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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

#491

Post by danielweber »

austenallred wrote: post #218
mynameisvlad wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Um, proof? The fact that she's been actually active on the site under her own account shows that clearly she knows how to use the site, so that argument alone is moot. I don't know how you can prove she didn't like the users unless she straight up said that.

https://np.reddit.com/r/FaithInHumanity/comments/39ee4c/char... She tried to share a link to a private message. That's the equivalent of my mom emailing me and saying, "Here's the picture - c:\\user\desktop\pic.jpg" - it demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of how the site works. Then everyone who replied was shadowbanned and every post was deleted. So no, she literally didn't know how to use the site.

> Then everyone who replied was shadowbanned

Can you cite something on this? I really doubt it's true, but if true it's devastating.

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

#492

Post by magicalist »

axlprose wrote: post #436
magicalist wrote: post #416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He highlighted how everything in this whole mess so far can be explained through the lens of questionable media What "everything" are you referring to here? That's the problem with addressing this "analysis+critique". There's almost nothing being analyzed or critiqued. This was a pretty minor story even in the tech blogs, let alone major news outlets.

> This was a pretty minor story even in the tech blogs, let alone major news outlets. This is currently the #1 post on HN. It might not be the biggest community, but it is influential, and many people bypass visiting blogs/sites and come directly here for their news. Things don't have to be on the front page of Time magazine to leave an impact on interested communities. And here, clearly people are interested enough…

> It might not be the biggest community, but it is influential, and many people bypass visiting blogs/sites and come directly here for their news.

So then what does this have to do with "questioning ethics in any kind of journalism"??

I am a commenter on HN and a redditor and am in no way related to the "clickbait media", so how are my contributions to this thread "explained through the lens of questionable media"?

The problem is the deflection. It started as a discussion about the actual situation, but apparently "everyone needs to be much more sceptical about what they read in the press and there motivations", and is now about...biased HN posts? I really have no idea.

If you were worried about that, you should have discussed the actual situation and addressed what you thought were misrepresentations, not going off on some tangent about media ethics.

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

#493

Post by CamperBob2 »

amyjess wrote: post #390
CamperBob2 wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You were modded down, but I don't know why. On what planet does it make sense to ban /r/fatpeoplehate while permitting /r/CoonTown? If you don't have a coherent content policy -- and no sane person could argue that Reddit does -- then you're better off with none at all.

FPH was targeting individuals for harassment. The subreddit was filled with photographs that were either a) creepshots taken off the street without the subject's permission and b) friends-only Facebook posts shared with the public without the subject's permission (which is a violation of Facebook's TOS). Then, on top of that, they were harassing imgur staff members for enforcing their ToS. CoonTown, as disgusting as…

Sorry, I don't buy it. Was anything happening in FPH illegal? If not, then there's no rational basis for treating it any differently than any other hate-oriented subreddit.

If there were in fact some legal concerns, then I stand corrected.

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

#494

Post by choudanu4 »

ceejayoz wrote: post #407
alayne wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More than 200k signed, so you're off by a factor of 10. I think that's too many to dismiss it as a vocal minority. I think a lot of things were incorrectly attributed to Pao. It doesn't really matter though. I don't think she was ever going to get back the community's confidence.

> More than 200k signed, so you're off by a factor of 10. So half a percent of the userbase or so? I'd call that a vocal minority. http://www.redditblog.com/2015/06/happy-10th-birthday-to-us-... > I don't think she was ever going to get back the community's confidence. Likely true. Backing down here likely means zero chance of addressing toxic communities in the site for the foreseeable future.

I think you're overlooking the fact that all 36 million (or however many) people that visit Reddit each month are NOT equal....the active content creators are intrinsically more valuable to a community like reddit, simply because they make the community what it is. When the people that make the content (of which 200k is no insignificant drop) that attracts the other 35 million ad-viewers are unhappy, Reddit MUST do something about, whether this 'minority' is vocal or not.

