File Photo: Reddit Chief Executive Ellen Pao. (Reuters)
Reddit, the giant online discussion forum for everyone from political junkies to billiards enthusiasts, is in revolt.
Over 10 years, Reddit - which styles itself as the "front page of the internet" - has built a site that attracts 164 million readers a month. Last week, however, its users mounted an open insurrection against the California-based company's interim CEO, Ellen Pao, following what they say have been a series of unpopular decisions by management that directly contradict the open, democratic style of discussion that Reddit has previously encouraged. And despite the company issuing an apology on the site on Monday, a petition calling for Pao to step down now boasts more than 200,000 signatures .
Redditors - as users are called - have accused the site of increasingly trying to monetize its popularity, and it appears their sentiments came to a head last Thursday, when Reddit's popular director of talent, Victoria Taylor, was let go from her post .
Taylor's role had been to coordinate the site's popular Ask Me Anything series, also known as AMAs, where celebrities from Madonna to Bill Murray, and even Barack Obama, have answered questions submitted by the Reddit community. Users suspected that a controversial AMA session with the US civil rights activist Jesse Jackson held on Wednesday, the day before her dismissal last week, had been the tipping point for a company torn between catering to commercial interests, and an obsession with giving voice to every possible perspective.
The conversation between Redditors and Jackson had devolved rapidly into personal accusations and pointed questions about Jackson's character - one user introduced a "question" about Jackson's family life with the line: "You are an immoral, hate-filled race baiter that has figured out how to manipulate the political system for your own gain."
The next day, Taylor was gone, and the site's volunteer moderators were quick to make their feelings against her dismissal known by shutting down some of the site's biggest forums, beginning with the main AMA subforum, in what was dubbed a "Reddit revolt".
Reddit denied that the Jackson AMA meltdown was the cause, and the company did not respond to requests for comment for this article.
Whatever the reason, however, the dismissal appeared to be a serious misreading of the Reddit community.
"The admins [administrators, people Reddit actually pays to moderate the site] didn't realize how much we [the unpaid moderators ] rely on Victoria," wrote user karmanaut in a post explaining why users could no longer get into r/AMA, the Ask Me Anything subforum. "We've had situations where agents or others have tried to do an AMA as their client, and Victoria shut that shit down immediately. We can't do that anymore."
In Monday's apology, Pao - whose failed discrimination lawsuit against Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers made headlines last year - admitted Reddit had "screwed up," not just last week, but "also over the past several years".
"We haven't communicated well, and we have surprised moderators and the community with big changes," the post said. "Today, we acknowledge this long history of mistakes. We are grateful for all you do for Reddit, and the buck stops with me."
However, Reddit's top brass have painted the revolt as the actions of a disgruntled few whose needs are insignificant compared to those of the general-interest Redditors who make up the vast majority of its user base. Those 200,000 signatures on the petition against Pao would represent 12% of Reddit's readers. "Most of the community is made up of thoughtful people, and they can appreciate what we all do, even if we don't always agree," Pao told the New York Times.
However, some consider the disgruntled few the most valuable part of the company, and that the latest revolt is a flashpoint in a wider clash of cultures. The web's largest agglomeration of niche enthusiasts provides a portal for people to make friends and enemies in a wide range of different communities, including some less reputable forums that have come under increasing scrutiny.
These communities have found themselves threatened over concerns about harassment (a term that Pao has said includes anything that would make another user "feel unsafe" ). When that has happened in the past, users have lashed out, convinced they are being persecuted for quirks or fetishes, and accusing the site of censorship. While Reddit has often responded to those accusations with silence, some of the site's fiercest critics have decamped, en masse, to a Swiss-based clone of Reddit called Voat.
But some consider the disgruntled few the most valuable part of the company. "I'm a pretty apathetic content sponge," wrote a user who calls himself CaptainObviousMC. "That fact is deadly dangerous to Reddit, because the moment the content creators jump ship, I'll follow them like the fair-weather fan I am, because I don't care - at all - where I get my content, or about which corporation or moderators are involved. If Reddit compromises its content stream by having moderators jump ship, I'm out too, not because I care, but because I don't."
In her apology, Pao - whose interim tenure (there is no replacement in sight) has so far lasted eight months - said Reddit was ready to make it up to users, apparently by encouraging what Reddit does best - discussion.
"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."