Greetings, everyone. As most of you know, yesterday I leaked chat logs from the /r/DefaultMods Slack team. I am posting this statement here as it is the subreddit where most of the coverage has been.

I leaked the chat logs because of my anger at /u/spez for editing someone else's comment. If he did this just because he thought it was funny, then what stops him from doing it for a more "important" reason? What he did completely destroys the credibility of reddit. Of course they have the ability, but now /u/spez has shown that he is willing to use it. This is incredibly dangerous to not only this website, but the people on it. Reddit posts and comments have been used in actual legal cases in the past. If reddit is still used in legal cases in the future, then how do we know for certain the person actually wrote that comment/post, not an admin?

While the leak was not originally intended to show what other mods were saying, it has shown great corruption within their ranks. To be honest, I didn't even consider leaking what they were saying when I did it because I was only concerned about showing what /u/spez had to say when it wasn't able to be seen by the community. The leak of what the other mods were saying was the result of lack of patience and lack of consideration.

In my original comment publicly admitting to the leak, I said I was sorry and I regretted leaking it. After, quite literally, hundreds of comments and messages to me (I've read every one of them and I appreciate them all, even the ones critical of me), I have reconsidered how I feel about the leak. I no longer regret the leak itself, but I do regret how I went about it. I wish I could go back and black out the personal/identifying information. For that, I am sorry, but I am not sorry for showing what is going on behind closed doors.

The fact of the matter is that moderators are tasked with making reddit a better place for the community at large, not a safe haven for the opinions the moderators may hold. The actions of /u/spez and some of the moderators in DefaultMods are absolutely deplorable. While I don't believe they are being paid off, I do believe they are allowing their biases to get the best of them and aren't properly setting their personal beliefs aside. While I don't agree with what a lot are doing, I still believe many are good people that may just be doing the wrong thing. The community deserves an apology. In my opinion, the most notable messages (from the first picture) are these:

"That was one of the funniest things I've seen in weeks. Thank you so much"

"Oh no, td might double down on a loony conspiracy theory that's already gotten a subreddit banned? That would be terrible"

"spez, just rid us of TD, all will be forgotten (not forgiven)"

"Spez you are my favorite now."

"spez, you beat out @ocrasorm as my favourite admin now"

"BAN TD!!!"

There are many, many more notable messages in the subsequent pictures that I do not have space to post. I completely understand being tired of some of the actions of /r/The_Donald, but flat out banning such a large subreddit, especially the main one for President-elect Trump, is not the solution, nor should it even be considered until other, less extreme, options are exhausted. Reddit is an extremely popular website, therefore it has the responsibility to do what is right for everyone. While reddit is a private entity and therefore is not subject to the first amendment, I still believe reddit should uphold free speech where it doesn't break the law. A website that has this amount of influence also has the responsibility to match.

I have witnessed many people saying "this is just a website" or "you're taking it too seriously." Yes, reddit is a website but let's not act as if it is of no importance. It is the 27th largest website on the internet, with hundreds of millions of unique views. A website of this magnitude should be taken seriously in some respects due to its influence. Anything that has major influence over people should be taken seriously where applicable. Acting as if reddit means nothing at all is dangerous. If you don't believe me, then let's look at the Boston Bombing. Redditors decided to play detective after the Boston Bombing and it ended in innocent people dying due to their actions. Hopefully that shows you just how important reddit can be. Much of this website is not serious, but a significant amount of it is and deserves to be treated as such.

I believe I speak for all when I say that /u/spez no longer represents reddit and its interests, especially not its community. /u/spez, I am asking you to do right by the website/company you helped co-found, do right by the investors, and do right by the community. Resign as CEO of Reddit.

• UnimatrixZeroOne

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