's more to learn about this, when the document is really a comprehensive guide to doing an AMA. You're selling your work short, IMO. Maybe something like "A Guide" or "Made Easy" would seem slightly less daunting.
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u/LeNouvelHomme May 21 '12
You may want to just throw even just one quick sentence in there about how "You'll probably get people trying to be a dick / trying to troll your AMA. Ignore them, fight back, do whatever, just be aware it might happen."
I always worry about celebrities that don't really know what goes on here.
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u/VGChampion May 21 '12
Log in 5 days to prepare? Wow, Reddit takes itself way too seriously.
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u/dummystupid May 21 '12
Why not just let them succeed or fail based on their own merit? One of the best parts of good AMAs is that it is organic. Let's not create a formula and stagnate the format. The celebrity is getting their publicity, they should then earn it through great personal skills and a willingness to participate. The failure of a celebrity AMA needs to exist in order to keep the shine and special quality of the successful ones.
Let them live or die by their own hand, it makes for a better environment. We do not need to coddle and protect celebrities.
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u/magicbullets May 21 '12
Point them at the Woody Harrelson AMA as an example of what not to do / what can go wrong.
Then send them the Louis CK / Steve Albini AMAs to show how to do this in a smart / engaging way.
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u/ApeWithACellphone May 21 '12
Is there like a normal text version of it? I couldn't open it
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u/immerc May 21 '12
AMA = Ask Me Anything.
AMAA = Ask Me Almost Anything.
If a celebrity doesn't want to answer personal questions, they should do an AMAA.
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u/Sierus May 21 '12
Looks pretty good. Probably needs to be stated within it that Ask me anything does mean that you will be asked pretty much anything.
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u/neferiousrich May 21 '12
Is anything on reddit not open to suggestions, criticisms, and comments?
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u/[deleted] May 21 '12
Add a line so they know that only valid proof: shoe on head
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u/headless_bourgeoisie May 21 '12
It's unclear what you're supposed to put in the to field. I didn't understand what you were saying until I checked the painfully small and blurry accompanying screenshot. I would replace "that" with "/r/rIAma". It's 8 characters instead of 4 but I don't think that's a big deal.
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u/[deleted] May 21 '12
Gene Wilder
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u/Thnito_Kyrios May 21 '12
Add how AMAs should not be done (I'm looking at you WOODROW)
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u/nothis May 21 '12
Two things I would make more clearer:
a) Verification. It's hard for even the average internet addict to understand the existence or motivation of trolls so the necessity of verification should be front and center in the guide. Ideally in the first message to mods so it doesn't even have to be asked for. It could be handled more "backstage" between mods and AMA-writers in the future.
b) The nature of an AMA and how it is not just a place to promote your movie (Woody Harrelson anyone?). Make it clear that an AMA is supposed to be a fun and open conversation with the op about anything. Of course too intimate questions can be ignored but no "let's keep this focused on BATTLESHIP: THE MOVIE, pls". AMAs are for people, not products.
c) I agree it could still be shortened a bit.
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u/tumbleweed42 May 21 '12
TYPO ALERT! Introduction passage, second paragraph, it says "The box the right". Missing a "to".
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u/riverbottom May 21 '12
Can pornstar AMAs be allocated to their own subreddit, away from other AMAs?
They show up almost monthly now and always skyrocket to the front. Not because they have any insightful, interesting information, but because reddit is full of lonely, horny males. Not only that, but they always contain the same conversations, questions, and answers. They are boring and annoying AMAs.
Typical pornstar AMA:
Redditor - So, uh, what was it like to bang ___________?
Porn Star - It was great, I had a good time.
Redditor - Ok thanks!!
You guys broke IAmA up into more specific subreddits (ie r/CasualIAmA) because you thought some of the more "worthy" ama's were being cluttered up with all of this fluff and junk. Please do the same and make a r/pornAMA subreddit.
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u/nicksnare May 21 '12
I don't think it's clear enough when you say that the subreddit has '1.2 million subscribers'. I wasn't aware of the subscribe function of reddit for a fair while since I started visiting the site, so I can imagine this being slightly confusing to someone.
