Reddit is in turmoil.
Protests erupted last week following the sudden firing of talent director Victoria Taylor, who served as a liaison between the community, public officials, and celebrities participating in “Ask Me Anything” or r/IAMA forum. Reddit has paid employees and executives but its forums are primarily run by volunteer moderators. Redditor testimony hails Taylor as not only the linchpin to the success of the site’s biggest forum, but the bridge over a slowly widening chasm between the community and its administrators.
News of Taylor’s firing spread through the community, leading Reddit moderators to temporarily shut down threads in solidarity and uncovering a damaged and strained relationship between community members and company leadership.
Reddit leaders, including Pao and co-founder Alexis Ohanian apologized for the poor handling of Taylor’s mysterious dismissal. (The company won’t and doesn’t comment on individual employee matters.)
Pao wrote:
We screwed up. Not just on July 2, but also over the past several years. We haven’t communicated well, and we have surprised moderators and the community with big changes. We have apologized and made promises to you, the moderators and the community, over many years, but time and again, we haven’t delivered on them.
Her message continues with a vow to create more tools to make moderators’ jobs easier, and immediately appoint a moderator advocate, Kristine Fasnacht known as /u/krispykrackers to open communication lines, giving members space to voice their concerns.
When you’ve had feedback or requests, we haven’t always been responsive. The mods and the community have lost trust in me and in us, the administrators of reddit. Today, we acknowledge this long history of mistakes. We are grateful for all you do for reddit, and the buck stops with me.
Many users, however, found the “template” corporate apologies to be insufficient, and quickly re-upped a campaign calling for interim CEO Ellen Pao’s resignation. The Change.org petition, which was launched in the wake of Reddit enforcing its anti-harassment policy and deleting five abusive threads, now has more than 200,000 signatures.
CREDIT: Reddit
After hearing of Taylor’s firing, who went by the Reddit username /u/chooter, Art subreddit moderator Solidwhetstone indicated that this was the final “straw:”
I used to mod /r/IAmA and worked directly with /u/chooter and I’ve seen the decline of Reddit throughout Yishan and subsequently Chairman Pao’s regime. Perhaps all of this is the straw that broke the camel’s back. /u/chooter was one of the best employees Reddit has ever had — and we as the community need to say — we’ve had enough.
Public criticism of Pao is strong, with Redditors often pointing to personal controversy stemmed from her failed gender discrimination lawsuit. Taylor’s firing quickly drew the ire of Pao’s detractors who believe she is “a manipulative individual who will sue her way to the top,” according to the petition for her resignation. (That likely won’t happen as Reddit employees have rallied behind their interim CEO. When asked about the calls for Pao’s resignation, the company told ThinkProgress “Ellen has the full support of the team.”)
Part of the backlash could be attributed to a general disdain for change. It could also be the groundswell needed to move the company to a different, or as Reddit’s former cryptocurrency engineer Ryan Charles proposed, more decentralized model.
Whatever the case, Reddit’s revolt is certainly a symptom of unchecked, chronic issues within the community seemingly ignored by leadership, and has served — at least on some level — as a wake up call to administrators.
In a statement to ThinkProgress, Pao indicated the protests refocused the company’s attention to its most important asset — it’s community. “We appreciate all [the community and moderators] do for Reddit and are putting in place a system for better and more continuous dialogue with them and our community,” she said pointing to the new community advocate position. “We want to make Reddit a great place for everyone and moderators are critical to this.”