Reddit started showing signs of terminal illness in 2011 and spez since ran it into the ground along with CondeNast. 2015 was the death knell after the CEO, Ellen Pao, was featured at the top of /r/PunchableFaces, which then temporarily went private. Staff shakeup ensued.

At the time it was a massive conversation around whether reddit should have to host content its advertisers didn't agree with, except they had heavily contributed to killing off old forums whose free speech was not compromised by advertisers. This was part of a larger conversation about free speech protection online and right-to-platform which still ensues. Corporations frequently cite their own free speech interests while suppressing speech of individuals and organizations. The current organization of the web is just perverse and tenuous.

Hacker News is quite unique in that while it is an aggregator, I have never felt that staff moderation crossed over into censorship, even when I've been on the receiving side of it. The moment dang leaves and pg retires, it's over. Tom Howard might do OK for a while, but the reason HN, despite eternal September and growing amounts of negativity, spam and astroturfing, continues to be a fun place on the web is because Dan is the man and fully embodied Paul Graham's established foundational principles.

We all need to be thinking about what kind of internet we want our grandchildren and future society to inherit and start building today.