Live data from Hacker News

A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

larslofgren.com

121–130 of 996 posts

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hello. It's nice to be able to interact directly with the subject of the article, so thanks for coming on. It's a shame you're being downvoted, because it would definitely be interesting to hear your perspective. This can't be a pleasant experience for you. I have a couple of questions for you. Firstly the article really didn't hold back about you in a way that you don't usually see. But he makes very specific and ve…

Yeah I'll I'm going to say for now is that if all your competitors (that I spoke positively about) are shutting down and shrinking and laying people off... there's more to the story. A sad story about an industry dying that should be told.

Great, then give us more to the story.

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#122
post #84

I don't know about this particular case, but, generally... bad actor subreddit moderators have been an occasional thing for well over a decade. And it's also been widely known for that long that Reddit is an influential venue in which to take over a corner -- for marketing or propaganda. What's an equal concern to me is how insufficiently resilient Reddit collectively appears to be, in face of this. A bad actor mod o…

> A bad actor mod of a popular subreddit can persist for years, visibly, without people managing either to oust the mod, or to take down the sub's influence. This happens because the regular users have no power. I remember seeing some article that said a small number of mods control most of the popular subreddits. Many of them put their own bias into the system by banning users, banning sources, deleting content base…

Ghislaine Maxwell was maybe one of these powerful mods. But it is another contested conspiracy theory.

Evidence pasted:

The Name “Maxwellhill”

The username directly references “Maxwell,” which is not a common surname. Ghislaine Maxwell grew up at Headington Hill Hall, which was nicknamed “Maxwell Hill” after her father, Robert Maxwell, bought it. This isn’t a vague reference it’s oddly specific and personal. It’s like someone using “EpsteinIsland” as a username and claiming it’s just coincidence.

Posting Activity Stopped the Day of Her Arrest (actually 2 days before, when she began wrapping her phone in aluminum)

u/maxwellhill posted almost every day for 14 years and was one of Reddit’s most active users. Then, with no warning, all posting stopped after June 30, 2020. Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested on July 2, 2020. The timing is exact. This wasn’t a slow fade or gradual disinterest. It looks like someone was physically unable to post.

Gaps in Posting Line Up with Real-Life Events

There were other suspicious posting gaps during major events in Maxwell’s life. Notably, during her mother’s death in 2013 and during the 2011 Kleiner Perkins party, where she was confirmed to be present by former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao. That party shows Reddit leadership at the time was at least aware of her.

Moderator of Massive Subreddits

The account was a lead mod of r/worldnews, r/technology, r/politics, r/science, r/europe, r/upliftingnews, r/celebrities, and more. These are major subs that help shape Reddit’s front page and influence global discourse. Whoever had access to this account had immense control. Even after years of inactivity, Reddit auto added the account back as a moderator in 2024. That suggests the system still treats it like an active, important account.

The Content

Maxwellhill posted repeatedly about age of consent laws, often citing obscure countries. They also posted articles defending the legality of child exploitation material and criticized what they called “overzealous” child protection laws. These aren’t normal discussion points for the average Redditor. It reads like someone obsessed with legal gray areas surrounding child abuse.

Auto Deletion and Censorship

Mentions of “u/maxwellhill” have been automatically removed from comments in multiple subs. The Daily Dot reported on suspicious deletion behavior tied to the account. Posts about this user “vanished mysteriously,” raising real concerns about censorship. Who or what is protecting the account?

No Denial from the Account

If u/maxwellhill is just some random power user, where are they? Why haven’t they logged in to say anything? No posts, no comments, no denials. Nothing for five years. After 14 years of near daily activity, complete silence in the face of serious allegations is suspicious on its own.

The poster also uses many British expressions in their writing, and listed British foods as their favorite foods in one post.

Mods of r/WorldNews which is infamously compromised by paid agents demanded her posts be deleted from other subreddits.

