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The idea that Ghislaine Maxwell was one of the most powerful mods on Reddit, with close connections to the founders and admins, was widely derided at the time,

The idea that Ghislaine Maxwell was one of the most powerful mods on Reddit, with close connections to the founders and admins, was widely derided at the time, but is probably true.

ShivShankaran 4y ago
Probably this user https://www.reddit.com/user/maxwellhill/comments/ https://www.reddit.com/user/maxwellhill/comments/ Last commented few days before her arrest.
- ZeroGravitas 4y ago
  From a quick scan, nothing about that suggests to me it's the account of Ghislaine Maxwell. What, other than the name maxwell, connects it to her?
  - rtkwe 4y ago
    I think the main thing people were pointing to was that account was extremely active then suddenly went inactive at the same time of Ghislaine's arrest. Been a while so there was probably other stuff too but that's the main one I recall.
    - phpnode 4y ago
      There's a summary here https://old.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/r45a5n/here_is_the_evidence_that_reddit_user_maxwellhill/ https://old.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/r45a5n/here_is_... But of course, it's a link to /r/conspiracy and as such is tainted, but stopped clocks and all that
      - ZeroGravitas 4y ago
        Not particularly convincing, they seem just more like the kind of person you'd expect to be a reddit admin, i.e. a dodgy pedo incel male somewhat in the same area as /u/violentacrez (summary here for those unfamiliar: https://www.gawker.com/5950981/unmasking-reddits-violentacrez-the-biggest-troll-on-the-web https://www.gawker.com/5950981/unmasking-reddits-violentacre...). > I befriended a Korean pastor and his wife (long story there) where I live and we would meet occassionally for dinner. > One day he asked if I could help teach some of his "students" conversational English. I didn't realise that he meant adults undergoing intensive training in Korea and abroad as missionaries for posting to other parts of the world. I thought he meant local teenagers who wanted to be more conversant in English - pronunciation, diction etc > So I volunteered. So, if people start looking for reddit accounts that mention maxwell and dodgy stuff, I can see why they'd stop posting.
        phpnode 4y ago
        I think part of the reason this gets so easily dismissed is that people still see reddit as a quaint little internet message board rather than an influential mainstream juggernaut that reaches half a billion people every month. That account is/was enormously powerful, with the ability to determine which stories reached the frontpage and which didn't. That makes it politically and financially very valuable, and I don't think someone would just give up that because of association with Maxwell when they could have just posted a single comment saying "I am not Ghislaine Maxwell" and everyone would have forgotten about it.
consumer451 4y ago
> but is probably true. Got a source on this?
- phpnode 4y ago
  There's a mountain of circumstantial evidence including confirmation from Ellen Pao in a since-deleted tweet. The only rebuttals came from a newly appointed mod on reddit who claimed to have spoken to the user shortly after the arrest (but provided no evidence, the story was inconsistent and they have never spoken of this again), and a scathing article in Vice mocking the idea as a conspiracy theory, but again providing no evidence and it turns out that Vice clearly benefited from a business relationship with /u/maxwellhill
  - simplotek 4y ago
    > There's a mountain of circumstantial evidence (...) In other words, there is no evidence. Right? On the flip side, these conspiracy theories sound more like fabrications from loons caught in their little world.
    - phpnode 4y ago
      No, that's not a fair characterisation
      - simplotek 4y ago
        > No, that's not a fair characterisation Prove me wrong and provide the single best example of objective evidence you are able to produce. Go on.
        phpnode 4y ago
        If you're looking for something cast-iron then I don't have it, but this is really a numbers game given that we only need 33 bits of information to deanonymise people on the internet. So let's count them and I'll let you decide how many bits to award each nugget. 1. The account's name is maxwellhill and Ghislaine Maxwell's surname is Maxwell and used to live at a place she referred to as Maxwell Hill. 2. The account was the first to reach 1m reddit karma and in the congratulatory post Alexis Ohanian revealed that he knew the poster in real life and that they'd been there since almost the beginning. 3. Ghislaine Maxwell is known to have attended events with Reddit staff in the early days, as confirmed by former CEO of reddit Ellen Pao. 4. maxwellhill has a December birthday, Ghislaine Maxwell's birthday is 25th December. 5. maxwellhill stopped posting just 2 days before GM's arrest, previously they'd posted almost every day for 14 years. 6. The few gaps when maxwellhill was not posting align with dates GM is known to have attended events including her mother's funeral. 7. GM's father was a known and prolific media manipulator, maxwellhill was repeatedly accused of manipulating reddit before the arrest. 8. maxwellhill posted prolifically about ocean conservation, GM had a startup called TerraMar which was focussed on ocean conservation. 9. maxwellhill mostly uses British English, GM is from Britain. 10. maxwellhill repeatedly complained about over-zealous child protection laws, posted articles suggesting CSAM should be legalised. 11. maxwellhill was careful to stress the difference between pedophilia and ephebophilia - a distinction important to Epstein and his apologists but not to most normal people. 12. maxwellhill has still not posted to reddit since the arrest, despite it having significant political and financial value. 13. After all of the noise of the accusations, no one at Reddit has actually denied that GM was maxwellhill. I'm not saying this is conclusive, hence saying "probably", but that's a lot of bits.
duxup 4y ago
What was the conspiracy? I’m a mod on Reddit, that’s not a conspiracy.

