This post has been updated.
Reddit, the popular social networking community where viral Internet content often originates, is experiencing major service disruptions, with many of its most popular sections, called subreddits, currently inaccessible.
The site’s problems are a reaction to the unexpected dismissal of Victoria Taylor, Reddit’s director of talent, wrote user karmanaut on July 2. Karmanaut is the moderator who runs Reddit’s ”Ask Me Anything” subreddit. After learning of Taylor’s termination, he and other moderators made their subreddits private.
“The admins didn’t realize how much we rely on Victoria,” karmanaut wrote, calling her an “essential lifeline of communication.”
(“Admins” are paid Reddit employees, while moderators or “mods” are volunteers.)
Other subreddits that have gone dark include r/gaming, r/videos, r/AskReddit, r/science, r/history, r/movies and r/TreesSuckingOnThings, though r/history and r/science have both come back online.
“We all had the rug ripped out from under us and feel betrayed,” karmanaut wrote. Reddit’s past Ask Me Anything threads have featured live chats with celebrities like Peter Dinklage and Amy Poehler, a former mafia boss, and Julian Assange.
Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian is trying to address the situation. On July 3, he posted that he was trying to “get the blacked out subreddits back online,” and to “work out a plan for going forward.”
The situation is changing quickly as subreddits come in and out of service. Gawker has the play-by-play, but notes: “It’s still not totally clear what’s going on, other than, of course, mass panic and paranoia.”
Update (July 3, 12:45 p.m.): Reddit has directed Quartz to Ohanion’s aforementioned post for more background on the situation.
Update (July 3, 7:10 p.m.): Reddit CEO Ellen Pao released the following statement: “I want to apologize for how we handled the transition yesterday. We should have informed the moderators earlier and provided more detail on the transition plan. We are working to make improvements and create the best experience for our users and we aren’t always perfect. Our community is what makes reddit, reddit and we let you down yesterday.”