Been interviewed for this article since before Dante went in. Gratifying to finally see it printed. Self-aggrandizing, I know. Humor me.
What a trip. I remember finding kleinbl00 because of the youngluck subreddit, and reading the edited speech and hearing about Dante's story. I remember saving the relevant posts and comments as bookmarks all in one folder. I'd then open them in order and show them to my friend, reading alongside him over his shoulder, showing him why I loved this website reddit.
The reason I signed up to this forum was because I heard you posted here.
Thanks for posting this - it's a great long read, and at its core seems to be about different ways of giving, and remembering too that it's a privilege to give and that opportunities to give are everywhere.In fact it has become a daily mantra of mine not to go to sleep until I feel I have contributed more than I have taken.
This is the first line of a long meditation on what it means to "give" and "take".
Aww..this is so great! I'm really, really glad to see this story in full, especially written with real dedication, thoroughness, and care. I think I first got curious and looked around to see what all the fuss was about a couple years ago after catching a post on secret santa. I saw your subreddit, etc. but only got bits and pieces of story, told through random reddit posts and comments, backwards. It was like a really terrible, reddit-Momento mashup journey. --- Silly people - we don't have any interstates - we're in LA. The 605. THE 605. --- “When he asked for help proofreading, I knew I was pretty good at it,” kleinbl00 said, matter-of-fact. “So I helped.” The scriptwriter reworded some things, cut the length, made the whole speech cleaner, punchier, better—but the writing, the heart, was all still Orpilla’s. It took kleinbl00 30 minutes. For what it's worth, your haters are missing it, kb. Your heart is way bigger than your dick. :P Chills. From the reddit post: http://www.reddit.com/r/Youngluck/comments/cipv9/sentencing_update/ Laughs. Thanks for sharing.Interstate 605
The man who founded r/favors wasn’t just your average redditor. A scriptwriter and audio engineer in real life, kleinbl00 was one of the closest things Reddit had to a celebrity. He’d drop long, immaculately constructed comments at a speed that less-gifted Internet pontificators drop 140-character tweets. And his range of knowledge was vast. He’d show up in any one of dozens of forums and leave thoughtful comments with the unmistakable sheen of expertise on everything from audio engineering to communism and the short American vacation to homeopathy and neuropathy. Redditors would shower his best comments with hundreds of upvotes and crosspost them to the r/bestof subreddit, a museum for the best of the best of Reddit comments. But kleinbl00 was also a tough-as-nails moderator when he needed to be, knocking heads of unassuming redditors who broke the rules.
“I understand and respect that you have a job to do. I only pray that you not only consider the crime, you consider the criminal. I did not do what I did to harm anyone. I did not even do it for profit. I did it to help a friend in danger. My heart told me to do what my gut told me not to and while I would do anything to rethink that choice, I know that I and my family will live with it forever.”
All I ask in thanks is that you remember "i before e except when it's me." ;-)
The quote I got this morning: "As I'm sure you know, a piece covering so much time is probably defined more by what you choose to leave out than what you choose to include. I hope it does Dante's journey over the past several years justice." I'm pleased.
As someone that was never part of the old Reddit guard, or any Reddit guard, I've only heard bits and pieces of this story over the years. I've checked out Dante's artwork in the past and have been very impressed, but I didn't realize the full scope and circumstance of what was behind it. I enjoyed the article, it's a testament to Reddit at its best. It really is a powerful tool for good at times and that is never lost on me. I know you're not looking for praise here, but way to step up when the opportunity to help someone presented itself.