Comment by koproller on 16/07/2015 at 20:10 UTC

2162 upvotes, 24 direct replies (showing 24)

View submission: Let's talk content. AMA.

Hi, First of all. Thanks for doing this AMA. On your previous AMA you said that **"Ellen was not used as a scapegoat"**(source)[1].

Yet, it seems that /u/kn0thing that he was responsible for the mess in AMA (including Victoria being fired) (source)[2].

And /u/yishan added some light on the case here[3] and even Reddits former chief engineer Bethanye Blount (source)[4] thought that Ellen Pao was put on a glass cliff. And when she fell, because Reddit became blind with rage for a course she didn’t pick and the firing she didn’t decided, nobody of any authority came to her aid. It felt incredibly planned.

Do you still hold the opinion that she wasn’t used as scapegoat?

1: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/3cxedn/i_am_steve_huffman_the_new_ceo_of_reddit_ama/cszukn4

2: https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/3cucye/an_old_team_at_reddit/csz2p3i

3: https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/3dautm/content_policy_update_ama_thursday_july_16th_1pm/ct3n7hc

4: http://recode.net/2015/07/13/reddit-chief-engineer-bethanye-blount-quits-after-less-than-two-months-on-the-job/

Replies

Comment by [deleted] at 16/07/2015 at 21:32 UTC

722 upvotes, 9 direct replies

He won't answer. He knows it's true, but he can't say so.

Comment by ZeroQQ at 16/07/2015 at 20:44 UTC*

262 upvotes, 10 direct replies

If you think you're going to get a truthful answer, you wont. If you make a post asking for one, it'll get deleted unless it somehow finds it's way under some mod granted umbrella of protection. Welcome to the future of reddit.

edit: voat.co has public modlogs and a great community focused on preserving free speech principles.

Comment by gumbercules6 at 16/07/2015 at 21:21 UTC

57 upvotes, 3 direct replies

I would like to add that I think u/spez should lead a public apology to Ellen Pao, which all redditors that insulted Pao should participate. I say this not simply because she deserves it, but because the horrific ignorance and bigotry of the reddit lynch mob has to be highlighted and shamed.

So many people attacked a person based on incomplete knowledge of events, dangerously wrong assumptions, and worst of all on irrelevant information from her personal life. Reddit literally became the lynch mob it so often passes judgement on. All the redditors that said all those racist and sexist comments need to know that they were blatantly wrong.

I know this is not the most popular opinion, but reddit showed how horrible it can be over the last couple of weeks.

Comment by Nogsbar at 16/07/2015 at 20:51 UTC

69 upvotes, 2 direct replies

Every Time I hear the word scapegoat, I think of four multicoloured sheep.

Comment by easybee at 16/07/2015 at 21:53 UTC

18 upvotes, 1 direct replies

For the sake of the future of this community, this respectful question deserves a respectful answer.

For added effect, everyone could reply to all of his other answers with a link to this question and a request for reply...

Comment by topsecreteltee at 16/07/2015 at 21:16 UTC

28 upvotes, 1 direct replies

The silence is deafening.

Comment by [deleted] at 17/07/2015 at 07:45 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

I'm not sure if he can legally answer that. It would go into hiring/firing and insight into who made the decisions. I don't think the Reddit hissy fit was the sole reason, but being a target as the "face" of a company is part of being CEO. Like her or not, she handled the uproar in a professional manner. Even if she was a scapegoat, that can be part of the job. If she did make the bad decisions then problem solved. If she did not, then she took the hit and gave the company time to regroup. We should not assume the problem is fixed now that she is gone, not can we assume she was the issue if the problem gets resolved. What it did do was show that Reddit heard the community and made a gesture. Now we have to give them a bit of time to fulfill the rest of the promise.

If they fulfill the promise in a reasonable time (say 3-4 months) then we are seeing a turning point. If they fail to deliver and give more excuses then we know it was just a smokescreen and that they were never serious. Time will tell, but this may be their last chance to prove themselves. I hope they get it right.

Comment by le_f at 16/07/2015 at 21:00 UTC

42 upvotes, 2 direct replies

He isn't brave enough to answer this

Comment by Sarlax at 16/07/2015 at 23:30 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

nobody of any authority came to her aid

I think this is important: They didn't come forward to correct the narrative that the frothing Reddit masses invented. To do so would be to expose internal business. Should they set the precedent that whenever Reddit whips itself into a nonsense frenzy that they reveal their business strategies?

Comment by deusset at 16/07/2015 at 23:07 UTC

1 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Pao wasn't scapegoated; reddit users were just bullheaded.

When Victoria was released, the users rationally blamed the CEO, but when /u/kn0thing took responsibility, which he did fairly quickly, users were undeterred from their quest to lay everything wrong with reddit at Pao's feet, as was the zeitgeist.

Comment by half-idiot at 16/07/2015 at 22:20 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

If you properly read /u/yishan's comment you'll notice that all blame is shifted to the 'bad redditors' , so based on that i don't think /u/spez will ever reply to this comment and when he does his tenure will be over and even then he'll not take any responsibility.

Comment by th8a_bara at 17/07/2015 at 03:32 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

The way things went down also generated a LOT of buzz across major networks....I heard it mentioned on BBC, NPR, and the NY Times. Seems more like a massively successful ad campaign.

Comment by Asemco at 16/07/2015 at 22:59 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Reddit hasn't learned from the Boston Bombers.

That's actually goddamn hilarious! I mean, I feel bad for Ms. Pao, but damn! How many signatures did that petition get?

Comment by aDildoAteMyBaby at 16/07/2015 at 22:56 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Please, let's keep this on topic. Does anyone else have any questions about Rampart?

Comment by Lebran at 16/07/2015 at 22:50 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

And why didn't Ellen make a testimony when they closed the shipyard?

Comment by sweetrolljim at 17/07/2015 at 17:55 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Their silence is the only answer we need.

Comment by [deleted] at 16/07/2015 at 23:20 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

I'm starting to wonder if maybe were the bad guys here.

Comment by Tour_Lord at 16/07/2015 at 21:07 UTC

-4 upvotes, 0 direct replies

These questions are incredibly offensive!As a scapegoat myself I am saddened and hurt!

Comment by dotisinjail at 16/07/2015 at 21:36 UTC

0 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Yishan's post is diamond. So Ellen is an awesome woman, but bastards on this site ruined her for their pleasure.

Comment by Slime0 at 17/07/2015 at 16:50 UTC

0 upvotes, 0 direct replies

She wasn't *used* as a scapegoat. Redditors targeted her without any knowledge of what actually happened, so she resigned. There's no one to blame here but the people who assumed they knew the facts when they didn't.