This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/MuseumOfReddit by /u/UnholyDemigod on 2017-04-01 01:02:12+00:00.
On November 7th, 2016, a subreddit called /r/pizzagate was created. For those who don't know, pizzagate was a conspiracy theory that accused Hillary Clinton and John Podesta (Clinton's campaign chairman) of being involved in a pedophile ring operating out of a pizzeria called Comet Ping Pong. This conspiracy theory has no evidence really.
Within days the subreddit became the #1 fastest-growing non-default sub of the day, with over 20K subscribers by November 21st. The subreddit's lifespan was cut short, however, when reddit admins banned the community on the 24th out of fear of witch hunting. /r/The_Donald users became enraged, and immediately began berating Reddit CEO /u/spez, calling him a pedophile. Later that same day, this mod thread was posted. In short, /r/The_Donald mods accused the admins of editing user comments that were critical of /u/spez.
Comments insulting spez, before they were edited
Comments after they were edited, with The_Donald mod tags
Shortly after, the unexpected happened. /u/spez himself openly admitted to editing their insulting comments by replacing his user tag with T_D mods.
The comment was downvoted into oblivion instantly, with over 11K downvotes and 71 gildings. It currently stands as the most downvoted-and-gilded comment of all time, surpassing /u/kn0thing's famous "popcorn tastes good" comment. After many replies, /u/spez defended himself, claiming he was "trolling the trolls for a bit." The drama spread throughout reddit and sparked a huge controversy. The event was officially called "Spezgiving" by SRD users /u/InOranAsElsewhere and /u/Baltimorecity. /r/circlejerk exploded with posts about the event. Important questions were raised: have the admins edited other users' posts comments on Reddit? The comment also prompted users to question the validity of the site's content. Many users agreed that spez should resign, while others defended him, saying the T_D users deserved it and had it coming.
Later that day, logs of a private chatroom for default moderators were leaked in retaliation. Although apologetic, the mod in question was showered with praise from users, and his attitude slowly changed to justified, and he ended up posting an AMA in /r/the_donald.
Due to the leaks, doxxing began to happen, targeting mods who were supportive of /u/spez and/or calling for /r/the_donald to be banned. A follow up thread arguing the opposite
A few days later, spez posted a formal apology to the users of Reddit for his actions. Additionally, he announced that you could now filter /r/all, which was a well-liked update by many.
Ellen Pao responds to one of spez's comments in the announcement
Within a few weeks, Reddit calmed down and went back to posting pictures of cats and boobs, while circlejerking about politics.
Credit to /u/TheRyanatorM8 for writing the majority of this post