There is a Reddit revolt happening —here’s why
When it comes to specific corners of the Internet, the user-generated site Reddit has made quite a name for itself over the years.
There are some great parts (like its recent decision to take a firmer stance to prevent online harassment on the site), but those of us who have ventured into the Reddit black hole also know what an immense time-suck it can be. One minute you’re looking at viral videos and the next you’re reading through Channing Tatum’s amazing AMA thread.
Right now, however, Reddit is in a state of upheaval. News broke yesterday via the site’s users that communications director Victoria Taylor, who goes by the username chooter, had been allegedly fired without warning.
Taylor had been the administrator of the Ask Me Anything subreddit, which as of this posting had been set to private after news of her dismissal began circulating around the Internet. In addition to the AMA subreddit, several other major subreddits had also been set to private, including /r/gaming and /r/askreddit. According to a notice on the site, the decision was made “due to internal administration reorganization at Reddit.”
As you can imagine, Reddit users are not happy about this, though in organized fashion they’ve maintained a comment thread on the site with a round-up of related events as well as a list of all the subreddits that are currently private.
So far, Reddit has not issued a public statement on Taylor’s firing, but Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian commented to the site under his username kn0thing. “We get that losing Victoria has a significant impact on the way you manage your community. I’d really like to understand how we can help solve these problems, because I know r/IAMA thrived before her and will thrive after,” he wrote. He even cited the Channing Tatum AMA as a recently successful moment for Reddit.
As The Verge notes, Ohanian also apologized to the Reddit community in a thread update, promising to improve their AMA resources. “Our process won’t be perfect overnight,” he wrote, “but we will refine it over time with the moderators.”
Since Reddit is primarily known as a site that runs on user-generated content, only time will tell how this recent shake-up will affect things.
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