Reddit's head of community, Jessica Moreno, has left the company. She is the fourth senior female employee to exit in less than a month.
Moreno and her husband, former Reddit product boss Dan McComas, joined the company in 2011 when their gift-exchange service, RedditGifts, was acquired by Reddit. Reddit and Moreno confirmed news of the departure to Re/code in separate statements provided by the company, saying that Moreno plans to return to Salt Lake City to spend time with her family. Neither Moreno nor Reddit specified who would replace her, but Moreno said she's "working with [CEO] Steve [Huffman] on a transition plan."
In her statement, Moreno didn't mention anything related to gender discrimination. Her exit is the latest by a female higher-up at the social news site at a time when the company's efforts to rein in the most toxic elements of its community have been in the spotlight.
Human group dynamics are mysterious. Did Moreno leave because there is real gender discrimination at Reddit that she's reacting to, or is it a lemming effect, where some will jump off the cliff because the one ahead of them in line did? Or is she a statistical quirk, having had her company acquired by Reddit and now deciding to move on, and the world reads deeper meaning into it because of the timing?
(Score: 3, Informative) by janrinok on Thursday July 30 2015, @09:01AM
The story was included, not for the speculation which was mentioned by the submitter (and, I believe, balanced by the suggestion of alternative views) but because we also report events in the Business market which might be significant. When we post we get criticised for discussing the events that are occurring and, when we don't, we get asked why we are 'blocking' or ignoring specific stories.
However, it does seem that there have been changes in a rather high proportion of executive posts in Reddit over the last few weeks - something for which I cannot find a match in similar companies over the same period - so it is possible that Reddit's woes are not yet over.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by mojo chan on Thursday July 30 2015, @10:50AM
The story is fine, it's the way the summary wildly speculates that is the problem. The summaries don't need to add commentary, and TFA should be a neutral one free from such speculation as well.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Thursday July 30 2015, @12:08PM
Ah, OK. I thought that Phoenix666 had balanced sufficiently it to make it neutral. I'm sure he will take note.