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Reddit CEO Calls Out Former Reddit Employee on Reddit

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Re: Reddit CEO Calls Out Former Reddit Employee on Reddit

#221

Post by danso »

pgrote wrote: post #168

The CEO has responded to the criticism of how it was handled: https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditCensorship/comments/2ifd3p/ud... "Hiya. It was a harsh response, I agree (there's actually more, but we're pulling our punches, if you can believe it), and in fact all day yesterday I didn't want to post a reply, hoping his AMA wouldn't get too much traction or he wouldn't spout too many misconceptions and we could all just c…

Without knowing any of the sides here, all I can say for sure is that the ex-Reddit employee is showing a baffling amount of bad judgment here, even when benchmarked against other young-techie-implosions. Maybe he thought, "Oh no biggie, I can always delete this thread later and my real name isn't on it"...yes, until the thread explodes and now one of the many tech-news blogs jumps on it...the "no doxx allowed" rule doesn't exist outside of Reddit. And now your Google results will, for the rest of your life or until you invent the cure for cancer, have this dumb fiasco tied to your name.

And for what? I would think a Reddit insider, of all people, would know how transient karma and internet fame is. Some employers are going to reject him because he now has a history of spectacularly ripping on his own company. But I have a negative opinion of him because at best, he's someone who shoots his mouth of when it's just not worth it, and at worst, he's a chronic attention seeker.

Rebels are fun. But this isn't Jimmy McNulty complaining about unpunished murders in Baltimore. This is an engineer complaining about business strategy above his pay grade...even worse, he takes the side against the (purportedly unwise) do-gooders at Reddit, so he doesn't even young-headed idealism to blame.

And this isn't even taking into account whether the CEO was speaking truth, in which case, if you were fired for alleged incompetence and you try to play it off publicly as if you were fired for taking a stand...that's just a whole different level of shortsighted stupidity.

That said, the CEO should've taken a few deep breaths before posting what he did. Wrestling with a pig in mud and all...it's not his job to be part of the sideshow and I'm having a hard time imagining that employees feel satisfied about this resolution...other than the fun of water cooler gossip.

edit: The worst part of the CEO's comment..."we're pulling our punches, if you can believe it"...no, I can't believe it, nor did I really care. But now you've shown that you'll play the stupid innuendo game, a rhetorical maneuver that has no upside to the company at all. Christ.

Re: Reddit CEO Calls Out Former Reddit Employee on Reddit

#222

Post by TeMPOraL »

UK-AL wrote: post #218
TeMPOraL wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First of all, I wouldn't call CEO's response childish, I'd call it exactly right . Honest, clear and straight talking is what we need to have more, and not some corporate contentless PR fluffs. Secondly, CEO just exposed himself to a potential lawsuit and a total loss of respect from his subordinates if he lied even a little bit in that statement. That is kind of a whole lot of evidence favouring trusting him over th…

How do you know its clear and straight talking? It could be complete bs, and same for employee. When your angry/hateful towards someone, all logic falls out the window.

I don't see anything angry or hateful in that response. I think people here are just projecting.

Re: Reddit CEO Calls Out Former Reddit Employee on Reddit

#223

Post by jedberg »

atwebb wrote: post #205
jedberg wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In California, a termination conversation usually begins and ends like this: "Thank you for your time, your services are no longer required. Please collect your belongings." Anything else opens the company up to liability.

Do you think this former employee was planning on this kind of a reaction from Yishan?

I haven't the faintest idea. :)

Re: Reddit CEO Calls Out Former Reddit Employee on Reddit

#224

Post by opendais »

dreamweapon wrote: post #215
opendais wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "The best theory I have is that, two weeks earlier, I raised concerns about donating 10% of ad revenue to charity. Some management likes getting feedback, some doesn't." How else could you possibly interpret this rationally in a conversation about being laid off?

A bunch of ways. The point is you didn't present it as an interpretation ; you presented it as something he physically, actually said. Which, as you knew, it wasn't.

Eh? I literally said -> "The guy basically said "

http://www.italki.com/question/143633 "When we summarize something that somebody said, we use this expression. "

Eh. You have an interesting way of understanding English I've never encountered before.

You also fail to provide said intepretation/explanation/whatever you like to call it. So...ya.

Re: Reddit CEO Calls Out Former Reddit Employee on Reddit

#225

Post by sheepmullet »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #162
nilkn wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And why should we believe the CEO? I don't trust either of them. At all. What I do know, though, is that one of them wrote a comment which is tremendously meaner than those of the other person.

