WASHINGTON, July 6 (UPI) -- Reddit CEO Ellen Pao directly addressed the site's users about the dismissal of a popular figure for the first time Monday, admitting the company hasn't "communicated well" and promising to do better in the future.
Pao apologized to the website's users in response to backlash she's received for the abrupt dismissal of Victoria Taylor, the company's director of talent. She was fired without explanation Thursday.
In response, hundreds of message boards on Reddit went dark in an apparent protest.
"We screwed up," Pao said in a Reddit post. "Not just on July 2, but also over the past several years. We haven't communicated well, and we have surprised moderators and the community with big changes.
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It was the first time Pao posted a message on Reddit regarding the protest. She previously issued apologies through major news outlets like NPR.
Taylor was the company's chief facilitator of the wildly popular "Ask Me Anything" pages (AMAs). Moderators say they will not be able to coordinate AMAs anymore since Taylor was the point person for contact with politicians, celebrities and other popular figures who participated in the online question and answer sessions.
It is not clear why Taylor, who joined the company in 2013, was dismissed but some suspect it is related to her handling of an AMA with the Rev. Jesse Jackson that went astray with a flurry of questions about his personal history and race issues. Others have argued on the site that she was protesting attempts to monetize more aspects of the site.
Some 300 individual message boards focused on singular topics, called subreddits, were shut down in protest after Taylor was dismissed Thursday. The shutdowns lasted into the weekend.
Reddit has more than 8,300 active communities, and its moderators, or mods, are all volunteers. In addition to complaints about the firing of Taylor, many Reddit moderators have taken issue with the site's paid administrators for not responding to their needs.
"We have apologized and made promises to you, the moderators and the community, over many years, but time and again, we haven't delivered on them," Pao said in her Reddit post. "When you've had feedback or requests, we haven't always been responsive. The mods and the community have lost trust in me and in us, the administrators of reddit."
She offered a number of ways in which Reddit plans to make amends, including improving tools used by moderators. A moderator advocate was also named "to figure out the best way for more administrators, including [Pao], to talk more often with the whole community," Pao said.
Additionally, Reddit is improving the site's search function, allowing moderators to use a previous version of the task.
"I know these are just words, and it may be hard for you to believe us. I don't have all the answers, and it will take time for us to deliver concrete results," Pao said in her post. "I mean it when I say we screwed up, and we want to have a meaningful ongoing discussion.
"I know we've drifted out of touch with the community as we've grown and added more people, and we want to connect more. I and the team are committed to talking more often with the community, starting now."
Last month, Pao was ordered to pay nearly $276,000 in legal fees to her former employer, venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, for her failed attempt to sue over gender discrimination.
Amy R. Connolly contributed to this report.
