While I agree with this, I'd like to offer a slightly different perspective...

I've tried to refrain from taking sides during this extravagant shitshow over the past twenty-four hours, but this aspect of the discussion really hit home for me. Idealists like /u/AaronSw (who wasn't a co-founder exactly, but is regarded as an integral part of Reddit history) believed in the power of sites like this to effect change and have a positive social impact - while not infringing upon the rights of others to make their opinions known, as repulsive as those opinions might be. Pragmatists focused on the profit potential of the same sites and knew that, as administrators, literally nothing would be sacred or protected - there are no borders on moneymaking, after all.

To /u/kn0thing and /u/spez - at some you believed that the platform was the message, and that it could make the world a better place; at some point you believed in neutrality and that letting the public choose the flow of their content was paramount. When you started this place, the two of you instilled in your users a belief that their opinions would be heard regardless of corporate or administrative influence. Little by little, you're throwing that away in favor of the pragmatic views espoused by /u/ekjp.

I hope that the ship is righted soon, because there's an open grave somewhere between MySpace and Digg that is calling Snoo's name, and unless something drastic changes, "the front page of the internet" will be going the same direction as the front page of most newspapers these days. Look how far the pragmatic view got MySpace; look how publicly adored Zuck is these days. There's value in idealism; fortune is fleeting, but history is forever.

/rant