The idea that Ghislaine Maxwell was one of the most powerful mods on Reddit, with close connections to the founders and admins, was widely derided at the time, but is probably true.

ShivShankaran 4y ago

Probably this user https://www.reddit.com/user/maxwellhill/comments/ https://www.reddit.com/user/maxwellhill/comments/ Last commented few days before her arrest.

ZeroGravitas 4y ago
From a quick scan, nothing about that suggests to me it's the account of Ghislaine Maxwell. What, other than the name maxwell, connects it to her?
- rtkwe 4y ago
  I think the main thing people were pointing to was that account was extremely active then suddenly went inactive at the same time of Ghislaine's arrest. Been a while so there was probably other stuff too but that's the main one I recall.
  - phpnode 4y ago
    There's a summary here https://old.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/r45a5n/here_is_the_evidence_that_reddit_user_maxwellhill/ https://old.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/r45a5n/here_is_... But of course, it's a link to /r/conspiracy and as such is tainted, but stopped clocks and all that
    - ZeroGravitas 4y ago
      Not particularly convincing, they seem just more like the kind of person you'd expect to be a reddit admin, i.e. a dodgy pedo incel male somewhat in the same area as /u/violentacrez (summary here for those unfamiliar: https://www.gawker.com/5950981/unmasking-reddits-violentacrez-the-biggest-troll-on-the-web https://www.gawker.com/5950981/unmasking-reddits-violentacre...). > I befriended a Korean pastor and his wife (long story there) where I live and we would meet occassionally for dinner. > One day he asked if I could help teach some of his "students" conversational English. I didn't realise that he meant adults undergoing intensive training in Korea and abroad as missionaries for posting to other parts of the world. I thought he meant local teenagers who wanted to be more conversant in English - pronunciation, diction etc > So I volunteered. So, if people start looking for reddit accounts that mention maxwell and dodgy stuff, I can see why they'd stop posting.
      - phpnode 4y ago
        I think part of the reason this gets so easily dismissed is that people still see reddit as a quaint little internet message board rather than an influential mainstream juggernaut that reaches half a billion people every month. That account is/was enormously powerful, with the ability to determine which stories reached the frontpage and which didn't. That makes it politically and financially very valuable, and I don't think someone would just give up that because of association with Maxwell when they could have just posted a single comment saying "I am not Ghislaine Maxwell" and everyone would have forgotten about it.

consumer451 4y ago

> but is probably true. Got a source on this?

phpnode 4y ago
There's a mountain of circumstantial evidence including confirmation from Ellen Pao in a since-deleted tweet. The only rebuttals came from a newly appointed mod on reddit who claimed to have spoken to the user shortly after the arrest (but provided no evidence, the story was inconsistent and they have never spoken of this again), and a scathing article in Vice mocking the idea as a conspiracy theory, but again providing no evidence and it turns out that Vice clearly benefited from a business relationship with /u/maxwellhill
- simplotek 4y ago
  > There's a mountain of circumstantial evidence (...) In other words, there is no evidence. Right? On the flip side, these conspiracy theories sound more like fabrications from loons caught in their little world.
  - phpnode 4y ago
    No, that's not a fair characterisation
    - simplotek 4y ago
      > No, that's not a fair characterisation Prove me wrong and provide the single best example of objective evidence you are able to produce. Go on.
      - phpnode 4y ago
        If you're looking for something cast-iron then I don't have it, but this is really a numbers game given that we only need 33 bits of information to deanonymise people on the internet. So let's count them and I'll let you decide how many bits to award each nugget. 1. The account's name is maxwellhill and Ghislaine Maxwell's surname is Maxwell and used to live at a place she referred to as Maxwell Hill. 2. The account was the first to reach 1m reddit karma and in the congratulatory post Alexis Ohanian revealed that he knew the poster in real life and that they'd been there since almost the beginning. 3. Ghislaine Maxwell is known to have attended events with Reddit staff in the early days, as confirmed by former CEO of reddit Ellen Pao. 4. maxwellhill has a December birthday, Ghislaine Maxwell's birthday is 25th December. 5. maxwellhill stopped posting just 2 days before GM's arrest, previously they'd posted almost every day for 14 years. 6. The few gaps when maxwellhill was not posting align with dates GM is known to have attended events including her mother's funeral. 7. GM's father was a known and prolific media manipulator, maxwellhill was repeatedly accused of manipulating reddit before the arrest. 8. maxwellhill posted prolifically about ocean conservation, GM had a startup called TerraMar which was focussed on ocean conservation. 9. maxwellhill mostly uses British English, GM is from Britain. 10. maxwellhill repeatedly complained about over-zealous child protection laws, posted articles suggesting CSAM should be legalised. 11. maxwellhill was careful to stress the difference between pedophilia and ephebophilia - a distinction important to Epstein and his apologists but not to most normal people. 12. maxwellhill has still not posted to reddit since the arrest, despite it having significant political and financial value. 13. After all of the noise of the accusations, no one at Reddit has actually denied that GM was maxwellhill. I'm not saying this is conclusive, hence saying "probably", but that's a lot of bits.

duxup 4y ago

What was the conspiracy? I’m a mod on Reddit, that’s not a conspiracy.