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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJessie Jackson does Reddit AMA. Hours later, major subs closed, employee fired
Reddit abruptly fires AMA liason Victoria in the wake of the Jesse Jackson AMA. /r/IAmA mods, left hanging by the admins, have turned the subreddit private.
http://www.reddit.com/r/circlebroke/comments/3bwwb6/reddit_abruptly_fires_ama_liason_victoria_in_the/
Some major closed subs (temporarily)
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/
https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/
https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Music/
u/karmanaut explains
Today, we learned that Victoria was unexpectedly let go from her position with Reddt. We all had the rug ripped out from under us and feel betrayed.
Before doing that, the admins really should have at least talked to us (and all the other subs that host AMAs, like /r/Books, /r/Science, /r/Music, etc.) (Edit: not to suggest that we expect to know about Reddit's inner workings. Just that there should have been a transition in place or something worked out to ensure that Victoria's duties would be adequately handled, which they are not) We had a number of AMAs scheduled for today that Victoria was supposed to help with, and they are all left absolutely high and dry (hence taking IAMA private to figure out the situation) She was still willing to help them today (before the sub was shut down, of course) even without being paid or required to do so. Just a sign of how much she is committed to what she does.
The admins didn't realize how much we rely on Victoria. Part of it is proof, of course: we know it's legitimate when she's sitting right there next to the person and can make them provide proof. 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...snip
https://np.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/3bw39q/why_has_riama_been_set_to_private/csq204d
The #1 story on the front page (at time of posting)
75% of reddit going dark means this is probably my best chance of ever getting to the frontpage
https://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/comments/3bymfo/75_of_reddit_going_dark_means_this_is_probably_my/
"Chairman Pao" speaks: http://www.reddit.com/user/ekjp
boston bean
(36,223 posts)KG
(28,752 posts)boston bean
(36,223 posts)I can't seem to determine that from the OP either... may be me... but all I can decipher is she has been fired and she was going to do an AMA with Jesse Jackson.
steve2470
(37,457 posts)I cannot understand either.
philosslayer
(3,076 posts)Prism
(5,815 posts)Word through the grapevine is that Reddit is currently trying to figure out how to monetize the site under CEO Pao, and wanted to make some changes to AMA - one of, if not the, most popular place on the website. These changes included pre-submitted questions, video replies, etc. Victoria apparently was vociferously against a lot of this, so she had to go.
Take this with some salt, as it is coming from an anonymous source, but it is the explanation that makes sense to most people.
Pao is a disaster (and not a pleasant person by all accounts), and I think Reddit's admin approach is really starting to reflect her disasterous leadership.
BainsBane
(53,066 posts)ChairmanAgnostic
(28,017 posts)virgogal
(10,178 posts)steve2470
(37,457 posts)steve2470
(37,457 posts)steve2470
(37,457 posts)Spatened
(31 posts)... And Victoria took the fallout because it is embarrassing.
You are an immoral, hate-filled race baiter that has figured out how to manipulate the political system for your own gain. You've personally set back race relations year after year and continue to do more harm than good. Extorting money from companies to line your pockets and threatening to bus in protestors and create a fake racial controversy if they dont agree to pay you off is NOT civil rights activism. My question is simple; how is your relationship with the illegitimate child you fathered in 1998 while cheating on your wife? Bonus question: How much money have you extorted from various people and companies over the years of practicing your shakedown scheme? Do you think Al Capone would be jealous of your business model if he were still alive?
permalink
[]RevJesseJackson[S] 12 points 8 hours ago
I do. But I was jailed in 1960. For trying to use a public library. And that caused more good than harm. I marched to end segregation. The day Dr. King spoke on Washington, in 1963, I was there for that speech. That day, from Texas to Florida, you couldn't use a single public toilet. We could not buy ice cream at Howard Johnson's, or stay in Holiday Inns. We fought to bring those barriers down. And because those walls are down, all the new interstate construction across the South - the new bridges and ports, and seaports - that's progress. You couldn't have teams behind the Cotton Curtain. You couldn't have had Olympics in Atlanta behind the Cotton Curtain. You couldn't have Toyota, and Michelin, behind the Cotton Curtain, so we pulled those walls down.
So our work has been beneficial. And it seems to me that people who benefit from that work ascribe it to the wrong reasons.
When the laws change to make the South more civil, that brought in more investment. So we've made America better.
