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Ellen Pao Is Stepping Down as Reddit’s Chief

nytimes.com

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Re: Ellen Pao Is Stepping Down as Reddit’s Chief

#121

Post by caractacus »

MBCook wrote: post #93

I don't like this at all. Even if she wasn't the right person (I don't know), all the worst elements of the site are going to see this as a victory for their awful behavior and it's going to get worse. The people who attacked her with sexism and comments about her personal relationships. The people who supported FPH even though they were attacking people in real life and off Reddit, not just posting comments in their…

> She didn't do a good job of it, but at least she tried to stand up against some of the worst of Reddit.

These are two separate things. The fact that she tried to stand up against some of the idiots that inhabit the site doesn't mitigate against the fact that she did not do a good job. She should have resigned or been fired for not doing a good job regardless of how well she coped with the jerks en masse.

Re: Ellen Pao Is Stepping Down as Reddit’s Chief

#122

Post by iaw »

ElComradio wrote: post #100

PR that comes out of corporations cannot be trusted. We cannot trust Altman is being honest that he appreciated her efforts. We can't trust that her and her husband were in love. All of this that comes out of spokesmen is carefully crafted as a result of a numbers game. When do we hear "so and so CEO did a horrible job and was forced out by the board."? Never. So are we to believe there is no such thing as a terrible…

I think the last line may resonate a bit negative (and possibly sexist) with people but I do agree with your larger point of: when do corporations actually tell us the truth about these ousters?

Re: Ellen Pao Is Stepping Down as Reddit’s Chief

#123

Post by [deleted] »

lingben wrote: post #85
pkorzeniewski wrote: post #32

“Ellen has done a phenomenal job, especially in the last few months,” he said. What exactly "phenomenal" has she done? Reddit works pretty much the same as it worked several years ago, but in the meantime she managed to piss off the majority of community, which is the only reason Reddit exists

Considering that it was Sam who brought in Ellen, what do expect him to say? if that isn't enough to warrant 'corporatespeak' over-drive, consider that Ellen really enjoys suing her employers and she still hasn't been able to completely pay her legal fees for the last case she lost. Do you really want Sam to speak honestly about Ellen in public and open himself and reddit up to a lawsuit?

[deleted]

Re: Ellen Pao Is Stepping Down as Reddit’s Chief

#124

Post by pen2l »

tacos wrote: post #53
pkorzeniewski wrote: post #32

“Ellen has done a phenomenal job, especially in the last few months,” he said. What exactly "phenomenal" has she done? Reddit works pretty much the same as it worked several years ago, but in the meantime she managed to piss off the majority of community, which is the only reason Reddit exists

I don't even use Reddit and Sam's quote was so odd it caused me to comment below (probably turning more and more grey by the moment). In the past few months Pao destroyed herself from the top of the mainstream media down to the deepest underground corners of Reddit. She's pissed off high-powered people in the SF investor community, the LA film community, and the NYC advertising community. I suppose we just have to ig…

Sam said it for PR reasons. He also posted this one a Friday afternoon!

Basically they want to give something for news articles that doesn't further paint reddit management as being anti-women or something.

Re: Ellen Pao Is Stepping Down as Reddit’s Chief

#125

Post by justizin »

sharkweek wrote: post #70
revelation wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You applaud them on a PR strategy that is akin to dictatorships all over the world denouncing opposition as "terrorists" and criminals? The community is not a coherent block. To give the impression that the criticism stems from an organized group of people that applaud and tolerate death threats is the equivalent of binding it to a strawman and lighting it on fire with gasoline.

The first rule of reddit is unsubscribing from all the default subs and searching for the ones most relevant to your interests. The day I discovered I could do that quickly made Reddit my favorite site on the web (/r/NFL, /r/homeimprovement, /r/television, etc). I'd love to see a discovery feature similar to that of Pinterest built into the signup process that algorithmically signs new users up for subreddits most re…

Augh, seriously, I just followed a link from Google through Pinterest and they made me connect facebook and choose categories to read an actual link that I found in a search engine.

I used Pinterest some in the early days, but I'll avoid like the plague, now.

The worst part is all they did is intercept the search result for someone else's website and force me to give them all sort of marketing data they can sell in order to get it.

Gross.