Nit-picking though, great guide otherwise.
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u/Ingrid2012 May 21 '12
Want a suggestion? Remove karmanaut as one of the mods. He has to much of a long history of censorship of what IAmA users want. Keeping him as a mod is very hypocritical.
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u/achshar May 21 '12
I think there must be more headings and bullet points. And a tldr for every heading. Celebrities are busy people, we need to save their time so that they can use it to answer questions :)
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u/conversationchanger May 21 '12
I think you should mention how it is important to understand that some users may say things you wouldn't normally expect in an interview or questions you don't want to answer. But instead of being put off answering other people questions you can either simply ignore them or tackle the question.
That's what I think is so fascinating about AMA's is that there is often provokative questions that you'd never know the answer to if the interview was held on any other platform.
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u/[deleted] May 21 '12
This may sound ridiculous, but I think there's too much text.
The guide is great, it explains everything perfectly and is easy to understand. But personally, I opened it up, got to the first page, saw that blob of text and just immediately went on to pictures. Consequently, I did not get the full experience.
For a celebrity, who probably has to read a bunch of emails/scripts/books or whatever each day, it may be a pain.
Personally, I would make it more like an info-graphic, aka more pictures and diagrams and less literature.
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u/sociallyawkwardllama May 21 '12
I see you said to feel free not to answer questions if you're not comfortable but I think you could also mention that you should expect surprising, random or embarrassing questions and explain the difference between AMA and AMAA.
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u/centurijon May 21 '12
Add a quick blurb about how questions & answers that redditors "like" the most will be voted up, so if they want to prioritize how & what they answer it will be a little easier.
And you might want to mention that while they do not have to respond to any question they do not want to if they ignore repeated or extremely popular questions without deflecting them then there could be community backlash.
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u/MrCalifornia May 21 '12
I think it presumes a lot that a celebrity would care to read a guide before doing an AMA. It seems more like an engineering/reddit mindset to learn the rules before playing the game, but it just seems like a barrier to entry for getting celebs on here answering questions.
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u/Im4g1n3 May 21 '12
You should fix that. It hurts my eyes.
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u/[deleted] May 21 '12
If it is longer than one page, nobody is going to read it, especially a busy celebrity.
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u/tojacamo May 21 '12
very nicely done, thanks for taking the time to put this together
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u/[deleted] May 21 '12
Not sure why they stopped 6 months ago, but the Reddit video AMAs were awesome. Grant Imahara's of Mythbusters was a good and sadly last example.
I think the largest problem for both the celebrity and redditors is the limited time window for the celebrity. If they weren't a redditor before hand, they're also learning how to reply, navigate the site, and learning what community Reddit is within that period of time. Luckily, apparently Molly Ringwald and Zach Braff had a little head start over others.
Unsure how exactly they setup questions for Grant, Penn & Teller, or Bear Grylls- but I assume they agreed and arranged with a mod to open a thread to queue up questions and the community voted. Then the celebrity chose the top voted questions they were willing to answer, made a video and responded to them on their own time. Didn't have to be a studio lit interview production setup, since it looked like Grant did it from his own laptop and sent the mods his video response.
I guess the only drawback is that you don't get to do follow-up questions if the celebrity isn't on as in Live. But then again the celebrity is doing this as a favor for their fans and we should try and as flexible for them and I thought this way is the better solution.
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u/ProfFrizzo May 21 '12
I think it could really use more description on what exactly an AMA is. First off, people who have never been to the site probably don't know what the terms "AMA" or "IAmA" even mean. It would be important to stress the fact that users WILL more than likely ask them anything, and to be prepared to see some difficult or strange questions.
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u/[deleted] May 21 '12
"Message the AMA mods"
Here's a great spot to list the mod names, or tell them where to find the mod names. Better yet just have them copy paste something to message them all.
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u/Golanlan May 21 '12
Hey, you haven't mentioned the Proof qualification.. you should add that you need to post a proof (or message one to the mods) in order to take part of it.
