Swartz wasn’t involved in the origins of Reddit. He got involved when Y Combinator combined his company with Reddit (something along those lines?). He was not an actual founder, just an early influencer. In many ways, decoupling him from the shitshow that Ohanian and Huffman have engendered is a good thing.
This is very similar to the argument of Musk being a founder of Tesla.
I looked into this more. Reddit (created by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian) merged with Infogami (created by Aaron Schwartz). There are people calling Aaron Schwartz one of the founders, but that doesn't seem entirely accurate.
As a silver lining maybe it's best people don't associate him with what the site has become. He was a piece of its history, but he wasn't trying to found what Reddit has become
Back when "reddit.com" was a subreddit. I remember the thread (you can still visit it today) regarding his early departure. And how Aaron and spez didn't really want to disclose the "real reason". But, it saddens me how the public viewed his contributions as complete nil in result of no full disclosure (Aaron did simply state corporate life (post acq.) was not for him, but everyone says that).
Especially during times like this when the same batch of Aaron's year (Altman, Huffman, etc) are pushing closed source thoughts. We need Open Access civics, like Aaron again.
Yesterday, I finally decided to cut ties with reddit, except for targeted web searches. First it was the constant attempts to force me to download their app. Then denying me access to certain posts and subreddits cuz I wouldn't. Then the API debacle. Then few days ago, significant redesign that wasn't for usability, but for money,. Corporate greed. Used to spend hours on reddit, but past few weeks, there's hardly any worthwhile content. One has to be careful what one gets used to. Grateful I discovered lemmy yesterday.
I learned about Aaron in college in a communication class when we talked about the open access and open source movements. I didn't know he had anything to do with Reddit or Internet Archive until years later. Reddit's vision lately seems really backward from what Swartz wanted. How was he ever friends with Steve Huffman? Was Huffman always such an insensitive tyrant or did he only become so since becoming CEO? Even Ohanian. What did he see in Huffman? I've admired Ohanian for his advocacy on mental health, parental leave, and racial equality. Huffman seems to only care about himself. It's just hard for me to imagine a time where thoughtful people like Swartz or Ohanian would have the time of day for someone like Huffman. Of course, I'm not sure how much Ohanian works on Reddit lately, but it's a shame he's allowed these draconian changes to happen through Huffman and his cronies.
This is true but also old news from what I remember they took him off that page a long time ago. Reddit has been heading toward it’s inevitable demise ever since Aaron passed. Glad I finally left for good.