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I'm not sure what to make of this blog post. The author writes: >By resigning from Reddit, Behind the scenes, Ellen Pao could have been forced out (also kno

by jasode 11y ago

I'm not sure what to make of this blog post. The author writes: >By resigning from Reddit, Behind the scenes, Ellen Pao could have been forced out (also known as being "fired") but presented publicly as a resignation. I thought we don't really know what happened? Therefore, it seems biased to frame a thematic essay about "quitting" around Ellen's circumstances. If she didn't voluntarily separate, it's not "quitting" -- it's getting fired. Does the author Ernie Smith know the inside details of Ellen Pao's situation that we don't? >Ellen Pao is choosing to focus her attention on the other things that interest her. The underlying Washington Post article that this sentence links to is ~900 words written by Ellen Pao. She makes no mention of "other things that interest her." Overall, a blog post of dubious quality.

mgalka 11y ago
Agree. I think it is actually a good post, and I agree with it conceptually. But I don't think it has anything to do with Pao's resignation.
- privong 11y ago
  > But I don't think it has anything to do with Pao's resignation. I agree. When I read the post, the mentions of Pao seemed very out of place, with respect to the flow. The meat of the post was interesting, but the attempt to connect it to Pao's departure felt like a big (and unnecessary) stretch.
Facemelters 11y ago
Who's making assumptions now? The ONLY hard facts we have are what they announced: A mutual separation. Why are you so sure it was a firing? I think it's a relatively reasonable logical conclusion that Ms. Pao, freed from responsibilities at Reddit, is pursuing things that interest her. Are you saying that she's most likely pursuing things that DON'T interest her? The 900-word essay seems to set out a thesis or mission statement for what she might do now...
acqq 11y ago
Also note that atlasobscura is a site which tries hard to make a content which is dangerously close to the blogspam (the supposed topic of the site is still according to their about page "the definitive guide to the world's wondrous and curious places" and according to their tags "Travel tips, articles, strange facts and unique events.") and that user rshrsh only exists here to post the links to the atlasobscura articles. And privong notes here: "the mentions of Pao seemed very out of place" and 300bps also explains: "The Art of Blogspam: Put sort-of related recent news item in first paragraph to seem timely." I think the conclusion is obvious.
myth_buster 11y ago
Ellen Pao was one of the examples. There are many other examples mentioned which the author uses to support their argument which is not whether Ellen Pao quit to pursue other interests but Everyone should quit something that really matters to them, at least once. We all need to feel what it’s like on the other side of a big success story. Only then will we all understand that quitting isn’t "giving up," but setting the stage for something else.
- xacaxulu 11y ago
  Where 'quit' == 'being asked to resign' :-)
  - myth_buster 11y ago
    Did you mean != Isn't the theme of the article that quitting to start another pursuit is quite productive and not justifying Ellen Pao's move? I agree that the author may not know the reason behind Pao's resignation but that single argument doesn't break their point.
bkurtz13 11y ago
I agree, this post was pretty pointless and any relevance it has to Ellen Pao's situation is insubstantial.
exelius 11y ago
The more I hear about the corporate politics at Reddit, the more I realize it's an impossible ship to steer. I don't think Ellen Pao realized the level of communication and transparency that online communities like Reddit demand (or that anyone with "power" over such communities will have complete transparency forced upon them); but at the same time I don't think she was the driving force behind many of the changes carried out under her watch. She just wasn't there long enough. But the job is kind of a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. It's impossible to satisfy the users screaming "free speech at all costs!" when the board is demanding you get rid of the trolls whose main reason for trolling is usually some variation of "because we have free speech". And she didn't leave to pursue other interests; she was forced out for reasons not made public. She certainly was unpopular on Reddit, though it's hard to know how much of the Reddit zeitgeist/groupthink/circlejerk is manufactured by small groups of influential users. I think the board decided she had to go simply because they didn't want their user base leaving en masse, and getting rid of Ellen was the only thing that would satisfy the user base (or at least the "power user" base). From what I've read, the board is anxious to monetize the platform in some way, and it's hard to monetize a platform where trolling and harassment are as commonplace as they are on Reddit. And to some extent, I'd say that Reddit itself actively resists commercialization. One of the greatest benefits of Reddit as a user is that the algorithm is relatively simple to understand: users upvote and downvote, and while it's easy to see how to game that system, it also allows for the possibility that content will rise to the surface organically (even if a lot of the content is manufactured and upvoted via click farms). You don't get that if you're restricting the content, and I think trying to commercialize it would destroy the feeling of chaos that makes it so successful.
stevenh 11y ago
This submission reached third place on the front page before it was removed. I'd be interested to see whether certain user names and/or anonymized hashes of IPs always upvote atlasobscura articles. I don't understand why sites like reddit, HN, etc. hide the identities of who upvotes and downvotes things. It would be nice to be able to audit any submission or comment's vote tally at will.

