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Reddit Chief Engineer Quits After Less Than Two Months on the Job

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Re: Reddit Chief Engineer Quits After Less Than Two Months on the Job

#31

Post by jn1234 »

vessenes wrote: post #12

A recurring, and not-commented-on theme in each of these communications is that the board wants more growth. Reddit closed a $50MM round in fall of 2014, and has never had a strong monetization story. If the investors came in expecting major growth (since this is not a business with a great monetization story) it's not surprising that there's pressure and turnover right now, almost a year later. And, it may well be t…

They aren't in that bad of a position. They already have $8.3 million. http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/18/reddit-charity/#.nwugnp:l4S... It's just a matter of growing the community and not pissing them off too much when they are able to successfully do so.

Re: Reddit Chief Engineer Quits After Less Than Two Months on the Job

#32

Post by muglug »

jgrowl wrote: post #20

From what I've seen, being a CEO, CTO, etc is almost inherently a glass cliff. You either keep things running smoothly or you will get let go. Besides, Ellen wasn't even fired. She resigned no?

Ellen Pao resigned under intense pressure from the site's users. There was a petition with 250,000 signatures calling for her resignation, and a board which (according to media reports) was essentially letting her take the blame for unpopular decisions she had not made.

Her position was therefore untenable, even ignoring the vile racism and misogyny directed her way by the worst of the reddit community.

Re: Reddit Chief Engineer Quits After Less Than Two Months on the Job

#33

Post by Cacti »

untog wrote: post #14
Cacti wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the point of being a Chief Engineer if you can't even get some software (the mod tools) written? That seems like an awfully low bar for someone in that position, and to throw in the towel after she barely started seems to speak more to her character than any problems with Reddit. I mean... you hire someone for a top technical position and they quit when the first bump comes along? That's ridiculous.

A Chief Engineer still has a budget, a CEO and a board to answer to. The budget is especially important - if a promise is made to deliver X and Y within six months but you can't hire enough developers to get it done then even the most talented Engineer in the world is going to fail.

So move the dates. These things aren't set in stone and part of her job is to convince the board and everyone else what is realistic and what isn't, convince them that X requires Y budget and Z time and what the risks are and that the investment is worth it and so on.

Re: Reddit Chief Engineer Quits After Less Than Two Months on the Job

#34

Post by cgearhart »

vessenes wrote: post #12

A recurring, and not-commented-on theme in each of these communications is that the board wants more growth. Reddit closed a $50MM round in fall of 2014, and has never had a strong monetization story. If the investors came in expecting major growth (since this is not a business with a great monetization story) it's not surprising that there's pressure and turnover right now, almost a year later. And, it may well be t…

From the outside it looked more like Ellen was focused on improving the monetization prospects rather than focusing on growth. In particular, placing limits on abusive content and users would make the site more attractive to advertisers.

Firing Victoria fit the same motive -- monetize the most popular product (AMAs). Reddit leadership wanted to explore ways to monetize that feature, and for some undisclosed reason Victoria didn't fit with that plan.

The return of Huffman signals a shift back to the Cult of Growth, in the hopes that investors won't worry as much about monetization so long as the site is growing. One thing the board won't settle for is neither growth nor profitability.

Re: Reddit Chief Engineer Quits After Less Than Two Months on the Job

#35

Post by arprocter »

nateberkopec wrote: post #11
seunosewa wrote: post #5

3 female employees gone from the Reddit team in such a short time. This could create the probably false perception that Reddit seems like a hostile working environment for women. I wonder what they'll do to address this probably false perception.

I think they've turned over something like a third of their workforce in the last nine months. It isn't just these people leaving, though they've certainly been the most public.

The media seems to like the gender war angle - the cynic in me wonders how many news stories have been written about the male employees who have left.

Re: Reddit Chief Engineer Quits After Less Than Two Months on the Job

#36

Post by mattbrewsbytes »

vessenes wrote: post #12

A recurring, and not-commented-on theme in each of these communications is that the board wants more growth. Reddit closed a $50MM round in fall of 2014, and has never had a strong monetization story. If the investors came in expecting major growth (since this is not a business with a great monetization story) it's not surprising that there's pressure and turnover right now, almost a year later. And, it may well be t…

I would venture a guess too that the AMA platform may start having sponsored content or there was some element in the shake up regarding that and people not wanting to take money for AMA's.

