Reddit: Difference between revisions
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| company_type = [[Private company|Private]] |
| company_type = [[Private company|Private]] |
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| foundation = {{Start date|2005}} |
| foundation = {{Start date|2005}} |
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| founder = [[ |
| founder = [[Steve Huffman]]<br />[[Alexis Ohanian]] |
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| area_served = [[World]]wide |
| area_served = [[World]]wide |
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| location_city = |
| location_city = |
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| location_country = |
| location_country = |
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| key_people = [[Yishan Wong]] ([[Chief executive officer|CEO]]) |
| key_people = [[Yishan Wong]] ([[Chief executive officer|CEO]]) |
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| homepage = [http://www. |
| homepage = [http://www.reddit.com/ reddit.com] |
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| num_employees = 11<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.reddit.com/help/faq#WhichstaffmembershouldIwritetoifIhaveaproblemorquestion| accessdate=8 Nov 2011| title=Reddit FAQ}}</ref> |
| num_employees = 11<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.reddit.com/help/faq#WhichstaffmembershouldIwritetoifIhaveaproblemorquestion| accessdate=8 Nov 2011| title=Reddit FAQ}}</ref> |
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| url = [http://www.reddit.com/ reddit.com] |
| url = [http://www.reddit.com/ reddit.com] |
Revision as of 16:39, 21 May 2012
![]() | |
Type of business | Private |
---|---|
Type of site | Social news |
Available in | Multilingual |
Founded | 2005 |
Area served | Worldwide |
Owner | Advance Publications |
Founder(s) | Steve Huffman Alexis Ohanian |
Key people | Yishan Wong (CEO) |
Employees | 11[1] |
URL | reddit.com |
Advertising | Banner ads |
Registration | Optional, required to submit |
Current status | Active |
Reddit (stylized as reddit; pronounced /ˈrɛdɪt/)[3] is a social news website where the registered users submit content, in the form of either a link or a text "self" post. Other users then vote the submission "up" or "down," which is used to rank the post and determine its position on the site's pages and front page.
Reddit was originally founded by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian. It was acquired by Condé Nast Publications in October 2006. In September 2011, Reddit was split from Condé Nast, and now operates as a subsidiary of Condé Nast's parent company, Advance Publications.
Overview
Registered users (also referred to as redditors) may subscribe to individual reddits (called "subreddits" informally, but "reddits" officially) — communities created around specific areas of interest — to customize the content that appears on their front page, or subscribe to no individual reddits and have a general front page displayed; however, as of October 18, 2011, the general front page was archived[4] owing to a changing community.[5][6][7][8] Front page rank, for both the general front page and for individual reddits, is determined by the age of the submission, positive ("upvoted") to negative ("downvoted") feedback ratio and the total vote count.[9] Dozens of submissions cycle through these front pages daily.
Users submit content via links or with "self" posts that contain user-generated text. Other users may then vote the post "up" or "down," with the most successful posts gaining prominence by reaching the site's front page or the front page of individual reddits, through the ranking process described above. Users may also comment on the posted links or "self" posts and reply to other commentators, much like an online forum or discussion group. Unlike typical forums, however, comments can also be "upvoted" or "downvoted" by other users. Comment votes do not affect the main article's rank, but when the "comments" link is clicked from a front page, only the most popular comments are shown according to the default comment preference view (which can be changed to list comments in other forms of ascension). The user must click an additional link or change preferences to see all comments. If a user posts an item that becomes popular, or posts a comment which is positively received by the community, the user then earns either "link karma" or "comment karma," respectively. Users cannot get karma for self posts, however. The karma can indicate the user's overall contributions on the site, and reflects how their contributions have been received by the community.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Reddit_Mr._Splashy_Pants.png)
As of June 2011[update], commentary on the site is particularly active, often running into the hundreds on some submissions. Popular comments have generated many memes within the Reddit community.[citation needed]
Reddits
Any registered user may create a subreddit, although a link to do so does not appear on the user's homepage until after thirty days.[10] There are over 67,000 subreddits to peruse, with the default set being (as of May 7, 2012):
Name | Subscribers (To nearest 10,000) | Created |
---|---|---|
pics | 1,720,000 | 2008-01-24 |
gaming | 1,450,000 | 2007-09-17 |
worldnews | 1,530,000 | 2008-01-24 |
videos | 1,270,000 | 2008-01-24 |
todayilearned | 1,370,000 | 2008-12-27 |
IAmA | 1,320,000 | 2009-05-27 |
funny | 1,760,000 | 2008-01-24 |
atheism | 740,000 | 2008-01-24 |
politics | 1,340,000 | 2007-08-05 |
science | 1,340,000 | 2006-10-18 |
AskReddit | 1,580,000 | 2008-01-24 |
technology | 1,110,000 | 2008-01-24 |
WTF | 1,360,000 | 2008-01-25 |
blog & announcements | 1,590,000 & 1,720,000 | 2008-01-25 & 2009-06-17 |
bestof | 660,000 | 2008-01-24 |
AdviceAnimals | 810,000 | 2010-12-07 |
Music | 880,000 | 2008-01-24 |
aww | 770,000 | 2008-01-24 |
movies | 760,000 | 2008-01-28 |
Users may customize what is shown on their personal front page by subscribing to individual reddits through a page that shows all reddits available — http://www.reddit.com/reddits/ . The site's general front page is also accessible via a link to "all" at the top of the individual user's customised front page.
