Petition Asking For Reddit CEO Firing Tops 16k

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It looks like everyone is pissed at Pao again. Even though this is Reddit we are talking about, when nearly 400 subreddits go dark in protest, you know you did something wrong. :eek:

A petition on Change.org seeking the resignation of Reddit Inc. interim CEO Ellen Pao seems to have gathered steam today in the wake of the firing of popular Ask Me Anything coordinator Victoria Taylor.The petition, which was started three weeks ago, calls for Pao to step down because the "the Reddit community believes that Pao ... has overstepped her boundaries and fears that she will run Reddit into the ground."
 
Ahhh good old Change.org, as about as effective praying or 'wishing it were so'.
 
Ahhh good old Change.org, as about as effective praying or 'wishing it were so'.
Hey, combined with all the good subreddits pretty much going dark in protest, it really begs the question of how a company can afford to have someone so extremely unpopular running the show. In any other industry, not only would she not be put in place merely because she's a friend of the ex-CEO, but kicked out if there was such a huge backlash from their consumers.
 
Oh? In what world do you live in where popularity determines a CEO? Highschool?
 
Oh? In what world do you live in where popularity determines a CEO? Highschool?
Sit back down and think about what you just said for a second. The Ford CEO stepping down can't just elect his own CEO replacement, leaving after a tantrum, and then the new CEO is so unpopular that it creates a huge PR disaster for the company, and subsequently three quarters of the largest production factories shut down in protest... you think the board would keep them in office? They'd be voted out yesterday. :rolleyes:
 
Sit back down and think about what you just said for a second. The Ford CEO stepping down can't just elect his own CEO replacement, leaving after a tantrum, and then the new CEO is so unpopular that it creates a huge PR disaster for the company, and subsequently three quarters of the largest production factories shut down in protest... you think the board would keep them in office? They'd be voted out yesterday. :rolleyes:

I'd question the organization of a company where the leadership (read, CEOs) wants the factories open, the workers want to come to work (read, redditors want access), but the local supervisor closes a whole building. Who the hell though of that structure... one where the company can't control access to items on their own website?!?
 
I'd question the organization of a company where the leadership (read, CEOs) wants the factories open, the workers want to come to work (read, redditors want access), but the local supervisor closes a whole building. Who the hell though of that structure... one where the company can't control access to items on their own website?!?
Wow... sorry but you are so out of touch, I can understand why you're confused, but its better not to chime in if you probably haven't ever even been to the website before.

The userbase has been at odds with her from the get-go, as evidenced by the fact that Reddit operates on a popularity ranking system, and the negative threads about her (before all being censored) were top ranking hitting the front page. The mods for the subreddits, which are self-policed and created entities, are on the same page as the overwhelming majority of the userbase.

So your analogy is totally misinformed and not applicable. And you need to understand that reddit management pretty much does NOTHING. Reddit is a self-creating and self-policing entity, that grew and continues to grow organically based on the contributions of its members and its self-selected moderation which all get paid exactly zero dollars and zero cents a year by reddit.

Reddit management's job is basically just to ensure that the servers are running and keep up with demand, decide on layout, and so forth. Basically its like setting a bit of earth aside and waiting for ants to move in and create the ant hive. You didn't do any of the work making those tunnels and building the huge mound with all its diversity, you just slapped some dirt on the ground and try not to spray poison on it, and the ants take care of themselves.
 
Reddit management's job is basically just to ensure that the servers are running and keep up with demand, decide on layout, and so forth. Basically its like setting a bit of earth aside and waiting for ants to move in and create the ant hive. You didn't do any of the work making those tunnels and building the huge mound with all its diversity, you just slapped some dirt on the ground and try not to spray poison on it, and the ants take care of themselves.

Except life doesn't work like that, and reddit's user base tends to be young and naïve. But also because of that, they're more bark than bite and will probably quiet down given enough time before they make any serious change.
 