When you see celebs and other note worthy folks on there, they casually mention they have a new movie|book|thing coming out and they're there to AMA.

But as a PR tool, AMA can only go so far. How many rounds of anonymous internet questions can someone field before the audience exhausts anything interesting?

Re: Reddit Chief Engineer Quits After Less Than Two Months on the Job

#37

Post by mwill »

vessenes wrote: post #12

A recurring, and not-commented-on theme in each of these communications is that the board wants more growth. Reddit closed a $50MM round in fall of 2014, and has never had a strong monetization story. If the investors came in expecting major growth (since this is not a business with a great monetization story) it's not surprising that there's pressure and turnover right now, almost a year later. And, it may well be t…

Given the ongoing narrative of a push for growth, the sacking of Victoria Taylor seems like even more of a bungle to me.

Last I heard the AMA mods are going it alone without admin support. The mods themselves previously said that the subreddit couldn't continue as it was without this support. Even if it somehow does, that leaves probably THE biggest growth tool at their disposal in the hand of unaffiliated volunteers.

If it flounders or doesn't operate as smoothly as they need, whats the next step? Try and reintegrate into the mods workflow?

Or worst case scenario, take over the subreddit entirely, which would be a massive change for the community in some ways, to have a major subreddit being run by employees.

Both Ellen Pao and Bethanye Blount mentioned the demand of growth, I just can not see a way the fallout from Victoria can be managed from this point towards that goal. Seems like such a colossal mismanagement, unless AMA's aren't part of their strategy, or they're planning on really shaking up the user/mod/admin dynamic.

Re: Reddit Chief Engineer Quits After Less Than Two Months on the Job

#38

Post by IBM »

Vexs wrote: post #4
minimaxir wrote: post #2

To repost my comment from a previous submission: There's been a lot of meta discussion how Yishan Wong, Alexis Ohanian, and Ellen Pao have been talking trash to each other about Reddit and seemingly ignoring every NDA in the book. The comments made in the linked interview trashing a former employer seem to perpetuate this culture. It's weird . (although if you're planning on starting your own startup after a bad job,…

The whole recent controversy has been strange in general. There's this incredibly pervasive sense that the management in general is completely disconnected from the community, only stepping down from on high to dish out shadowbans. I don't know what to think honestly, but it seems like the reddit administration is walking close to the cliff currently. Maybe the newOld ceo can turn that around.

HannibalLecter your comment is dead

Re: Reddit Chief Engineer Quits After Less Than Two Months on the Job

#39

Post by chronid »

pjc50 wrote: post #26
seunosewa wrote: post #5

3 female employees gone from the Reddit team in such a short time. This could create the probably false perception that Reddit seems like a hostile working environment for women. I wonder what they'll do to address this probably false perception.

Why are people downvoting this comment?

I think it wat the automatic assumption made in it before it was edited. Women leave and join companies all the time, why should three women leaving reddit automatically make it an 'unwelcome place for women'?

Re: Reddit Chief Engineer Quits After Less Than Two Months on the Job

#40

Post by Balgair »

minimaxir wrote: post #2

To repost my comment from a previous submission: There's been a lot of meta discussion how Yishan Wong, Alexis Ohanian, and Ellen Pao have been talking trash to each other about Reddit and seemingly ignoring every NDA in the book. The comments made in the linked interview trashing a former employer seem to perpetuate this culture. It's weird . (although if you're planning on starting your own startup after a bad job,…

I know, right!?

I'll posit Occam's Razor here and say that it is likely just children being children. From what I have seen on the /r/subredditdrama board they really are just sniping each other. It's like Mean Girls and these people really need to get out more. I have not seen this level of immaturity in a long time.

However, my BS klaxon is screaming. These are major players in a top 25 website. They should be more cautious, or have people around them that will urge them to be more cautions (like some 'Memento Mori' roman serf). I feel they should know better; it all seems TOO childish. So, possibly there is an angle being worked here we are not privy to see as of yet. This one is going to take a few months to play out, but not before Halloween I figure.

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