We apologize

desmunda1 · 46分前

So anyway why did you go on to give detailed statements to thirdparty newsfeeds first, before speaking to us? The place with the tagline 'the frontpage of the internet'? The people you slighted in the first place? Hell even buzzfeed got info before this statement from you...

Edit: Ellen responded to me, but I anticipate she will be heavily downvoted so here's the reply

"It was hard to communicate on the site, because my comments were being downvoted. I did comment here and was communicating on a private subreddit. I'm here now."

cahaseler · 36分前

Hi Ellen,

/r/IAMA mod here. First, thank you for finally making a statement about this on reddit.

Second, can you go into more detail about the direction you see for celebrity participation on Reddit in a post-Victoria age? Alexis has made some comments to us behind the scenes about your ideas to encourage celebrity participation beyond AMAs, but I'd love to have the conversation in a more public space where everyone can participate.

CaptnRonn · 29分前

A few things beyond a PR statement that would restore my faith in the admins:

Stop shadowbanning users - It was a tool made for spam bots, not to silence dissent. The mere fact that a perfectly legitimate user can be shadowbanned without their knowledge is ridiculous, and it has been happening more and more in the past few months/year
Stop subreddit favoritism - You want to have anti-harassment rules? Great. Enforce them in every. sub. equally. Other meta-reddit subs have to use np links. Why does SRS get away with being able to post direct links with obvious brigading?

Also, /u/ekjp, as much as I would like to think that things are business as usual with you as CEO, you have made some very questionable statements regarding free speech and sexism in tech from a position that is seemingly vacant in logic. The fact that you feel you must talk to major news sites before actually acknowledging your userbase is troubling to say the least. You have done nothing to earn my trust or support, and in fact have done several things to reinforce the opposite. So... prove me wrong?

DoctorDank · 40分前

Your second to last paragraph is spot on.

These are just words.

You haven't actually instituted any reforms yet. To be honest, this just feels like corporate newspeak. You're just telling us what we want to hear. I think you'd ve a better response if you actually instituted the reforms you speak of, instead of just talking about how you're going to do them.

Because talk is cheap.

But, at least you acknowledge that the way you went about dismissing Victoria was utterly tone-deaf, and very disrespectful to the (unpaid, hard-working) moderators who relied on her in order to make their subreddits the very best.

Oh wait no, you totally didn't do that either. You just say you're acknowledging a "long history" of mistakes, without actually acknowledging them at all!

More newspeak.

So, I don't really know what to make of this "announcement." Guess we'll just have to wait and see if you put your money where your mouth is, won't we?

Edit: much thanks to /u/alloutpenguinwar for guilding my comment!

vorpib · 46分前

How about apologizing for calling your strongest user base insignificant ?

TheGreatRayPape · 39分前

I like how your apology over a lack of communication wasn't delivered to the people who needed it until you told every other press outlet first.

This has nothing to do with your race, gender, sexual orientation, weight, height, eye color, or any other physical attribute or personal preference in any arena; no matter what light your behavior and decision-making is used to examine your choices here, they universally identify you as completely incompetent as a CEO of a site built on community data aggregation.

ucantsimee · 44分前

You've been promising mod tools for longer than I care to remember and they are still "coming soon." At this point your word alone means nothing. Actions will be the way to make it up to the community. Not words. Get to work.

54CymruBeats · 47分前

Okay.

rfbandit · 46分前

Thank you for finally apologizing on here, instead of through media interviews. Should've come to your community first, instead of the press. But you also miss the point. You say a majority of reddit users don't care. But, those of us who create content for the lurkers care. Acting flippant isn't a good way to get us on your side.

UpstateBrah · 46分前

Well this doesn't sound like an HR memo at all. /s

BassheadPanda · 28分前

How do you feel about this comment by /u/CaptainObviousMC.

The thing is... She's absolutely right, I 100% don't care at all about this situation, reddit, or the moderators. I'm a pretty apathetic content sponge.

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.

So she's right -- most reddit users absolutely don't care a bit about this, or the site, or really anything. And that's why she can't afford to piss off the moderators, who are the people who do care.

What's hilarious is that the reddit administration seems unable to see that most people not caring is precisely what makes the moderators caring so dangerous: they're wielding my caring by proxy, because they hold the keys to content.

stagecraftman · 45分前

Why was Victoria fired?

Garethp · 46分前

Thanks for the announcement. I wasn't expecting it to actually come. Quick question: Will those devs be communicating with us at /r/Toolbox?

brock_lee · 46分前

Just remember what happened to Digg.

SingularTier · 25分前

Hey Ellen,

Although I disagree with the direction reddit HQ is taking with the website, I understand that monetizing a platform such as reddit can be a daunting task. To that effect, I have some questions that I hope you will take some time to address. These represent some of the more pressing issues for me as a user.

