Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Join us to play games and heal kids - Extra Life 2012

I am happy to announce that reddit will be participating in the 2012 Extra Life gaming marathon to raise money for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals.

Last year we had a small gathering in the office to participate in the marathon. With that group of 10 people playing games for 24 hours, we raised $2,740 for our local hospitals. Together, Extra Life participants raised over $1.2 million to help kids. This year we'd like to go much bigger.


What is Extra Life?


The Extra Life marathon works a lot like other charity marathons. People sign up and get their friends and family to sponsor them to raise funding towards a cause. But instead of running or biking a marathon, we play a marathon of games for 24 hours.

Children's Miracle Network Hospitals is a non-profit international organization that treats sick kids, regardless of a family's ability to pay. CMN is a very reputable charity program, and has been rated highly [charitynavigator.org] by evaluating agencies.

How to participate


To join, go to extra-life.org/team/reddit (or another team of your choosing) and click "Join This Team". During the sign-up you will choose which CMN Hospital you will be raising money for. Follow that up by spreading the word and asking friends and family to sponsor you for the marathon. Also, visit /r/ExtraLife to chat with your fellow teammates.

On October 20th at 8AM your local time, sit down (or stand, if you're into that) and play games for 24 hours. You can play anything you like, be it console, PC, board games, or tabletop. Play from your home, or meetup with others. If that specific day and time doesn't work, you're welcome to marathon when it is convenient for you.

We'll also be live streaming from the reddit office during the event. Take a peek at our hallowed dungeon while watching us fight off sleep and otherwise embarrass ourselves.

As a thank you for participating, any member of team reddit that raises over $100 will receive 2 months of reddit gold for free. Any team member raising more than $300 will get a free reddit t-shirt of their choosing.

How to donate


To donate simply choose a player from the team roster and click "Support Me!". Please note that each member chooses the specific hospital that he or she is raising money for.




Further Info

About Extra Life
Extra Life FAQ
About CMN Hospitals

Team reddit
/r/ExtraLife
reddit office livestream


Thursday, September 20, 2012

reddit Dedicated Day of Service (rDDoS) — This Saturday, September 22nd

/r/clarksville service meetup

On Saturday, September 8th, a group of intrepid, paintbrush-wielding redditors in Clarksville, TN woke up at the ungodly hour of 8 am to renew Vivian House, a single family home that provides shelter for mentally and emotionally disabled adults. 

This week redditors all over the world are planning to serve their local communities by organizing potluck fundraisers for local charities in Northern Virginia, a charity concert in Houston, TX, a beach clean up in Savannah, GA, and more! 

What are you going to do to serve your community? This is the perfect excuse to join up and meet new friends, do something fun, and give back to your community. Beer tastes even better after doing something awesome for your community. If your local subreddit missed out on organizing something for this weekend, just pick another weekend that works for your community. Share your pics and stories on redditgifts.com or your local subreddit. We have a pile of reddit gold to give out to participants. 


or


In case you are on the fence about earning IRL karma, redditors across the globe are going AFK to meet other redditors in their local areas. redditors back on school campuses from The University of British Columbia to Utah State University met other redditors outside their classrooms as part of the College reddit Meetup Day.


Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Internet 2012 Bus Tour - A Campaign to Promote the Open Internet


On January 18, 2012, the reddit community & tens of millions of Americans defeated SOPA & PIPA, two bills that threatened the Internet, one of the healthiest parts of the American economy. Now we’re making sure our government understands just how important the Open Internet is to all Americans.

This October reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, Erik Martin (reddit GM), other reddit staff, and some entrepreneurs are taking a bus* (literally half red, half blue) through the Midwest to rally reddit and the larger Open Internet community and campaign for the Open Internet during the Presidential & Vice Presidential debates.

This isn’t just about Silicon Valley and big web companies. Start-ups, local governments, small businesses and web savvy individuals across the country are using the platform of the Open Internet to start new businesses, learn new skills, earn extra income, and make their budgets go further. If you have a story like this, please post it to /r/Internet2012. The Internet 2012 Bus Tour will collect, document and share these stories from the American heartland. We will have 10 journalists from major outlets on the bus, as well as our own documentary crew to capture and tell these stories.

We need your help to make this happen. reddit is covering the hard costs of the trip (gas, bus, driver etc), but we need your contributions to get a proper graphic wrap for the bus, host events across the country, and properly document and share the stories we find with the whole Internet. Please consider participating in our Fundraiser on IndieGoGo. We've got some great perks like a DRM-free documentary of the whole campaign trip, a chance to have your face inside the bus, a sentimental postcard or even an equally sentimental drunk-dial. You'll also be part of a fun and powerful project to protect the Open Internet. If you can't contribute, please help spread the word. We've already gotten awesome tips and connections from redditors at /r/Internet2012 and we'll be updating /r/Internet2012 with details and stories from the road.

Here are a few examples of the types of stories we're going to highlight:

Local Motors: The Internet 2012 Bus will be escorted by the Rally Fighter from Local Motors, a badass rally car designed online and built in the USA. Local Motors is an example of new Internet fueled business models in traditional sectors.

AgLocal: AgLocal is a start up based in Kansas City that makes it easy for anyone to buy or sell locally raised meats. An entrepreneur from AgLocal will be joining us on the bus, and we'll be visiting some farms and restaurants that benefit from their service on the tour.

IndieGoGo: Not only are we using IndieGoGo to raise funds for the tour, but we're also going to be visiting individuals, small businesses, and organizations along the tour that were able to thrive based on the crowdfunding platform.

Here is the partial Bus Tour Itinerary:

October 3 - Presidential Debate watching event - Denver, CO
October 4 - TBD - Boulder, CO
October 5 - Event at Raikes School, UNL & Event with Hudl.com - Lincoln, NE
October 6 - Event with Dwolla on The Future of Civic Engagement - Des Moines, IA
October 7 - Startup Weekend Demos - Iowa City, IA
October 8 - Event at Kauffman Foundation on The Future of Entrepreneurship Kansas City, MO
October 9 - Start Louis Tech Meetup at TREX - St. Louis, MO
October 10 - Event with Fark on The Future of Local Communities - Lexington, KY
October 11 - VP Debate watching event - Danville, KY

There are many details to come. If you are in one of these cities or an area in between and have a story about how the Open Internet has helped you or your community, please share it in the tour's main subreddit /r/Internet2012. We will also post event details and tour updates in /r/Internet2012 (as well as local subreddits). Hope to see many of you at tour events!

The Open Internet is about the freedom for Americans to help themselves, and it's an enormous engine for economic growth. Let’s make sure both political parties, media everywhere, and local governments recognize it this Fall!

TL;DR: reddit is launching a bus tour through the Midwest to campaign for the Open Internet. Be a part of it by contributing HERE, and subscribing to /r/internet2012.

*Fun Fact: The bus is the same vehicle that John McCain used as the Straight Talk Express in 2008.