The name matches Maxwell’s family estate. The account vanishes the day she’s arrested. It posted about topics deeply aligned with her known behavior. It held mod control over huge parts of Reddit. It still does. And yet it hasn’t said a word in five years. If this isn’t her, it’s someone with eerily similar patterns, priorities, and timing.

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#123
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You aren't banned.

But you could. And you wouldn't even need a reason. In fact, you could ban AND make the whole conversation disappear. And nobody would ever know. That's a problem.

> And nobody would ever know

Considering how quickly they make new accounts, I think you're underestimating banned HN users by quite some margin.

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#124

I'm Michael and this was about me. This person never reached out for comment and is missing half the story. I'm happy to fill people in on the rest if this person or someone else wants to hear. I agree with one or two of the characterizations but the majority I don't and there is a lot more to this story than it seems... RE: INDUSTRY. Rithm School (their main competitor) shut down. Hack Reactor is down to single digi…

I hope he sues you.

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#125

I'm Michael and this was about me. This person never reached out for comment and is missing half the story. I'm happy to fill people in on the rest if this person or someone else wants to hear. I agree with one or two of the characterizations but the majority I don't and there is a lot more to this story than it seems... RE: INDUSTRY. Rithm School (their main competitor) shut down. Hack Reactor is down to single digi…

[deleted]

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're proving my point. At least in the US half of the country is right wing. If you want an accurate crowd-sourced opinion you need to take that into account, regardless of your own beliefs.

90% of people might believe 2+2=5, but that doesn’t make them correct . Facts aren’t a majority rules scenario.

When is any discussion a simple fact? If it was, you could just list it on a static website.

I think the problem is that people get their incorrect world views from Reddit.

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#127

I'm Michael and this was about me. This person never reached out for comment and is missing half the story. I'm happy to fill people in on the rest if this person or someone else wants to hear. I agree with one or two of the characterizations but the majority I don't and there is a lot more to this story than it seems... RE: INDUSTRY. Rithm School (their main competitor) shut down. Hack Reactor is down to single digi…

Oh you are gonna taste your own medicine here. Welcome.

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#128

Full title: “The Story of Codesmith: How a Competitor Crippled a $23.5M Bootcamp By Becoming a Reddit Moderator” An interesting part of this article is LLM chatbots regurgitating what seems to be defamatory comments by a rogue moderator who took over the coding boot camp subreddit. Google also seems to surface this person’s comments in search results.

Tell us more about why you find that interesting? Simply saying it “is” hasn’t provided any new information for us beyond the article itself.

It's interesting if you are into those kinds of bots and interactions. If it was in my wheelhouse, I'd look. Otherwise, there's no reason to expect that content unless someone else points it out.

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When the mods of major subs are also mods for over a hundred other subs, you have to doubt how much actual moderating they are actually doing in their holier-than-thou positions.

Is there a source for this?

See this Reddit discussion:

“The same 5 people moderates 500 of the most popular subreddits”

https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/gjl27j/the_...

It appears the original post they are discussing was removed. Seems like Reddit banned the original user who collected this data and deleted their posts.

Another discussion about this:

“Six powermods control 118 of the top 500 subreddits”

https://www.reddit.com/r/WatchRedditDie/comments/gkkfg5/upda...

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you could. And you wouldn't even need a reason. In fact, you could ban AND make the whole conversation disappear. And nobody would ever know. That's a problem.

It’s not a problem, you are owned nothing by participating in an online forum. Your participation is a privilege, not a right. You are free to participate elsewhere. HN moderates mostly transparently, which they do not have to do at all. That demonstrates respect for their participants, or ideals, your pick.

It's a shame how many platforms are moving away from transparent moderation. I get that there are strong incentives to do so - a user that knows they're banned will immediately try to find a way to circumvent the ban. Shadowbanning delays that reaction if not stopping it outright. But damn does the concept feel dystopian. Like you're being ignored through seemingly no fault of your own. Surely that can't be healthy. And yet the platform is better off because the person isn't trying to circumvent the ban. And don't even get me started on replacing human interaction with AI for shadowbanned users.
Post reply on HN