Reddit’s chief engineer Bethanye Blount has now resigned in the aftermath of the chaos first caused by the abrupt dismissal of Victoria Taylor.
Blount’s departure makes her the third high-profile woman to leave Reddit after Victoria Taylor’s dismissal, which allegedly originated from Ohanian, and Ellen Pao’s resignation, which came in the wake of the chaos caused by Taylor’s dismissal.
Blount, who was hired by Pao, confirmed her departure from Reddit after only two months of employment, stating she did not believe Reddit “could deliver on promises being made to the community.” Blount explained:
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“I feel like there are going be some big bumps on the road ahead for Reddit. Along the way, there are some very aggressive implied promises being made to the community — in comments to mods, quotes from board members — and they’re going have some pretty big challenges in meeting those implied promises.”
She told Re/Code that her resignation was not directly related to Pao’s departure, which took place only days before, but she had lost confidence in the company’s new direction.
“Victoria wasn’t on a glass cliff. But it’s hard for me to see it any other way than Ellen was,” Blount said.
Yesterday the Reddit community was rocked by former CEO Yishan Wong’s comments that Ellen Pao was set up to fail by the new direction co-founder Alexis Ohanian had established.
Reddit’s current CEO, co-founder Steve Huffman, plans to replace Blount with former team leader George Pang.
