Popular Reddit forums back online following day-long blackout

Trisha Thadani | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Popular Reddit forums locked up in protest After a key Reddit employee abruptly leaves, popular subreddits go private in protest. USA Today's Trisha Thadani and Ben Mitchell discuss how it affects the internet.

Reddit — which touts itself as "the front page of the Internet" — was in a state of disarray Friday morning.

Following the abrupt departure of Victoria Taylor, the director of talent and a key employee to the site's Ask Me Anything forum, a number of moderators behind some of the most popular groups (referred to as "subreddits") protested by making their forums private, denying access to millions of Reddit's normal users.

Over the years, /r/iAMA has hosted open forums with celebrities and people of influence, ranging from Seth Rogen and Amy Poehler to President Obama and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

On Friday morning, /r/AskReddit, which has 8.7 million subscribers, and /r/iama, which has 8.3 million subscribers, were locked down to the public. Reddit's wildly popular Ask Me Anything (/r/iAMA) thread was also shut off to its thousands of subscribers.

"As a statement on the treatment of moderators by Reddit administrators, as well as a lack of communication and proper moderation tools /r/AskReddit has decided to go private for the time being," read a statement on /r/AskReddit Friday afternoon.

Following the day-long blackout, /r/iAMA and other popular subreddits came back online Friday afternoon.

In a post to welcome back users, /r/iAMA explained that it will no longer work under the current system, which involves admins in the arrangement of AMA forums.

"The admins have refused to provide essential information about arranging and scheduling AMAs with their new 'team,'" the post said. "This does not bode well for future communication between us, and we cannot be sure that everything is being arranged honestly and in accordance with our rules."

Organizing these forums is extremely laborious, and Taylor was "essential" for its smooth operation, according to an earlier post on Reddit.

Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian said in a post that he takes responsibility and apologizes for how the change to the /r/iAMA team was handled. Regarding the blacked-out subreddits, Ohanian said the message was received "loud and clear."

"The communication between Reddit and the moderators needs to improve dramatically," Ohanian said. "I know many of you are still upset. We will continue to work through these issues with you all, but redditors don't deserve to be punished any further over an issue that is ultimately between Reddit and the moderators."

Reddit has received some flak lately, as some users claim that the site is straying from its values as a community for open forum discussion.

One moderator explained in an open letter that news of Taylor's abrupt departure "merely the straw that broke the camel's back," and that Reddit needs to improve dialogue among its community members and administrators.

Last month, the site upset many of its ardent users after modifying its anti-harassment policy and banning certain subreddits it deemed offensive. Reddit banned groups that were a platform dedicated to the ridicule of gay, obese and black people.

Following this anti-harassment campaign, one user said that there are no clear guidelines for what constitutes "harassment" and "this is why this type of censorship is a problem, because it doesn't stop here."

Follow Trisha Thadani on Twitter: @TrishaThadani