Somewhere between news and memes: what is Reddit?

Reddit is primarily popular in the USA, where it has a significant loyal readership – about 42% of Reddit users are American. However, the website is growing in popularity abroad, although it may take some time before they start seeing comparable numbers.

The increasingly negative media attention on Facebook and the subsequent mass Facebook user exodus is perhaps an opportunity for social networks like Reddit to gain more traction. But what exactly is Reddit?

Reddit describes itself as “The front page of the internet.” This term conveys their claim to a unique position. On the front page of a print newspaper, readers will find the daily topics and headlines that editors consider to be the most important. Reddit is claiming to be the first point of contact to the World Wide Web by calling themselves its “homepage.” When talking about the US market, these claims are quite believable – after all, the number of subreddits grew from almost 11,000 (2008) to about 1.64 million (September 2019) subreddits in just 10 years.

Reddit gathers social news in an almost unmanageable number of “subreddits.” These are founded by users and filled with content. The idea of the forum, based back in Roman antiquity, can be seen as the basis for the self-conception of the website. The Forum Romanum, for example, was not only a central place where people visited temples and public trials, but also a place of spiritual exchange. 

Modern internet forums developed from the bulletin boards of the 1980s. A forum usually deals with a main topic and divides it into sub-topics. Therefore, there are directories – subforums – that Reddit refers to as subreddits. Users can use a subreddit to create new posts on a specific topic. These can be questions and requests for help, but also informative news articles, images, and videos. Humorous and creative contributions and controversial discussion topics are not uncommon.

Reddit was founded by Alexis Ohanion and Steve Huffman, who met at the University of Virginia. Shortly after graduation, they wanted to develop a site called “MyMobileMenu” with the help of startup investors Y Combinator. The idea was ultimately blocked, but they had set their foot in the door. Just a short time later, they received startup capital from the same company for their new project “Reddit: the front page of the internet.” Psychiatrist Christopher Slowe and the now deceased internet activist Aaron Swartz, along with his company Infogami, joined the development team.

Despite personal setbacks, the young founders continued to work on the project. Condé Nast publications bought the company and kicked Swartz off the project shortly afterwards. The other founders also went their separate ways once their contracts were over.

While the developers initially used dummy accounts to boost activity on the site, Reddit already had 10,926 subreddits by 2008. In 2011, the number climbed to 60,191 and Reddit climbed out of Condé Nast’s shadow, and became independent under their parent company Advance Publications. A year earlier, the platform introduced the Reddit Gold subscription model. Gold editors get access to the “Lounge,” a restricted subreddit, and a larger range of functions for around $4 per month.

Reddit became one of the first major websites to accept payment in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin for their paid subscription Reddit Gold, gifts, and Redditmade (subreddit fan articles that are for sale).

The company and its founders attracted a great deal of attention when they protested against the US draft law against online piracy (SOPA) in 2012, and, together with well-known websites like Wikipedia, took their entire domain offline in a “blackout.”

The site administrators are still committed to protecting freedom of speech and their users’ anonymity. This is expressed both in the page guidelines and in the Reddiquette (etiquette for Reddit). Transparency is provided by the transparency reports.

Steven Huffman returned as CEO in 2015. At that time, Reddit employed about 100 people, climbing to 230 in 2017. During these years, the platform has consisted mainly of American users. However, foreign language communities are starting to pop up, and the Reddit interface is available in over 90 languages – including “Pirate Slang” (“Arrrrrrrrrrrrrr”).

The website was originally written by Common Lisp, but before its release, the development team switched to Python. The web.py web framework, built by Swartz for Reddit and now available as open source software, has also been replaced with the successor Pylons. From 2008 to September 2017, Reddit’s source code was officially available as open source on GitHub. According to their own statements, however, the company had moved so far from their slapdash beginnings that lengthy public code developments were now hindering new product launches. Nevertheless, Reddit continues to use open source tools, which is in line with the company’s policy.

