Monday, October 28, 2013

What was that?? *peers down the basement stairs*

It’s that time of year again… The time for pumpkin carving, apple picking, costume designing, and being scared shitless by creepy things you find on the internet. In honour of Halloween being right around the corner, we’ve compiled a list of some of the creepiest subreddits for your perusal.

Enjoy… if you dare.


  • /r/creepypasta: a subreddit that consists of short horror stories and urban legends
  • /r/creepy_gif: some of the most unnerving gifs you’ll find
  • /r/CemeteryPorn: images of graves of those who are no longer part of this world
  • /r/Ghosts: ghost stories, sightings, pictures… you name it
  • /r/imaginarymonsters: drawings of terrifying beasts from the minds of redditors and other artists
  • /r/scaredshitless: a compilation of scary stories, pictures, and videos
  • /r/LetsNotMeet: real-life stories from redditors about terrifying things that have happened
  • /r/nosleep: creepy stories told by redditors
  • /r/Paranormal: a subreddit dedicated to the discussion of anything paranormal
  • /r/shortscarystories: stories that will have you cowering in fear in only one paragraph
  • /r/Slender_Man: if you see a tall, thin man with no discernable facial features, you’d better hightail it out of there!
  • /r/truecreepy: a subreddit for truly creepy things
  • /r/welcometohell: welcome...
  • /r/fearme: just… just go there. No description is good enough.
  • /r/horror: for anything and everything having to do with horror
  • /r/creepy: from whence many of the above subreddits spawned

And here is a multireddit of all this creepiness.

Our favorite creepiness:

Did we miss any spooky subreddits? What frightening tales do you have?


Friday, October 25, 2013

46,000 votes later, and voting was a SOCKcess!

We wanted reddit socks, you wanted reddit socks, and our awesome friends over at Betabrand (who have been a gold partner for a while now and happen to have all kinds of sock expertise) wanted reddit socks too. So we got together with them, put together all kinds of ideas, and asked you guys which ones were best. 46,000 votes later, we have our results, and they are available for preorder!

Based on the votes and what socks we thought would go best together, we've created two different packs of three pairs each. You can buy the Arrows & Aliens set in the redditgifts marketplace (20% off for people with gold or redditgifts Elves!) or the Community Choice pack over at Betabrand (which has free US shipping through Halloween).

Here's how the voting went down:


For those of you who like pretty pictures more than graphs, here's the lineup of the socks in order from most-voted to least.


And here are some fun stats from the results:
  • On average, each person who voted chose 5.6 pairs of socks.
  • Even though we had more than 46,000 votes, they actually stabilized by the time we had received 5,000 responses.
  • 97.4% of people who answered voted for at least one of the six leading pairs of socks.
  • Several users also came up with the really awesome idea to create another pair--test socks please ignore--that got so many upvotes and comments that we had to make it a reality.
We're pretty excited about these socks, and we hope you are too. If you're too lazy to scroll back up, here are the links again: You can buy the Arrows & Aliens set in the redditgifts marketplace or the Community Choice pack over at Betabrand.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

We continue to be astounded. Plus some answers to common questions.

reddit, we continue to be astounded! This weekend, when we first put up the progress bar, we never expected to blast through the daily target and exceed 500% before the day ended. It's been an amazing few days and we are absolutely floored by everyone’s dedication to this site and to each other — there’s so much “paying it forward” and helping each other out. Hitting our daily gold revenue targets means that gold can be a key part of reddit becoming a self-sustaining, community-supported platform.

We thought we’d also take this chance to answer some question we saw in the gold threads over the weekend, especially from users who are new to gold. Without further ado, here are some Common Gold Questions:

Q: What is reddit gold?

A: reddit gold is our premium subscription service. It gives you access to exclusive features and discounts with our partners. You can read more about it at reddit.com/gold/about.

Q: Can I buy gold for myself?
Click here to buy reddit gold

A: Yes! You can buy gold by going to reddit.com/gold.

Sometimes people think that you can only receive gold via the little “give gold” links underneath comments, by having someone give it to you (called "gilding" or having your comment "gilded") Au contraire — you can most certainly purchase it for yourself, and most people who have reddit gold do just that! Go ahead, you deserve it.

Q: Can I buy gold in bulk? I want to give gold away to comments and would rather buy in bulk instead of entering my payment info each time. Plus can I get a discount for buying in bulk?

A: Yes! You have multiple ways to do this, and you get a discount if you buy in bulk.

Buying gold for yourself: If you buy a year’s subscription, each month of gold is only $2.50, a 37.5% discount off the normal rate of $3.99 per month!

Buying gold creddits to gild: You can buy a bunch of “creddits” which allow you to gild lots of comments without having to enter your payment information each time. Buying any of the special bulk tiers of creddits will also net you the same 37.5% discount off the normal rate!

Q: What does server time mean? How does that work?

A: This question refers to this box shown in the screenshot shown on the right:

We launched it couple weeks ago, and you may have noticed it on your user profile. You can also see it on other user profiles if the user has elected to make it public.

What we wanted to do was convert the funds that users pay us into something that reflects how much of reddit you’re helping to support. reddit runs on hundreds of servers, and each of those servers costs a certain amount to run, so we averaged it all together to get a rough unit cost per server.

The "server time" number on your profile includes money you’ve contributed via buying reddit gold, buying reddit gold for someone else (which includes gilding), or buying ads through our self-serve system. “Gifts on your behalf” represent gold that someone has bought for you, either by gilding your comments or by buying gold for you from reddit.com/gold.

For a somewhat more involved technical explanation on how the number is generated, please refer to this post in /r/howredditworks.

Q: Other than buying ads or gold, how can I help support reddit?

A: One easy way to help the site is to disable AdBlock on reddit. We do have ads, and the more impressions they get, the more our clients like us. We work hard to ensure the ads we display are reddit-friendly. We don’t allow full-page ads or any type of flash. We also include a lot of internal-community ads which point to things like new subreddits. Disabling is simple: when viewing reddit, simply right click on your AdBlock icon and uncheck ‘Enabled for this site’.

Perhaps the best non-monetary way to support the site is to help make reddit a community which you’re proud to be a part of. Go check out your local subreddits (or consider starting your own), consider the reddiquette and help keep it alive, and be thoughtful when engaging with others. reddit is not special or unique because of the design of the site, it is special because of the community that contributes to the site. Every person reading this can help ensure that reddit continues to be worthy of your time and support.


Lastly a tidbit - we’re planning a fun bonus for everyone who helps contribute to hitting the 100% goal each day. Stay tuned!

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Thanks for the gold!


Wow. The support we have received over the past few days has been astounding. It all started with a TIL post that spread across the site. In response, people contributed by gilding, purchasing reddit gold subscriptions, cross posting and making positive comments all over. From the entire reddit team, thank you for all the support.

You are contributing directly to reddit’s sustainability and financial health. It has been incredibly exciting to watch the reddit community support us so strongly, and has validated our passion and commitment to keep the site running full speed ahead. Since many people requested a way to see how gold is doing, we have developed a daily gold goal thermometer that you should be seeing on the site shortly. Needless to say, you have all far exceeded our daily gold goals over the past few days.


The numbers show how impressive your support was. From Thursday to early this morning, you bought 568 YEARS of reddit gold and 822 individual months of gold.


What impressed us even more was your generosity to other redditors. 1,536 redditors bought 2,568 months of gold for others across several threads in multiple subreddits. A redditor even offered to cover an accidental overdraft fee that came from gilding.


Here are some additional stats you may find interesting.

Most gilded threads:

Users that gilded the most:
  1. 288 gildings
  2. 25 gildings
  3. 24 gildings
  4. 21 gildings
  5. 18 gildings

This comment was gilded most quickly, only 25 seconds after posting.
This comment was the first comment to be gilded.
Over the time period, there were 72.17 gilds per hour (GPH).


Don't forget that buying reddit gold isn't the only way to support reddit. The redditgifts marketplace has over 220 merchants with items for sale. Additionally, we're announcing a sale this weekend only as a gesture of our thanks. While supplies last, all reddit t-shirts are 25% off in the marketplace. If you have reddit gold, they are 40% off. Please make sure you’re logged into your reddit account with gold to take advantage of the additional discount.

Advertising is another way to support reddit. Recent changes to the self-serve advertising system have made it easier than ever to take out an ad. Whether you are launching a new company, or just want to tell the world about your new subreddit, the self-serve system is there for you.

