Ellen Pao Is Stepping Down as Reddit’s Chief • Hacker News Board

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

#271

Post by golergka » Fri, Jul 10, 2015, 10:42 PM UTC

sbilstein wrote: post #222

Patrick_Devine wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Honestly I'm so disappointed that Reddit's management allowed such a crappy culture to evolve in their forums for so long. I remember signing on in 2010 and just feeling really uncomfortable browsing any of the major subreddits. Why did it take so long to deal with characters like violentacrez?

> feeling really uncomfortable browsing any of the major subreddits

Genuinely curious: why?

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

#272

Post by vanessa98 » Fri, Jul 10, 2015, 10:42 PM UTC

notsony wrote: post #44

> Sam Altman, a member of Reddit’s board, said he personally appreciated Ms. Pao’s efforts during her two years working at the start-up. “Ellen has done a phenomenal job, especially in the last few months,” he said. This is clearly nonsense, otherwise there wouldn't have been a grassroots campaign to remove Ellen Pao from her role. If Sam Altman honestly believes that Ellen did a "phenomenal" job, he should reconside…

Seems like just yesterday!

http://blog.samaltman.com/a-new-team-at-reddit

> I am delighted to announce the new team we have in place. Ellen Pao will be stepping up to be interim CEO. Because of her combination of vision, execution, and leadership, I expect that she’ll do an incredible job.

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

#273

Post by oldmanjay » Fri, Jul 10, 2015, 10:42 PM UTC

CamperBob2 wrote: post #243

oldmanjay wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

I've been modded down rather interestingly in this thread. Clearly someone has a beef with my observations.

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

#274

Post by mcphage » Fri, Jul 10, 2015, 10:43 PM UTC

CamperBob2 wrote: post #243

oldmanjay wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

What? Clearly both should be banned, but banning one is much better than banning neither.

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

#275

Post by sb057 » Fri, Jul 10, 2015, 10:43 PM UTC

makomk wrote: post #145

Flammy wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two major publicly visible actions: 1) Banning of several 'hate' subreddits especially /r/FatPeopleHate for harassment. The harassment was kind of dubious, as while they certainly weren't saying nice things, it didn't seem like they were actively doing 'raids' or doxing. At the same time several significantly worse, but smaller, subreddits remained online (gore, racism, sexism, etc) More info: https://www.reddit.com/…

The harassment thing was not at all dubious: https://archive.is/wP0uB FPH was a nasty cesspit that had been leaking into the rest of Reddit for a while, going into other communities and targeting women who dared to post photos of themselves without meeting their standard of beauty.

What you linked to is indeed completely dubious:

1) not targeting nor contacting anybody; not harassment.

2) discussion of another reddit post is not harassment. there was a single comment made on the post which could be considered harassing.

3) victim willingly made comment. in addition, said victim is against the banning of subreddits.

4) I have no idea how this could be considered harassment.

5) see #2

6) you can not harass a dead person

7) see #1

8) see #6

9) see #1

10) AN ACTUAL INSTANCE OF HARASSMENT! A single instance of harassing behavior does not define an entire community.

11) The entire incident was a fabrication by a troll.

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

#276

Post by MBCook » Fri, Jul 10, 2015, 10:43 PM UTC

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…

> The first rule of reddit is unsubscribing from all the default subs and searching for the ones most relevant to your interests.

But isn't that really a huge indictment of their ability to run the site? If the users who really like the site I'll do it by avoiding the horridness of the main promoted content, doesn't that signal some sort of failure in their curation or moderation?

How does a si but isn't that really a huge indictment of their ability to run the site? If the users who really like the site I'll do it by avoiding the horridness of the main promoted content, doesn't that signal some sort of failure of their curation and moderation?

How does a site like that survive long-term?

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

#277

Post by otterley » Fri, Jul 10, 2015, 10:43 PM UTC

jodah wrote: post #266

Patrick_Devine wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> the vitriol which I kept seeing peripherally... was absolutely appalling. I'm not a Reddit user, but the vitriol seemed pretty commensurate with what motivated it, which among other things included the despicable (and possibly illegal) firing of an employee for having leukemia (more or less).

Do you have a primary source for this information?

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

#278

Post by ryanlol » Fri, Jul 10, 2015, 10:43 PM UTC

sbilstein wrote: post #222

Patrick_Devine wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Honestly I'm so disappointed that Reddit's management allowed such a crappy culture to evolve in their forums for so long. I remember signing on in 2010 and just feeling really uncomfortable browsing any of the major subreddits. Why did it take so long to deal with characters like violentacrez?

Why should the reddit administration interfere with communities ran by third parties?

IRC networks are still running just fine with minimal intervention.

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

#279

Post by zxcvcxz » Fri, Jul 10, 2015, 10:44 PM UTC

morbius wrote: post #258

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…

> now predictable narrative of '50 white male racist misogynist neck beards' who want to chase women out of tech again This is a pretty accurate narrative. You may not agree, but casual misogyny is incredibly pervasive on most defaults, and it's fairly prevalent within the smaller, community-based subs as well. > small group of militant activists trying to silence people who they disagree with If you're referring to…

Didn't Ellen Pao her self claim that the racists and misogynists are a small minority?

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

#280

Post by mwfunk » Fri, Jul 10, 2015, 10:45 PM UTC

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…

Skepticism in all things is great, but if it doesn't go both ways (like you're presenting here), then it's not skepticism at all but rather a bunch of preconceived notions about what's going on behind the scenes upon which you are projecting all of this bizarre vitriol. It's great that you are so skeptical of what Reddit management is saying, but you should be equally skeptical about all of this stuff that you're imagining is really going on.