14 DAY TRIAL // A large number of subreddits are now private, and the Reddit community is feeling the recoil of a very controversial decision to dismiss a very important admin for the AMA subreddit.
Reddit users were surprised to see today that many of their favorite subreddits have gone private, which is not something that happens every day. The problems started from the fact that an admin of the AMA (Ask Me Anything) subreddit, who served as a sort of liaison, has been dismissed without any kind of explanation from Reddit. As it turns out, Victoria, the AMA admin, was a very important part of the entire AMA process and apparently she was also an employee.
When Victoria lost its admin status, the other moderators were very upset because they were not notified, and no one was put in her place, at least not initially. This left the entire AMA subreddit in relative chaos. As it usually happens on Reddit, the situation became viral, and subreddits have started to become private, meaning that regular users couldn't go in.
Don't forget, Reddit is a company
The fact that users couldn't access many of the most important subreddits will most likely have a major impact on the website, so this kind of pressure from moderators won't go unnoticed. There are almost 10,000 active subreddits at this point, and many of the ones with over 5000 subscribers have gone dark. Not all of them, but enough to cripple Reddit for the time being.
"The mods of /r/IAmA had just found out that without prior warning, /u/chooter, or Victoria, had been released from her position at reddit. They felt that they, along with the other subreddits that host AMAs, should have been warned beforehand, if only so that they could have someone or something in place to handle the transition [...] As a result of this, the mods therefore took /r/IAmA private," is explained on Reddit.
The entire discussion if just too big to be reproduced here, so you should check the Reddit entry for more details. It's unclear how long this protest will be, but it's definitely the biggest one we've seen so far, and it's bound to have some repercussions.
