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Comment by shostack | Hacker News Reader

Just playing devil's advocate here, and please know I mean this with all due respect, but you are a Product Manager who has been there 4 months according to LinkedIn.

I do not claim to know the inner workings of Reddit, but can you really be 100% certain that you were privy to all of the meetings, etc. where such signs may have been observed?

Again--zero disrespect intended here, but it strikes me as uncommon that a recent PM hire would be involved in all of the board meetings, hallway conversations, etc. where some of this power struggle may have occurred.

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The culture at reddit is one of openness. We're also a super small team (about 30 in SF), so any kind of issues/arguments are easily recognized. Through the relocation announcement, the ex-employee issue on reddit, handling of the #celebgate, all employees and the board were supportive of Yishan for the most part. If there was any animosity, it certainly wasn't enough to call for his resignation.

What Sam is saying is truth. Yishan wanted the new HQ closer to the peninsula because he believed it was the best thing for the company (cost savings, south bay commuters, etc), and probably less so, for his family. The board disagreed, and there were a number of employees who disagreed. Yishan may have felt that he wasn't given enough trust and reins he needed to execute the company the way he thought it should be if he was CEO. This was the sole reason for Yishan's resignation, as I know it.

This is a hopelessly naive position to hold, and it's also a one likely to be dangerous to your career — believing in openness so blindly is how you're going to be blind-sided.

An "open" culture is open unless the folks who actually are in charge have a good reason for it not to be. As someone who has been behind the closed doors, I guarantee that you have no idea what occurred behind them.

Openness isn't the only reason. I'm also pretty close with Yishan (pre-reddit) and Ellen is my direct supervisor and sits across from me. Sure there might have been other small issues, but office location was a large point of contention internally. So this being the underlying part of Yishan's resignation makes sense.

Nobody (sane) resigns solely over office location planning. They would, however, resign over the politics that drove their proposal being dismissed.

Reading what Sam wrote, the board didn't tell Yishan no. They just wanted him to add up the effects it would have. Which isn't just reasonable, it's a requirement if you're any kind of responsible corporate steward. You don't move on a whim, you have the pluses and minuses all figured out.

And no offense, but I find it hard to believe anyone other than Yishan and the board (and maybe some other investors) is privy to all the conversations they had.

It wouldn't be at all surprising if board members are 'nicer' to a ceo in front of employees than they are in private. It'd be kind of surprising if they weren't.

I never said I was privy to the board conversations. My reasonings had to do with the PR events that some believe may have contributed to the board's feelings for Yishan as a competent CEO.

"This was the sole reason for Yishan's resignation, as I know it."

Thanks for the response. I think the above quote is the salient point here though. Everything you said may be accurate, but without actually hearing Yishan's side, I don't think it is realistic to expect everyone to take this at face value, despite Sam and Reddit's reputations.

Even if Yishan were to make a statement, I think there would still be skepticism as to whether people were getting the full story, vs. the "I still hold equity, am seeking new employment, and don't want to agitate the situation" version.

Not sure on whether he still holds equity or how that works, but would you agree that it is reasonable for people to be skeptical given the circumstances and recent events? The more I think about it--I'm actually not sure what could be done to prove beyond a doubt what actually happened. This seems like a black eye for Reddit regardless, and I and many other Redditors have valid concerns about Reddit's future as a result.

Said statement: http://www.quora.com/Why-did-Yishan-Wong-resign-as-Reddit-CE...

Thanks for sharing that. I actually follow Yishan on Quora and hadn't seen that pop up.

Definitely helpful to get some context. I'd like to believe that everyone is being truthful here, but I guess there will always be a nagging doubt that we are not getting the full story due to the nature of the situation. I guess that brings up the more philosophical question of what duty a company has to make its dirty laundry public to its users.

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