As I recall, there was an uproar back then as well when they started cleaning up subreddits. (/r/jailbait was one, /r/beatingwomen another, /r/fatpeoplehate, and a bunch of subreddits about various illegal activities.) People were really into “free speech over anything else” at that point.
In fact the vitrol directed at spez currently really reminds me of that, there were pictures of the then-CEO’s face everywhere along with “fuck Ellen Pao”. Then, funnily enough, spez came in (came back) as the replacement and people were happy again because he was one of the OG admins.
I never subscribed to the original, but the aftermath of that created loads of parody subs, my favourites being /r/fatpapalhat (pictures of the pope with his photoshopped larger), and /r/farpeoplehate (pictures of people a long way off with comments calling them bastards)
Back then they intended to be a bastion of free speech and wanted to stay true to that, despite not wanting the sub
It was only a matter of time before they grew large enough that they had to drop the philosophy for the benefit of PR and advertising.
The original users from those years were split on the matter, because it meant a change in what Reddit was.
Nearly everyone knew it had to restrict itself beyond just what was lawful sooner or later.
As I recall, there was an uproar back then as well when they started cleaning up subreddits. (/r/jailbait was one, /r/beatingwomen another, /r/fatpeoplehate, and a bunch of subreddits about various illegal activities.) People were really into “free speech over anything else” at that point.
In fact the vitrol directed at spez currently really reminds me of that, there were pictures of the then-CEO’s face everywhere along with “fuck Ellen Pao”. Then, funnily enough, spez came in (came back) as the replacement and people were happy again because he was one of the OG admins.
I never subscribed to the original, but the aftermath of that created loads of parody subs, my favourites being /r/fatpapalhat (pictures of the pope with his photoshopped larger), and /r/farpeoplehate (pictures of people a long way off with comments calling them bastards)