Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
Updated 2pm
REDDIT’S EMBATTLED CEO Ellen Pao has stepped down after a brief but stormy tenure at the helm of online bulletin board Reddit.
Pao faced a revolt from the site’s moderators after firing the website’s director of talent Victoria Taylor.
Hundreds individual communities on the website, called subreddits, were made private and inaccessible to the public.
Pao has also faced criticism from some parts of the Reddit community since taking over as CEO over her efforts to clamp down on abuse and close controversial sections of the website, currently the 31st most visited on the web.
In a post last night on Reddit, Pao said she was resigning after the board asked her “to demonstrate higher user growth in the next six months than I believe I can deliver while maintaining reddit’s core principles”.
“In my eight months as reddit’s CEO, I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly on reddit,” she wrote.
The good has been off-the-wall inspiring, and the ugly made me doubt humanity.
She stressed that the the positives have “far outshone the hate”, but hit out at the abuse she received:
I just want to remind everyone that I am just another human; I have a family, and I have feelings. Everyone attacked on reddit is just another person like you and me. When people make something up to attack me or someone else, it spreads, and we eventually will see it. And we will feel bad, not just about what was said. Also because it undercuts the authenticity of reddit and shakes our faith in humanity.
Pao previously who made headlines with a high-profile Silicon Valley gender discrimination lawsuit.
She took over earlier this year as Reddit CEO after being fired from the prominent venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, prompting a highly publicized lawsuit.
Reddit, which has more than 163 million users and describes itself as a forum for real-time journalism, said in a statement that Pao resigned “by mutual agreement” and would be replaced by founder and original CEO Steve Huffman.
“We are thankful for Ellen’s many contributions to Reddit and the technology industry generally,” the statement said.
She brought focus to chaos, recruited a world-class team of executives and drove growth. She brought a face to Reddit that changed perceptions, and is a pioneer for women in the tech industry. She will remain as an advisor to the board through the end of 2015.
A California jury rejected Pao’s charges of gender discrimination against KPCB in a closely-watched case seen by some as a proxy trial of Silicon Valley sex bias.
The state court jury found KPCB did not discriminate against Pao, who claimed she was fired after complaining about bias at the firm that notably backed Amazon, Facebook and Google. Pao has said she will appeal.
Additional reporting © AFP, 2015. Originally published 10.43pm
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
I think that a good place to start is to drop ‘we’ from the discussion. This masks the huge difference in the lives led by people during the time you are talking about. Everybody did not live the same way, did not share the same values, did not respond the same way and did not benefit equally or in the same way.
I think Mr Bonham is completely full of sh1t, but has fallen across a way of selling it to the gullible – “performance psychologist” yeah, right! lol
If people want to understand how ‘we’, as in ‘Western civilisation’ got here in ‘psychological’ terms I recommend Adam Curtis’ 4 part series for the BBC ‘Century of the Self’ (try archive.org) charting the influence of the inventor of the term ‘PR’ (because in his own words, the word ‘propaganda’ had ‘connotations’…) – one Edward Bernays, a nephew of Freud. Modern media & the ‘marketing’ of everything from cigarettes to politicians can be traced back to Bernays & his followers. Curtis tells the story.
To accompany that, read Daniel Kahneman’s book ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’.
Absorb all that & your bullsh1tometer will be fully functional ;)
WE didn’t accept anything the government did, but WE pay for it.
“in search of power and status”.
That made it difficult to read on.
Anyway, we’re all a slave to someone or something.
But WE democratically elected the previous & current governments to act on our behalf.
implicitly we did accept it, there was no massive movement against the government after signing the bank agreement. If we have not accepted it, then why did we vote Fine Gael into government, under the policy of ‘repaying our debts’. Of course we accepted as a collective, if not the resistance would have formed and an alternative form of government sought, though as a collective we are terrified of other forms of government, because it goes against the statues quo, we can’t be having the now can we
Yes, but our democracy is broken.
And “we” did nothing when they pushed the bank guarantee through.
No bankers held responsible yet..it will go like the horse meat in our food scandal..ppffftttt….never happened.move along.
