Reddit's Chief Engineer Bethanye Blount Has Quit

Reddit is undergoing a revolution and not everyone is happy about it. A short while after CEO Ellen Pao resigned and co-founder Steve Huffman returned, the site's chief engineer Bethanye Blount has decided to quit. She only spent two months in her role, having first worked for Facebook before transitioning to the "front page of the Internet". Her decision, she said, was not "directly linked to" Pao's exit from Reddit. Rather it seems the overall direction the company has taken recently took its toll.

Blount confirmed that she has left the company to Re/code, saying that she lost her confidence in Reddit, particularly in the new direction it is taking. This follows Reddit's firing of Victoria Taylor, a worker who was heavily involved in the Ask Me Anything subreddit. Her departure triggered widespread protests across the site.

Said Blount, "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 to have some pretty big challenges in meeting those implied promises."

Earlier this afternoon, Reddit's newly returned Steve Huffman made it clear that Reddit isn't planning on returning to its anything-goes status, and that it is planning to crackdown on certain types of content on the site. Redditors can expect a "comprehensive Content Policy" in the future.

SOURCE: Re/code