4 ms·

Aw man. This is totally gonna get taken down by YC management/altman...

Igglyboo 12y ago
Why would it? Seems like a perfectly reasonable and professional response by yishan, shows investors that he isn't going to take crap from ex-employees trying to bad mouth the company.
- n0rm 12y ago
  Entrepreneurship in the making?
  - myrandomcomment 12y ago
    CA is an "at will" state. A company does not have to give a reason for letting anyone go. It is best practice NEVER to give a reason. If you provide a reason then you better be sure it is documented in detail and there is zero discrepancy between the documented reasons and anything that anyone could ever say in a court. If there is even the smallest issue with your documentation you could end up losing in court if you are sued. While posting this response might have felt good it is clearly not a smart thing to do. Reddit would have been better to delete the AMA and then sent a letter to the poster explaining the non-disparagement agreement and how it protects both parties. I would hope that a CEO would know better. The person posting the AMA seems to lack the experience needed in dealing this this sort of thing and could of used a bit of help understanding the realities of work life. It is very reasonable to believe that he was angry on being let go but this is a life lesson and I hope in the future he is able to handle things better.
- UweSchmidt 12y ago
  Heh, perfectly reasonable and professional right until the boldened "fired" in the second sentence? Care to give an example what would constitute a less-than professional response?
  - ddoolin 12y ago
    He emphasized the word to clearly mark the difference -- why is that unprofessional?
- crazypyro 12y ago
  A reasonable and professional response by Yishan would've been to stay out of it and either ignore it or release an official statement, not comment on a reddit thread started by a disgruntled former employee...
  - gojomo 12y ago
    That was an official statement, as indicated by the little [A] after Yishan's username. (If you hover, it says: "reddit admin; speaking officially".) And placing it as a reply in the relevant thread is exactly what you'd do if you believe Reddit threads are a serious, important, and often-canonical source of information. That genuine belief is essentially a requirement to lead Reddit.
swartkrans 12y ago
If the discussion is about the general topic of publicly airing private employee information, it could stay as it could be something founders could learn from. If this topic goes into drama mode about specific people or this specific instance, it should probably end up getting moderated.
dang 12y ago
It's so much easier to casually fling things like this out there than it is to answer them, but FWIW, what you're insinuating is false. We penalize stories less, not more, when they're anti-YC, and every moderator is strictly instructed about it.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- mentat 12y ago
  Thank you for being very explicit about that.
- jedberg 12y ago
  And also, technically the YC entity has no investment in reddit anymore, only individual partners. :)
- Dewie 12y ago
  Now this is a good rebuttal[1]. Factual, straight to the point while not being excessive. [1] Or response, or whatever the best term for it is.
sama 12y ago
obviously not going to take it down, but it has 6 flags in 36 minutes (a very high number), and with a few more it will fall off the front page.
- shostack 12y ago
  This is an interesting phenomenon. Given that the story is arguably fairly relevant to the recent investment by Sam, what safeguards are in place to ensure that content like this can't be taken out of the public light by a "reporting brigade?"
  - minimaxir 12y ago
    > what safeguards are in place to ensure that content like this can't be taken out of the public light by a "reporting brigade?" There are no safeguards against reporting, which is why certain types of threads (gender, diversity) rarely hit the front page, unfortunately. Many users associate Reddit content with low-quality content, so flagging would not be surprising. Almost every HN submission I've seen linking to reddit.com has been flagged down.
    - tptacek 12y ago
      Gender and diversity threads don't hit the front-page because the decorum in those threads is so bad that they both trigger automated self-defense mechanisms in the HN code (the "flame war detector") and inspire flags. I try not to flag those stories, because I agree with the people who have qualms about HN effectively brushing those stories under the rug, but I've flagged some of the more hopeless-seeming variants.
  - tptacek 12y ago
    What's a "reporting brigade"? I've never met Sam and am not a Reddit fan, and I flagged this story, because it's just drama.
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]

Why would it? Seems like a perfectly reasonable and professional response by yishan, shows investors that he isn't going to take crap from ex-employees trying to bad mouth the company.

n0rm 12y ago
Entrepreneurship in the making?
- myrandomcomment 12y ago
  CA is an "at will" state. A company does not have to give a reason for letting anyone go. It is best practice NEVER to give a reason. If you provide a reason then you better be sure it is documented in detail and there is zero discrepancy between the documented reasons and anything that anyone could ever say in a court. If there is even the smallest issue with your documentation you could end up losing in court if you are sued. While posting this response might have felt good it is clearly not a smart thing to do. Reddit would have been better to delete the AMA and then sent a letter to the poster explaining the non-disparagement agreement and how it protects both parties. I would hope that a CEO would know better. The person posting the AMA seems to lack the experience needed in dealing this this sort of thing and could of used a bit of help understanding the realities of work life. It is very reasonable to believe that he was angry on being let go but this is a life lesson and I hope in the future he is able to handle things better.
UweSchmidt 12y ago
Heh, perfectly reasonable and professional right until the boldened "fired" in the second sentence? Care to give an example what would constitute a less-than professional response?
- ddoolin 12y ago
  He emphasized the word to clearly mark the difference -- why is that unprofessional?
crazypyro 12y ago
A reasonable and professional response by Yishan would've been to stay out of it and either ignore it or release an official statement, not comment on a reddit thread started by a disgruntled former employee...
- gojomo 12y ago
  That was an official statement, as indicated by the little [A] after Yishan's username. (If you hover, it says: "reddit admin; speaking officially".) And placing it as a reply in the relevant thread is exactly what you'd do if you believe Reddit threads are a serious, important, and often-canonical source of information. That genuine belief is essentially a requirement to lead Reddit.

swartkrans 12y ago

If the discussion is about the general topic of publicly airing private employee information, it could stay as it could be something founders could learn from. If this topic goes into drama mode about specific people or this specific instance, it should probably end up getting moderated.

dang 12y ago

It's so much easier to casually fling things like this out there than it is to answer them, but FWIW, what you're insinuating is false. We penalize stories less, not more, when they're anti-YC, and every moderator is strictly instructed about it.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
mentat 12y ago
Thank you for being very explicit about that.
jedberg 12y ago
And also, technically the YC entity has no investment in reddit anymore, only individual partners. :)
Dewie 12y ago
Now this is a good rebuttal[1]. Factual, straight to the point while not being excessive. [1] Or response, or whatever the best term for it is.

sama 12y ago

obviously not going to take it down, but it has 6 flags in 36 minutes (a very high number), and with a few more it will fall off the front page.

shostack 12y ago
This is an interesting phenomenon. Given that the story is arguably fairly relevant to the recent investment by Sam, what safeguards are in place to ensure that content like this can't be taken out of the public light by a "reporting brigade?"
- minimaxir 12y ago
  > what safeguards are in place to ensure that content like this can't be taken out of the public light by a "reporting brigade?" There are no safeguards against reporting, which is why certain types of threads (gender, diversity) rarely hit the front page, unfortunately. Many users associate Reddit content with low-quality content, so flagging would not be surprising. Almost every HN submission I've seen linking to reddit.com has been flagged down.
  - tptacek 12y ago
    Gender and diversity threads don't hit the front-page because the decorum in those threads is so bad that they both trigger automated self-defense mechanisms in the HN code (the "flame war detector") and inspire flags. I try not to flag those stories, because I agree with the people who have qualms about HN effectively brushing those stories under the rug, but I've flagged some of the more hopeless-seeming variants.
- tptacek 12y ago
  What's a "reporting brigade"? I've never met Sam and am not a Reddit fan, and I flagged this story, because it's just drama.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]