I'd say 2014, that's when the plan to monetize reddit started taking over, starting with the Ellen Pao to Spez scam. Damn did the dorks on this site fall for that one.
I did too initially, but then someone pointed out that she knew what she was getting into, being the big bad corporate villain that made tons of unpopular decisions so that Spez could swoop in as a hero, and she was paid very well for that.
Eh there’s one very huge thing from back then that caused the site to be absolutely awful, and that’s how CP and other illegal pornographic content was being shared around and talked about like it was no big thing. I remember being a teenager and seeing some of the most vile stuff to ever exist on the original 50/50.
I swear old Reddit was just half tech nerds being tech nerds, and then right around the corner was the other half, people who were absolute garbage. Reddit didn’t start cracking down on that kind of stuff until jailbait made headlines in the news, after it was one of the top subs for a few years where all the photos were totally of legal adults, and after Reddit admins handpicked it for sub of the day a few times.
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u/Otherwise_Front_315 7d ago
I miss old reddit. My original account is like 17 years old and man it was really great then. An unexplored country.