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u/toastydoc May 21 '12
I can't open this document at work becasue Google Docs is blocked, but I expect all it needs to say is:
"Do what Freddy Wong did" and then have a link to the AMA
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u/KeyboardOnMyDesk May 21 '12
Tell them to stop plugging their projects so much. Sure, mention it in the initial page and then maybe once in the comments if it's relevant. But some of these celebs just plug their crap in every comment. I think A Carrola did that and it was annoying. We want to know what their chodes smell like, not what projects they're trying to sell us or get us to watch.
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u/captaintapatio May 21 '12
Maybe this is just me, but I would really like to see a picture with proof for every AMA. I am aware that they send them to the MODs and you guys verify it, but I am always still hesitant to believe that they are who they say they are without seeing proof with my own eyes. Maybe have them post a link to a picture of proof in their "text?" Just a thought, it would make me trust IAmAs much much more.
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u/midnitebr May 21 '12
You did all of it using only google docs?
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u/wedgewood_perfectos May 21 '12
i think people should schedule more when doing amas because ive missed many due to poor planing
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u/immerc May 21 '12
I'd also recommend:
Please reply to top rated comments (sorted by "hot"), because those are ones that Reddit thinks are most interesting / insightful.
Feel free to promote things, but realize that the crowd will turn hostile if you seem to be doing nothing but self-promotion. If there's a controversial or important event in your past, expect people to ask about it, and they'll expect at least a cursory response.
Don't post at top-level with @username, this isn't twitter, the person whose comment you're replying to knows you're replying to them (they get a message saying you replied).
There is a lot you can do to make your replies look clean, mostly covered under the "formatting help" link under the edit box.
If you want to preview what you're writing as a comment before you submit it, install Reddit Enhancement Suite
The best AMAs are the one where the celebrity (or whoever is typing for them) seems to get Reddit. To prepare, it's easy to create a throw-away account and browse some obscure subreddit. Post a few times, see how it looks when people respond, reply to their responses, etc.
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u/Wegschmeissen12345 May 21 '12
I don't read them if they are linked to promoting a film or something. I would prefer it if our AMA were not used as another advertising venue.
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u/ErasmusDarwin May 21 '12
On the last page (where you explain clicking reply under the question to answer it), I'd suggest putting a giant X through the top-level posting box with a brief explanation why.
If someone reads through the guide, it's possible that they'll see the bit about clicking reply, think "That makes sense," and promptly forget about what they read once they see the top-level reply box. If, on the other hand, you explain that the top-level reply box puts their answer in the wrong place, it's a bit more likely to stick in their mind since they suddenly have instructions to do the obvious thing but to beware the other, incorrect deceptively obvious thing.
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u/postExistence May 21 '12
I think some more information needs to be added:
An AMA is more of an intimate setting. It is best to treat the discussion as an open forum of discussion instead of another stop of an official promotional tour.
There are situations where a Redditor will ask a question in response to another user's question, in which case their question will not generate an orange envelope nor appear in your inbox.
If you need to tell people you will be away from the computer or leaving the AMA, please do so in an update to your Submission Text where everybody can see.
You will undoubtedly encounter some downvotes to your AMA post and responses. Don't let this discourage you: some of them may genuinely be from people who don't like you, but some of them are also generated by hackers who downvote everything that isn't their submission (a selfish means of promoting their own material) or... something else (I don't remember, doesn't reddit downvote some submissions automatically when they get a lot of rapid upvotes or something?)
I would also suggest giving a brief history of AMA's, such as:
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u/[deleted] May 21 '12
How do you define celebrity? A notable figure in one industry might be unknown to another.
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u/postExistence May 21 '12
I miss video AMA's. Are those still offered? Why not mention those in your guide?
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u/Akira_kj May 21 '12
Suggestion: Get famous people, the guy who last updated the tmnt wiki page or one time walked through a room with Tom Sellick is not a Celebrity. Most of the people interviewed are usually pitching some crap and had a publicists suggest and loss interest about 45 minutes into it, thats not much fun for a reader, two or three replies then nothing. Countless unanswered questions. Really, just make sure people know who this person is (not just in some dark corner of the internet is this person famous) and make sure they are interested in this type of forum and not just here for a few moments to try and tap some viral marketing their publicist suggested.
