Wednesday, December 31, 2014

reddit in 2014


2014 is wrapping up and today is the last day before we all have to start dressing like this. So let us clamber aboard a time machine and see what happened this past year on this crazy website we call reddit.

First, some deliciously incomprehensible numbers:

In 2014 reddit had:
  • 71.25 billion pageviews
  • Over 8 thousand active communities
  • 54.9 million posts and submissions
  • 535 million comments
  • 3.73 billion comment votes 1
  • 2.01 billion link votes 1
  • 886,745 reddit live updates posted
  • 89,602 redditors gifted reddit gold 2
  • 386,803 redditgifts exchange signups
  • 1.6 million official reddit app installs
  • 1 lambeosaurus
view full resolution version
However, numbers mean nothing without the redditors and communities that make reddit amazing.

As always, /r/AskReddit has some great end of year threads:

Subreddit Best Ofs!

See more at /r/bestof2014

A selection of the top gilded posts and comments of 2014:

And not forgetting the best of the redditgifts secret santa

So let’s raise our glasses and celebrate another year gone by, while we roll in 2015 not with a bang, but an upvote!


1 Total comment and link votes were incorrectly labelled when this post was published.
2 This figure was incorrectly calculated when this blogpost was published and has been updated to reflect the actual total.

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Happy holidays from all of us at reddit!


Happy holidays, jabronis, from all of us at reddit!
No matter what you’re doing this week, we want to make sure that you’re winding down 2014 not only with your loved ones, but also with some reddit this holiday season. Here's some cool stuff to check out while you're avoiding your kissy aunt/doing the dishes/other unpleasantries:

  • Get great ideas for holiday shopping for next year in /r/LifeProTips.
  • See what the creative ladies and gents are doing in /r/redditlaqueristas.
  • Check out some crazy ideas in /r/crazyideas.
  • Read some amusing anectodes in /r/talesfromretail.
  • Browse the December Holiday Megathread in /r/AskReddit.
  • Or just browse new subreddits by clicking on /r/random.
  • And a special Happy Holidays to those who are working today! Thank you for keeping the world in check while the rest of us are away.
  • Friday, December 19, 2014

    Announcing reddit notes

    We raised some funding in September, and we promised to reserve a portion to give back to the community. If you're hearing about this for the first time, check out the official blog post here.

    A few weeks ago, we asked you what you thought would be the best ways for us to follow through on the promise. Thank you to the thousands of you who participated. You shared with us a variety of creative ideas - from donating to charities, to crowdfunding community-sourced projects, to customized "thank yous" for individual contributions to reddit.

    Well, we took these ideas and we'll be making them a reality in the form of something we're calling reddit notes. We've made progress on the specifics, and we're finally able to share with you more of how reddit notes will roll out!

    To celebrate all of you and your contributions, we plan to give away reddit notes in a random lottery. As of this point, it looks like we're going to have approximately 950,000 reddit notes to divide among active user accounts. There aren't as many reddit notes as there are accounts, so if you get one, lucky you! Eligible recipients of reddit notes will be determined based on activities before 9/30/14 (when we first announced this project), and we plan to give them away in the fall of 2015.

    We're still working out details on both the technological and legal aspects of the project, especially regarding how reddit notes will work within existing government regulations. We look forward to sharing that information with you early next year. If you have feedback or ideas for us, feel free to visit /r/redditnotes - and keep being awesome!

    Tuesday, December 16, 2014

    Snoo wants to come home with you for the holidays

    It's so FLUFFY!!!

    The guardian, champion, and best friend of your favorite site on the internet is now here in super cute and cuddly form and totally wants to hang out with you. It comes in regular fun size (15 in) and SUPER MASSIVE AMAZING size (27 in) that can watch over you while you sleep and protect you from bad dreams. