Good evening, Steve. Welcome back to Reddit. It's been quite busy day, hasn't it?

Let's cut right to the chase, shall we? Your honeymoon phase will last the length of this post, so enjoy. More importantly, pay attention.

The anti-Pao crusade was about Reddit's health and well-being, not Pao's race or sex. Sure, some cheap shots were taken, and tons of hyperbole was used. Personally, I'm guilty of both. It's difficult damn near impossible, to "remember the human," though, when the human is trying to change Reddit into something that will ultimately fail.

The beautiful thing about Reddit is that it's not Facebook. It's not Twitter. Those two sites are popular and successful, but that doesn't mean we need another of either. Reddit is popular because it allows the human to be human. On Reddit, we're allowed to say what we want, so long as no laws are broken. Of course, that means some unsavory things will be said. Things other sites censor can be found on Reddit, and I believe that's a beautiful thing.

Many people are of the mindset that anything that offends them should be removed. /r/MensRights should be banned because it runs counter to feminism. /r/coontown should be banned because racism is bad. People who say things that are deemed sexist should be banned. /u/davidreiss666, mod of hundreds of subs, would love to scrub anything with which he personally disagrees from Reddit. This is not in keeping with the spirit of Reddit.

Having an open platform is important to a lot of Redditors. We opposed Pao because we had no faith in her ability to run Reddit as an open platform. A new day has dawned, though, a day that finds Pao leaving and you returning. We're here to let you know we want an open platform, not a heavily-censored website that's the darling of online media.

The powermods aired their grievances and demanded better mod tools. They were placated by an empty promise. They never gave a shit about our demands. I doubt they even remember their demands.

Here is what we want:

•We ask that you embrace Reddit's diverse culture rather than cleansing it. We get our touchy-feelies on Facebook. We come to Reddit to be reminded that life can be harsh. We come to Reddit to see hot girls taking off their clothes for nothing more than karma. We come to Reddit to learn, even if what we learn is offensive and ugly.

•We ask that you either officially explain and enforce equally the non-existent brigade rule, or scrub it all together. We're fine either way. If you're going ban someone for using Reddit's key function, the voting arrows, the rules page should be updated to properly explain when you should and shouldn't vote.

•If admins are going to continue to use shadowbans to punish people who run afoul of the rules, a message should automatically be sent explaining the reason for the ban.

•Give mods a chance to get their subs in line before banning the sub. Ignore the demands for a safe-space. If someone is offended by certain subreddits, their only course of action should be not visiting those subs.

•Better mod tools. The powermods my have forgotten their demands, but we haven't.

We hope you do a good job as CEO, but we're going to keep an eye on you. We don't want a repeat of last week, but we're prepared to go that route if we see Reddit moving in the wrong direction. You're responsible now. The buck stops with you now. Since you helped start Reddit, we will try to be positive and give you a chance. Don't mistake our positivity and goodwill for complacency, though. Unlike some, we won't forget.