Given its eight years under corporate ownership, it’s near miraculous that Reddit’s verve, the unruliness that makes it appealing to so many, has survived. “Condé Nast realised pretty early they’re not a technology company,” Ohanian said. (He still serves on the Reddit board.) “They gave Reddit a ton of autonomy.” Martin called Advance Publications “extremely hands-off”.

Huffman has a different stance. He was kept on to run Reddit after its 2006 acquisition and launched the company’s San Francisco office. Huffman found Reddit’s ownership stifling and told me that by the end of his time at the company he wasn’t on speaking terms with the then-president of Condé Nast Digital. One day on Reddit, the joke of the moment – there’s always one – had been to mock the retail giant Sears, a big advertiser with Condé Nast. Sears complained, according to Huffman, who says he was told to remove certain posts, and eventually gave in. “I’ve still never forgiven them.” Huffman left the company in 2009 and now runs a travel website, Hipmunk.