by jasode 11y ago

mgalka 11y ago

Agree. I think it is actually a good post, and I agree with it conceptually. But I don't think it has anything to do with Pao's resignation.

privong 11y ago
> But I don't think it has anything to do with Pao's resignation. I agree. When I read the post, the mentions of Pao seemed very out of place, with respect to the flow. The meat of the post was interesting, but the attempt to connect it to Pao's departure felt like a big (and unnecessary) stretch.

Facemelters 11y ago

Who's making assumptions now? The ONLY hard facts we have are what they announced: A mutual separation. Why are you so sure it was a firing? I think it's a relatively reasonable logical conclusion that Ms. Pao, freed from responsibilities at Reddit, is pursuing things that interest her. Are you saying that she's most likely pursuing things that DON'T interest her? The 900-word essay seems to set out a thesis or mission statement for what she might do now...

acqq 11y ago

Also note that atlasobscura is a site which tries hard to make a content which is dangerously close to the blogspam (the supposed topic of the site is still according to their about page "the definitive guide to the world's wondrous and curious places" and according to their tags "Travel tips, articles, strange facts and unique events.") and that user rshrsh only exists here to post the links to the atlasobscura articles. And privong notes here: "the mentions of Pao seemed very out of place" and 300bps also explains: "The Art of Blogspam: Put sort-of related recent news item in first paragraph to seem timely." I think the conclusion is obvious.

myth_buster 11y ago

Ellen Pao was one of the examples. There are many other examples mentioned which the author uses to support their argument which is not whether Ellen Pao quit to pursue other interests but Everyone should quit something that really matters to them, at least once. We all need to feel what it’s like on the other side of a big success story. Only then will we all understand that quitting isn’t "giving up," but setting the stage for something else.

xacaxulu 11y ago
Where 'quit' == 'being asked to resign' :-)
- myth_buster 11y ago
  Did you mean != Isn't the theme of the article that quitting to start another pursuit is quite productive and not justifying Ellen Pao's move? I agree that the author may not know the reason behind Pao's resignation but that single argument doesn't break their point.

bkurtz13 11y ago

I agree, this post was pretty pointless and any relevance it has to Ellen Pao's situation is insubstantial.

exelius 11y ago

The more I hear about the corporate politics at Reddit, the more I realize it's an impossible ship to steer. I don't think Ellen Pao realized the level of communication and transparency that online communities like Reddit demand (or that anyone with "power" over such communities will have complete transparency forced upon them); but at the same time I don't think she was the driving force behind many of the changes carried out under her watch. She just wasn't there long enough. But the job is kind of a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. It's impossible to satisfy the users screaming "free speech at all costs!" when the board is demanding you get rid of the trolls whose main reason for trolling is usually some variation of "because we have free speech". And she didn't leave to pursue other interests; she was forced out for reasons not made public. She certainly was unpopular on Reddit, though it's hard to know how much of the Reddit zeitgeist/groupthink/circlejerk is manufactured by small groups of influential users. I think the board decided she had to go simply because they didn't want their user base leaving en masse, and getting rid of Ellen was the only thing that would satisfy the user base (or at least the "power user" base). From what I've read, the board is anxious to monetize the platform in some way, and it's hard to monetize a platform where trolling and harassment are as commonplace as they are on Reddit. And to some extent, I'd say that Reddit itself actively resists commercialization. One of the greatest benefits of Reddit as a user is that the algorithm is relatively simple to understand: users upvote and downvote, and while it's easy to see how to game that system, it also allows for the possibility that content will rise to the surface organically (even if a lot of the content is manufactured and upvoted via click farms). You don't get that if you're restricting the content, and I think trying to commercialize it would destroy the feeling of chaos that makes it so successful.

stevenh 11y ago

This submission reached third place on the front page before it was removed. I'd be interested to see whether certain user names and/or anonymized hashes of IPs always upvote atlasobscura articles. I don't understand why sites like reddit, HN, etc. hide the identities of who upvotes and downvotes things. It would be nice to be able to audit any submission or comment's vote tally at will.