Over the next several weeks, the list rocketed around Reddit. But that fact paled next to the post's ominous subtext: These are the people who run Reddit. The list was at best deeply misleading those subreddits often have dozens of moderators, and all Steve_Cuckman1312 had done was cherry-pick names. The name Siouxsie_siousv2 appeared 14 times Merari01 20 times Gallowboob 23 times Awkwardtheturtle 24 times and Cyxie a whopping 45 times. It was titled '92 of top 500 subreddits are controlled by just 4 people.' There were actually five Redditors in the table. The post was simple: a screenshot of a table, listing popular subreddits in one column and moderators in another. It came from a user named Steve_Cuckman1312.
The first version I found was from March 16, posted to a subreddit called r/WatchRedditDie (users refer to subreddits as 'r WhateverTheNameIs,' and write them with a slash in between).
But the fight that has consumed the platform in recent weeks definitely started well before it went viral. As with anything on Reddit, it's hard to know exactly how it all started.
