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Reddit Upheaval Leads To Shutdown Of Popular Chicago Site

CHICAGO (CBS) -- A popular local Internet site has gone dark, at least for the time being.

The Chicago Reddit page has gone into private mode, in protest of recent actions by Reddit's administrators.

The site has this message for users: "Out of solidarity for the current protests on Reddit, /r/chicago has gone private." Regular subscribers to the page cannot view or contribute content on the site.

According to several postings on other Reddit sites that are still open, the protests center on growing frustration with lack of communication with Reddit's management and the quality of the tools that moderators use to run their pages, known as subreddits.

According to reports on Gizmodo and Tech Crunch, many moderators are also upset that a key Reddit employee has left the company.

Victoria Taylor was in charge of Reddit's popular AMA (ask me anything) feature and was responsible for coordinating the online chats with celebrities, public officials and industry leaders.

As a consolation, the moderators of the Chicago Reddit page provided a link to this video, which they encourage users to watch over and over until the issues are resolved.

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