All these changes have come from our work. Our work has bene good for the South, and good for America.
My goal is to expand our consciousness, to create as big a tent as possible, as we fight for justice and world peace. I was able to bring Americans home from jail, from prison, and gaining those freedom of those Americans was the highest and best use of my talents and time.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,361 posts)http://news.sky.com/story/1512644/reddit-in-chaos-blackout-after-worker-fired
Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)I don't believe that is CEO Ellen Pao's title.
MADem
(135,425 posts)It's "OK" though, because "they" don't complain....
Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)But trolling redditers were already up in arms because Reddit banned 5 of the most hateful subreddits: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/06/10/these-are-the-5-subreddits-reddit-banned-under-its-game-changing-anti-harassment-policy-and-why-it-banned-them/
That's where the racist and demeaning attacks on the CEO originate from. That and she dared to sue for sexism in Silicon Valley and lost her case, so the MRA army was already against her.
MADem
(135,425 posts)You'd think they'd know that this kind of tactic is the internet equivalent of waving a "Get A Brain Morans!" poster on the information superhighway...the wheels of the gods grind slowly, and all that.
Oh well, they're luckier than those fools in the hatemongering photographs--they can hide their faces when they say stupid things.
I do think that imagery is way out of line.
Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)I was kind of surprised to see it show up here.
bluedigger
(17,087 posts)Not being a reddit user/follower, all of these out of context snippets require some sort of reference.
ChairmanAgnostic
(28,017 posts)What the hell AMA means, other than American Medical Association.
blogslut
(38,016 posts)Humanist_Activist
(7,670 posts)Celebrities and other people of interest go on reddit to be interviewed by the community at large, you can ask them anything, or, in some cases, its "AMAA" which is "Ask me almost anything".
A while ago, President Obama did an AMA on reddit.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)It's one of those "if you don't know the story, you won't understand the story" stories.
mucifer
(23,565 posts)The general political page is actually overall very liberal. I often look around there and find stuff I post at DU:
https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/
Reddit is so huge it isn't hard at all to just stick with a few pages that have your interests and ignore everything else.
blogslut
(38,016 posts)I don't go there much, the layout is positively Byzantine.
TacoD
(581 posts)Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)LWolf
(46,179 posts)1. What is AMA?
2. What is a sub? What does a sub do?
3. What is Reddit?
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)...and divorced his wife.
This has apparently caused the deployment of a number of submarines. I guess it was some kind of precautionary measure.
I had no idea that Victoria Jackson was Jesse Jackson's wife, and it is equally surprising that either of them would be involved with communist American medical association.
That's my take, anyway.
MADem
(135,425 posts)One of MADTV's edgiest:
BainsBane
(53,066 posts)LittleBlue
(10,362 posts)All she's done is drive up reddit comepitors' traffic.
nationalize the fed
(2,169 posts)Someone has apparently hacked her husband's wiki page-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddy_Fletcher
Here's the Wiki picture of "Buddy Fletcher" as of the time of this post
(Actually Eva Braun)
Alphonse "Buddy" Fletcher, Jr. (born December 19, 1965) is a former hedge fund manager and founder of the Fletcher Foundation. His fund is in bankruptcy, and he is accused of civil fraud...
Litigation:
Alphonse Fletcher vs. Kidder Peabody
Dakota lawsuit
Hedge fund meltdown
In March 2014, The New York Times reported that "The trustee overseeing the bankruptcy of the investment firm once led by the flashy money manager Alphonse Fletcher Jr. has reached a $4.25 million settlement with the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom." The overall legal fees generated by Fletcher and his wife Ellen Pao have been estimated at over $40m."
This is hilarious-
Personal life
In 2007, Fletcher married Adolf Hitler, then a junior partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Fletcher and Hitler met while Aspen Institute fellows. As of November 2014 Hitler is interim chief executive officer of Internet company Reddit Inc. They have a daughter, Matilda Pao Fletcher.
Prior to his marriage to Hitler, Fletcher was in a same-sex relationship with Hobart V. "Bo" Fowlkes, Jr. for more than 10 years.
