back to article KERR-PAO! Reddit interim CEO Ellen quits amid Redditor revolt

Ellen Pao has resigned as CEO of Reddit following a week of turmoil and controversy over her recent management decisions. "We are thankful for Ellen's many contributions to reddit and the technology industry generally. She brought focus to chaos, recruited a world-class team of executives, and drove growth," wrote reddit board …

  1. asdf

    w t f

    Why did they ever hire her? When she nails Reddit with yet another one of her bridge burning lawsuits here very shortly I hope it was worth the 8 months of Rod Johnson (at JCP) like CEO value add she delivered.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: w t f

      Agreed, although she was meant to be an interim CEO anyway apparently...

    2. 142

      Re: w t f

      She was appointed on the recommendation of the outgoing CEO.

  2. Nolveys
    Holmes

    So Familiar

    Is it just me or does Ellen bare a striking resemblance to a certain other Internet celebrity?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    oh, pleeez

    " and the ugly made me doubt humanity " Really? Drama much? That type of statement is a combination of narcissism and scapegoating. So, comments on an overgrown forum weigh more heavily in the doubting of humanity than, say, ISIS beheadings? Riiighhht.

    You were all so awful to the wonderful me with your depths of depravity which made me doubt all of humanity that I had no choice but to resign.

    It wasn't because I was inept and messed up or anything. YOU did it.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: oh, pleeez

      " and the ugly made me doubt humanity " Really? Drama much? That type of statement is a combination of narcissism and scapegoating. So, comments on an overgrown forum weigh more heavily in the doubting of humanity than, say, ISIS beheadings? Riiighhht.

      Irrespective of who she is and what she has allegedly done wrong, I would actually agree with that statement - that you see fit to reach for the most extreme to ridicule that statement says more about you than about her. I have seen comments that made me doubt the sanity of the person writing them, and wonder if they had even had any human contact in their life. Anonymity is for some people an excuse to drop any standards of behaviour and expression.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Redditors are sexist

    According to the New York Times she was sacked because the people on reddit are sexist and misogynist。

    The media totally believes she is victim of sexism and losing the lawsuit was a grave miscarriage of justice.

    1. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
      Unhappy

      Re: Redditors are sexist

      According to the New York Times she was sacked because the people on reddit are sexist and misogynist。

      (NYT) - surely not the same sexist and misogynist redditors who expressed their defiant support of a certain Victoria Taylor who, if I am not mistaken, is, Female?

  5. Six_Degrees

    She would have been a good CEO, if she didn't suck.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    So what is a CEO actually good for?

    Because I sure as hell can't tell from recent examples in the press: Sony, HP, Microsoft, Reddit, ...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: So what is a CEO actually good for?

      "Because I sure as hell can't tell from recent examples in the press: Sony, HP, Microsoft, Reddit,"

      The CEO is supposed to get the C-suite to work together to fulfil the objects of the company (not necessarily to maximise profit or share price - companies can be not for profit or their objective could be sustained long term growth, which can result in low profits and a share price depressed because it isn't a fashiion stock that can be easily pumped and dumped.)

      However, the "celebrity CEO" seems to be there to gain column centimetres and eyeballs, so a raving egomaniac with an eye to personal profit fits the bill.

      While VW group and Toyota were becoming the world's largest carmakers, who knew the names of the CEOs? How many people have heard of Iacocca or Trump? My case rests.

      1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

        Trump

        Upside-down piece of candy corn in a wig made of used medical gauze.

        1. chr0m4t1c

          Re: Trump

          Neat trick that, getting everyone to concentrate on his hair like that's the /worst/ thing about him.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Meh

    Never seen the appeal of reddit, it looks horrible, hard to find anything, the way conversations are threaded is bad, and seems to be full of 4chan idiots.

    There are plenty of great discussion outlets, and reddit isn't one of them.

    Perhaps I a missing something. Reddit just seems fashionable and that's really all I can see it has going for it.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Meh

      I remember reading the one comment (on reddit):

      "4chan is where intelligent people go to be stupid, reddit is where stupid people go to be intelligent"

      Has kinda stuck with me :)

  8. pip25
    Facepalm

    "The good has been off-the-wall inspiring, and the ugly made me doubt humanity."

    Welcome to the Internet.

    If the above came as such a great revelation to you, then you likely weren't qualified to be the CEO of a large site to begin with I'm afraid.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "she and Altman both criticized the sometimes vitriolic comments leveled at Pao by reddit"

    It's funny how these vitriolic comments weren't a problem when they were paying her salary!

    People in glass houses...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "she and Altman both criticized the sometimes vitriolic comments leveled at Pao by reddit"

      Why the thumbs down folks? Her job was in making money from an Internet forum that hosts people's comments, bad or not.

      I just find it funny that she didn't expect her leaving to not cause similar types of comment.

      1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

        Re: "she and Altman both criticized the sometimes vitriolic comments leveled at Pao by reddit"

        Her job was in making money from an Internet forum that hosts people's comments, bad or not.

        Wrong. Her job was to crack down on Reddit's commenters by banning the worst of the worst and guiding the rest towards a more civilized self-moderating community that wouldn't be so controversial. Then take the fall if they lashed out at her, which they did.

        Her job was not to make money from vitriol and hate. It was to stamp it out so that Reddit would be more attractive to advertisers.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: "she and Altman both criticized the sometimes vitriolic comments leveled at Pao by reddit"

          Wrong Trevor, her "job" was to be a "controversial" front person to try to make Reddit look comtemporary. Why else would you hire someone of extremely doubtful competence and lacking in all ways the skills needed as CEO ?

          As others have pointed out, she was "let go" for incompetence and retaliated with a sexual harassment/discrimination suit that lost badly. In what way would that ever inspire any organization to hire her as CEO, a position where leadership is the prime requirement ?

          1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

            Re: "she and Altman both criticized the sometimes vitriolic comments leveled at Pao by reddit"

            Where did I say leadership was a requirement of her job? She was hired to be gestapo. Stamp out the wretched hives of scum and villainy, attract the ire of the hivemind for doing so and get ushered out so that the hivemind would feel they had "won"...all the while Reddit ends up a less controversial place (and friendlier for advertisers) because of her guillotine work.

            There were (and sadly, still are) some pretty dark corner on Reddit. She was to clean them and take the blame for it. She didn't get to finish before this little bit of WTF exploded and they needed an emergency sacrificial lamb.

            Remember: it wasn't Pao who sacked Victoria or generally made Reddit crappy. It was Alexis Ohanian. If Ohanian had not been such a goddamned idiot, Pao could have finished cleaning up Reddit then taken the fall, left, and Redditors would feel they'd have struck a blow for free speech and victory and all that good stuff by driving her out.

            Now Reddit still has to clamp down on the dark corners of the site but they don't have an obvious fallperson, and Ohanian has proven to be a wild card running around doing completely batshit crazy stuff that ruins everything for everyone.

  10. ecofeco Silver badge

    So she really is a troublemaker?

    It seems she may actually be what has been claimed: a troublemaker with no real skills. Or as some friends of mine put it, an "investment weasel" as her degrees are all in finance and law.

    As for Reddit, what a useless pile of shit.

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