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

#495

Post by sergiotapia »

Ellen Pao was a scapegoat. She was the face of a lot of changes that didn't sit well with the community. Now the people clamor, they remove her, and the people are happy again.

Notice how they didn't mention anything about reverting the bad changes to the website. ;)

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

#496

Post by vonklaus »

georgeglue1 wrote: post #333
generic_user wrote: post #221

The knife cuts both ways. The clickbait media and various groups are trying to paint the now predictable narrative of '50 white male racist misogynist neck beards' who want to chase women out of tech again. Over 200,000 people with legitimate concerns sign a petition to have Pao step down yet they still carry on with there charade. People are sick and tired of the media and a small group of militant activists trying…

There are dozens of posts with 1000+ upvotes comparing Ellen with Hitler. As far as I can tell, there's something larger and terrible going on within reddit's community.

> dozens of posts

Literally (in the actual sense of this word) there are 160 million unique users on reddit monthly. Personally, I applaud free speech even when it is extremely hateful as I would not trade my right to speak my mind for protection from others voices[0]. However, even if I didn't believe that, I do believe that it is wrong to judge a large group of people based on the actions of a small minority.

[0] I get that the websites are private, before anyone points that out.

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

#497

Post by mintplant »

pavanky wrote: post #387
squeaky-clean wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> . The most critical things against Pao and her husband I have seen are posts about there phony extortion sexism and racism law suits. What about the subreddit comparing Ellen Pao to Pyongyang [0]. Jokes about Pao with over a +4000 positive score [1] [2] Jokes comparing Ellen Pao to Hitler. [3] I remember a post to /r/pics or /r/funny of Hitler's Wikipedia page, with Pao's photo instead of Hitler. I ran into some ol…

Frankly every public figure is compared to Hitler at some point or the other on the internet. There have been pretty personal attacks on Ellen Pao on reddit, but every link you posted here is relatively mild. Similar posts and subreddits were made about Yishan Wong[1] when he was CEO. Hell, reddit also makes fun of little kids[2]. You can not police what people make fun of. The personal attacks and name calling, whic…

> However they were few and far in between.

No they were not. https://www.reddit.com/r/all was dominated by them for days following the banning of /r/FatPeopleHate.

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

#498

Post by vehementi »

generic_user wrote: post #313
magicalist wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The most critical things against Pao and her husband I have seen are posts about there phony extortion sexism and racism law suits. All of which is factual information available to the public and even the media has to admit these things are facts. Oh please. You can disclaim the disgusting statements made all over reddit recently as not part of a coherent community or whatever, but don't pretend they didn't exist a…

The most disgusting posting I have seen is by our good friends the yellow journalists trying to weave there 'Reddit is misogynist' narrative. While Redditors are upset that Pao fires perhaps the most competent and well liked woman working at Reddit. Urinalism is largely discredited at this point due to there bias and agenda.

Redditors do not know anything about who works at Reddit, so they could not possibly be upset at the firing of "the most competent person". Most well liked public facing one to some people who read one of the subreddits, sure.

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

#499

Post by vacri »

alayne wrote: post #403
ceejayoz wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is clearly nonsense, otherwise there wouldn't have been a grassroots campaign to remove Ellen Pao from her role. When "SJWs" get someone fired we're told a loud, vocal minority has too much power and is dangerous. The same folks seem to be calling the same thing in a direction they like a "grassroots campaign". I find that interesting. Pao's most downvoted posts still got only a few thousand of Reddit's tens o…

More than 200k signed, so you're off by a factor of 10. I think that's too many to dismiss it as a vocal minority. I think a lot of things were incorrectly attributed to Pao. It doesn't really matter though. I don't think she was ever going to get back the community's confidence.

Out of curiousity, I wonder how many of those 200k actually fork over money for the service? And whether the rate of subscribing was higher, lower, or similar to the general rate. I know we have no way of knowing, but it would be an interesting factoid.

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

#500

Post by dang »

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…

> We can't trust that her and her husband were in love.

We detached this subthread and marked it off topic.

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