Sunday, June 28, 2009

We've got mail!

Yes, it's an orangered envelope delivered via snailmail to the reddit HQ. A redditor named jumpercable asked about how he could redeem his reddit karma and was instructed by ketralnis to mail it to our office.

So he did.

Jumpercable was very thorough, including all the proper documentation for his karma. Alas, he did not get it notarized. We were willing to look the other way just this one time.

This is definitely a first for us. Thanks, jumpercable, we've mailed you back something special.





We're sending him this gold alien torso as part of our move to the gold standard (incidentally, reddit karma instantly left the gold standard and has resumed its status as fiat currency).


Look closely and you'll even see raldi waving in the shine of its gold-plated torso!

Edit: The package has arrived! Watch jumpercable go through all his reddit schwag.

Bonus! If all goes as planned, orangered shirts will be for sale this week.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Help us design the next reddit shirt

Unto reddit, many t-shirt ideas have been born. Now, your ideas will be realized by the crowd of artists over at Crowdspring. Crowdspring, "a reddit of design", will have it's graphic designers submit potential reddit t-shirt ideas to it's contest area. Here's an example of a recent design contest for Center for Interdisciplinary Education and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA), the difference in this contest is that redditor voting will then choose which of the Crowdspring designs will become the NEXT next reddit t-shirt to be sold on store.reddit.com. By the way, if you haven't seen it yet, this is the next t-shirt, due to arrive...soon.

Artists from Crowdspring will be reading all of the comments on the official "bring our ideas to life" thread HERE for inspiration, so inspire their artistic fire. Designers may take the top voted suggestion and execute it faithfully, or they may create a multi-suggestion, narwhal-horned chimera, or they may create a t-shirt worthy design from a reddit-inspired dream, but in any case redditors will be voting on which design becomes the next t-shirt. If any redditors are also designers, you are not only welcome to participate, you are also karmically obligated. Sign up here. Crowdspring will post the contest, and designers will start executing your ideas on Friday June 26th, so reddit you have 24 hours to generate shirt ideas.

The deadline for designs will be July 10th, after which the designs will appear on reddit for your voting pleasure. The winner will be announced on July 17th, and reddit/crowdspring created shirt should be ready for all your back to school fashion needs.

Submit shirt ideas HERE.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Welcome, Erik [hueypriest] - it feels like you've been here for a while

OK, so it's been an embarrassingly long time since Erik joined team reddit -- he's dutifully served without an alien avatar. But that is over. Here's the alien incarnation of reddit's community manager.

Armed with an HD camera for reddit interviews and a bullhorn for organizing our massive (and getting massive-r thanks to his work) reddit community. You've seen his organizational prowess and fantastic video work before, but you may not know that he's also an indispensable trivia teammate.


You can find him on reddit as hueypriest and on twitter as the same name. Be sure to drop him a line if you've created a reddit and are looking for help to grow it.

Sorry this has taken so long, Erik. I'm going to make this up to you in schwag for the rest of your life. Hopefully you'll interpret that as a welcome promise and not a threat.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

That's a good "OMG Shark!" face

Well reddit, we asked for your best "OMG shark!" face and you delivered.



mastrmind won the contest by demonstrating the perfect "just having been thrown up by a shark" face. He even found a shark willing to participate in the photoshoot.



tlrobinson scored the most points, despite not having a "Jaws backwards" shirt, thanks to a splendid Halloween costume photo (he's the shark victim on the right).

Thanks to everyone for participating. Both of our winners will be getting secret prizes from team reddit. Maybe they'll even share what they are...

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Happy open-source day, reddit! Here are your 3 favorite open-source projects, which will be getting a total of 72hrs free advertising

A week ago today, we ran a contest to celebrate our 1 year anniversary of going open source. We asked you, the reddit community, to pick the 3 that most deserved some of our precious sponsored link ad space. We're giving each of them a free day's worth.
  1. Pylons - submitted by zzzeek
  2. Gobby - submitted by MarkTraceur
  3. The Gimp - submitted by drewhenson
Even though there are only 3 winners, we'd like to thank everyone in the open-source community -- not just the katana-wielders. This site wouldn't be possible if it weren't for you.

Speaking of which, in case you haven't downloaded it yet, here's the reddit code.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Pimp My Office: The new reddit contest

So, we've got one box of bobbleheads left in the reddit office. We're not selling them anymore.

When we learned our friends at FogCreek were getting a new office, we sent them a box as an office-warming gift.

Little did we know they'd end up scattered all over the photoshoot. It's like a Where's Waldo of reddit aliens over at the new Fog Creek offices.

Turns out the aliens were a welcome addition and we thought there must be another office out there in need of our last box of alien bobbleheads.
So, be as compelling as you can in this reddit comment thread as to why your office deserves them (photos would help) and we'll send the box to the best valid entry as of noon (pacific) Tuesday, June 23rd. (We're not shipping any more bobbleheads to the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station -- damn pranksters)

Can you spot the reddit alien? reddit alien is watching you... work.

Monday, June 15, 2009

reddit already helps you waste time at work, now use it to get a job (or hire someone who can deftly pun)

After talking up the reddit community for the last four years, we're going to give employers the chance to tap into the best of the web. And frankly, most of the job boards we've seen over the years have been weaksauce. We wanted something dead simple -- something that would attract the kind of jobseekers who spurn the PR BS (new acronym, anyone?).

In the interest of minimizing said PR-BS, here's our new job board: http://redditJobs.com

If you're looking to add some headcount (and help speed the global economy on its way to recovery), get 50% off a job posting within the next 2 weeks by using this coupon code: Reddit

When it came to building this job board, we called on our friends at JobAlchemist, who've been thinking about making the job finding/hiring process easier for a couple years now.

Let us know what you think. And best of luck job hunting (or as job hunter, as it may be). We'd also like to point out that this job board allows for levels of insight never seen before -- like the Attributes section of the Company Profiles, where you can let potential hires know ahead of time that your corporation could never roll a Paladin.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Show us your best "OMG SHARK!" face, win stuff

We know a bunch of you ordered our "If you watch JAWS backwards" shirt, but how many of you have been practicing the face you'll need just after the great white throws you up?

Now's your chance to get rewarded for this prudent preparation. Photograph yourself wearing the Jaws shirt (bonus points if you do it next to a mirror so we can read it both ways) with your best "OMG SHARK!" face and link to it in this thread.

The highest scoring submission by next Friday, June 19th at noon Pacific will win a surprise gift from team reddit. No, it's not Mrs. Splashypants.

Feeling left out because you don't have a Jaws Backwards shirt? Fear not! It can be yours.

redditors Interviewing Economic Critic and Former Ron Paul Advisor Peter Schiff

We are very excited that American economic commentator, author, and possible senate candidate, Peter Schiff has agreed to share some of his busy schedule by answering redditors' top questions. Submit your questions for Peter Schiff HERE. The top ten questions will be selected on Monday @ high noon ET.

Best known for his bearish views on the United States economy and for his prescient predictions of the economic crisis of 2008, including his book Crash Proof: How to Profit From the Coming Economic Collapse, published in 2007, he was also a recent guest on the Daily Show.

Schiff is a supporter of the Austrian School of Economics and the Ludwig von Mises Institute, and was an economic adviser for Ron Paul's campaign in the 2008 Republican Party primaries, through which Schiff also expressed support for sound money, limited government, and free market capitalism. Most importantly, Schiff is a redidtor himself. You can also follow him on the facebook and the twitter. Submit your questions for Peter Schiff HERE.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

The Hotel California of the Internet

One ambitious redditor, eouw0o83hf, rewrote Hotel California in response to the observation that reddit is "the 'Hotel California' of the Internet."

Before you start reading, you'll want to hit play. Go on. Rock out.



Verse
In a dark basement corner, nasty grease in my hair
Warm smell of some Ramen rising up through the air
Up ahead on my display there shown a glimmering site
My eyes grew heavy as I sipped my Dew - it wasn't even midnight

Firefox rendered before me a site I knew so well
The friendly alien beckoned me - What would I find there? No one can tell...
Then the page finished loading; I logged in right away
My envelope glowed that nice orange hue, I had new replies today!

