Not even mentioning Schwartz was a huge indicator that this is a bullshit paid-for story from Reddit/Spez. Absolutely NOBODY who would bring up the founding of Reddit without mentioning Schwartz unless they were paid not to. This is a hack piece from a paid shill.

thats actually a wrong rumour , he was appointed mod of r/jailbait unknowingly , didnt mod jailbait , and anything.

he also wasnt it willingly. it was in a time when reddit was still young and allowed Moderator appointments.

we shouldnt spread lies.

That's an odd way of saying he failed at his job.

We did it!!??

And there's dumbasses on Reddit who defend this shit???

You gotta remember that there are tons of casual users (which probably outnumber 3rd party app users, if we're being honest) that haven't ever known anything else, and they see all this noise as an interruption to their day-to-day scrolling.

One of the subs I used to frequent most often (r/hockey) was full of users who were pissed that it was blacked out for the final game of the Stanley Cup playoffs, so there was no live thread for the last (and biggest, most important) game of the season, and thought anyone who supported the blackout was just being whiny.

I've just accepted that Reddit's base has shifted, its no longer what I remember it being, and I'm not a part of it.

Very likely Spez is just having bots everywhere say what he wants like this article. No way a normal human would think this is ok. We've seen many examples of this, like with Elon

or if the author (apparently a 'longtime Redditor') had his account threatened

Why such an unbelievable theory?

They want reddit turn reddit into a cash cow and we are the product.

It’s sad.

The day after moderators closed down hundreds of Reddit forums...

Hundreds? I mean, I guess that's true, if you say 88 hundreds... Almost 90 hundreds.

I'm not even to the interview, and I'm already having trouble swallowing this article.

Edit: I guess "Spez talks to NY Times" was hyperbole... There's no interview, lol

NYT: manufacturing consent since before you were born, and after you die

While New York times is far better than the New York Post. And the Washington Post is far better than Washington times. They are all for profit ventures owned by thieving wealthy capitalists. They've always pushed their own perception and agenda. Whether or not we ever realized it. And that agenda has never been about sustainability, fairness, or accuracy. It's always been this way to one extent or another. It's just that the consolidation of ownership etc as made the market much less competitive and accountable.

The financial shit heads weasel their way into everything and fuck it up on us. This is what I like about this setup here, from the ground up it doesn't seem like it can be bought our and IPO'd.

Neither. He's still gargling.

Also, love spez's constant deflection on mods, and here specifically super mods, being the source of the problem. Most of us have been on the internet for the majority of our lives. We know the difference between a butt hurt, power tripping mod, and a mod who's concerned for the community they've been participating in for 10+ years.

And framed it as just a few dozen moderators who protested. Nothing the user polls, etc. He notes that the users have "outsized power" over the site. Bitch, the users are the site.

"Spez paid NY Times for a half-assed article"