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One of the comments on the guardian's site tells a truer story involving Alexis 'Stratfor' Ohanian.
I think this misses the big story, which is Alexis Ohanian's brilliant, Machiavellian, and downright evil plot to a) change the rules and culture at reddit and b) throw Ellen Pao under the bus for it so that she would be replaced by his old college mate Steve Huffman. The reddit userbases' predictable misogyny made that job easy.
Virtually everything you mention in your article relates to a decision Alexis made. In particular it was Alexis who horribly mishandled the PR around the changes and it was Alexis who botched the firing of Victoria. But Ellen was made to carry the can for all of it, and the reddit userbase, always more keen to blame a woman with no background in tech than a nerdy man they considered one of their own, weren't keen to look further for a scapegoat.
[–]Jourdy2880 points
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Yup. Add to that the lack of transparency regarding the removal of unsavory subs- I didn't care about FPH, and frankly, I didn't at all like FPH- but from the looks of things, FPH got removed because it was making Reddit look bad, not because of its putting anybody in danger or its members otherwise harassing other Redditors.
If FPH could get pulled for this, what happens when other subs- subs perhaps with virtuous goals that are considered unsavory, unmarketable- get in the way of Reddit's PR?
I actually was telling my mom about Ellen Pao, and she agreed with me wholeheartedly, saying she gave women in tech a bad name. Does that mean she has internalized misogyny? I wouldn't think so, since she's a second wave Feminist, albeit, one that adamantly believes in the wage gap, but hey, no one's perfect.
[+]Novius0 points10 points10 points
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[–]Novius0 points
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The Reddit Revolt
In June, a second policy change provided the spark for that rebellion. Reddit banned five subreddits over concerns that they were explicitly co-ordinating harassment; the subreddits banned included “fatpeoplehate” and “hamplanethatred”, both of which were focused on hating overweight people, and the racist subreddit “shitniggerssay”.
Despite the relatively small size of the banned groups (only fatpeoplehate had more than 5,000 subscribers), a large number of users found the clampdowns unacceptable. Some didn’t like the idea of banning for harassment full-stop; others argued that some subreddits that weren’t banned had been far worse, with the left-wing group “shitredditsays”, which started as a clearing-house for mocking other subreddits, frequently singled out for criticism.
The fight against the bans quickly became intensely personal, with Pao herself the target of a huge number of derogatory posts, many of which made it to the front page of the site. (“My fucking fist is honing in on this cunts face”, read one post with more than 4,000 net upvotes). But the battle didn’t look likely to spread to the silent majority of the Reddit, until a catastrophic staffing decision from the site dovetailed with the revolt to push it over a critical mass.
Entirely unrelated to the banning, Reddit had decided to sack a much-loved community co-ordinator, Victoria Taylor, who had been employed to help subreddits run their “AMA” Q&A sessions. Suddenly, the populist side of Reddit experienced its own revolt, with multiple subreddits closing their doors temporarily in protest.
It was the final straw for Pao, who saw the amount of abuse she was receiving from her own users spike still further. She resigned in July, writing that she had seen “the good, the bad and the ugly on Reddit. The good has been off-the-wall inspiring, and the ugly made me doubt humanity”.
But for the users who had blamed her for their troubles, it would turn out to be a hollow victory. A prominent woman had been forced out of Silicon Valley – but the changes she started stuck. Two days after she left, the site’s new boss, Steve Huffman, confirmed he wouldn’t be reversing the bans on fatpeoplehate et al. And a month later, he went further still, banning the subreddits that made up the heart of the “Chimpire” from the site.
Hear that Reddit? ShitRS is only bad if you're a racist or if you protect racists. Pao was attacked unfairly. Victoria was a pawn in a bigger movement because the concerns of moderators aren't the centre stage. Pao left you racist-enablers, she wasn't even a bad person and nothing else is relevant to her character. In the end you faggot redditors lost, and women won. Now bend over like the women you are.
Wow, some of the comments on that piece are actually sensible. How bad must it have got that even Guardian readers can see though the smoke screen of progressive lies?
Not really. Things were loads better before we got over run by all these flithy Reddit immigrants. Bloody foreigners should go back to where they came from.
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[–] Apathy 0 points 30 points 30 points (+30|-0) ago
And that ladies and gentlemen is the gell mann effect.
[–] dirk 0 points 19 points 19 points (+19|-0) ago
One of the comments on the guardian's site tells a truer story involving Alexis 'Stratfor' Ohanian.
[–] Jourdy288 0 points 14 points 14 points (+14|-0) ago
Yup. Add to that the lack of transparency regarding the removal of unsavory subs- I didn't care about FPH, and frankly, I didn't at all like FPH- but from the looks of things, FPH got removed because it was making Reddit look bad, not because of its putting anybody in danger or its members otherwise harassing other Redditors.
If FPH could get pulled for this, what happens when other subs- subs perhaps with virtuous goals that are considered unsavory, unmarketable- get in the way of Reddit's PR?
[–] ginganinja 0 points 5 points 5 points (+5|-0) ago
I actually was telling my mom about Ellen Pao, and she agreed with me wholeheartedly, saying she gave women in tech a bad name. Does that mean she has internalized misogyny? I wouldn't think so, since she's a second wave Feminist, albeit, one that adamantly believes in the wage gap, but hey, no one's perfect.
[–] hunt_the_fatties 0 points 4 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago
Man, do you remember when you could criticize a chick without being called a misogynist? I barely do.
[–] BentAxel 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
Had to read your explanation as I had no idea what it was. Spot on.
[–] Diogenes_The_Cynic 0 points 22 points 22 points (+22|-0) ago
"Hey media intern, I want you to pump out an article in 2 hours."
And then we end up with this. This is the narrative.
[–] HeavyBrain 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
https://sli.mg/s9VkQ5
[–] [deleted] 0 points 18 points 18 points (+18|-0) ago
[–] dildonkers 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago
What else did you expect from the Guardian?
[–] go1dfish 0 points 15 points 15 points (+15|-0) ago
That pretty much sums it up.
[–] Novius 0 points 10 points 10 points (+10|-0) ago (edited ago)
Hear that Reddit? ShitRS is only bad if you're a racist or if you protect racists. Pao was attacked unfairly. Victoria was a pawn in a bigger movement because the concerns of moderators aren't the centre stage. Pao left you racist-enablers, she wasn't even a bad person and nothing else is relevant to her character. In the end you faggot redditors lost, and women won. Now bend over like the women you are.
[–] ginganinja 0 points 9 points 9 points (+9|-0) ago (edited ago)
Whoop, there it is.
[–] Ben77 0 points 6 points 6 points (+6|-0) ago
Wow, some of the comments on that piece are actually sensible. How bad must it have got that even Guardian readers can see though the smoke screen of progressive lies?
[–] kurtznnj 0 points 4 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago
I think Voat.co won.
[–] RedditSuxBalls 1 point 0 points 1 point (+1|-1) ago
Not really. Things were loads better before we got over run by all these flithy Reddit immigrants. Bloody foreigners should go back to where they came from.