/u/chooter is the handle of a much beloved admin named Victoria who is famous for taglines in the popular AMAs (Ask Me Anythings) which go something line “Hi! This is Interesting Person and I’m here with Victoria to help me out.” This tagline has permeated the subconscious of Reddit in a way that I think even Reddit had not realized until today. She was, effectively, the embodiment of the Reddit AMA brand.
So, why is a popular source of gaming news shut down? What do we know? Less than our inquiring minds want to know, but plenty for discussion:
Victoria has been fired, rather abruptly Other moderators expressed extreme dismay at this because she helps them with AMAs in their popular subreddit and because it was completely unexpected and she is very very respected Reddit admins gave little good info afterwards and rumors about a Jesse Jackson AMA going sideways were swirling Better data in /r/SubredditDrama seems to indicate that Reddit is embarking on changes to the AMA format to improve revenue generation and /u/chooter was opposed to those ideas. This info is only better in that it is also being supported by posts on Quora and other Valley “insiders” that are not embroiled in the Reddit echo chamber. Extreme dismay has catapulted into sizable default subs setting themselves to private. A full list including /r/gaming is in a /r/SubredditDrama thread As the Frontpage of Reddit went dark the creator of Reddit, /u/kn0thing got snarky with people (He has since apologized and that part seems earnest) As the Fronpage stayed dark things have gotten messier. Admins, including the aforementioned Reddit creator, have made promises and what really seems as really poorly executed pleadings. Full text here. Now, there are rumors of subreddit takeovers by reddit Admins and things are basically even more in disarray Reddit has announced a temporary replacement for Victoria, but this person already had other responsibilities so it isn’t really placating people Reddit is still in disarray. Current estimates are that nearly 75% of reddit default subs are dark and smaller subs are benefiting from front page visiblity since they aren’t pushed out by pictures of your cats or closing their own doors in solidarity
At this point the battle lines are drawn and this seems to be a genuine crisis for the site. I don’t think this is the end of Reddit by a long shot, but this will be classic internet defining moment we talk about into the future.
