If you follow the right subs, Reddit can be a wonderful place to hang out. Occasionally, however, a comment comes along that really irks the community.
A gamers' rebellion, divisive political views, and internal subreddit dramas... Welcome to the most downvoted Reddit comments of all time.
15. /r/IAmA Employee Drama: -4,927 Points
In 2015, Reddit fired its internal Ask Me Anything (AmA) coordinator, Victoria Taylor. Taylor was widely credited with keeping the AmA format alive. Her controversial dismissal raised serious questions about Reddit's relationship with its mods.
Dozens of high-profile subreddits, including /r/IAmA, /r/AskReddit, /r/gaming, /r/movies, /r/music, /r/videos, and /r/funny, "went private" in protest.
Reddit co-founder, Alexis Ohanian (u/kn0thing), was downvoted nearly 5,000 times for his flippant response to the crisis.
14. Valve CEO in Paid Mod Storm: -5,157 Points
Valve added paid mods to its Steam Workshop in 2015. The idea was to reward mod creators for their work, but players were aghast that one of the fundamental pillars of PC gaming was suddenly behind a paywall.
The company's CEO, Gabe Newell, did little to diffuse the situation when he appeared to suggest modders had always been driven by money.
Not long after the Reddit incident, Steam reversed its decision.
13. Copyrighting Reaction Videos: -5,891 Points
The Fine brothers run the Fine Bros Entertainment (FBE) YouTube channel. The channel's most popular content is its award-winning REACT series.
In 2016, the brothers tried to license and trademark the REACT series. The community wasn't impressed.
Benny and Rafi took to Reddit in an attempt to quell the anger. It didn't go well, especially after it emerged they had filed a trademark for the word "React."
12. A Mod Trolls /r/MildyInfuriating: - 6,058 Points
There's not much backstory to this one. A mod on /r/MildlyInfuriating bizarrely trolled an unrelated post about YouTube deleting a user's playlist without warning.
In our opinion, it's a low effort trolling attempt. Nonetheless, it still racked up 6,076 downvotes.
11. Cat Brigading: -6,162 Points
"Brigading" refers to a Reddit phenomenon whereby users flood a post with upvotes or downvotes in order to skew a subreddit's metrics. Typically, the voters are not part of the community in which the brigading takes place.
This is the first example of brigading on our list. The word "Cat" was downvoted 6,162 times. To rub salt into the wound, identical responses below picked up hundreds of upvotes.
10. /r/IAmA Employee Drama, Round Two: -7,264 Points
It's a testament to the size of the Victoria Taylor sacking scandal that it provides the backdrop for another of the top 15 most downvoted Reddit comments ever.
This time it's a post from Ellen Pao (u/ekjp) that falls under the spotlight. The divisive Pao had been CEO of Reddit for eight months at the time of the incident. Many believed her to be responsible for forcing Taylor out.
On 6th July 2015, she issued a half-baked apology on /r/sysadmin. A petition for her removal as CEO reached 200,000 signatures. Four days later, she was out of a job.
9. Permitting /r/The_Donald: -7,119 Points
Anyone who uses Reddit will be familiar with /r/The_Donald. The subreddit, which claims to be a forum for Trump supporters, allegedly promotes racism, hate speech, and other undesirable topics.
Many people have called for the subreddit to be shut down and banned, just like subs which have promoted similar content in the past.
However, Reddit's management team has refused to budge. When Steve Huffman (u/spez) claimed that The_Donald's declining engagement was more powerful than an outright ban, users castigated him.
8. "F***ing F****t": -7,534 Points
This one's not very pleasant, so we won't dwell on it. Suffice to say that one /r/Atheist user wasn't too impressed with a Christian pupil trying to get his teacher fired.
On a more interesting note, this is the oldest post on the list. It was made nine years ago.
7. A Mod Kills the Bad Luck Brian AMA: -8,905 Points
Bad Luck Brian---real name Kyle Craven---is an internet celebrity famous for his goofy yearbook photo.
You all know the photo:
The photo was posted on Reddit for the first time in 2012. Later that same year, Craven appeared on /r/IAmA to do a Q&A session about his new-found stardom.
One mod took exception and banned the post, blaming vague subreddit rules. People weren't happy.
6. /r/IAmA Employee Drama, Round Three: - 10,526 Points
You thought you'd heard the last of the Victoria Taylor drama, didn't you?
Alexis Ohanian makes a second entry on the list with the first comment to earn a five-digit number of downvotes.
In the midst of the growing crisis, one user asked the co-founder how he'd expected subreddits to react to the news of the Taylor sacking. It wasn't an unreasonable question.
Ohanian's response? "Popcorn tastes good." Not a smart move, especially considering it was in exactly the same thread as his previous submission.
Another Reddit CEO, another headline-generating controversy.
In 2016, Huffman admitted to editing Reddit users' comments on /r/The_Donald. After a slew of negative and personally insulting messages on the controversial subreddit, Huffman replaced references to his username with references to the subreddit's mod team.
His apology post on /r/announcements explained his reasoning, but his confession on /r/The_Donald was not well received.
4. Jill Stein vs. Nuclear Energy: -11,989 Points
Jill Stein is a qualified physician, but is more widely known as the face of the Green Party in the U.S. She ran for president in both 2012 and 2016.
In the build-up to the 2016 vote, she hosted an AMA event in a bid to connect with more voters.
One user asked about her on-the-record opposition to nuclear power. Stein argued it was dirty, dangerous, and obsolete.
A few experts quickly jumped on her claims, deconstructing them in a brutally analytical way.
3. League of Legends Death Wish: -18,910 Points
With two million subscribers, the League of Legends subreddit is an active place.
The community's biggest controversy began on the League of Legends Discord server in October 2017. A staff member lashed out at a pro gamer, saying "Honestly… It's fine, he [tyler1] will die from a co*ke overdose or testicular cancer from all the steroids... then we'll be Gucci".
Unsurprisingly, the community wasn't impressed, and the staff member made matters worse with his initial response to the growing furor. The downvotes subsequently flowed.
2. Ask, and You Shall Receive: -23,395 Points
The League of Legends incident never held the number one spot; less than a month previously, this comment on /r/me_irl took the title.
Sadly, the backstory isn't great for such a high-profile post---u/96Phoenix simply asked for downvotes. Some people enjoy that kind of thing.
1. EA's Star Wars Battlefront II Backlash: -667,820 Points
No, that's not a typo. The number one post has more than five times as many downvotes as other 14 entrants combined.
The reason? Disgust at EA's decision to lock Luke and Vader behind 40 hours of game time in Star Wars: Battlefront II. If you wanted to unlock them sooner, you had to get your wallet out---despite the Deluxe version of the game costing $80.
EA argued the move was designed to provide "a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes." Users were quick to disagree, insisting the entire debacle was driven by greed.
The news made headlines around the world; EA's stock value dropped by $3 billion. And everybody hated EA for Star Wars: Battlefront II.
The company had no choice but to relent. It dropped the price of Vader and Luke by 75 percent. In March 2018, all heroes were made available to all users.
More Top Lists to Enjoy
So, there you have it, folks---a sorry tale of corporate greed, incapable CEOs, community in-fighting, and plain old stupidity.
For another cool countdown, check out our list of the most popular artists on Spotify. Or dive further into Reddit with our beginner's guide to how Reddit works.
