The middle managers at the sales office in Appleton, Wis., had no idea who they were interviewing. How could they? His alter ego was a guarded secret, like a superhero.

“So,” one of the managers asked, “do you have any experience? We’re looking for someone to handle our social media.”

Way_Fairer shifted in his chair. If they only knew.

He could start by telling them he’s a published poet who yearns for artistic greatness. He could tell them how an “ego-erasing” mushroom trip helped catapult him into a newfound life of contemplation and creativity, that this drive manifested as quips and storytelling on Reddit, the popular corner of the Internet where millions discuss everything from politics, philosophy, cute animal videos and racy pictures. He could have disclosed that he’s actually the highest voted commenter in the website’s history, meaning he’s a social media titan — the Wayne Gretzky of Reddit commentary.

Way_Fairer didn’t tell them that; too many lewd posts, too embarrassing. So he wound up with a job in sales.

But now, for the first time, the person behind Reddit’s top commenter account has agreed to unmask himself, telling the Star, “what the hell, why not?”

His name is Scott Steffens.

“I’m not ashamed,” Steffens said, “but I’m not super-proud of it. It’s sort of a weird thing to get so into. And I don’t know… I just sort of do it for myself.”

What Steffens has accomplished is monumental. Reddit boasts more than 36 million users from 209 countries. Every time someone makes a comment, users can “upvote” if they like it, by clicking an upwards arrow, or “downvote.” Since Reddit’s 2005 founding, more than 16 billion “upvotes” have been awarded. Way_Fairer has earned more than 2,750,000 of them, far and away the most of any individual account.

“I’m sure there’s a part in my reptile brain that likes the dopamine,” explained Steffens, “seeing the objective number of people who like something you say.

“And then it’s sort of just interacting with strangers and seeing their responses. Some people will say, ‘Oh, I was having a bad day, you made me laugh, blah blah blah.’ That’s sort of a nice aspect of it, too.”

Before you paint a portrait of a dishevelled shut-in confined to his mother’s basement, know this: Steffens is 31 and has a sharp haircut. He’s articulate and affable with an intellectual bent. A poet and hobbyist crafter of short stories, he professes admiration for Hegel’s spiritual dialectic. He has a girlfriend, whom he lives with in their small Wisconsin city. He seems interesting and kind, not wildly out of the ordinary — except, of course, for that one big thing. And he’s bashful about it.

“I’m so not interesting,” he laughs.

The king of Reddit commentary says he had a “pretty standard childhood.” He enrolled in business at the University of Wisconsin — Eau Claire. In retrospect, it wasn’t the right move. “I partied my ass off and experimented with drugs and got kicked out.”

Dark and directionless, Steffens then penned his first piece of prose to grab someone’s approval: a letter to the school’s dean begging readmission. He was told he has talent and should take English. He re-enrolled and gravitated to creative writing and philosophy, the latter focus sparked by a particularly intense and revelatory episode he endured after eating too many hallucinogenic mushrooms.

It wasn’t long before he was blogging, mostly about politics and cosmology, under the name “Wayfarer.” About four years ago, he discovered Reddit, and created the name “Way_Fairer,” which he describes as appropriate given his expeditionary curiosity and conviction that his punditry pointed to a “fairer way” of doing things.

“The first year I was on Reddit, that’s when I was going nuts,” he says. “I just had this goal of getting more upvotes than anyone … I was like, ‘Man, I’m f---ing awesome at this, so I might as well become the best, right?’”

It began as little jokes and comments: a confession that he smells his toenail clippings; accidental modification of a “shrugging face” emoticon that garnered untold attention. He became, in a way, addicted to the feeling of seeing the upvotes rack up, and started deducing ways to maximize the impacts of his posts, which he usually types out on his iPad or phone when he visits the site throughout the day.

His success comes down to timing and taste. He weighs in on threads that are new and rising in popularity and homes in on the preferred tone of the website: a mix of respect for intellectual rigour and an appreciation for silliness and good storytelling.

For example, weighing in on a discussion of interesting hobbies last year, Steffens wrote: “Falconry is cool until the bird flies away. Then you’re just a dude with a weird glove on his hand, staring at the sky.” That reaped 5,200 upvotes.

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“I’d say after three months I sort of saw the matrix of Reddit,” he says.

As for his life in Appleton, Steffens says he’s happy, even if his day job is distinct from — and less fulfilling than — the creativity of his online life. His girlfriend knows his secret, though, he says sheepishly.

“She thinks it’s a huge waste of time.”

Some of Way_Fairer’s highest grossing comments:

Responding to the question: “What was your biggest, ‘s--t, my parents were right’ moment?

“My dad always told me not to be in a rush to grow up. I wanted to be 16 so I could drive, 18 so I could go on those porn websites, 21 so I could go to the bars — now I’m 30 and I wish I was 12.”

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”

Responding to the question: “What is the best quote you have ever seen, read and/or heard?”

“Keep Cool, Never Freeze.” - bottle of mayonnaise.

Commenting on a thread about dads dragged along to One Direction concerts:

“So much love in their hearts. So much sh---y music in their ears.”

Commenting on a thread about relationships:

“If you get fat enough you will attract every woman in the world. That’s how gravity works.”