Interim CEO of Reddit Ellen Pao resigned yesterday after a tough week of user backlash. Reddit, under her leadership fired Victoria Tayl...
Interim CEO of Reddit Ellen Pao resigned yesterday after a tough week of user backlash.
Reddit, under her leadership fired Victoria Taylor, who moderated Reddit’s AMA subreddit. The place was home to a lot of famous people and celebrities, users got to ask questions about eventually anything, expecting to get a direct response from the personality involved. Bill Gates and many others have featured in AMA's subreddit.
Taylor was loved by a large number of other moderators of other subreddits. She had a lot of fans because of her clear cut vision and how she wanted AMA subreddit to be. Her dismissal came as a shock, prompting other moderators in Reddit to temporarily shut down their subreddits in protest against here premature removal.
While it’s still unclear why Taylor was given the harmer, CEO Ellen Pao will no longer be the one to provide the answers. She would be replaced by Reddit co-founder Steve Huffman. Ellen would however be limited to an advisory role on Reddit’s board.
Here is a copy of Ellen’s resignation:
After more than two years at reddit, I have resigned today. My first day was April 1, 2013 (go orangered!), and every day since has been an adventure.
In my eight months as reddit's CEO, I've seen the good, the bad and the ugly on reddit. The good has been off-the-wall inspiring, and the ugly made me doubt humanity.
I just want to remind everyone that I am just another human; I have a family, and I have feelings. Everyone attacked on reddit is just another person like you and me. When people make something up to attack me or someone else, it spreads, and we eventually will see it. And we will feel bad, not just about what was said. Also because it undercuts the authenticity of reddit and shakes our faith in humanity.
What has far outshone the hate has been the positive on reddit. Thank you, kind strangers, for expressing your support. You gilded me 100 times. (For those of you who apologized for generating a wave of accusations that I gilded myself, please don't feel bad. You did a good thing.) And thank you for sending cute animal pics and encouraging me to “Stay safe!” when the site overheated with expressions of hate in various forms. There were some days when your PM's inspired me more than you can imagine.
Most touching were the stories from regular users. Some told of people they knew who had committed suicide for being transgender or exposed in revenge porn. Others shared their experiences of being harassed and expressed empathy and gratitude. More recently, several users apologized for trolling me and for not giving me the benefit of the doubt when the troll hivemind moved against me. Initially users said they were afraid to post supportive messages openly; recently they started fighting back against the trolls publicly on reddit with support, corrections and positive messages.
So why am I leaving? Ultimately, the board asked me to demonstrate higher user growth in the next six months than I believe I can deliver while maintaining reddit's core principles.
You will be in good hands — our strong leadership team will now be led by u/spez, one of reddit's original co-founders. Like u/kn0thing, he's lived and breathed reddit since its inception and will work passionately to ensure redditâs success.
Thank you to all the users who shared your excitement about reddit and what we've done and for encouraging everyone to remember the human. And thank you for making my time here at reddit an amazing learning experience. [Reddit]