Except life doesn't work like that, and reddit's user base tends to be young and naïve. But also because of that, they're more bark than bite and will probably quiet down given enough time before they make any serious change.
The young users are far more tech savvy, dynamic, and well-informed than those who rely on centralized / censored media like the newspaper. You haven't studied the history of how Digg died during the mass exodus to Reddit.

This incident is the straw that broke the camel's back as far as management goes, and Reddit will suffer a mass exodus.

If history repeats itself, Reddit will likely die as a result of a mass exodus to Voat. Welcome to the fluid new world of crowdsourcing.
 
Except life doesn't work like that, and reddit's user base tends to be young and naïve.
Well, there are 16K+ already within a matter of two days that are informed enough to know who Ellen Pao is, and are pissed off enough to have found the petition and signed it.

That seems like a pretty well informed userbase that takes what action is available to them to protest for change. What else can they do?

1) Abandon the website that they built?
2) Form a militia and march on San Francisco?

Seems like just making yourself heard en masse and protesting by shutting down good portions of the site are far more reasonable solutions to effect change than trying to start from scratch and move thousands of people to a knew home that might be just as bad.
 
Oh? In what world do you live in where popularity determines a CEO? Highschool?

Any business where your userbase is your product.
More users = more ad views = business success.
Less users = less ad views = business failure.

So, let's rephrase that question for you:
In what world does increasing (or decreasing) production (with essentially fixed costs) determine a CEO? Every business.
 
firing someone people like in an effort to reorganize more effectively is classic bad leadership. if everyone loves this person so much, said person needed to be promoted and given 2x more money to help create a team of more people like her. silo'd
 
It gained 16k signatures, now around 26k total.

If the petitioners would stick to objective issues instead of throwing around childish personal attacks and other nonsense it might amount to something. Clearly her incompetence as (interim?) CEO should be enough to get her removed.
 
Reddit is pretty much a cesspool of subnormal human beings. I've read a few of their previous sub-thingies and it's good that Pao is cleaning house. The social activism protesting garbage is just that population of undesirables that lurk in the darkest corners coming out to complain that they have to clean up their act and behave like the world forces them to in real life. It'll blow over and the world won't care soon enough. All the internet sign-waving won't have meant anything to anyone, even the people doing it.
 
26K vs apparently millions of active viewers that don't care is nothing but a minor itch.
 
Reddit is pretty much a cesspool of subnormal human beings. I've read a few of their previous sub-thingies and it's good that Pao is cleaning house. The social activism protesting garbage is just that population of undesirables that lurk in the darkest corners coming out to complain that they have to clean up their act and behave like the world forces them to in real life. It'll blow over and the world won't care soon enough. All the internet sign-waving won't have meant anything to anyone, even the people doing it.
Exactly... I mean, its not like something like this happened to say Digg.

http://www.google.com/trends/explor...tive#q=Reddit alternative&cmpt=q&tz=Etc/GMT+5

Yeahhhhh, the internet indicates that you're one of the few Pao supporters online.
 
BTW, remember when Digg was valued at $164 million? It recently sold for $500K... LMFAO!!!
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffber...worth-164-million-sold-to-betaworks-for-500k/

fight-club-ending-o.gif

The internet watching Reddit right now... :D
 
So, Reddit fired some cute hipster girl and now all the neckbeards are getting their fedoras in a twist?

Pass the popcorn.
 
So, Reddit fired some cute hipster girl and now all the neckbeards are getting their fedoras in a twist?

Pass the popcorn.

Oh, tell us exactly what the user base of Reddit is then. Technically HardForum itself would have a larger percentage of neckbeards since it is only a tech forum. I'm sure the DIY and woodworking SubReddits are just full of fat ass neckbeards :rolleyes:

I don't follow the politics of Reddit, but I do use it along with [H] to get through my long work nights, so I hope she goes and I can get back to surfing.
 
Oh? In what world do you live in where popularity determines a CEO? Highschool?

No viewing of the subreddits = no ad income.