Reddit meetups
The Reddit community has been known to socialise at local parks and bars around the world,[11] and there are many localised reddits for local meetings.
Reddit IAmA
One of the most popular Reddits is IAmA “I am a” where users prompt others to AMA “Ask me anything”. Recently, many celebrities have taken to this section, including Jimmy Kimmel, Ron Paul, Stephen Colbert, Bear Grylls, Deadmau5, Zach Braff, Neil Strauss, Tim Ferriss, and others.[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] All allowing users to ask any questions they wish. The two most popular AMAs all time are Neil Degrasse Tyson and Ken Jennings.[20]
History
Reddit was founded in June 2005 [21] by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian in Medford MA, both 22-year-old graduates of the University of Virginia.[6] It received its initial funding from Y Combinator. The team expanded to include Christopher Slowe in 2005. Aaron Swartz joined in late January 2006 as part of the company's merger with Swartz's Infogami.[22] Condé Nast Publications, owner of Wired, acquired Reddit on October 31, 2006.[23] Shortly thereafter, Swartz was fired.[24]
Open source
On June 18, 2008, Reddit became an open source project.[25] With the exception of the anti-spam/cheating portions, all of the code and libraries written for Reddit became freely available on Github.[26]
Growth
By the end of 2008, the team had grown to include Erik Martin, Jeremy Edberg,[27] David King,[28] and Mike Schiraldi.[29] In 2009, Huffman and Ohanian moved on to form Hipmunk, recruiting Slowe[30] and King[31] shortly thereafter.
Reddit Gold
In July 2010, after explosive traffic growth, reddit introduced Reddit Gold, offering new features for a price of US$3.99/month or US$29.99/year.[32] The revenue and attention got them approval to buy more servers and employ more people.
Independence
On September 6, 2011, reddit became operationally independent of Condé Nast, now operating as a separate subsidiary of its parent company, Advance Publications.[33]
Blackout
On January 11, 2012 Reddit announced that it would be participating in a 12-hour sitewide blackout in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act.[34] The blackout occurred on January 18 and coincided with the blackouts of Wikipedia and several other Internet properties.
Demographics
According to Google DoubleClick Ad Planner's estimate, the median U.S. Reddit user is male (72%), 25–34 years of age, has some college education, and is in the lowest income bracket of US$0–$24,999. The analysis also shows that many of the top ten audience interests are in the tech field, suggesting a computer savvy demographic.[35]
"Restoring Truthiness" campaign
In September 2010, Reddit users started a movement to persuade Stephen Colbert to have a rally in Washington DC.[36] The movement was started by user mrsammercer, in a post where he describes waking up from a dream in which Stephen Colbert holds a satirical rally in D.C.[37]
He writes, "This would be the high water mark of American satire. Half a million people pretending to suspend all rational thought in unison. Perfect harmony. It'll feel like San Francisco in the late 60s, only we won't be able to get any acid."
