The "Ask Me Anything" ( /r/AMA) and other major subreddits went on private in protest against Victoria Taylor’s removal from the company.
Victoria Taylor, or “chooter” in the community, is responsible for managing the popular "Ask Me Anything" interviews and key administrator for subreddit moderators. AMA provides juicy Q and A with everyone an unnamed McDonald's employee to President Barack Obama.
Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian confirmed Taylor’s departure in an interview with Tech Crunch. Reddit stated that they will not make any explanation regarding the issue since it is individual employee matters. It appears that Taylor’s removal from Reddit has something to do with AMA with Jesse Jackson which the questions from Reddit users and replies from Jackson became out of control.
In return, the entire AMA thread decided to go private to convey their dissatisfaction with the decision of the management. Reddit is currently in a chaotic state, leaving a huge amount of tension between the Reddit’s management, CEO Ellen Pao, and the moderators/users.
Hundreds of subreddit moderators protested against the management by locking down their respective reddits and each subreddit has millions of members that are huge part of the site. Among the subreddits that went private are the following:
/r/books with 4.9 million subscribers
/r/technology with 5.1 million subscribers
/r/movies with 7.5 million subscribers
/r/gaming with 7.8 million subscribers
/r/videos with 7.9 million subscribers
/r/iama with 8.3 million subscribers
/r/pics with 8.6 million subscribers
/r/todayilearned with 8.6 million subscribers
/r/askreddit with 8.7 million subscribers
For those users who were not able to follow the Reddit current situation, they can check the Reddit section Out of the Loop, where moderator Gilgamesh gives detailed information about who, what, when, where, why of spreading turmoil in the website. A lot are blaming Pao for Taylor’s departure, creating an anti-Pao sentiment on Reddit, according to Washington Post. Most of the Reddit users are not happy with the ongoing protest.