Fletcher and Hitler have lived in the St. Regis Residence in San Francisco. Fletcher also owns homes in The Dakota in New York City. He put his Cornwall, Connecticut home up for sale in August 2013
This has been laugh out loud, knee slapping funny. People will learn that underestimating Redditors isn't a great idea.
http://www.reddit.com/r/chairmanpao
Pao v. Kleiner Perkins
Ellen Pao v. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers LLC and DOES 1-20 is a lawsuit filed in 2012 in San Francisco County Superior Court under the law of California by executive Ellen Pao for gender discrimination against her employer, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The case went to trial in February 2015. On March 27, 2015 the jury found in favor of Kleiner Perkins on all counts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pao_v._Kleiner_Perkins
Metric System
(6,048 posts)MADem
(135,425 posts)The "hack" reads more like a sample from "Trolls Who Didn't Get Their Way Take Petty Revenge" and the flag imagery is racist as hell.
Asians have a tough time fighting back--they're a single digit minority, they have a reputation for "smarts" so it is wrongly assumed that a) They aren't easily insulted, and b) They can rationalize "offense" better than the aerage person, and further, it wouldn't matter if that woman was a twentieth generation American, she's still being associated with an "oriental" country (I'm pretty sure PAO is NOT a Japanese name, even though her image is being plastered against a Japanese battle flag).
That imagery and hack sum up precisely what is wrong with Reddit, I'd say. Nasty, brutish, personal insult...."We didn't get our way, so let's get all childish and shitty!! THAT'LL show 'em!!" All it does, really, is "show" the rest of us what assholes the hackers are--racist assholes, too. UGH.
It's not "hilarious." It's pretty damn immature, and embarrassing, is what it is. That kind of shit doesn't represent the way most Democrats and "liberals" feel. It is the kind of Coulterish smackdown that we see from the other team, though.
LittleBlue
(10,362 posts)Last edited Fri Jul 3, 2015, 08:35 PM - Edit history (1)
Claiming she's forgotten why her parents came to America. Plus her name rhymes with Mao.
MADem
(135,425 posts)flag? Japan is not China. That's just some dumb-ass imagery....and it is racist. It doesn't become "less racist" if the person posting it says "Say, I'm Asian, so that makes this racist picture 'ok' doncha know...."
There's no way to do a DNA check on people on the net. And, FWIW, Persians are "Asian." Indians are "Asian." Afghans are "Asian." Of the "south west" variety, but Asian nonetheless. But they're very different "Asians" than Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, etc. each of whom have a very distinct cultural identity. It's as noxious to assume that all "Asians" have a monolithic perspective as it is to insist that Germans and Icelanders are all cut from the same cloth, because, ya know, they're mostly caucasian and kind of have the same coloring and eye shape. So much FAIL there!!!!
And of course, people --regardless of their ethnic origins--who have been here for multiple generations often know jack about their immigrant ancestors' national heritage, assuming their background is homogenous, which it often is not. That image is just not cool. In fact, it's awful, and it gets more awful the longer I look at it.
LittleBlue
(10,362 posts)There is nothing wrong with pointing out the massive irony of why her parents left China and her cracking down on free speech on Reddit, which was created as a free speech hub.
The flag is just imagery pointing out that she's acting in a way contrary to free speech which ironically incorporates her parents' former nationality and plays on her name. It isn't racist.
Are you this upset when Greeks paint Hitler mustaches on Merkel?
MADem
(135,425 posts)Sorry, not buying that crap line at all. No one is cracking down on "free speech," they're enforcing standards of conduct. You want to speak freely? Go hate on people somewhere else!
You have a "right" to speak freely--on a website that you design and pay for. When hate speech ruins the "experience" for others, the site owners have a right to crack down.
Don't like it? Fire up your own joint. You don't "own" it. Obviously the site owners have done a cost-benefit analysis, and they've decided that hateful, creepy anti-social assholes are ruining the vibe for the bulk of the users.
People generally do not act against their own self-interest. The anti-social types are going to have to either adapt or move on.
And, beg to differ--that flag imagery is racist--she's not JAPANESE. The conflation of cultures is insulting, and if you can't see that, you're laboring under heavy bias.
WTF with the Greek-Merkel thing? We're not talking about that. But yes, that's rude as well, to immediately "Go Godwin" when someone does something you don't like. What's worse is that Merkel is from the country that spawned Hitler, so it's a double kick. It's also a cheap, low, and easy shot....doesn't take any brains or nuance to cough up a lame-o insult on those lines.