In 2009, Reddit migrated to the Amazon Web Services cloud, and since 2012, Amazon CloudSearch has been taking care of the internal search. The free NoSQL database management system Apache Cassandra is increasingly used for the cloud database.

The open source software RabbitMQ is a message-oriented middleware and supports Reddit’s offline processes.

The official Reddit app is available for Android and iOS. Since they are not particularly popular in the community, some competitors have established themselves, including Boost, Relay, BaconReader, and Sync. For tablets running on Android, there is Reddita. There is even an (unofficial) cross-platform app for desktop PCs: Redditr.

Forums live on user-created content. Community members create subreddits on specific topics and set up forum rules. Other users act as moderators who enforce these rules in the subreddit. Reddit itself already has a netiquette (called “Reddiquette”) and page guidelines. Each subreddit also determines its own rules that determine which contributions are allowed. Moderators delete comments that violate forum rules and can exclude repeat offenders from the group.

The word “Reddiquette” is derived from the suitcase word “netiquette.” It originated from the terms internet and etiquette and describes basic rules of conduct on the internet. Their basic tenant is that all users should feel welcome. On the one hand, it encourages participation in the internet and for that participation to be as polite as possible. On the other hand, netiquette recommends adhering to technical (security) standards and ensuring good legibility. Users should also comply with applicable law.

Here are some of the Reddiquette points summarized:

• Remember there’s a person behind the screen
• Read the community rules before submitting
• Use proper grammar and spelling
• Link to the original source
• Search for duplicates before submitting
• Report any spam you come across
• So-called doxing (publishing third party personal data) will get you banned
• Tag content that isn’t NSFW (Not Safe For Work)

Reddit users usually attach great importance to their privacy. VPNs and privacy discussions are often the order of the day. This is also important to the site operators. In a 2014 interview, the head of communication Victoria Taylor explained how Reddit informs its users as transparently as possible about geotargeting in banner advertising. Privacy and freedom of expression are Reddit’s core values. For example, those who engage in doxing are banished from the site. Registration can be completed in a matter of seconds:

1. Go to reddit.com
2. Select “Register” at the top right
3. A window will appear asking for your email address (this information is not required for registration, it is only used if you happen to forget your password)
4. Click on Next – even without giving your email, you can continue without any problems
5. Enter a username under “Username” (on the right side Reddit gives suggestions) and under “Password”, enter a secure password
6. Click on the captcha to confirm that you are not a bot
7. If you have entered your email address, you will receive an email with a link to verify it

There is a feed of the top posts on the Reddit main page. With the new design, you can choose between a tile view, the classic forum view, and a compact version. The feed can be filtered through the tabs “Best,” “Popular,” “New,” “Ascending,” etc. Here you will be able to find potentially interesting subreddits by browsing visible posts. You can also enter a term in the search bar, and the results list will show you subreddits with thematic overlaps, as well as posts within the Reddit cosmos that use the term.

By clicking on the join button, posts from the subreddit in question will be included in your feed. By filtering for new posts, you can be one of the first people to rate a post and potentially bring it to the top of the most popular posts of the day.

Members can publish posts within a subreddit. If there is no subreddit on a topic you are interested in, you can create a subreddit yourself. Posts consist either of a link or of their own writing.

On the Reddit homepage, you will see a pen next to your name. Clicking on it opens a new window. You can decide whether you want to write your own text or prefer to share an image or link with others. In addition, you have to select a subreddit that you want the post to appear in. Think of a headline and select a tag that categorizes the content.

The number of subreddits has grown significantly in recent years. Some of the early subreddits have practically become classics. Many users have been subscribed to these channels for years. They receive news updates from a closed community they trust. Animated discussions or snacks for entertainment are also included.

However, people who have been through something extraordinary – or apply for the highest office in the USA – are particularly popular. When Barack Obama gave an interview for thirty minutes during the 2012 election campaign called “I am Barack Obama, President of the United States” the Reddit website crashed due to the amount of traffic. The questions and answers he gave also made it into the national news program.