Re: Ellen Pao Is Stepping Down as Reddit’s Chief

#126

Post by dimino »

Patrick_Devine wrote: post #47
nhf wrote: post #10

I think this was the right thing to do from a PR perspective. Having Steve back as the new CEO will definitely be good for the community. I also applaud Reddit's announcement for calling the community out on their childish BS: > As a closing note, it was sickening to see some of the things redditors wrote about Ellen. [1] The reduction in compassion that happens when we’re all behind computer screens is not good for…

As an occasional user of reddit, this whole ordeal has confirmed the reason why I prefer not to hang out in its forums. I have no idea whether Ellen was a capable CEO, but the vitriol which I kept seeing peripherally (through other news articles and here on HN) was absolutely appalling.

I came this close to not even knowing about this, until someone posted something in /r/dataisbeautiful about Ellen Pao's comment karma over time.

Just like Facebook, it's almost entirely related to what you subscribe to/follow. /r/chess was entirely mum on the situation, for example.

Re: Ellen Pao Is Stepping Down as Reddit’s Chief

#127

Post by lingben »

MBCook wrote: post #93

I don't like this at all. Even if she wasn't the right person (I don't know), all the worst elements of the site are going to see this as a victory for their awful behavior and it's going to get worse. The people who attacked her with sexism and comments about her personal relationships. The people who supported FPH even though they were attacking people in real life and off Reddit, not just posting comments in their…

> but at least she tried to stand up against some of the worst of Reddit.

I'm baffled at how people misunderstand Ellen's actions in shutting down a few subreddits randomly.

She did not 'clean' reddit of the worst of reddit nor 'hate' subreddits. In fact, there are still dozens and dozens of really disgusting stuff on reddit like /r/gasthekikes and /r/coontown

Let's please stop this false narrative that she was a champion of some kind who came in and tried to 'clean up' reddit.

Not only are there plenty of reprehensible stuff on reddit still, Ellen's claim that she targeted behavior and not speech rang hollow for the majority on reddit because communities like SRS were and are getting away with the same or worse behavior.

Re: Ellen Pao Is Stepping Down as Reddit’s Chief

#128

Post by saryant »

noir_lord wrote: post #116
pavel_lishin wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's unfair to compare your un-curated Reddit experience - which you admit is pretty good in a few niche subs - with your highly curated Facebook feed. It's like saying that food in New York is awful because you reached into a trashcan and found a rancid bagel, but is awesome in Chicago because you looked up the nicest restaurant and spent $500 on a meal there.

Not really a matter of fairness or unfairness more an explanation of why I prefer Facebook to Reddit in that it allows that curation.

That doesn't really hold water. You can choose which subs you're subscribed to.

Re: Ellen Pao Is Stepping Down as Reddit’s Chief

#129

Post by pvg »

davmre wrote: post #65
devindotcom wrote: post #38

Maybe I missed it, but was there ever any information on why Victoria was fired, or whether Pao actually had anything (or everything) to do with it? From where I was sitting, it seemed like no one actually learned the full story, which might be confidential or take time to contextualize/safely explain, and everyone immediately threw it on Pao's lap and downvoted any holding maneuvers she and the rest of the staff tri…

This (deleted) Quora post is the best explanation I've seen thus far: http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--N83GXLMb...

Which was explicitly denied by reddit and is no different than any other piece of baseless speculation.

Re: Ellen Pao Is Stepping Down as Reddit’s Chief

#130

Post by buckbova »

nhf wrote: post #10

I think this was the right thing to do from a PR perspective. Having Steve back as the new CEO will definitely be good for the community. I also applaud Reddit's announcement for calling the community out on their childish BS: > As a closing note, it was sickening to see some of the things redditors wrote about Ellen. [1] The reduction in compassion that happens when we’re all behind computer screens is not good for…

> The reduction in compassion that happens when we’re all behind computer screens is not good for the world. People are still people even if there is Internet between you.

That is humanity. People are narcissistic assholes. If the average person wasn't scared of what would happen or how they're perceived they'd punch you right in the face for looking in their direction.

That's what internet anonymity does. Brings out people's true essence. You see it with road rage too. The protection of the vehicle and the quick flight make giving the finger in response to a reasonable mishap an easy answer. A "FUCK YOU" for accidentally veering into your lane. Sound reasonable?

Yeah there's a few Mother Teresas out there, but most of them are self righteous a-holes too. What a world.

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