Because the CEO just exposed himself for a serious lawsuit if even an iota of this statement is not true, not to mention a media shitstorm and total loss of faith of his subordinates. This is strong evidence in favour of believing him over the other guy.

But the other guy will likely struggle to get another job because of the shitstorm so he is IMO much more at risk than the CEO is.

Re: Reddit CEO Calls Out Former Reddit Employee on Reddit

#226

Post by TeMPOraL »

ForHackernews wrote: post #210
TeMPOraL wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this probable given how much risk he would be taking on himself in this situation? It could be a career-and-company-ending move.

> It could be a career-and-company-ending move. Are you kidding me? What world do you live in where corporate executives and companies are punished for lying?

Most cases you're probably thinking about are of CEOs of big companies issuing CYA-statements that minimize legal attack surface. Here, the guy just exposed himself completely. Also Reddit is not Goldman Sachs; it's value is directly proportional to how much people like the company, and Reddit finds itself in the middle of another funding round.

I do see a great potential for bad consequences here.

Re: Reddit CEO Calls Out Former Reddit Employee on Reddit

#227

Post by Scuds »

nknighthb wrote: post #190
opendais wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And some potential employees will look at it and go "Well, I am not going to risk working there" as a result either way.

His allegations were a mix of the implausible and the cliché. It would take a remarkably naïve candidate to both take these allegations at face value, and think Reddit is somehow unusual in being on the wrong end of them. If not having this stain is the criteria by which they judge potential employers, they will find no employment. Now, however, potential experienced employees who actually live in the real world will…

> Now, however, potential experienced employees who actually live in the real world will be avoiding Reddit.

I've worked for a certain popular online gaming service and have been threatened in my personal email by people who've had their accounts banned. Being in any position of authority (public facing or otherwise) on a site that caters to gamers and/or people who spend all their time on the internet is something I would recommend against.

e: www.reddit.com/r/yishansucks yup. You don't want to be in a situation where you're always under fire from these guys.

Re: Reddit CEO Calls Out Former Reddit Employee on Reddit

#228

Post by grimtrigger »

danso wrote: post #221
pgrote wrote: post #168

The CEO has responded to the criticism of how it was handled: https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditCensorship/comments/2ifd3p/ud... "Hiya. It was a harsh response, I agree (there's actually more, but we're pulling our punches, if you can believe it), and in fact all day yesterday I didn't want to post a reply, hoping his AMA wouldn't get too much traction or he wouldn't spout too many misconceptions and we could all just c…

Without knowing any of the sides here, all I can say for sure is that the ex-Reddit employee is showing a baffling amount of bad judgment here, even when benchmarked against other young-techie-implosions. Maybe he thought, "Oh no biggie, I can always delete this thread later and my real name isn't on it"...yes, until the thread explodes and now one of the many tech-news blogs jumps on it...the "no doxx allowed" rule…

People who take the "moral high ground" always have to deal with the same criticism. Edward Snowden? Doing it for attention. Assange? Total attention whore

At some level its true. People take principled stands in the hope that somebody pays attention. That doesn't mean their criticisms or opinions are invalid.

Re: Reddit CEO Calls Out Former Reddit Employee on Reddit

#229

Post by dreamweapon »

opendais wrote: post #224
dreamweapon wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bunch of ways. The point is you didn't present it as an interpretation ; you presented it as something he physically, actually said. Which, as you knew, it wasn't.

Eh? I literally said -> "The guy basically said " http://www.italki.com/question/143633 "When we summarize something that somebody said, we use this expression. " Eh. You have an interesting way of understanding English I've never encountered before. You also fail to provide said intepretation/explanation/whatever you like to call it. So...ya.

The distinction lies in your use of quotation marks (rather than subordinate clauses). If you had just said:

The guy basically said he was laid off because I pissed off management with his feedback.

then it would have been perfectly clear that this was an interpretation of what happened, rather than a literal description of what happened.

Re: Reddit CEO Calls Out Former Reddit Employee on Reddit

#230

Post by dreamweapon »

argonaut wrote: post #191
dreamweapon wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TL;DR : "We got antsy; we didn't know what to do; so we retaliated."

That is not a tldr. That's your interpretation.

That's the point of TLDR'ing: what they said was so muddled (or evasive) that we're forced to draw an interpretation.
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