We are also grateful to everyone who has turned off Adblock on reddit. While reddit is now whitelisted by Adblock for our ad policies, if you have installed Adblock previously you may still not be seeing reddit ads. If you can't afford gold or merch, please just keep contributing to the community by allowing ads, in addition to sharing your posts, comments and votes.

Once again, a giant thanks from the bottom of all of our hearts. We are humbled and inspired by all of you.




Wednesday, October 16, 2013

test socks please ignore

Socks!  Oft referred to as the eighth wonder of the world, socks provide a window into the soul glimpsed betwixt hemline and shoe.  Great philosophers have mused on the possibility of wearing a fresh pair every day.  To satisfy our own sock cravings we have teamed up with Betabrand to produce some spiffy new reddit socks.  And this is where you come in: We’d like to get your opinion on our potential sock designs.

Please cast your vote in our sock survey. 
Disclaimer: No karma changes hands during this voting process.

If you have any feedback or suggestions about any of the designs, or if you have your own idea that you’d prefer to see upon your glorious meatpegs, let us know in the comments.  And keep your eye on the redditgifts marketplace for these zesty articles.

Toodle-pip.

Friday, October 11, 2013

The day of games is nigh - ExtraLife marathon

Note: For further information regarding the marathon, please see the original announcement post and the associated /r/blog thread.

Only three weeks till game day! On November 2nd, over 550 of us will be participating in a 25-hour gaming marathon to raise money for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. Last year members of team reddit raised over $78k for their local hospitals. We've already raised over $17k this year. Come join the team and help us hit our goal of $100,000.

Fellow team members, please be sure to stop by /r/ExtraLife to organize and chat.


T-Shirt!

The folks at redditgifts have put together an awesome ExtraLife t-shirt (design pictured) for team reddit. $5 from every team reddit t-shirt purchase will be donated to ExtraLife. The shirt will be on sale starting today until November 4th. Shipping starts November 18th.

Prizes!

As a thank you for participating, any ExtraLife team reddit member raising over $100 will receive two free months of reddit gold. Additionally, any member raising over $300 will get a free ExtraLife team reddit t-shirt. Redemption codes for the shirt and gold will be sent out on November 14th.

How To Donate

To donate simply choose a player from the team roster and click "Support Me!". Each member gets to choose which hospital to raise money for, so if you are interested in a particular hospital, you can probably find someone who has selected it. Donations are tax deductible and all proceeds go directly towards the treatment of kids at the hospitals.

Further Info


Monday, October 07, 2013

Another Update on Gold

Dear everyone,

We’d like to thank everyone who’s been buying gold or gilding comments, and thought we’d share some interesting stats on where some of that gold goes.  The following are some stats we pulled on gilding activity over the past 6 months:

Most gilded subreddits:

(These links will take you to the “gilded” tab in each subreddit, showing you the gilded comments therein)



Sent to us via postcard.  You could send one in too.


Most gilded small subreddits (at least 500+ subscribers, sorted by gildings-per-subscriber ratio):



Secret pro-tip in the middle of this post - you can see a feed of all gilded comments here!  But back to...

Most highly-gilded threads:




















Another postcard gem.
Note: Asking for gold is rarely the best way to get it.
Most highly-gilded comments (you'll want to read these):


99trumpets on Explosion at Boston?



















More trivia: the most total gilding done by a single user over the past 6 months is 144 months of gold (that’s 5.6 gilds per week, so we’re pretty impressed), followed by 120 months for second place.  We’d tell you who they are, but unless otherwise notified, we assume that such beneficent benefactors desire to remain anonymous.


'How it Feels to get gifted gold' by /u/Half-Maus

And as an ongoing thanks for your support of reddit, we have three new gold benefits to announce:

Homejoy - cleaning your place.  Four months of discounted cleaning at $15/hour up to 20 hours/month with no charge for cleaning supplies.

UberConference - easy and better conference calls, with visuals.  We use this here at reddit, and like it a lot!  You get three free months of UberConference pro, which includes international dial-in numbers for 50 countries.

United Parcel Service (UPS) - 3 months free of MyChoice Premium, which allows you to tell them when you want your packages delivered to your house.  No more missed packages!

You can subscribe to any discussions about new and existing gold benefits at /r/goldbenefits.  If your interest is piqued consider buying yourself or someone you love reddit gold.

Lastly, thanks to you, our loyal gold users for supporting reddit with your gold subscriptions!  You’re helping to reduce our dependence on ads and make reddit community-supported!