I don't see much of an issue with them astroturfing the site when it first launched in 2005. Content begets content so something needs to get the ball rolling.
I don't think it's so much and issue as it's pretty clear evidence that the current leadership is capable and comfortable with using that tactic. If you told me Jamie Dimon had personally sanctioned fake reviews for the JPMorgan app, I'd tell you to fuck off, there's no way that man would know how to do that. If you tell me the /u/spaz is doing it himself, I'd roll my eyes and say obviously.
Why is Aaron Swartz not given co-founder status in this article? I'm not saying he was part of this review faking allegedly going on, just odd he's memory holed.
Because he wasn't a co-founder, he came in later and got a co-founder title retroactively for reasons. You can tell the story either way and there's nothing nefarious about failing to mention Swartz, who is not at high risk of being forgotten.
>Steve Huffman & I founded
Reddit. We acquired Aaron Swartz's company infogami 6mos after we launched.