Huge mortgages we’ll never clear Our government and have sold us and our children into bondage
Funnily enough I have no debt but 80K in savings. I must have missed this collective behaviour.
Aren’t ya a great lad Thomas, Maybe you could buy some cop on with your 80K.
It could be argued that if what he says is true he has more cop on than most in many respects.
He’s an awful arse to be bragging about it though. What is it they say? Empty vessels make the most noise?
Please can somebody explain why ‘struggling workers’ will vote Michael Lowry to a majority in the next election.
Sadly gombeenisn is alive and well in some parts of the country, irrespective of whether the economy is in bust or boom!!
Meath east.
I hate gombeenism as much as the next man,but have you ever spoken to anyone from his constituency? They absolutely love him because he ‘fixes’ things. It’s hard to blame people for that.
Tipp North. The capital of gombeenism!!
Can he fix himself, there’s a question.
You can red thumb me all you want but I’m afraid it’s the sad truth of politics in Ireland today. People, especially in sone rural areas feel disconnected from main stream party politicians, they vote for the Jack-the-lad who can pull strokes for them.
Noonan/ bilderberg cronie, sold the bank debt , so as it could become the debt of the Irish taxpayer.
He then introduced new taxes, to punish the Irish people.
Then , the coalition partners, (that pertain to stand up for the working man) allowed Fine Gael to rescind the law , allowing banks to take a family home off a struggling worker.
(Increase taxes to bail out the banks…..
Struggling workers paying more taxes to support newly unemployed & bail out banks.
Struggling worker, can no longer pay mortgage. (Bailed out bank takes house) Bank wins…. On all counts!!!!!
A little simplistic there mate….alot of “struggling workers” were only too happy to take giant mortgages to buy houses and cars to impress the other “struggling workers” trying to do the same.
Don’t forget we are a young nation – learning a very harsh lesson like alot of nations before us.
I know a lot of people that just wanted a home..
They didn’t exceed 250-300k on a mortgage.
They bought in areas that may have been a little let down over the years, but they got a mortgage within their means…
Now with the added taxes, that mortgage is an increasing strain, due to revenue taxes etc.
eventually there will be a default.
Increase on social housing budget, = more taxes. More taxes, more default…..
The current govt, are more concerned about the banks being back to profit, rather than , doing what they were elected for….. “REPRESENT THE IRISH PEOPLE” ..
This is the key point about the current situation. Many people, myself included, we’re well within our means and capable of paying; it was the government’s blanket guarantee for the banks and the resulting tax increases that caused this problem for many homeowners, not spending beyond our means. I think you’ll find it was banks and bondholders that did that.
These articles drive me nuts. The only thing the Celtic Tiger did was the same as any cat. Took everything he could and then before he left to eat at someone else’s table he shit on the doorstep!
I pay a fortune in taxes and the new hidden taxes, my house cost me €167k because I waited and didn’t jump in to a market that was going nuts. What did I get? An equal share in the debts some other shower of bankers (spelled with a W of course) ran up.
Sometimes I wonder is the whole austerity thing a massive construct ! I could be here for hrs goin into that one but you either get me or don’t!
However during the madness of the boom I often heard it said ” sher weren’t we happier when we had nothin in this country” . Well now we got jack so be happy ;)
We truly live in the Matrix.
We have no idea how the money system works – this information is intentionally hidden from us.
We are fed rubbish catch phrases like “Lehmans, pillar banks, banking gambling debts, bailouts” when all these banking collapses are 100% planned to cover up a transient wealth you never received.
And by the way, most of the international news you read is absolute crap – privately owned and filtered to cloak their power and wealth lust adventures and atrocities.
Make sure you sedate yourselves with TV, magazines, games, alcohol, drugs and pay without any resistance or question.
Fear revenue. Fear the courts. Fear the system that must never be challenged…
Yeah, we know all that.
Tell us something we don’t know. Like how to stop it.
Great comment Donnacha, however I fear it will be wasted on some of the commenters here who are asleep yet refuse to believe they are.
