An Internet insurrection is taking place on Reddit, where moderators have shut down many of the social sharing site's most popular sections in an apparent protest over the dismissal of Victoria Taylor.
Taylor was a key figure in Reddit's extremely popular r/IAmA (Ask Me Anything) section, which brought in celebrities of all stripes — from actors to musicians and even President Obama — to answer questions submitted from the vast community. Taylor's role was often organizer, mediator and even transcriber for many of the AMAs.
As The Verge reports:
"Taylor, who joined the company in 2013 as its director of communications, was point-of-contact for many of the site's celebrity AMA sessions, relaying questions over the phone to high-profile figures and transcribing their responses. Her sudden departure, moderators say, leaves them unable to effectively set up and run AMA sessions. 'I am the mod in /r/science that organizes all of the science AMAs,' user 'nallen' writes, 'and I am going to have meaningful problems in the /r/Science AMAs; Victoria was the only line of communication with the admins.' "
As a result, the moderators of r/IAmA set the section to "private," effectively closing it to anyone but the moderators. Once word of Taylor's firing began to spread, moderators of other popular sections (called subreddits) that cover movies, science, gaming and a host of others, also went private, making much of Reddit essentially useless to regular site visitors.
Reddit users have been keeping track of what sections are closing on a live thread on the site, as well as a running list of when sites have returned.