I’d be pretty wary to join in on the IPO if they are taking actions like this, which seem likely to scare off all their moderators. If the volunteer moderators leave, they are going to have to change their business model to actually pay people to work, right?

But I’m not an investor, maybe Reddit has some numbers that make this make sense, or something. Or maybe they are just hoping to rip off some investors who don’t know how the site works.