Reddit

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Reddit

Screenshot Reddit front page on July 23, 2010
URL	www.reddit.com
Commercial?	Yes
Type of site	News aggregation site
Registration	Optional
Owner	Advance Publications via Condé Nast Publications
Created by	Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian
Launched	2005

Reddit (stylized as reddit; pronounced /ˈrɛdɪt/, "red it") is a social news website, owned by Conde Nast Digital, a subsidiary of Advance Magazine Publishers Inc. Users can browse and have the option to submit links to content on the Internet or submit "self" posts that contain original, user-submitted text. Other users may then vote the posted links "up" or "down" with the most successful links gaining prominence by reaching the front page. In addition, users can comment on the posted links and reply to other commentators consequently forming a vibrant community. Reddit is unique in that users may create their own topical sections for which to submit their links and to comment^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Overview

Mister Splashy Pants logo used on November 27, 2007

The site has discussion areas in which users may discuss the posted links and vote for or against others' comments. When there are enough votes against a given comment, it will not be displayed by default, although a reader can display it through a link or preference. Users who submit articles, which other users like and subsequently "vote up," are then more likely to be displayed^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Subreddits

Reddit includes topical sections called "subreddits" which focus on specific topics, such as pics, funny, politics, worldnews, atheism, programming, travel, food, science or the all-encompassing reddit. Each section focuses on user-generated content that is relevant to each reddit. There are hundreds of reddits and users are encouraged to create their own.^[1] Submissions that are voted up receive prominence by being displayed on the front page of the specific reddit. Those submissions receiving a high rate of votes are then displayed on the main front page of Reddit^{[citation needed]}. Users may also subscribe and unsubscribe to various reddit sections allowing them to choose which links from which reddit is displayed on their personal front page.

[edit] Karma system

Reddit.com employs a moderation-based "karma" reward system for users who make submissions and comment on stories. Users gains one point of link karma when another user votes up their submission and loses a point when a user votes down their submission. Individual comments may also be voted up or down by other users and result in a user's comment karma. Users stop losing karma after their submission reaches 0. This is not the case for comments.

Karma points are also not gained from votes for direct submissions of Reddit-hosted posts to reddits (also known as "self" posts, usually indicated by "self.(name of reddit)" listed next to the name of the post);^[2] this was implemented by the administrators to counteract against "karma-whoring".^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Messaging

The site also fosters discussion and a sense of community by notifying users of replies to with an "orangered" envelope. The site administrators are also active users replying directly to users, submitting their own submissions and commenting on stories. They also host video interviews with questions submitted by the community. The community have also have been known to socialize at local parks and bars around the world^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Logo

The Reddit logo changes for various holidays and pays homage to Star Wars, classic video games, and geek culture in general. It often changes in response to major discussion subjects within the site or major news stories.

[edit] History

Reddit was founded by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian in 2005, both 22-year-old graduates of the University of Virginia.^[3] It received its initial funding from Y Combinator. The team expanded to include Christopher Slowe and Aaron Swartz in 2005. Aaron Swartz joined in late January 2006 as part of the company's merger with Swartz's Infogami.^[4] The combined company was known as "not a bug." Condé Nast Publications, owner of Wired, acquired "not a bug" on October 31, 2006.^[5]

On June 18, 2008, Reddit became an open source project.^[6] With the exception of the anti-spam/cheating portions, all of the code and libraries written for Reddit became freely available on another website dubbed "Fixxit."^[7]

Reddit was named by Ohanian while browsing the University of Virginia's Alderman Library.^[8]

In January 2010, Reddit users raised over $134,000 for the victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.^[9]

In July 2010 Reddit implemented Reddit Gold, offering new features for a price of $3.99/month or $29.99/year.^[10]

In July 2010 Reddit expanded their team, hiring Jeff Sandberg.^[11]

In August 2010, Ben Huh, owner of the popular comedy photoblog I Can Has Cheezburger and its spinoffs, made a public offer to acquire Reddit, believing that the site would deserve the benefit of more resources and decreased corporate influence he would bring to the site in the midst of conflicts between operators and Condé Nast.^[12]

[edit] Technology

[edit] Python Server

Reddit was originally written in Common Lisp but was rewritten in Python in 2005.^[13] 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.^[14]

Reddit currently uses Pylons as its web framework.^[15] The site was hosted on several Linux servers running lighttpd, HaProxy, and paster;^[16] however, as of November 2009, Reddit has decommissioned their physical servers and migrated to Amazon Web Services.^[17] In early 2009, Reddit started using jQuery.^[18]

[edit] Mobile Web

On June 7, 2010 Reddit staff launched a revamped mobile site located at CSS, a new color scheme, and a multitude of improvements.^[19]

[edit] iPhone

On February 18, 2009, Reddit released an iPhone Application called iReddit for $1.99, which allows users to more easily navigate the site while using the iPhone. There were also several other Reddit iPhone Applications available prior to the official application's release date. The first unofficial application was named "Satellite", which was released in November 2008. Satellite originally cost $4.99 but its price was later reduced to just $.99 after the release of the official Reddit application.^[20] The unofficial second application, released in December 2008 was called "Open Source Reddit", differing from Satellite by being free of charge. As of June 17, 2010, iReddit is available free of charge and had joined Open Source Reddit by making its source available for community updates on GitHub.^[21]

[edit] Android

There are several unofficial applications on the Android Marketplace that use the Reddit API, including Reddit is Fun and Adreddit.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Notable Community contributions

• Reddit user Alan Schaaf created the popular free image hosting site Imgur.^[22]
• Graphic artist Mike Mitchell created the "I'm with Coco" poster, which has subsequently been adopted by Conan O'Brien for his The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] See also

• Diigo
• Delicious (website)
• Digg
• Fark
• Imgur
• StumbleUpon
• Slashdot
• Social bookmarking
• Web 2.0

[edit] References

This article uses bare URLs in its references. Please use proper citations containing each referenced work's title, author, date, and source, so that the article remains verifiable in the future. Several templates are available for formatting. (August 2010)

[edit] External links

Wikinews has related news: Helen Thomas probes White House on torture; online community sends flowers

• Reddit
• Fixxit (Reddit's code repository)
• Reddit's job board

[edit] Reddit clones

• proddit, in Romanian
• culter in Spanish
• bem bacana in Brazilian Portuguese

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Sorry, karma-whores. No more karma for self-posts