/kbin

This is really the first piece in the media that I've seen acknowledge that, for the protesters, it's no longer so much about the app and it's all about Reddit's ugly and dismissive response.

It's like going to your boss and saying 'There's a problem with the working conditions and we need to make a change' only to have your boss say 'This isn't an issue and I'm not going to fix anything and you're just wanting something for nothing, like you always do... quit being such a pussy or I'll fire you'. The complaint might have started out about working conditions but as soon as your boss goes into asshole mode, it's going to be about what he said to your face. And that's why at this point it ain't going to matter what Reddit says about how this is about an app, and why it won't matter how many 'official spokespeople' it runs up the flagpole to pretend that Spez wasn't patronizing the folks who generate all his content for free and making naked threats to the mods who keep the fora running for free.

There'll be a lot of people who will end up being too disinterested or callow to react to all this, and that's their right. For others, Reddit was kinda a huge chunk of their day and their social existence and they don't want to walk away from it, and that's their right too. I don't think this is going to be the end of Reddit so much as I think it will be seen as the beginning of the end. But there can be no question that the real problem isn't an app anymore, it's the scrawny-ass CEO and his weak man's idea of how a tough man leads. Because threatening the mods isn't a show of strength, it's insecure weakness. Steve Huffman just doesn't have the chops to be in his current role, let alone in charge of damage control from the protests.

The only good thing about any of this is the unintentional irony.