LittleBlue
(10,362 posts)Its raison d'etre is to allow any viewpoint to be expressed no matter how offensive. You're basically proposing that the site commit suicide despite being one of the top 10 most popular sites on the internet. The forums are set up in a way that you don't have to participate in anything offensive if you don't want. If you don't like the way a subreddit is run, you can start your own.
I'm sorry, I cannot relate to the ban everything offensive mentality that you believe. She banned a fat person subreddit while leaving up a forum titled "Things n*****s say"
Or just keep shutting down the forum until they fire her (like her last employer )
Not true. First, it is obviously supposed to be communist imagery in a reference to her country. She's dressed in communist garb.
The sunbeam flag is not just Japanese . It comes from old communist propaganda.
They did not mistake her for Japanese. This is Chinese Maoist era imagery.
Maybe you would like to retract that accusation now that you know?
MADem
(135,425 posts)You're just going to have to deal with it. They're not so inclined to put up with things that you might like anymore, apparently. They're changing their business model--probably acknowledging that their target users are growing up; and the cretinous, NSFW stuff is more of a drag on their site than it once was.
It's their site--they can do with it what they want. You're free to take your clicks elsewhere, of course.
It doesn't matter if the Chinese use battle flag imagery "too." FWIW, your sunbeams don't look a thing like the 'rising sun' ones on a flag, but whatever. I mean, shit--you're two steps away from "Me Chinee, me play joke" territory. This shit is OFFENSIVE. Some of the insults towards this woman on the website, of a similar racist vein, are even worse than the images you chose to mock her here.
Does she need to wave her passport? Show you her birth certificate? She's an AMERICAN. Your attempt to lay some sort of "Chinese Woman's Burden" on her, owing to the nationality of her parents, is rather perverse. It's not her job to run a Free Speech charity because people who like to take pictures up women's skirts are being thwarted from enjoying their freedom to harass people. You can't compare that kind of crap to the restriction of political speech. Well, you can, but you won't get me to buy it.
She's a CEO, and she's going to run the place in a way that's most efficacious for her purposes. It's a busness-not a "free speech zone." Accordingly, I'm not going to play the "Why did she allow this, but not that?" game--you will have to take that up with her.
I am stunned at the cluelessness, frankly.
It's like some of the "African" and "Kenyan" imagery that was used to mock and deride the President. You OK with that stuff, too?
That's not our thing....Republicans, hell, they love to play that game. Pull out the "other" card, and mock people, single them out, make them feel like an outlier, for being Other Than White. I don't like seeing racist stuff on a Democratic board--and that's racist stuff. It's not cool.
LittleBlue
(10,362 posts)Nope, the Reddit community didn't have to put up with it, they got her fired instead. As I predicted in post 57.
Enjoy: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/07/10/421877979/ellen-pao-out-as-reddit-ceo
MADem
(135,425 posts)From your link:
She's out, but it looks like she jumped before anyone pushed. In fact,
Her farewell statement there doesn't sound at all bitter or angry--she's likely been well compensated for her eight months there. The only question is, was the parachute golden or platinum, I guess...?
So ... yeah... ENJOY!
LittleBlue
(10,362 posts)Resigning by "mutual agreement " is legal speak for fired. You tried it.
http://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/3cucye/an_old_team_at_reddit/
But we're going to have to deal with her, right?
MADem
(135,425 posts)It's hard to read, too much text, klunky, small, crowded...way too much work to get anything out of it. For every halfway cool thing there's a ton of garbage. It's terribly cliquish and unwelcoming, too.
I'm underwhelmed with it.
Watch, when it gets "monitized" -- and it will, everything does--it'll get easier to navigate. Bigger, brighter, shinier!!
The internet is getting very slick and easy to read ... and stupid. It's the "stupid" bit that is the shame, the "easy navigation" is actually a plus.
Ah, well.
nationalize the fed
(2,169 posts)Reddit gets more hits in the US than Netflix
#10 on Alexa US ratings
http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/US
Right behind Twitter and Craigslist
Millions of hits per day from around the world.
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/reddit.com
The layout makes perfect sense for what it does. And if you install the reddit plugin "Reddit Enhancement Suite" it's even better-
http://redditenhancementsuite.com/.
And it's open source- Here's where a lot of people are going after the Chairman Pao disaster:
http://voat.co
A Reddit clone, using Markdown
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown
MADem
(135,425 posts)I understand that it has a lot of appeal, even though I think those "Alexa" rankings are completely worthless.
