A discussion of the limits & costs of free speech on Reddit

I suppose much of this can be chalked up to "growing pains" but this thread reveals a seemingly strong current of discontent among reddit's userbase. On the one hand they have a business to run can't totally alienate their advertisers (in the /r/jailbait hubbub "the heat got too hot" as one commenter put it). On the other hand their most valuable asset is their user/moduser-base who are ostensibly very committed to "free speech" and they can't alienate them too much.

So they are against limiting free speech, with the exception of /r/jailbait, /r/creepshot (and its clones), banning links to user dox, banning links to articles about the controversy about violentacrez (that makes reddit look bad), banning links to gawker (or letting the mods do it for them). But /r/beatingwomen (a subreddit celebrating the physical abuse of women) remains.

It's certainly a rock and a hard place for reddit. Much of the broader discussion about the pros, cons, and limits of "free speech" is getting recreated here.