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Reddit moderators revolt after popular employee dismissed

By Amy R. Connolly

SAN FRANCISCO, July 4 (UPI) -- Hundreds of message boards on Reddit went dark Friday in an apparent protest of the abrupt dismissal of a high-ranking company employee.

Some 300 individual message boards focused on singular topics, called subreddits, shut down after reports Victoria Taylor, the company's director of talent, was let go without explanation. The rapid shutdown began Thursday, after Taylor was dismissed, and expanded well into Friday.

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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.

Alexis Ohanian, one of Reddit's co-founders and the company's current chairman, took "full responsibility" for the revolt, saying the situation was handled poorly and vowed to work closely with moderators.

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"Your message was received loud and clear," he wrote. "The communication between Reddit and the moderators needs to improve dramatically. We will work closely with you all going forward to ensure events like today don't happen again. At this point, however, the blackout has served its purpose, and now it's time to get Reddit functioning again."

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