The CEO of American forum Reddit, Ellen Pao, submitted his resignation Friday following a protest campaign of users.
Reddit is many things: an online forum, the” Internet home page “, the meeting point of many and varied communities, pertussis or media target, depending on the period. Reddit is not, however, a company in great shape. Its CEO Ellen Pao announced last Friday his resignation. It will be replaced in his role by Steve Huffman, co-founder of the site, and will remain within its Board of Directors until the end of the year. “I have seen the good, the bad and the worst Reddit sides,” she said in a message posted on Reddit. “The good inspired me, the worst made me doubt the human race.”
Established in 2005, Reddit is attended by more than 164 million unique visitors per month. This popular success hides a serious crisis of governance. Built on ideals inherited from the beginning of the Web, the site is frequented by surfers fiercely attached to the concept of absolute freedom of expression. While Facebook and YouTube have undertaken to clean up their community better moderating its contents, in order to grow, Reddit is still ruled by all-powerful users. The site is governed by a particular system: everything is classified with the votes of Internet users, who can choose to highlight their publication or their favorite comment. An ultra-democratic principle, far algorithms Facebook, which leaves the door open to overflow. Sexist, racist or antisemitic discussions are frequent and sometimes prominently on the site.
No viable economic model
It is not easy to be CEO of Reddit . Ellen Pao took the lead site in November 2014, after the departure of Yishan Wong. The latter then claimed to have been “drained” by the experience. He had been particularly criticized for its management of the scandal “celebgate” during which the Reddit users had shared hundreds of stolen intimate photos of famous women. The Board of Directors of the site had wanted to send a positive signal by appointing Ellen Pao, known for his commitment against sexism, as new CEO.
During the eight months of his term, the latter tried to change, at least at the margin, the bad habits of some users. Reddit banned “revenge porn” (which consists of the publication of intimate photos or videos of a person without his consent) and banned five sub forums (called “subreddits”) hate. These decisions were bitterly criticized by a very vocal minority of users, with the stroke of sexist and racist insults. In July, the sudden removal of a moderating completed condemn Ellen Pao in their eyes: many sub-forums were deactivated by other moderators in protest. A petition calling for his resignation collected over 213,000 signatures. The CEO apologized a few days later, admitting communication problems between the administration of the site and its users. In vain.
In his resignation letter, Ellen Pao from assured due to disagreements with the board. “I was asked to increase the number of users more than what I thought was capable of,” she has said. Reddit has desperately needed to grow: despite his ten years of service, the platform still lacks a clear business model. Advertising, which has only very little space on the site, was reported as $ 8.2 million in 2014. The large advertisers are wary of Reddit, unwilling to have their advertisements appear next Discussion of racist or pornographic images. The site moderation is a minimum and is mostly done by volunteers. Their role is to ensure that messages on their subreddit match the theme of the latter. Despite the controversy, Reddit remains attached to one of its own rules, supported by Ellen Pao itself “. We banish behavior, not ideas” between tolerance of extreme opinions, but banning harassment, balance is difficult or impossible to find. Ellen Pao has paid the price.
An impossible normality
Reddit is chained to the ideals that helped birth. Before him, other Internet sites advocating absolute freedom of expression failed to develop. 4chan, famous American forum was the creation of the group Anonymous, never became a business: he even recently saw the departure of its creator, Christopher Poole, tired of having to manage the overflow of its users. Reddit, he is a company since 2011. It is owned by Advance Publications, a subsidiary of Condé Nast. It has a board of directors, like any company, but is very discreet: its composition is not even posted on the Reddit website. Interviewed by Saturday surfers, one of its members, Sam Altman (president of Y Combinator, where’s Reddit), said the site was “doing well need to be profitable one day.” So far it seems more obey its users to its own investors.
Reddit faces a difficult community to manage, and is not renewed. While Facebook has continued to modify its operation to be accessible to the largest number of Internet users, Reddit has kept its cool design and confusing for new users. Difficult to visit the site if we do not know the codes. Reddit also accuses a serious delay on the mobile. Result: the number of users is stagnating and the community remains homogeneous. On Reddit, almost 75% of users are men and the vast majority are under 50 years. The site has beautiful invite Barack Obama to discuss with its users, it fails to become public.
To Reddit, an image change could not pass by a large household. As the new CEO said last week wanting to leave the site “as open as possible,” his speech is now more offensive. He announced Thursday the launch of a new regulation to Reddit. “Some communities present on Reddit should not have their place,” he warned. “We did not create Reddit to defend freedom of expression, but as a place to have frank and open discussions.” If Ellen Pao is described as the ugly stepmother by his detractors, Reddit, he is regarded more as Peter Pan who refuses to grow.
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