I'm confused, too. Shortly after Pao left is when all the quarantining, admin interventions, bannings, and 18+ warnings popped up on reddit. It was clear that

I'm confused, too. Shortly after Pao left is when all the quarantining, admin interventions, bannings, and 18+ warnings popped up on reddit. It was clear that reddit felt going mainstream was the only way for profitability. When Pao said: "Ultimately, the board asked me to demonstrate higher user growth in the next six months than I believe I can deliver while maintaining Reddit’s core principles." Some, and I agree with them, interpreted this as Pao being the one that actually tried to keep reddit more of a discussion/free-speech site (the "core principles" she referred to), and the mob was wrong all along. Therefore, on the surface, either we were completely wrong, or Pao is changing the narrative today. Either way, and it goes without saying, there's far more going on here than anyone outside of the board room knows.