The idea resonated with the Reddit community, which launched a campaign to bring the event to life. Over $600,000[38] was raised for charity to gain the attention of Colbert. The campaign was mentioned on-air several times, and when the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear was held in Washington, D.C. on October 30, 2010, thousands of redditors made the journey.[39]
During a post-rally press conference, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian asked, "What role did the Internet campaign play in convincing you to hold this rally?" Jon Stewart responded by saying that, though it was a very nice gesture, the two had already thought of the idea prior and the deposit on using the National Mall was already paid during the summer, so it acted mostly as a "validation of what we were thinking about attempting."[40] In a message to the Reddit community, Colbert later added, "I have no doubt that your efforts to organize and the joy you clearly brought to your part of the story contributed greatly to the turnout and success."[41]
Technology
Reddit was originally written in Common Lisp but was rewritten in Python in December 2005.[42] The reasons given for the switch were faster performance, wider access to code libraries, and greater development flexibility. The Python web framework that former Reddit employee Aaron Swartz developed to run the site, web.py, is now available as an open-source project.[43]
Reddit currently uses Pylons as its web framework.[44] As of November 2009[update], Reddit has decommissioned their physical servers and migrated to Amazon Web Services.[45]
Reddit uses PostgreSQL as primary datastore and slowly moving to Apache Cassandra, a column oriented datastore. It uses RabbitMQ for offline processing, HAProxy for load balancing and memcached for caching. In early 2009, Reddit started using jQuery.[46]
Mobile web
On June 7, 2010, Reddit staff launched a revamped mobile interface featuring rewritten CSS, a new color scheme, and a multitude of improvements.[47]
Client interface applications
There are several unofficial applications that use the Reddit API on the Android Market, including Reddit is Fun,[48] Andreddit,[49] F5, BaconReader,[50] and an Android tablet specific application called Reddita.[51] For Apple's iOS, there is an official Reddit app called iReddit [52] and the user favorite, but unofficial, Alien Blue (also available as Alien Blue HD for the iPad).[53]
Search
On July 21, 2010, Reddit outsourced the Reddit search engine to Flaptor, who used its search product IndexTank.[54]
Community and culture
The website is known for its open nature and diverse user community that generate its content. Its demographics allows for wide-ranging subject areas, or main subreddits, that receive much attention, as well as the ability for smaller subreddits to serve more niche purposes. The unique possibilities that subreddits provide create new opportunities for raising attention and fostering discussion across many areas. In gaining popularity in terms of unique users per day, Reddit has been a platform for many to raise publicity for a number of causes. And with that increased ability to garner attention and a large audience, users can use one of the largest communities on the Internet for new, revolutionary, and influential purposes.[55]
Its popularity has enabled users to take unprecedented advantage of such a large community. Its innovative socially-ranked rating and sorting system drives a method that is useful for fulfilling certain goals of viewership or simply finding answers to interesting questions. User sentiments about the website's function and structure include feelings about the breadth and depth of the discussions on Reddit and how the site makes it easy to discover new and interesting items. Almost all of the user reviews on Alexa.com, which rates Reddit's monthly unique traffic rating 125th in the United States, mention Reddit's "good content" as a likable quality. However, others raise the negative aspects of the potential for Reddit's communities to possess a "hive mind" of sorts[56], embodying some negative aspects of group interaction theories like crowd psychology and collective consciousness.
In recent history, Reddit has been known as the instigator of several large-scale projects, some short and others long-term, in order to benefit others. A selection of major events are outlined below:
- In early December 2010, members of the Christianity subreddit decided to hold a fundraiser [57] and later members of the atheism subreddit decided to give some friendly competition[58], cross-promoting[59] fundraising drives for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) and World Vision's Clean Water Fund, respectively. Later, the Islam subreddit joined in, raising money for Islamic Relief. In less than a week, the three communities (as well as the Reddit community at large) raised over $200,000. Most of this was raised by the atheism subreddit,[60] though the Christianity subreddit had a higher donation amount per subscriber.
- In early October 2010, a story was posted on Reddit about a seven-year-old girl, Kathleen Edward, who was in the advanced stages of Huntington’s disease. The girl's neighbors were taunting her and her family. Redditors banded together and gave the girl a shopping spree[61][62] at Tree Town Toys, a toy store local to the story owned by a Reddit user.
