Here's the bottom line:

Dave Croach applied to be Reddit's community manager several years back - the position had been open for like 18 months. At the time, he was one of /r/gaming's mods.

He was hired - a good fit for a position that had been open far too long. Unfortunately, between his old job and his new he was diagnosed with leukemia.

Reddit put him on their insurance plan, if I understand correctly. I'm not sure they were paying him. Dave made the right choice between "reddit" and "beat cancer" and went through a lot of health stuff. Unfortunate for Dave, unfortunate for Reddit because it still didn't have a community manager.

Dave came back, sort-of in remission, right about the time for the Violentacrez catastrophe. His health problems hadn't abated and he'd been away from Reddit for a good long while. In between his health issues and the general miasma of incompetence surrounding Reddit, he ended up not being a particularly effective community manager. His responsibilities were passed along to others while he proceeded to tend to his health.

That's what I know. What it sounds like happened is the board decided that they did not have a fiduciary responsibility to an employee that had been out more than in. I have never seen a Reddit employee contract. I suspect they aren't particularly beneficial.

He's a good guy. I've probably talked to him on chat for three-four hours and on the phone at least two. However, he was never given the tools or authority to affect real change and his health issues substantially curtailed his involvement with the community. It's doubly unfortunate as Dave was busy fighting for his life and Reddit felt no obligation to get their community relations in order because the position was technically filled.