News broke last night of Reddit's choice to fire Victoria Taylor (/u/chooter), ​their Director of Talent who was responsible for 1,400+ of the site's celebrity interviews or AMAs. Since then users have been scrambling to find an explanation, Reddit clone Voat.co has been rendered inoperable from a surge in traffic, and a number of Reddit's biggest communities have gone dark in protest of Taylor's sudden and unexplained ousting.

Unlike previously unpopular moves by interim CEO Ellen Pao, which served to annoy some of Reddit's loudest communities, this situation has employees, former employees and power-users banded together in mutual disgust with how the site is being managed.

Other employees have come forward to state that they'd been recently let go, like /u/kickme444, the former SVP of Product and the founder of RedditGifts. He declined to comment on his firing, made this post saying goodbye to the community he built and maintained for six years.



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Once r/Iama came back on around 1:30pm EST, it was flooded with requests for other former employees — among them /u/kickme444, /u/chooter, and Voat administrator Atif Colo. While none of those requests have been answered yet, a former Community Moderator, /u/Dacvak, took the opportunity to come forward and discuss the situation surrounding his firing, which allegedly took place last week.

In his lengthy post, /u/Dacvak describes being hired by reddit in 2011 only to be diagnosed with leukemia soon after, delaying his relocation to their headquarters in San Francisco. He credits former General Manager Erik Martin and former CEO Yishan Wong with allowing him to keep his job and work remotely in spite of his lengthy battle with the disease and eventual relapse.

As he was finally preparing to move to San Francisco in 2014 (a new company policy no longer allowed working remotely), /u/Dacvak met with Pao where, he claims, it was decided that he'd be rejoining the Community Management team. Then, he writes:

"I received a call from Ellen stating that I was to be terminated in less than a week. When I asked what the specific reason was, she had roughly stated that 'because of our discussion, you are too sick to properly fulfill your duties as Community Manager.'"

/u/Dacvak continued, "I pleaded with Ellen to let me stay… She finally stated that if I were to get permission from my doctor stating that it was okay for me to move to SF and begin work, that I would be able to come back… Unfortunately, a day later, she had called and once again stated that I was fired, stating that work would be too demanding for my health."

It will be difficult to substantiate all the claims made in the thread, and he seemingly has no hard feelings towards Pao, but his experience seems to be adding fuel to a fire that's been smoldering for months.



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The petition mentioned above has climbed to 26,000 signatures, and Reddit (and the associated #RedditRevolt hashtag) is currently trending on Twitter. Redditors have created a live feed for AMAgeddon, as it's being called, which you can followed here to determine if certain communities have come back online.

UPDATE 1: All default subreddits have come back online, although other communities remain blacked out. Users have dug up a thread that suggests Victoria Taylor was not given reason for her firing. The original AMA from /u/Dacvak has been deleted — though an archived version is still available. He mentioned in his AMA that he was responsible for blacking our r/gaming, which some users believe might be related to the removal of the thread and many of his comments. Others believe he deleted it of his own accord.



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Alexis Ohanian stated in an interview with Time that Kirstine Fasnacht will take over Taylor's role. Ellen Pao has not given specific reason for Taylor's removal, but was quoted by the New York Times as saying, "I'm sorry we let our community down yesterday." She added, "We should have informed our community moderators about the transition and worked through it with them." The petition to have Pao step down as interim CEO now has over 67,000 signatures. A blackout-specific subreddit, r/blackout2015, has already amassed 36,000+ subscribers.

Voat remains inoperative, while Hubski posted a message welcoming some but not all defecting Redditors.

UPDATE 2: The remaining moderators of r/Iama have made statements claiming they were not given adequate time or warning regarding Taylor's firing. They also discussed being unprepared to continue their duties without her expertise, saying, "our current system will no longer be feasible."

Additionally, /u/solidwhetstone has permanently shut down r/crappydesign in protest, as well as giving up moderating the default subreddit r/art.

By one user's estimate, nearly 1,800 subreddits went dark in total. However, things on the frontpage seem to be returning to normal.

UPDATE 3: A user posted these screengrabs to Imgur, alleging that they are leaked private messages between Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and the moderators of r/Science, concerning the absence or Victoria Taylor with regards to their upcoming AMA with Stephen Hawking. If the veracity of these messages is to be believed, it suggests that centralizing power around the site mods is causing serious bottlenecks.

The petition to have Pao resign now has over 100,000 signatures.

UPDATE 4: r/AskReddit has added a "timer" to their sidebar so that "mods and admins remain aware of the commitment made by the admins" to add side changes. Among the requested changes are improving anti-brigading tools…improved modtools and modmail," and, "an immediate change in the way moderators were able to contact administrators."

r/crappydesign remains open after a /u/solidwhetstone's post, and they've already found a new moderator. The top moderator or r/Let'sNotMeet (almost 120,000 subscribers) made a similar threat, which also resulted in a reshuffling of power.

Alexis Ohanian that although he has been, "pretty much nonstop since Thursday talking to users, but the vast majority of comments have been in mod-only communities, or slack, or email, or PM," he will make a public statement on Monday.





UPDATE 5: A statement has been made on r/announcements, though by Ellen Pao herself rather than Ohanian:

We screwed up. Not just on July 2, but also over the past several years. We haven't communicated well, and we have surprised moderators and the community with big changes. We have apologized and made promises to you, the moderators and the community, over many years, but time and again, we haven't delivered on them…I know we've drifted out of touch with the community as we've grown and added more people, and we want to connect more. I and the team are committed to talking more often with the community, starting now.

The responses to the statement have been, by in large, scathing. Meanwhile, the petition to have Pao step down has passed 170,000 supporters.





If you're a current or former employee of Reddit or know any details surrounding these firings, email me: [email protected]