Reddit is Cringe | The Story of Why Reddit is Trash

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[–]Node 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (5 children)

Got to the historical revision at 0:38, and stopped. I was on reddit when Swartz jewed them, and it was a heavily discussed topic by everyone involved.

Swartz was not an actual co-founder. He was a scammer right up until the day he skipped out on his debt to society.

His own site failed. Then his investor convinced the reddit kids to accept Swartz because of his supposed coding skills they needed, and to give him founder status.

Well, once he got the founder status, he then decided to leave his desk, computer, and job to go to Thailand for drugs and whatever. Asked when he was coming back to do his job, "Fuck you, I'm never coming back" was his reply.

But that propaganda movie about him did its job well...

[–]oakenwheels 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Any proof for your claims? AFAIK he made a Python framework which Reddit used. And everything else that's documented about Swartz (being a smart child into science and computers, being against censorship to the point of breaking a law) speaks against him being a scammer

[–]Node 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Ask people who were there. The owners and office people were posting about their business issues in comments just like these. This was 2005 or 2006. Was like one of the first big dramas I remember from early reddit.

But yeah, "Aaron Swartz critical to the internet" got a huge propaganda push, and now seems to be the official narrative. I wonder who was behind that.

Anyway, that and him killing himself rather than spend 3 months in prison were the two times I heard about him. I don't have a favorable impression.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Huh, I didn't know any of that. Although Wikipedia says it was 6 months in prison if he took a plea admitting to 13 crimes. He didn't want to do that, instead facing a "maximum criminal exposure to 50 years of imprisonment and $1 million in fines."

Court wears you down even with far less serious charges, making the plea the smart deal but that leads to situations like Cosby where you can't tell if they plead because that's just how the system works, or if they were really guilty.

You're out on bond while fighting the charges which carries restrictions on it too, it's not like you're free, and infractions such as leaving the county, drinking, and even traffic tickets can be cause to revoke your bond. It's stressful.

[–][deleted]  (1 child)

[deleted]

    [–]Node 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

    Were you using reddit in 2005/2006?