You know I can't help but wonder if some of the anti-Pao stuff was some shilling going on. By doing it, it helps condense the hate against Pao rather then the policies happening, meanwhile it also helps paint the people criticizing her as sexist harassment because they're saying horrible things, leading some people to dismiss all criticism against reddit (even about the policies) as being from those sorts of people and helps gives Pao a case that she's being harassed because she's a woman, which would further help 'validate' her claims that she was discriminated against because she's a woman in regards to her lawsuit (all while she benefits from the added notability of being CEO of reddit). Seems like a rather nice play all the way around for them, whether she was in on it or not it definitely seems like it was at least supposed to be beneficial for her (given how the ruling for her lawsuit was over quite awhile ago, being fired now probably wouldn't affect things much had things worked as she wanted them to). Maybe could have been talked about beforehand. But after saying this sorta conspiracy theory, I have a feeling like I'm imparting a bit more forethought onto the actions of the people involved in all this then I should be. None the less, it does seem like was at least supposed to come out a bit more ahead then someone who's just used and thrown aside (had her lawsuit gone her way), heck the fact that she agreed to not appeal then went and appealed anyways does slightly suggest someone who's a bit desperate, as someone who knew they weren't going to be around for when reddit is sold probably would be... But now I'm just rambling.