I think a lot of things were incorrectly attributed to Pao. It doesn't really matter though. I don't think she was ever going to get back the community's confidence.
So half a percent of the userbase or so? I'd call that a vocal minority.
http://www.redditblog.com/2015/06/happy-10th-birthday-to-us-...
> I don't think she was ever going to get back the community's confidence.
Likely true. Backing down here likely means zero chance of addressing toxic communities in the site for the foreseeable future.
By that logic, the people who protested during the Civil Rights movement were also a vocal minority. Doesn't make their grievances any less valid.
This is why I'm contesting the idea that "a grassroots campaign" is evidence that someone was in the wrong. It's merely evidence that some people had an opinion about the situation.
When "SJWs" get someone fired we're told a loud, vocal minority has too much power and is dangerous.
The same folks seem to be calling the same thing in a direction they like a "grassroots campaign". I find that interesting. Pao's most downvoted posts still got only a few thousand of Reddit's tens of millions of users expressing their dislike, and petitions topped out at what, 20k of those tens of millions?