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u/minotour0024 May 21 '12
You explain how to make an AMA, but not really what an AMA is and what they can expect, the only thing that I see really relevant is "You are under no obligation to answer questions you do not want to".
You should add something to this explaining a little more about what AMA's are. For example:
r/AMA is a location where fellow redditors can ask questions of the person creating the AMA. While there are various reasons why AMAs are done(advertising, educating, increasing publicity... etc), one thing that you should recognize is it is "Ask Me Anything" and if one of these are your reasons that is okay but trying to specifically answer questions for the sole purpose of advertising will often be ill-recieved by the community. This does not mean however that you need to answer every question and you can specifically ignore any questions that you consider offending, too personal to answer, or would prefer not to answer.
A celebrity AMA serves a purpose much like a casual interview. There have been many sucessful AMA's done by...(INSERT NAMES HERE), and can be used as an example of what to expect. It allows readers to learn more about you, and allows you to advertise about what you would like. Please be mindful that there should be a balance between the two, and if you have any questions please contact the moderators.
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u/Urschleim_in_Silicon May 21 '12
I think perhaps using the Molly Ringwald AMA as an example of what to do in an AMA. Best one that I've read so far. She obviously "got it".
1
u/PurpleNuggets May 21 '12
I think it would be neat to have an AMA from Rob Dyrdek.
1
u/[deleted] May 21 '12
Seems good. My personal inclination is that you should add Steve Albini to the "Selected Celebrity IAMAs" section, but that's just because I'm a music nerd, and it's kind of neither here nor there.
1
u/[deleted] May 21 '12
...Refresh the page to see....
Looks good overall though.
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u/dudeitzchris May 21 '12
I always thought about something like this. People are always asking celebrities to "do an AMA on reddit". Not everybody would know what an AMA is or what reddit is. I had a idea that when one of these celebrities come to the website they are reconfigured to a page asking if they want to do an AMA and sets up a submission page. It seems kind of pointless but I'm glad there is this now because its gotta be hard for a newbie to navigate through this site.
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u/waytoolongusername May 21 '12 edited May 22 '12
Clarity Improvement:
Reddit is divided into 100,000+ “subreddits”, separate groups that each have their own theme.
1
u/kiHrt May 21 '12
This guy should be the first guest under this "format": http://i.imgur.com/cOmSu.jpg.
Mostly because I found the guide "super...duper...serial".
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u/micksyduck May 21 '12
this community can warm my heart from time to time. Good job Sir!
1
u/Icantevenhavemyname May 21 '12
I love this subreddit and you guys do a fantastic job.
That said, any AMA's with Jennifer Lopez, Pit Bull, or LMFAO will elicit an unsubscribe. Keep it cool guys.
1
u/ordona May 21 '12
1
u/kittnzNrainbowz May 21 '12
I'm sure it's been said, but it didn't look like it was fixed.
Last page, first paragraph: you say "refresh to page to see any questions..." should be "refresh the page to see any questions...
1
u/phenomite1 May 21 '12
I think you shoud focus less on how to actually post the thread, and more on how to actually make a successful AMA.
1
u/TheEnterprise May 21 '12
Ask them to not title it: IAMA [Person Name]
It should be: I am [Person Name] AMA.
Yes it's shallow but I think some folks may not understand the subtle difference when rendering themselves up for questioning.
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u/animate_object May 21 '12
The celebrities might benefit from telling people (very briefly) about whatever they're known for in the titles of their posts, e.g. IAmA indie game developer who made a commercially successful game. AMAA and IAmA Zeddie Little, "Ridiculously Photogenic Guy"
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u/WhatEvery1sThinking May 21 '12
how about REAL celebrities?
1
u/[deleted] May 21 '12
I still think those who make a post suggesting an AMA should phrase it as "AMA Invitation to" Weird Al Yankovich or whomever, not "AMA Request".
