Reddit revolt: Forums shut down in protest over staff sacking

[Jazzy]

If you try to browse ‘front page of the internet’ Reddit right now, you’re likely to find something like the picture above.

The cat vids, crowdfunding and gaming chat have been displaced. Redditors are angry at alleged mismanagement and they’re protesting by shutting down the most popular subreddits.

It’s in response to the shock sacking of popular employee Victoria Taylor (/u/chooter), who ran the ‘Ask Me Anything’ feature which secured people as high profile as US president Barack Obama to answer questions by users.

Nobody knows for sure why it happened, but people are speculating it has something to do with her resisting attempts to make the site more commercial.

It’s not just because of Victoria – trouble has been brewing for some time.

Back in February many deserted the site claiming they were being censored, as admins shut down controversial forums allegedly ‘harassing’ fat people.

Many are blaming CEO Ellen Pao for the unpopular changes, with one user describing her as ‘the Grinch who stole Reddit’.

And user Zerrok said:

"I was under the impression that after the banning of r/fatpeoplehate, people were overreacting, because hate subs have no purpose in my opinion. But now I begin to see that the admins have lost touch with the community and have no idea what they are doing anymore."

Source

Thoughts about the shutdown?

Have you seen this done on a forum before?

 

[Smiley]

Seen what? Members rioting over a staff member getting fired? :unsure2: None that I recall. Just the opposite. Regular members tend to throw a party when a moderator or administrator gets demoted.

I do know where some of the disgruntled Reddit members have migrated to. I've been observing them ranting about being mistreated on Reddit by the power abusing moderators. I don't use Reddit myself, so I don't know how mature its staff members are.

 

[Dee]

There's a lot more that's going on than just a staff member being fired, but Reddit is definitely turning into one of those companies that merely cares about money. There've been some changes lately to ownership and administration, and both staff and members do. not. like. it. The thing is, Reddit's userbase has been such a force in the past--done everything from declaring they get AMAs from celebrities to finding lost people by getting the word out--that this isn't your typical online community. And because it's not a typical online community, these people won't stand for what's going on very long. Staffers may decide to make private a bunch more subreddits, possibly even the front page. I don't recall the front page actually going down, but several subreddits from /r/movies to /r/gaming went "private". Then again, it could've happened when I went to sleep. In any case, it's interesting to watch the force of this community thunder about the changes.

 

[Jazzy]

I clicked the Reddit main link and got this message:
a message from the moderators of /r/AskReddit
As a statement on the treatment of moderators by Reddit administrators, as well as a lack of communication and proper moderation tools,/r/AskReddit has decided to go private for the time being. Please see this post in /r/ideasforaskreddit for more discussion.

Wow, right now there are 2,163 comments in that post. People are definitely NOT happy campers.

 

[Dee]

I clicked the Reddit main link and got this message:
a message from the moderators of /r/AskReddit
As a statement on the treatment of moderators by Reddit administrators, as well as a lack of communication and proper moderation tools,/r/AskReddit has decided to go private for the time being. Please see this post in /r/ideasforaskreddit for more discussion.

Wow, right now there are 2,163 comments in that post. People are definitely NOT happy campers.

You mean you can't access the front page of Reddit? Hmm, I can view it.

 

[Jazzy]

You mean you can't access the front page of Reddit? Hmm, I can view it.

I just tried it and was now able to access the front page. Not sure why I couldn't before.

 

[Dee]

I just tried it and was now able to access the front page. Not sure why I couldn't before.

That is kinda weird. It's been accessible for me all morning and all last night.

 

[Jazzy]

That is kinda weird. It's been accessible for me all morning and all last night.

It is weird that I can now access the front page. When I tried before, I got only the image that's in my OP:

 

[Webster]

Here's another view of the issue at hand...

(Sky News) One of the web's most popular websites has been thrown into chaos by a rebellion sparked by the sacking of a popular staff member.

The unpaid moderators of some of link-sharing site Reddit's most-read sections have temporarily hidden them from public view.

They include the sections - known as subreddits - for movies, books, gaming and science.

It comes after Reddit employee Victoria Taylor was dismissed in mysterious circumstances. Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian has now apologised to the Reddit community for the situation, and asked for moderators to end their protest.

Ms Taylor was in charge of the 'ask me anything' (AMA) question and answer sessions which have seen the likes of Barack Obama and Bill Gates grilled by Reddit users.

But she was unexpectedly fired from her role this week, leading many of the site's moderators to disrupt Reddit in protest.

The books section moderator 'imakuram' said: "This seems to be a seriously stupid decision. We have several AMAs upcoming in books and have no idea how to contact the authors."

One of the top-rated comments on a discussion of her departure said: "I've been browsing Reddit for damn near seven years now and never in its history have I genuinely thought that the people in charge were ******* morons until now.

"Yeah they weren't always perfect, yea they ****** up once in a while, but overall it seemed they knew what they were doing.

"In the past few months that's all gone out the window, it's like this website is being run by clowns.

"'Let's fire the person who keeps our fourth largest subreddit functional and not tell anyone involved! That'll be funny, right guys? Honk honk.'"

Some users have speculated whether it was the disastrous AMA with the Reverend Jesse Jackson this week that triggered Ms Taylor's departure.

In it, one user asked: "How much money have you extorted from various people and companies over the years of practicing your shakedown scheme? Do you think Al Capone would be jealous of your business model if he were still alive?"

But others say her departure was due to a disagreement with management over the commercialisation of AMA.

Reddit has around 163 million monthly unique users.

It recently appointed Ellen Pao as chief executive, who banned five forums last month in a harassment crackdown.

She was recently left with a £543,000 legal bill after losing a discrimination case against her former employer.

 

[Nebulous]

All the disgruntled reddit members can join Off Topix and live happily ever after

 

[Dee]

Hah, some of the people on Reddit are crazy and I don't think I want to be around any more crazy. There's enough of it here.

 

[~KAGE-008]

All the disgruntled reddit members can join Off Topix and live happily ever after

That's a good one!

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

Have to admit never been to reddit and don't exactly know what it is. But sounds kind of cool what they did. I am in a anarchist mood so sounds like fun!