1) Can we have a clear, objective, and enforceable definition of harassment? For example, some subs have been told that publicizing PR contacts to organize boycotts and campaigns is harassment and will get the sub banned - while others continue to do so unabated. I know /u/kn0thing touched on this subject recently, but I would like you to elaborate.

2) Why was the person who was combative and hyper-critical of Rev. Jackson shadowbanned (/u/huhaskldasdpo)? I understand he was rude and disrespectful and I would have cared less if he was banned from /r/IAMA, but could you shed some light on the reasoning for the site-wide ban?

3) What are some of the plans that reddit HQ has for monetizing the web site? Will advertisements and sponsored content be labelled as such?

4) Could you share some of your beliefs and principles that you plan on using to guide the site's future?

I believe that communication is key to reddit (as we know it) surviving its transition in to a profitable website. While I am distraught over how long it took for a site-wide announcement to come out (forcing many users to get statements from NYT/Buzzfeed/etc.), I can relate not wanting to approach a topic before people have had a chance to calm down.

The unfortunate side-effect of this is that it breeds wild speculation. Silence reinforces tinfoil. For example, every time a user post gets caught in auto-mod, someone screams censorship. The admins took no time to address the community outside of the mods of large subreddits. All we, as normal users, heard came from hearsay and cropped image leaks. The failure to understand that a large vocal subset of users are upset of Victoria's firing is a huge misstep in regaining the community's trust.

TotesMessenger · 42分前

I'm a bot, bleep, bloop. Someone has linked to this thread from another place on reddit:

^{If you follow any of the above links, please respect the rules of reddit and don't vote in the other threads.} ^(Info ^/ ^Contact)

Anon2971 · 43分前

You're right. They're just words. The same kind of words you've been saying for years.

It's appreciated that you're now apologizing and try to make amends, but I personally won't be believing it until I start to actually see these changes happen, like an explicit explanation/timeline/development details of what tools are being made, or the moderators themselves saying that communication has improved.

Also, a direct response to the Victoria scandal would be good. You don't need to tell us why /u/chooter got fired, but you could at least say if there's now a new point of contact for mods to go to when it comes to arranging these AMAs rather than leaving them high and dry.

sonofaitch · 44分前

The main issue, clearly, is the divide between Reddit the website and Reddit the business. Finding a balance to please both can obviously be quite difficult, but you'd be surprised to see the positive feedback and ideas the communities will have that could prop up the business side if you actively listen. I hope we can better the site thru this.

Some ideas, of course, are crazy (https://www.reddit.com/r/CrazyIdeas/comments/3cauxn/community_buyout_of_reddit/) but at least some are trying

MaskedxAvenger · 46分前

It's absurd how many days it took for this to happen.

vubbz · 41分前

TL:DR Version

Wakers · 39分前

We screwed up. Not just on July 2, but also over the past several years

Already trying to deflect criticism away from your own regime within the opening sentence.

It's not sincere.

Talking to major media outlets before addressing the community on your own social platform demonstrates incompetence.

Not a good start.

"It was hard to communicate on Reddit because of the downvotes."

I'm sorry, what?

You know that people have to read your post before it gets downvoted, right? If you'd have posted anything addressing the concerns it would be at the top of /r/all within an hour, easily.

karmaranovermydogma · 45分前

I know it's minor, but I appreciate how direct the wording of the apology was. No "I'm sorry if you were upset" or "I'm sorry you feel that way" unlike many "political" apologies; rather it was a straight to the point nostra culpa "We screwed up."

Be interesting to see where this goes.

MarshallMelon · 37分前

Hmm.

Provide some more info as to why exactly the events of July 2nd even needed to occur in the first place and maybe then we'll take you seriously.

pie_pig3 · 26分前

We got some progress people, don't shame them to oblivion. They've heard us and want to make amends. Let's make this worthwhile

jdalex · 19分前

I like how you say we've "lost" trust in you, implying that we trusted you at some point. Given your history, I don't think redditors had much trust in you in the first place.

saganispoetry · 17分前

I don't understand how you thought it was a good idea to talk to NYT, Buzzfeed, and NPR before issuing a statement on /r/announcements of the site you are CEO of. Do you really care THAT LITTLE for your users? It has been FOUR DAYS.

thejustchad · 14分前

STOP FUCKING SAYING WE. You are on the hook for this shit.

gitykinz · 46分前

I don't really care what you have to say. This is PR bullshit and you don't have a leg to stand on.

aintdatsomeshit · 44分前

https://www.change.org/p/ellen-k-pao-step-down-as-ceo-of-reddit-inc

SpontaneousLightBulb · 43分前

What about censorship? Your post is all about placating moderators (which are essentially unpaid employees and do deserve attention). However there is NOTHING about the overt censorship occurring on Reddit. Posts about Ellen Pao suddenly disappear, Reddit censorship, and other issues that are most certainly NOT harassing anyone end up in shadowbans for users.