- Reddit started the largest Secret Santa program in the world, which is still in operation to date. For the 2010 Holiday season, 92 countries were involved in the Secret Santa program. There were 17,543 participants, and $662,907.60 was collectively spent on gift purchases and shipping costs.[63][64][65]
- Members from reddit donated over $600,000 to DonorsChoose in support of Stephen Colbert's March to Keep Fear Alive. The donation spree broke previous records for the most money donated to a single cause by the reddit community and resulted in an interview with Colbert on reddit.[66]
- Reddit users donated $185,356.70 to Direct Relief International for Haiti after the earthquake devastated the island in January 2010.[67]
- Reddit users donated over $70,000 to the Faraja Orphanage in the first 24 hours to help secure the orphanage after intruders robbed and attacked one of the volunteers, Omari, who survived a strike to the head from a machete.[68]
Controversial subreddits
The website has a strong culture of free speech and very few rules about the types of content that may be posted; it only prohibits posting of personal information. This has led to the creation of several subreddits that have been perceived as extremely offensive, including forums dedicated to jailbait (since banned)[69] and pictures of dead bodies; several such subreddits were the focus of an edition of Anderson Cooper 360 in September 2011.[70] However, "Suggestive or sexual content featuring minors" was not explicitly banned until February 2012, after members of the forum Something Awful planned to send correspondence to "Parent Teacher Associations, politicians, churches, news outlets and the FBI" about such subreddits.[71] In March 2012, the Southern Poverty Law Center included r/mensrights as part of its coverage of misogyny and the men's rights movement.[72]
Awards
In May 2010, reddit was named in Lead411's "2010 Hottest San Francisco Companies" list.[73]
See also
References
- ^ "Reddit FAQ". Retrieved 8 Nov 2011.
- ^ "Reddit.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2012-05-02.
- ^ "Frequently Asked Questions: What does the name "reddit" mean?". reddit. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
- ^ "Saying Goodbye To An Old Friend".
- ^ Nations, Daniel. "A Review of Reddit". About.com: Web Trends. Retrieved 3 September 2010.
- ^ a b Adams, Richard (2005-12-08). "reddit.com". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2006-12-23.
- ^ "Reddit FAQ". Retrieved 2010-12-19.
- ^ "reddit.com: help". Retrieved 27 June 2011.
- ^ "reddit algorithm".
- ^ "Re: Can I make my own subreddit?". 28 May 2011.
- ^ "Reddit Worldwide Meetups". Reddit.com. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
- ^ "Jimmy Kimmel AMA". Reddit.
- ^ "Congressman Ron Paul Answers Your Questions". Reddit Blog. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
- ^ "Stephen Colbert AMA". Reddit. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
- ^ "Bear Grylls AMA". Reddit. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
- ^ "Deadmau5 AMA". Reddit.
- ^ "Zach Braff AMA". Reddit.
- ^ "Neil Strauss AMA". Reddit.
- ^ "Tim Ferriss answers your questions". Reddit. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
- ^ "Inside the Reddit AMA: The Interview Revolution That Has Everyone Talking". Forbes. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
- ^ Macale, Sherilynn "Cheri". "A rundown of Reddit's history and community". The Next Web Social Media. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
- ^ Swartz, Aaron (February 27, 2006). "Introducing Infogami". Infogami. Retrieved 2007-01-06.
- ^ Arrington, Michael (October 31, 2006). "Breaking news: Condé Nast/Wired Acquires reddit". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2007-01-06.
- ^ "A Chat with Aaron Swartz". Blogoscoped.com. May 7, 2007. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
- ^ steve [spez] (June 17, 2008). "reddit goes open source". Blog.reddit.com. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
- ^ "Reddit Github". Retrieved 2011-06-05.
- ^ alexis [kn0thing] (March 20, 2007). "welcome, jedberg". blog.reddit. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ alexis [kn0thing] (April 17, 2008). "welcome, david". blog.reddit. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ alexis [kn0thing] (December 9, 2008). "Welcome, Mike Schiraldi (a.k.a. raldi)". blog.reddit. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Kincaid, Jason (November 1, 2010). "Reddit Chief Takes Flight To Hipmunk, Explains Why He's Leaving Now". Techcrunch.com. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
- ^ "Welcome, Ketralnis!". Blog.hipmunk.com. March 12, 2011. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
- ^ Posted by mike [raldi] (2010-07-19). "what's new on reddit: Three new features for reddit gold: Choose-your-own ads, Userpage sorting, and Friends with Benefits". blog.reddit. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
It's time for reddit gold to make the shift from a one-week experiment to a true service with a clear pricing structure and at least a few whistles and bells.
- ^ "blog.reddit – what's new online: Independence". Retrieved 2011-09-06.
- ^ http://gamepolitics.com/2012/01/11/reddit-plans-sopa-039blackout039-protest-jan-18
- ^ "DoubleClick Ad Planner by Google – reddit.com". Google. Retrieved March 3, 2012.