The Kardashians are popular, too. Doesn't mean that they'll be part of the "fabric of our lives" down the centuries !
People who like it? More power to them! I think it's great that people find something they enjoy, and that sometimes, anyway, expands their fields of knowledge.
It's simply not to my taste--to me, it is clunky, cumbersome, cliquish.
daredtowork
(3,732 posts)I rarely use Reddit in the past, and when I do, I dislike using it.
Reddit is difficult to navigate. It seems to be run by various cults. If you go there to bring attention to something, it's impossible to do so unless you already know some gang there. In fact, Reddit seems to be run by various paid gangs of upvoters and downvoters. The main thing is don't come alone, or you will most certainly be ravaged by the roving gangs of trolls.
These admins of course also seem to have enormous amounts of power, and there is a certain male tech "we exploit the rules to win" gamism about it all, which is reminiscent of Wikipedia, and very discouraging to female participation even though this OP is invoking a certain "Victoria". But who is "Victoria"? Are we supposed to know here? Is she famous in some Reddit/tech circles?
To me Reddit has come to symbolize all the things that are wrong with the Internet, and it's strange that it's still a hold out as one of the "big" places to post for social media.
nationalize the fed
(2,169 posts)Not after awhile. At first it looks so, but it's actually very easy once you get used to it.
The #1 coordinator and helper of Ask Me Anything, which has hosted Bill Gates and President Obama and a whole lot of other people in one of the most successful experiments on the web. Ever wanted to ask Gates, Obama or your favourite personality a question? AMA made it possible.
Here's Victoria-
Victoria Taylor, known as chooter on the site.
Of course, the Reddit Admins can do whatever they want but apparently they fired Victoria and left the whole AMA schedule in limbo. Not professional.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Is there something else to the story?
What does Jesse Jackson have to do with it?
TacoD
(581 posts)I think the connection to Jackson's AMA is merely coincidental.
ProudToBeBlueInRhody
(16,399 posts)Like what the what now?
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)Because a whole lot of nasty/ugly questions would be coming...
djean111
(14,255 posts)I am starting to think that Pao may well do to Reddit what Fiorina did to Hewlett-Packard. I had some very dear friends who worked at HP during those dark times. I know that there is no comparison business-wise, of course, but the morale is sinking fast.
eta - Victoria was/is AMA. She makes sure Reddit is actually talking to the real person, she asks the questions, she types out the answers. There is outrage about this.
backscatter712
(26,355 posts)Redditors are pissed off over two things lately.
1. A few weeks ago, they adopted new anti-harassment rules and banned a bunch of subreddits full of people that were engaged in nasty behavior, including r/FatPeopleHate, r/TransF**s, and r/ShitN*****sSay. Personally, I think this is actually a good move on Reddit's part, to give the boot to some of the world's shittiest people, and make Reddit a more welcoming place to those who aren't cyberbullies. Besides, Reddit's a private site, and they can do what they want. But, a lot of redditors got pissed off and ranted and raved over this move.
2. What just happened, shitcanning Victoria, leaving r/iAMA and several other major subreddits in the lurch. That was a really boneheaded move on Pao's part, especially on such short notice. Sounds to me like the Jesse Jackson AMA could have used more aggressive moderation, and it seems like Jesse Jackson himself wasn't very well prepared. But Reddit shouldn't have taken their frustrations at this mess out on Victoria.
B2G
(9,766 posts)djean111
(14,255 posts)This is a sub-reddit. It is really well organized, and has clear rules about the bashing of other candidates. The examples for what is respectful comparison between, say, Bernie and Hillary were hilarious, but gone now and I would not repeat them. Harmony in all things.
Currently, the Bernie sub-reddit has almost 56,000 subscribers. That quite a lot for a younger demographic that likely does not even bother with politics. The sub-reddit for Hillary has, for some reason, just gone private, but last time I looked, there were about 303 subscribers. To give you an idea of how popular Bernie is, and how little they usually care about politics.
Every morning my grandson fills me in on the latest news gathered by Reddit.
I like Reddit; sometimes it is very very funny, there is some good stuff there.
If you really want to feel old, look at 4chan. I did. Once.
Turbineguy
(37,365 posts)calling Dr. Turing... Can you break this code?
backscatter712
(26,355 posts)Looks like all the outcry brought results.
I do hope Huffman has a plan for making AMA work - with Victoria shitcanned, it's gonna be a problem.