Your apology is not accepted.

edit: spelling

swolejusticewarrior · 45分前

Why did you talk to everyone but reddit, we are the community and you ignored us. Its obvious you don't know much about the community here at all. Why don't you keep working on these positive changes but you yourself should make a real effort to become apart of and involved in the wonderful thing called reddit.

ThePatrickSays · 42分前

But remember: most of us aren't interested in this.

y_all_need_JESUS · 29分前

It took you 4 days, a petition which has close to 170000 people wanting you to resign from Reddit to come and apologize. You went ahead and gave statements to other sites first but not to your own community. I guess we now know what your priorities are right. Saving your image. If you're really sorry bring back Victoria.

HighJarlSoulblighter · 41分前

Marking this to see which promises are fulfilled.

Also: How much free speech are we actually going to have on Reddit? How far down the PC hole will this site go?

SteelOnSteel · 31分前

/R/MANOWAR SHOULD BE A DEFAULT SUB

PavementOnWheels · 17分前

Fine, whatever. Cover your ass after the storm passes. This doesn't seem all that apologetic to me.

My biggest question is this: why have so many valid Reddit posts that speak out against you and other staff members been removed as of late? Seems far too much like censorship for my taste. I think the community has grown more accustomed to a more censored atmosphere, but if something like this had happened even a few months ago the uproar it would've caused would've been on par with the current fiasco.

Shoebox_ovaries · 16分前

Next time before you fuck us, take us out to dinner first.

EquationTAKEN · 16分前

Talk is cheap. You've said most of this before, and no changes have been implemented.

Simple_Tymes · 14分前

The average users don't care about moderator tools. What matters to the passionate non-mod reddit community is:

PAID CONTENT: Will AMA and other reddit subs have content paid by sponsors? Will you disclose if reddit receives money for specific corporate posts to receive higher placement/votes? How far are you willing to go to monetize reddit?

CENSORSHIP: Will you delete subs based on advertisers' requests? Will you ban users who don't agree with specific speech/content guidelines?

POOR MANAGEMENT: The firing of Victoria may, in fact, be completely justified. But the pure business of of firing the head of AMAs (arguably Reddit's highest profile sub) was simply terrible management. Why didn't you know how your business is run? Why didn't you have a transition strategy in place for Victoria's departure? Why didn't she introduce her replacement to her important clients/mods? How is this not business 101?

TRUST: Reddit is run by the good will of unpaid moderators. How can they trust you that their content won't be regulated based on corporate sponsorship? The rumors regarding Victoria's firing over disagreement about turning AMA into a money machine must be addressed. And "we don't discuss firings" isn't good enough -- what is Reddit's plan for the future of the AMAs? And why should we trust you to continue to support a site that doesn't seem to respect your intelligence?

Simply, if these issues aren't addressed, then it's time to move somewhere else. If Reddit wants to turn the community into an advertiser platform (and do it in the most unprofessional, mismanaged way) then there's no sense in supporting a site that no longer shares our beliefs. Why should we trust you to do the right thing?

Sikthty · 12分前

No, thank you for listening.

mmss · 45分前

Words are easy, actions are hard.

Squally160 · 46分前

So uh, when are you leaving?

zerogeesus · 43分前

Several Questions:

Can you respond to the change.org petition which is (as of this moment) currently at 170K~ signers and growing?

Will you step down as most redditors currently see you as the problem, not the solution?

How do you plan to gain back the community's trust?

immolated_ · 45分前

REMINDER EVERYONE: DO NOT BUY GOLD IN THIS THREAD

bundys · 44分前

So you are not resigning?

WaitForItTheMongols · 30分前

Hey guys, remember to please not downvote Ellen's posts. She's just responding to questions. Even if you don't like an answer, a downvote solves nothing. (Hell, she may even be able to alter vote counts...) We wanted transparency and admin communication. When she's communicating, give her a chance. Don't silence that which you have requested.

yurisses · 27分前

If you're truly sorry for what you've done, do an AMA so you can answer the hard questions. Like what you have to say about shadowbanning people who so far as mention your lawsuit.

B1gWh17 · 44分前

Don't gild! Use AdBlock!

Just say NOPE on July 10th

/r/JustsayNope/

EDIT: Whoops, deleted the 0 when I was adding /r/. Thanks peeps

And it got gilded; ya'll are some odd folks.

jupigare · 44分前

I appreciate that you guys are acknowledging the problem and at least saying you'll try to fix it. That's certainly better than ignoring the problem or, worse, outright saying one doesn't exist.

I just hope this all isn't a "Please understand" a la Nintendo. Words are better than silence, but they aren't as good as actual tangible change.

mudclog · 46分前

Looking forward to the improvements in the coming months! And if not, I'm looking forward to the implosion!

davewtameloncamp · 18分前

apology NOT accepted.

blufr0g · 16分前

But why Buzzfeed before /r/announcements?

