10 Reddit Facts - WMNews Ep. 37
It's a site that divides opinion by its very nature, and an example of the Internet age at its most controversial. Welcome to WatchMojo News, the weekly series from http://www.WatchMojo.com where we break down news stories that might be on your radar. In this instalment, we're counting down 10 crucial facts you should know about reddit.
#10: What Is Reddit? The Website
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A company fashioning itself as ‘the front page of the internet,’ reddit is one of the most used, and most talked about, websites in the world. Built as a ‘true democracy,’ the entirety of the site’s content is produced and popularized by a community of over 36 million registered users, otherwise known as ‘redditors.’ Redditors post and comment on pictures, stories, links and questions, having their voice heard within an online community, while also determining which items receive most coverage by ‘upvoting’ or ‘downvoting’ accordingly. It can be explained as an ‘online bulletin board,’ on which users are given the power to pick and choose which content deserves to be seen, and which doesn’t.
#9: Who Created Reddit? The Founders
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In 2005, Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian founded Reddit. Huffman and Ohanian were roommates at the University of Virginia, where Huffman majored in computer science while Ohanian graduated with degrees in commerce and history. The pair acquired $100,000 of initial funding from American seed fund ‘Y Combinator’ in June ‘05, and began building the site from there. After initial growth, the site merged with Aaron Swartz’s Infogami in November 2005, with both businesses operating under the umbrella firm, ‘Not a Bug.’ The following year saw reddit’s popularity grow, and a reported $20 million acquisition by publishers Conde Nast in October 2006 which saw the company move to San Francisco.
#8: How Has Reddit Grown? The Redditors
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A heavyweight in its field today, reddit was by no means the first of its kind, and has had to face off against many similar companies during its existence, most notably, ‘Digg.’ Launched over six months before reddit, in December 2004, Digg allowed users an inherently similar experience to that offered by reddit. One could ‘digg’ or ‘bury’ user-generated content, in order to view the trendiest, most talked about material on the web. However, following reddit’s Conde Nast acquisition, the fortunes of both companies began to drift to separate ends of the spectrum. While reddit steadily progressed, Digg announced an extensive site overhaul in 2010, which would eventually prove to be its downfall, and reddit’s gain. Digg’s new look suffered glitches galore, prompting a massive migration from its site to reddit’s. By September 2011, reddit was able to become operationally independent of Conde Nast, as it looked to grow even bigger by itself. The site was given a massive financial boost in September 2014, after it secured $50 million in funding, gathered from a flurry of investors, which included the likes of actor/musician Jared Leto and hip hop superstar Snoop Dogg.
#7: What Are Subreddits? The Controversy
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Subreddits are used to split up and sort out the masses of information that passes through reddit. A subreddit is essentially a specialist section of the website, dedicated to a particular topic, where all related user-generated media is posted. Subreddits exist for all manner of subjects - from fitness to philosophy, sports to space travel. The ‘free’ nature of reddit means that there also exist subreddits that many users might find offensive, relaying prejudiced views within a public sphere. In July 2015, the subreddit system was actively used against reddit itself, in a form of protest dubbed ‘AMAgeddon.’ (aimageddon) Site users experienced an effective blackout on July 2nd, as moderators for many of the most popular subreddit communities altered their settings to private - a move made in response to the firing of Victoria Taylor, who had been a leading figure behind the ever-popular AMAs.
#6: What Are AMAs? The Questions
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New users on reddit will immediately notice the site’s extensive use of acronyms - with AMA being arguably its best known. An abbreviation for the phrase ‘ask me anything,’ AMAs are a feature of the highly popular subreddit, ‘IAmA,’ where users open themselves up to questions from other users, in a form of online press-conferencing. A popular part of the reddit experience for anybody, regardless of their background, AMAs have received heightened attention following various high profile uses of the feature by famous names within the worlds of film, music, sport, business and politics. Even U.S. president Barack Obama hosted an AMA session, during his presidential campaign in 2012. Obama answered questions on the space program and the issue of Internet freedom in particular, during a thirty-minute stint that more than doubled the site’s usual usage levels.
