Communities don't form in a vacuum, site ownership abetted, if not encouraged, the reddit culture:

A few years ago, while Jailbait was still going strong, Reddit's administrators gave him a special one-of-a-kind "pimp hat" badge to honor his contributions to the site, which he proudly displayed on his profile. Brutsch said he was even in the final running for a job as a customer support representative at Reddit last year.

(http://gawker.com/5950981/unmasking-reddits-violentacrez-the...)