To be honest, I surrendered my liberty and became a voluntary slave when I had my first child.
Ireland has the highest personal debt mountain in Europe. But it must have been built up on stolen cards cause nobody in Ireland partied. Nobody…
Did people have problems paying their debts before our banks failed because of their fraudulent activity and we the citizens were forced to pick up the tab , causing job losses and increased taxes and charges etc . NOPE.
Very valid point Julie…
During the Celtic Tiger, I could only spend what I earned!!!!!
But developers were borrowing & spending billions,.!!
Then when the crash came, the developers ran to every other country, claiming poor mouth, while the average guy in Ireland picks up the tab!!!!!
Actually Julie, it was the property bubble bursting wot done it…
Simple equation
Earn……………. E1500 x12
Borrow …………E1000
Monthly Repay E500
Still can live and pay.
2013
Government cut wages, introduce extra taxes bank maintain high interest
New equation
Earn…………..E 1000
Still owe …….E1000 + Property Tax + USC + +++++
Anyone see where the problem started, HINT its not borrowing in the first place.
@ Hedley Lamarr
The problem is obvious Hedley when you put it like that:
Earn……..E15000x12
Erroneously assume everything will stay rosie forever, weill never lose job or receive paycut or face tax increase…Ireland will just keep lowering taxes and having a grand ol’ time…
Borrow…..more than I can afford I my income is reduced.
In other words – fail to consider all possibilities.
I doubt any sensible person truly considers “all possibilities”. They’d never get out of bed in the morning!
Why this desire to make us all collectively guilty? The real culprits are escaping scot free.
“Guilt is the gift that keeps on giving.”
As an Irish collective, we have been indoctrinated into guilt from birth under the control of the Roman church.
But trying to dump the collective guilt on all the people of Eire for the “mistakes” of the banksters is not right.
Or is it a mistake? Is it not a form of auto genocide?
http://www.whale.to/b/crow.html
We already see our sisters and brothers turn on those in receipt of benefits, thus giving the green light to the powers that be to cut further, thus the creation of worse conditions with less money available to spend.
The writer clearly knows Maslow’s pyramid of power and how it works.
A little education Reilly goes along way! Who lent the money to the property developers ? Did they have magic money trees that the rest of us knew nothing about. Who was steering this property bubble media, banks and government. An ordinary person went into the bank for a modest loan that they could afford and the bank as much as bullied them into taking double what they were asking for. When economist warned of what was to come our oh so intelligent Taoiseach told them to commit suicide. Back to my main point, people could pay their debts ,the people were not the problem it was the wreck less actions of our government and the banks they were working for and still are( don’t be fooled as to who is the boss in that relationship ). Now if you can’t see that I suggest you go back and look again at what happened, not just in Ireland but the whole of Europe all starting with American banks.
Right on brother.
..slaves to the wage!
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin
Irelands obsession with safety nets and allowing trade unions and welfare leeches to drive our country into debt caused this, the safety net was extended to the banks against the will of the free market, high taxation and invasive policing accross the world eliminated liberty.
@ Thomas Regean. Well done you but try selling your house and you might have noticed some of your friends or relations can’t find jobs or maybe you don’t actually live in Ireland
Trade unions and the welfare state, can’t agree,
Trade unions are middle management( executives), which supports the above article
Welfare has a role in a just society, greed doesn’t acknowledge that not all of us can support ourselves
I have never needed this support but hope if I ever do , that those who can will not begrudge me some assistance
To agree with welfare and oppose bank bailouts is hypocrisy though , they are both safety nets against failure, corporate welfare is as much of a waste of public money as personal welfare, charity , and a low tax , low regulation system to allow job creation is the way to go.
LMAO, we already have a “low tax, low regulation system” and look at where the f*ck we are!!
All it’s managed to create is mass unemployment for the working class, higher taxes for the middle class, and wealth for the top 20%.
And who do you think is going to be buying back all those repossessed homes at bargain prices???