Downvotes is a horrible excuse when obviously /r/announcements was always an option.

ProfWhite · 15分前

Man....a bit late, eh?

Also, why didn't you make this post before your interview with Time where you told the interviewer that "the majority of Reddit users don't care about drama"? If you felt that to legitimately be the case, why did you feel the need to make this post?

The timeline should have been:

Victoria is laid off - the mods of AMA knew in advance and already had mechanisms in place to disperse the workload and the general functioning of the sub wasn't impacted too badly (aside from a few mods/admins working OT)
It's announced after all adjustments to the handling of AMAs is done that Victoria has been let go and you can't say why due to legal issues
You assure us THE DAY OF - I.E. JULY 2 - NOT NOW - that you're handling things as best as you can and that you'd welcome our feedback
You make regular posts (daily is fine - we understand you're all busy) updating us on the progress of finding a replacement and what's being addressed about the mod concerns
If you feel the need to write an apology post - DON'T DO IT AFTER YOU'VE ALREADY BEEN INTERVIEWED BY TIME AND THE NY TIMES. Seriously that's the biggest slap in the face. "Reddit doesn't care about what's going on." "Oh btw sorry reddit."

dustlined · 37分前

We're sorry.

wafflecakes · 41分前

Stop it. You were already going to push these new changes onto us, regardless of our actions or not, so please stop patronizing us.

You DON'T have the answers, you DID shit on your community, via news outlets, and you DON'T have the respect, nor ability to post such a self-serving message.

Get out of here. I'm starting to already.

Petrarch1603 · 47分前

ELLEN PAO IT'S TIME TO RESIGN

Bidda26 · 45分前

Where the fuck is Victoria?

Potss · 45分前

Too little too late, you've shown your true colors.

LectureModeOff · 45分前

A day late and a dollar short, IMO.

UnholyDemigod · 18分前

(please note: my status as a mod has zero bearing on my comment. This is from me, and me alone.)

Ellen - /u/ekjp - I have defended you (and the entire admin staff) for a long time. When people made comments about how you were turning reddit into a SJW haven, I told them to shut the fuck up. When the FPH people made you out to be a nazi, I went through threads and did my best to tell these people how they were wrong, and you were actually doing good by reddit. But with your recent comments to the media, you have made it very hard to continue to defend you. For example, you say it's only the vocal minority who cares about this. This and other things you have said lead me to believe one of two things: you either do not understand the reddit userbase, or you do not care. If the former is true, do you plan to rectify this? If the latter is true, and you don't care about this site, why did you take the job?

thecavernrocks · 42分前

You don't seem to be actually apologising for what people are angry about.

Either you are deflecting or you don't even know what's going on with your company at a very fundamental level. I don't know which is worse.

ArtisticProgrammer · 45分前

The users have no confidence in you. You should resign immediately, for the good of the company.

brzt6060 · 40分前

You missed the most important points, censorship and transparency.

CaptainHoek · 45分前

This is gonna be good.

DarkWave77 · 40分前

Don't expect too many comments on this because the vast majority of us don't care

dangerdark · 38分前

Weird. There seems to be a lot of angry people in here for such a small vocal minority.

Helpmefindsomething · 46分前

Well, this is a first step to transparancy... so thats good I suppose..

Currently, im very excited to see what the next reason is going to be for the Voat servers to die...

pornjesus · 44分前

It's a good thing to apologize and acknowledge you fucked up. Now don't be like that episode of South Park and keep fucking up and keep apologizing. It only works once, okay?

_lilPoundcake · 42分前

sigh

looks like it's another dramawave for us at SRD

thanks for the popcorn at least. tell /u/kn0thing that they do indeed taste good

Odin111 · 45分前

I want a response to the change.org petition. Also what is the direction that you want to take reddit too? Transparency please.

BrewFont · 44分前

So you'll be stepping down as CEO, right?

ploik2205 · 34分前

I dont think this is enough.

The community is what makes reddit awesome,and yet you addressed this issue to other newsfeed (Buzzfeed?seriously?) Before adressing to your own community.

You don't know how reddit works (trying to link your pm inbox)

Gilding of self

Lack of communication

I think this is just a PR answer to ease us honestly.I think you ( /u/ekjp ) need to get more invested on reddit.Learn what is the community and what makes it good and special.Go on a handfull of subreddits and comment/take part of it.

Many people would want your position.And yet you still screwed up.

I hope you take the steps that are needed to improve this site and make the userbase happy with the managing of reddit

It makes me angry to see you say "We screwed up".I think YOU screwed up for the most part

scrimaxinc · 47分前

announcements

調停者

IT'"S

I'll post angrily within a few minutes of an admin announcement in a big font so I get lots of upvoats!