Update: Several other popular subreddits have set themselves to private in protest against Victoria Taylor’s removal from the company and due to an “underlying resentment against the admins for running the site poorly.” Several of the subreddits have millions of subscribers, including r/AskReddit, r/Science, r/Music, and others.

Reddit user Gilgamesh-, who is moderator of several major subreddits, wrote a lengthy post on the subject here.

Original Story: Reddit Inc’s main “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) subreddit, r/IAmA, is one of the site’s most popular forums and is responsible for some of the community’s most memorable moments, but the subreddit has been suddenly locked down following the unexpected departure of Victoria Taylor, Reddit’s AMA organizer.

AMAs are essentially online Q&A sessions that are open to the entire Reddit community, and participants in the format have included actors, scientists, musicians, and even President Obama.

Taylor, who is affectionately referred to by many redditors as simply “Victoria,” was responsible for orchestrating and conducting numerous popular AMAs. Her role in organizing AMAs was so vital, apparently, that the r/IAMA subreddit has almost fallen apart without her.

“Today, we learned that Victoria was unexpectedly let go from her position with Reddit,” wrote Karmanaut, a well-known Reddit user and moderator of numerous popular subreddits. “We all had the rug ripped out from under us and feel betrayed.”

According to Karmanaut, Victoria was a “load-bearing wall in the House of /r/IAmA,” and without her running the show, the moderators of r/IAmA have been forced to set the subreddit to private until the format can be reorganized.

“The admins didn’t realize how much we rely on Victoria,” Karmanaut wrote. “Victoria is an essential lifeline of communication. When something goes wrong in an AMA, we can call and get it fixed immediately.”

He added, “Part of it is also organization. The vast majority of scheduling requests go through her and she ensures that we have all of the standard information that we need ahead of time (date, time, proof, description, etc.) and makes it easier for the teams that set up AMAs on both ends. She ensures that things will go well and that the person understands what /r/IAMA is and what is expected of them. Without her filling this role, we will be utterly overwhelmed. We might need to scrap the calendar altogether, or somehow limit AMAs from those that would need help with the process.”

Taylor has yet to make a public statement regarding her departure from Reddit, but she did thank several redditors for showing their support, saying, “Well, I love all of you right back.”

Image credit: @SimonBooks via Twitter