It's getting huge. Pao was one reason. Dropping Victoria (she helped with AMA's) with no alternative was another. reddit management had little to no communication with mods of any subs, even the huge major default ones. A lot of people are left with their dicks in their hands with an upcoming AMA with a celebrity or other, as they have no contact information and no one to take Victoria's place. It's just a shitty run company right now. So much stuff going wrong.
 
What I find hilarious is that a forum where most people usually say Capitalism is the way to go gets their panties all knotted up when a user base flees a site because they don't agree with how the site is being ran.


Read: Capitalism.
 
reddit is dumb.. huh huh he huh.

Good for you. But, I don't like some sites, but I'm not going to call the user base names. It's just not my cup of tea, but for the users - it is.
 
What I find hilarious is that a forum where most people usually say Capitalism is the way to go gets their panties all knotted up when a user base flees a site because they don't agree with how the site is being ran.

Read: Capitalism.
... I... jigga what? LMAO! Please explain to the class how we wouldn't have this problem in communist North Korea, heh.

Capitalism just means that the site is privately owned instead of run by the government. That means that if a site sucks, yes, you can do what everyone did with Digg and just leave for another competing site.

Leaving is generally a last resort for large online communities, especially if the problem is just a single person recently put in a management position, so, yes, under a capitalist system you can still put pressure on the business to fire that employee and listen to the consumer base.

That has nothing to do with capitalism vs communism. Sheesh.
 
And so, the white knight army donned their trilbies and rode bravely to their subreddits, gallantly defending the honor of m'lady hipster girl mod, who was dismissed of her post by the vile and hated feminist CEO.

You can't make this shit up.
 
You know that by firing that woman she decimated one of the most popular subs right? It is irrelevant that you don't like the sub or enter it, hundreds of thousands of people disagree with your tastes and read the AMA sub.
 
You know that by firing that woman she decimated one of the most popular subs right? It is irrelevant that you don't like the sub or enter it, hundreds of thousands of people disagree with your tastes and read the AMA sub.
Why was she fired?
 
You know that by firing that woman she decimated one of the most popular subs right? It is irrelevant that you don't like the sub or enter it, hundreds of thousands of people disagree with your tastes and read the AMA sub.

Yup. And that single sub was the point of AMA's for a ton of other subs.
 
From everything I've read, Victoria Taylor is a rarity in the tech industry - very competent in a very high-profile and worthwhile job, and unfailingly helpful to everyone she worked with, guests and employees alike. Pretty much the antithesis of the hipster stereotype.
 
And so, the white knight army donned their trilbies and rode bravely to their subreddits, gallantly defending the honor of m'lady hipster girl mod, who was dismissed of her post by the vile and hated feminist CEO.

You can't make this shit up.
Its an excuse, nothing more. Like Trayvon Martin, the facts really aren't that important, and Reddit users were fed up with the new management and all the changes, and just needed this final straw and flag to rally behind. Even if she was fired because she was running a child sex ring, people won't really care and will still want to see Pao gone which is the real point.

After all, remember that other mod chick that complained on reddit that she was fired for no reason, and then the CEO came out and put her in her place? The CEO got all the thumbs up, and it was all quite amusing to the horde to see her owned.

And cmon, how retarded is it to use "m'lady" against Reddit, when that's a Reddit meme in the first place. *facepalm* The horde is a lot of things, but a bunch of white knights? Ehhhh, not exactly.
 
From everything I've read, Victoria Taylor is a rarity in the tech industry - very competent in a very high-profile and worthwhile job, and unfailingly helpful to everyone she worked with, guests and employees alike. Pretty much the antithesis of the hipster stereotype.
Why was she fired?
 
Why was she fired?

It hasn't been announced yet, but Pao has been changing a lot of things against Reddit's wishes for no good reason. Besides that Pao failed at her last job as well and has made many ludicrous claims. She is all in all a bad person to lead Reddit it seems.
 
It hasn't been announced yet, but Pao has been changing a lot of things against Reddit's wishes for no good reason. Besides that Pao failed at her last job as well and has made many ludicrous claims. She is all in all a bad person to lead Reddit it seems.

Pretty much the textbook definition of failing upwards.
 
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