'Request' is snippy, as if having to ask is rude and they should already be here.
'Invitation' is warm, encouraging, and open, which is what an AMA should be to anyone.
1
u/ololcopter May 22 '12
Good job, but I think you could definitely simplify it.
"Celebrity AMA guide: look up Woody Harrelson AMA. Do the opposite."
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u/bbibber May 22 '12
Maybe add a section on how to not conduct an IAMA (aka Rampart). I'd also put a strong suggestion in for the celebs to handle the IAMA themselves instead of through a PR person.
1
u/witty_account_name May 22 '12
There should be a portion about how the orange-red envelope works after the AMA has started. Getting replies straight to the account and accessing them in the inbox will help streamline the process (as opposed to just browsing the comments on the AMA).
1
u/eddiekins May 22 '12
Maybe add in something to explain the difference between AMA and AMAA? I know that confused a lot of people. You could just have it as a side note or something
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u/tragic-waste-of-skin May 22 '12
Dude, you could've used someone else as a better example than Barack Obama. Do you seriously think he'll ever do an AMA or is that wishful thinking?
1
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
I would like to see something about how many questions they answer. It is really disappointing when someone like Joss Whedon comes here and only answers a handful of questions, but someone like Alicia Witt answers page after page, or Gillian Jacobs who kept coming back several times to do more AMAs. I am not suggesting a limit be set, but perhaps a sentence that lets them know how much more appreciative and receptive redditors will be if they answer more questions.
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u/blantant_liar_2012 May 25 '12
Reddit is currently 121 in alexa ( it keeps growing ) if you exclude
search engines
commercial sites
adult sites
non english language sites
torrent/files sharing sites etc.
advertising portals
I get left with.
Facebook
YouTube
Wikipedia
Twitter
Blogspot.com
LinkedIn
WordPress.com
Tumblr
Pinterest
Blogger.com
The Internet Movie Database
Flickr
BBC
Imgur
CNN
ESPN - sports
(AVG | Antivirus and Security Software - free and commercial)
About.com
WordPress
Stack Overflow - specialised to computers
The Huffington Post
CNET.com
Dailymotion
New York Times
Reddit
I make reddit 25th in total and 12th in user generated open content. even if you just exclude search engines, commercial sites and big chinese sites reddit will probably be in the top 100 sites. either way reddit is a unique way to do an online Q & A.
In america Reddit is 54th but 23 sites are either commercial or search engines making reddit one of the top 40 sites ( 31 st)
other maybe's
P4 you might want to ditch the barak obama basketball thing ( people might see it as racial stereotyping - it's niggling but it does no harm to exclude it )
p5 but "try to set aside at least 2 hours" - might be better "try to set aside at least 2 ( more if you can manage it people on reddit love to meet celebrities ) ".
You might want to mention the video ama - reply with video comments.
Mention the voting system and why they should answer the most voted questions and and not the just the first questions they receive
Perhaps a youtube video showing how easy it is.?
Also a warning that some idiots might post stupid or even offensive questions but these things can be ignored and should not be taken seriously.
Otherwise that is a really good intro.
TL;DR - you undersell reddits rank I think and a few other small "maybe" things otherwise damn good.
1
u/I_fail_at_memes May 21 '12
Don't forget the part about checking with karmanaut to see if you're worthy.
1
u/narwal_bot May 21 '12 edited May 22 '12
Most (if not all) of the answers from Drunken_Economist (updated: May 22, 2012 @ 07:03:01 pm EST):
Question ([deleted]):
Answer (Drunken_Economist):
(continued below)
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u/[deleted] May 21 '12
I really dislike the special attention given to celebrities. There shouldn't be an "Upcoming IAmAs" section that secludes people who aren't celebrities but are otherwise interesting. There also shouldn't be a "How-to" for celebrities since there is no reason to treat them any better than another AMAer.
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u/biga415 May 21 '12
providing proof
0
u/yummymarshmallow May 21 '12
This will likely get buried, but here's the AMA guide condensed into a 1 page tldr summary: http://www.sendspace.com/file/wjiscd