As a (former) Reddit power user and moderator, I was among the first invited to participate, but passed. There was a time that Reddit actually planned to give away 10% of its stock to power users[1]. As a power user back then (in 2014), I was happy to keep the site's best interests in mind because it was a two-way street. Most of Reddit's success is attributable to power users like me who built mod tools and third-party apps. In return Reddit helped us build and maintain a cool community, sent us free swag, invited us to dinners, ran the Secret Santa, etc.<p>They really took a series of wrong turns since then, and today there's a hostility between power users and Reddit inc. They took advantage of the power users that built Reddit into what it is and closed it off - no more stock for you, we're closing off our API, disabling the apps you built, selling your data to Google, etc. Actually, instead of giving you stock, we're giving you the "opportunity" to buy stock from us and give our investors some exit liquidity so they can get rich!<p>Oh well. At least I have HN where the admin's values feel aligned with my own. If HN didn't exist I would probably be starting my own Reddit competitor.<p>1. <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2014/09/30/reddit-fundraising/" rel="nofollow">https://techcrunch.com/2014/09/30/reddit-fundraising/</a>