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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

#171

Post by oldmanjay »

nhf wrote: post #153
oldmanjay wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The notion of group responsibility for individual actions is insidious, because it's too easy to mount a circular-logic based offense and also because it leads to humanity's favorite game, us v. them.

This wasn't an accusation of group responsibility. In fact, they specifically state in their announcement that > Ellen asked me to point out that the sweeping majority of redditors didn’t do this, and many were incredibly supportive. Although the incredible power of the Internet is the amplification of voices, unfortunately sometimes those voices are hateful. Like any popular site, Reddit attracts everything from enl…

I have no problem with the notion that those running reddit suffer from extreme cognitive dissonance over this issue. They've been acting in extremely odd ways for some time now.

Actions like the banning of subreddits for the actions of a few bad actors belie the notion that this is how you and they describe it.

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

#173

Post by Uhhrrr »

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 would love for sama to clarify this.

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

#174

Post by scobar »

In the 24th Upvoted by Reddit podcast, Steve and Alexis talked about all the great content and communities hiding within Reddit that go undiscovered. I'm excited to see how they'll try to solve that problem, and hope they find a great solution. Reddit is really great, and it's very cool to see both Steve and Alexis back to enjoy and advance it.

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

#175

Post by pbreit »

ncallaway wrote: post #88
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…

It was not made public why Victoria was fired. Neither of the parties are talking about it, so generally it's unknown. The /r/iama mods were not upset that she was fired. They were upset that there was no transition plan in place. > it seems like there was a lot of finger pointing before anyone knew what was actually happening There was finger pointing because nobody knew what was happening. Functions that Victoria w…

I'm not sure how that squares with: "We mods truly feel that she is irreplaceable" or the many other similar statements from the mods.

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

#176

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

paulhodge wrote: post #144
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.

Most of the individuals that do death threats are doing it because they think that their peers would approve. The community effect is very powerful and sometimes the community deserves blame.

All of the individuals who do death threats are crazy.

No matter how much you dislike someone, death threats are always the wrong side of the red line.

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

#177

Post by georgemcbay »

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…

I personally think the criticism directed her way was warranted (as was that directed at Alexis, especially after his first responses), though I definitely don't think it should have taken the form it sometimes did (misogynist, racist, overly personal, overly reactive, etc).

I think the pseudo-anonymity of the Internet (though it has many positive aspects in other contexts) is wreaking havoc on our ability to debate some topics because you wind up with a situation where many people get upset about a legitimate grievance and some overly troll-y subset of those people goes overboard with their backlash and then the whole issue ends up in this very unfortunately binary "us versus them" where rational but legitimately upset people get painted with the same brush as the vocal minority of troll-y jerkwads (or alternately, they have to just excuse themselves from the debate to avoid being painted with that brush).

eg. "Gamergate" (there is an inescapable core truth to the fact that game journalism is broken, perhaps irreparably so, that got completely lost in all of the personal-level misogynistic bullshit) and this reddit situation where the community had every right to be upset at the recent moves they have been making (though to reiterate, I think some forms of the backlash were, as reddit's announcement stated, sickening).

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

#178

Post by Joeboy »

oldmanjay wrote: post #148
justizin wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Pao does not get a pass on this dynamic for being a woman. It seems like she's been the subject of vitriol primarily for being a woman, since a lot of the vitriol predates the past few days.

As someone who has only watched this popcorn feast, I have the sense that she was the subject of vitriol primarily for taking actions that people didn't like. Many of the insults may well have targeted her gender, but that is not the same thing at all. I have seen literally no evidence that she was harassed simply for being a woman.

It seems like the major source of antipathy towards her was the firing of Victoria Taylor, which happened on her watch, but was actually done by a man who is still at the company, and nobody seems to want him fired. It's entirely possible I have some or all of my facts wrong, but this is what I understand to be the case.

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

#180

Post by mynameisvlad »

tedunangst wrote: post #159
magicalist wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> PR that comes out of corporations cannot be trusted What does this have to do with the parent's post?

Parents post was the highest place to hang a reply.

The parent comment is a reply, so that's not really true.
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