- ^ Friedman, Megan (September 14, 2010). "Reddit Campaign for Colbert Rally Breaks Donation Record". Time NewsFeed. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
- ^ mrsammercer (August 31, 2010). "I've had a vision and I can't shake it: Colbert needs to hold a satirical rally in DC". Reddit.com. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
- ^ "Restoring Truthiness donor page". Donorschoose.org. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
- ^ Schiraldi, Mike (November 12, 2010). "Buy Shirts, Remember the Rally, Question Colbert, and Smile". blog.reddit. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
- ^ Rally to Restore Sanity - Press Conference - Video Mediaite. October 30, 2010.
- ^ "Stephen Colbert has answered your questions : IAmA". Reddit.com. November 30, 2010. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
- ^ steve [spez] (2005-12-05). ""On lisp" blog post by Reddit founder "spez," detailing the reasons for switching to python from lisp". Blog.reddit.com. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
- ^ "Official web.py site". Webpy.org. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
- ^ Sites Using Pylons – Pylons Community — PythonWeb
- ^ jeremy [jedberg] (November 10, 2009). "Moving to the cloud". Blog.reddit.com. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
- ^ what's new on reddit: reddit now powered by jQuery – Posted by Chris Slowe (keysersosa) (Friday, January 30, 2009) – blog.reddit
- ^ "A better mobile reddit for all". reddit.com. 2010-06-09. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
- ^ "reddit is fun – Android Application on the Android market". Appbrain.com. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
- ^ "Download andreddit for your Android phone on AppBrain". Appbrain.com. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
- ^ "a tasty new reddit app". baconreader. Retrieved 2011-07-06.
- ^ "Reddita – Android Market". Market.android.com. 2011-11-15. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
- ^ "iTunes App Store iReddit". reddit.com. Retrieved December 7, 2011.
- ^ "iTunes App Store Alien Blue". Jason Morrissey. Retrieved December 7, 2011.
- ^ "Reddit Blog post announcing the use of IndexTank search engine".
- ^ "Could Reddit be the world's most influential website?". BlueGlass. Retrieved April 26, 2012.
- ^ "Reddit.com Site Info". Alexa.com. Retrieved April 26, 2012.
- ^ "If every member of r/Christianity donates just $4.45, we can build a health clinic in an impoverished area that desperately needs one. Let's do it!". December 09, 2010.
{{cite web}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help) - ^ "OK, Battle stations everybody. Tonight we show r/Christianity what we are made of..." December 09, 2010.
{{cite web}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help) - ^ "Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria! r/atheism and r/Christianity have a friendly competition up for a holiday charity drive that is spilling over into other subreddi". Reddit.com. 2010-12-10. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
- ^ "reddit.com/r/Atheism's Fundraising Page". Retrieved May 07, 2012.
{{cite web}}
: Check date values in:|accessdate=
(help) - ^ "Toy Store Shopping Spree for Kathleen Edward". Myfoxdetroit.com. 2010-10-12. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
- ^ Stryker, Cole (2010-12-10). Kathleen Edward, Harassed Girl with Huntington's Diseas, Thanks Reddit. Urlesque. Retrieved April 20, 2011.
- ^ Boitnott, John (December 23, 2010). "Secret Santa success caps banner year for Reddit". VentureBeat Interpreting Innovation. VentureBeat. Retrieved January 3, 2011.
- ^ "The Biggest Secret Santa Gift Exchange in the World". Retrieved 2011-02-12.
- ^ "Statistics for Secret Santa 2010". Retrieved 2011-02-12.
- ^ "Restoring Truthiness Giving Page". Donorschoose.org. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
- ^ "Direct Relief International: Support Us – Tributes:". Dri.convio.net. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
- ^ "How Reddit Saved an Orphanage". Reddit.com. January 27, 2012. Retrieved January 27, 2012.
- ^ http://www.reddit.com/r/jailbait
- ^ Anderson Cooper 360, 9/29/2011.
- ^ http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/02/reddit-bans-sexual-content-featuring-minors.php
- ^ http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2012/spring/misogyny-the-sites
- ^ "Lead411 launches "Hottest Companies in San Francisco" awards". Lead411.com. 2010-05-18. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/24/Wikinews-logo.svg/40px-Wikinews-logo.svg.png)