It certainly won’t be the “welfare leeches” you refer to. Let’s just hope you don’t get sick and have to rely on welfare to survive. Karma wouldn’t do that to you, would it? :)
Just a smidgen of veiled threat there Dexter, Watch out for that Karma thingy.
We’ve never had a “low tax, low regulation” system. That’s just what they want you to believe now, while they pick your pocket again.
@ireland uncensored – Congratulations!! You’ve posted the DUMBEST comment of the week.
Nowhere in this article is there a reference to Ireland, to any of the monstrous creations of the banking crisis here such as NAMA or IBRC, or the external institutions, the ECB, the IMF and the Troika, to whom we have surrendered our economic independence in such a grotesquely cheap manner.
This is a generic article full of bland cliches and generalisations that can be reprinted or translated for printing in any country that has been damaged by the banking crisis that continues to consume the developed western economic sector.
The message it contains is an insidious bastardisation of the truth.
The citizens of these countries are being told that the crisis has been caused because, in some subconscious way, people prefer slavery to freedom.
It makes little if any reference to the identities of the masters to whom these wilful slaves owe their allegiance.
There is a bit of a clue in the names of some of the authors clients, multinational corporations and banks.
The central banks of the developed western economies allowed the system of banking and credit control to become corrupted in the 1990′s, the result being the invention of previously non-existent credit which was flooded into the economic infrastructure.
The banks are broke, they had no money to lend to start with and have balance sheets full of worthless assets.
This article is pure propaganda, an effort to disguise the truth and persuade people the fault of the crisis lies with them rather than the banks.
Right on! Enda Kenny with his” The whole of Ireland went mad borrowing” remarks .
Forgot to mention that all these slave built high tech societies in the end succumbed to slave revolts and barbarians.
Eventually the same revolt will happen here too.
As Connie Francis sang in the 60s Everybodys somebodys fool.
Bob Dylan – You Gotta Serve Somebody
ill tell you how we got here… because we live an a vacuous society where ‘performance psychologist’ is considered an authority on economic affairs…
W
Wage slavers.
In Ancient Rome if you spent more than 50% of your time working you were considered a slave.
It’s hard to think of a profession that requires less than 50% of a persons time.
Since when did the importance of money surpass the importance of enjoying your life. You can have one without the other, the best thing in life are free.
Your 1st comment was better than the 2nd
A person working an 8 hour day will at most work probably 20% of their time.
Are you including time spent sleeping there Thomas? Because I wouldn’t call time spent to maintain cognitive function “free time”.
But I suppose in today’s world it’s considered a luxury.
It is free time. But then you never mentioned free time, just time.
@thomas: there’s 168 hours a week, so assuming a seven-day workweek, doing 8 hours a day would mean you spend 33.33% of your time working, but if you reduce that to five days, or 40 hours in total, it still equates to 23.8.
Are you totally sure you didn’t get involved in group behaviour, and the 80k in savings you’re so proud of isn’t more like 2 million in debt, given your mathematical acumen?
So no bank holidays or holidays for you then. Thanks would make me completely correct, right?
Apologies Thomas, I’ll add in irrelevant detail to cover my ass next time.
Not everybody entered into slavery. Many people were prepared to live in mobile homes and sub standard housing in order to avoid the death grip( mortgage). That didn’t stop the government from forcing them to pay bankers debt also. While they live in the lap of luxury.
I agree, many people are now downsizing and there’s the slow food movement and various other efforts to to show people there’s another way. We need a paradigm shift for everyone though. The majority WERE coaxed into loans and mortgages. People ate brainwashed by their own culture. You can’t blame them, as patronising as that sounds. Knowledge is power. What’s needed is a new approach to living and outlook on life. That takes a monumental shift and is unlikely to happen to those who don’t educate themselves via the internet or be educated by family/friends.
Hahaha educate themselves via the Internet. Good one.
We put all our chips in the game to save the euro. This was the gambit known as the bank guarantee when we as an outpost of the euro faced attack by global speculators. The euro is the right decision even at this price given our disasterous history alone or in the British empire. If this government had not abandoned its mandate to seek a write down the price could be a lot better….
The Euro is just another form of bondage.
have your say