Chorus
Welcome to your homepage known as Reddit!
Such a wondrous place, puts a smile on your face
Many new posts on your favorite subReddit!
Any time of day, there's something new to say

Verse
/WTF is so twisted; my mind, it starts to bend...eeww
/craigslist shows me lots of posts from people wanting to be my friends
I move on to /science, /pics and /entertainment
I post some comments to /bestof; I find some links and submit

I start browsing comments, I go to look at mine
I see that I need to post more links because my karma is only at 9
And still qgyh2 is posting all night and day
I keep browsing all through the night, up until the day

Chorus
Welcome to your homepage known as Reddit!
Such a wondrous place, puts a smile on your face
Many new posts on your favorite subReddit!
To the user who tries: many upvotes fly

Verse
My cat looks from the ceiling; Rick Astley sounds so nice
Xzibit puts a meme in my meme as comedic device
In the realm of comments I learn all of my memes
We downvote them with our blue arrows, but trolls just never leave

Why can't I just quit this? Why do I always need more?
How, sans Reddit, did I live my life back in 1994?
Oh well, it's no matter - this I was born to read
I can log out anytime I like. But I can never leave.

(insert sweet guitar solo from /music)

Help reddit celebrate 1 year of open source by helping your favorite open source project!

Wow, on June 17, 2009, it'll be an entire year since reddit went open source. If you weren't around, or missed the hacky stop-motion video announcing it, reddit has been open source for a year now. See for yourself at code.reddit.

Since open-sourcing, we've seen a number of cool incarnations of reddit code around the web. One redditor, chromakode, created a fantastic FireFox extension called Socialite that's only rivaled in its awesomeness by our new (opt-in) reddit toolbar.

All in all, we've been quite pleased with the decision to open source. The least we could do to celebrate is give some link-love to some open source projects that deserve it. Arc, anyone?

As usual, we're going to let you decide which open-source projects deserve free space in the reddit sponsored link box. Submit your candidates (reasoning optional, link preferred, bonus points for a good headline to sell the project) to this thread and the top 3 highest scoring projects (serious entries only) as of noon pacific on June 17 will each get a full day's run as a sponsored link.

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Comics.reddit interviews Zach Weiner of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

Comics.reddit dared to ask only the best and most probing questions for an interview with SMBC-comics artist, Zach Weiner, who graciously responded with this 3 part series of videotaped answers. Original question thread is here.

You'll quickly notice he's not wearing a shirt. Pay attention and you'll find out if he's wearing pants. We think you'll be pleasantly surprised.





Friday, June 05, 2009

Video of SciFi.reddit interview with author Greg Bear

After a bit of teasing, we've finally got the 3 part interview online. A little while back, scifi.reddit submitted and voted on questions for author Greg Bear. He kindly invited us to his home where we were awed by his vinyl figurine collection and entertained with stories about Ray Bradbury. It was a real treat.

Be sure to check out GregBear.com for all things Greg Bear - and keep an eye out for his upcoming book, Mariposa.





Thursday, June 04, 2009

Reddit toolbar no longer lickable

Based on a week of feedback, we've made some changes to the new toolbar.

1. The gradient has been removed. We've learned the hard way that when it comes to Reddit, people just seem to prefer matte over glossy.

2. The comments panel has been moved to the left side. This allows the main frame's scrollbar to be against the edge of the screen, so if you're the kind who keeps your browser window maximized, you can go back to slamming your mouse to the right whenever you want to use the scrollbar.

3. The comments panel is now off by default. Sigh. We nonetheless hope you'll check it out now and then; we still think it's pretty neat.

4. Until now, if you had "display links with a reddit toolbar" set in your prefs, you wouldn't be able to mouse over a link and see where it goes -- it would always say, "http://reddit.com/goto?blahblahblah". Now it don't!

5. As before, you can click the submission title (in the middle of the toolbar) to get to the main Reddit page with the full discussion and whatnot. Now, we advertise this fact a little more prominently.

6. By extremely popular demand, we now cram the famous orangered envelope into the toolbar when you have mail waiting.

Even if you're afraid of new things, you can take it for a spin here -- it won't have any permanent effect unless you change the setting.

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Some new things.

We added a new feature recently that displays on the right side of the page links you have recently clicked. We want to make it easier to find links that you have recently read, but are having trouble finding once you return back to reddit. If you don't want to see this widget, you can turn it off in your preferences.

We also made some improvements to the recently released toolbar, that were popularly requested.

Enjoy!

It all started with "I need some drawings of a one-legged girl running away from a volcano"...

What happens when you ask reddit for some drawings? As eroverton found out [ask reddit] and you shall receive. Here's a Kenny Loggins backed eruption of drawings from all the reddit artists.





Out along the edges
Always where I burn to be
The further on the edge
The hotter the intensity