Oct. 12, 2012: A Gawker expose revealed the identity of Reddit user "Violentacrez," the admiinstrator of several odious forums including "creepshots" and "jailbait." (Gawker)
Computer programmer Michael Brutsch lost his job after Gawker writer Adrian Chen exposed him as the main moderator for Reddit’s “Creepshots” forum, a disgusting venue for covert photos taken of women in public -- typically close-ups of body parts for voyeuristic sexual thrills.
Now Brutsch, or "Violentacrez" as he called himself on Reddit, is looking for work -- and citing his experience creating forums with names like “Misogyny” and “Incest.”
“For hire: Senior Perl programmer looking for position in the adult content industry,” Brutsch posted on Reddit late last week. “5 years’ experience building and maintaining adult communities,” he noted.
Readers of the popular forum have been split over whether to support Brutsch, whose life was dramatically transformed when his private identity was exposed.
Yishan Wong, CEO of the massive social news site, recently weighed in on the issue, defending Brutsch’s right to post content, however reprehensible.
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“We stand for free speech,” Wong wrote in a private post on the site obtained by Chen. “We will not ban legal content even if we find it odious or if we personally condemn it. Not because that’s the law in the United States … but because we believe in that ideal independently.”
Many weighed in on the forum to echo that sentiment, even offering advice on how Brutsch could polish up his resume.
"I think you've behaved like a true scumbag but that doesn't mean you need to pay for it for the rest of your life,” one Reddit reader wrote. “You need to … develop some new skills, JavaScript just for an example, HTML5 and AJAX for another.”
“You're clearly comfortable with moderating large amounts of porn, you have a good idea of how to eliminate strictly illegal content, this is the kind of stuff you could totally leverage,” another person said. “Possibly position yourself as a community manager for these sites. Those are hard to find.”
Gawker.com revealed the identity of 49-year-old Brutsch on Oct. 12. A computer programmer for a financial services company in Arlington, Texas, Brutsch used the handle “Violentacrez” and has been dubbed the “biggest troll on the web,” establishing several forums on reprehensible topics like rape, incest and misogyny.
Brutsch, who told the website he stands by the content he posted, lives with his wife, a diabetes sufferer who is also an avid Reddit user, his son, two dogs and seven cats. Brutsch, who also has a granddaughter, has a son who is about to join the Marines, Gawker.com reports.
Asked if he had regretted anything he posted in light of being exposed by the website, Brutsch said: "I would stand by exactly what I've done.”
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