#5: Who Monitors the Site? The Community
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Reddit prides itself on being a vessel for free speech, with largely unaltered and uncensored user-to-user interaction happening every minute of every day. In keeping with this line of thought, the site is governed and moderated by just about anybody who is prepared to do so. Each section, or ‘subreddit,’ of the site has been set-up, and is watched over by a moderator; a moderator can be anybody who cares enough about the subject at hand, and is able to manage its particular forum. This approach has (perhaps inevitably) led to many controversial situations where inappropriate, offensive and occasionally illegal material linked to racism, homophobia and child pornography (among other things), has made its way onto the site. However, for all the ‘bad,’ those behind reddit itself believe that the majority of the site’s content has had a positive effect upon the Internet, and the lives of its users - the AMAs being one of reddit’s foremost examples of how the site can constructively help and entertain.
#4: Who Is Ellen Pao? The Petition
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A relatively new figure within reddit’s history, Ellen Pao joined the company in 2013 and became CEO after the resignation of Yishan Wong in November 2014, just two months after the $50 million investment deal had been made. By July 2015, however, Pao had resigned from her position ‘by mutual agreement,’ ending an especially controversial tenure. Pao first came under fire following her banning of five subreddit communities - including a group titled ‘r/fatpeoplehate - because they had been used as 'platforms to harass individuals.' The user backlash branded Pao as a ‘totalitarian’ - an example of everything that reddit is against. Because comments regarding Pao herself gradually got deleted off of the site as well, and following the aforementioned dismissal of Victoria Taylor, a 200,000 strong petition was made calling for Pao’s resignation. After only eight months in the role, the Princeton and Harvard graduate stepped aside on July 10th, 2015. Co-founder Alexis Obanian eventually announced that it was his decision to change how the AMA's functioned, not Pao, leaving many redditors fuming and calling for his resignation.
#3: What Are Some of the Benefits of Reddit? The Philanthropy
For all of the problems surrounding reddit, however, there are, and have been, massive benefits to be had because of the site. A pioneer in terms of web-based philanthropy, there are instances aplenty in which the reddit community has rallied together for a worthy cause. The site’s philanthropic efforts include an annual Secret Santa program, which has become the world’s largest with over 200,000 people participating in 2014; an early 2014 announcement that reddit would be donating 10% of its advertising revenue to non-profit organizations voted for by its users; and the site’s various attempts at creating a crowd-funded millionaire, simply by asking its users to donate a dollar. It’s in instances such as these that the site’s community spirit can showcase its better, more immediately endearing side.
#2: How Is Reddit Changing? The CEO
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Recent events have clearly pushed and pulled reddit into a well-publicized period of change and transition. Ellen Pao has left the company, and has been replaced as CEO by one half of the website’s founding partnership, Steve Huffman - but the questions surrounding what should and shouldn’t be viewable on the site remain. In a recent rethink of their site rules, Huffman has announced that ‘hateful’ content will remain accessible, but only to those who actively login to the website and search for the material - meaning that potentially offensive posts will no longer appear in public searches. In a less hardline approach to the matter than that instigated by Pao, Huffman has underlined reddit’s stance, saying that the site ‘believes[s] there is value in letting all views exist, even if we find some of them abhorrent.’ However, Huffman has also warned ‘if the hateful users continue to spill out into the mainstream reddit, we will try more aggressive approaches.’
#1: Will This Affect How Reddit Functions? The Future
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The more cynical critics might suggest that recent events will lead to reddit’s all but inevitable tightening up in terms of the content that is and isn’t allowed. However, those working for the website and those who remain supportive of it surely hope that the departure of Pao and the diplomacy of Huffman will result in a compromise that can placate all parties. The changes regarding what is accessible to those that aren’t logged into reddit are unlikely to curb the publication of offensive material within the community itself. However, they should prevent the more casual user from coming into contact with it, and could help re-inject the reddit image with a little more positivity for the general public, in the future.
