AMAgeddon

AMAgeddon (a portmanteau of "AMA" and "Armageddon") refers to the large-scale Reddit moderator protest of July 2015, in which moderators set dozens of major subreddits to private, effectively taking them offline. The blackout was triggered by the abrupt dismissal of Victoria Taylor (u/chooter), the staff member who coordinated Reddit's flagship "Ask Me Anything" (AMA) interviews. Without her, moderators said they could no longer organize scheduled AMAs, and the protest quickly broadened into a wider revolt over what moderators described as poor communication and inadequate support from Reddit's administrators.

On Reddit specifically, AMAgeddon is a landmark example of moderator collective action and the leverage volunteer moderators hold over a platform that depends on their unpaid labor. As many as 100 or more subreddits went dark in solidarity, including high-traffic communities, and a change.org petition demanded the resignation of interim CEO Ellen Pao. Pao stepped down on July 10, 2015, replaced by co-founder Steve Huffman (u/spez). The episode is frequently cited as a precursor to later large-scale protests, such as the 2023 API-pricing blackout, and it crystallized ongoing tensions between Reddit's corporate leadership and its moderator base.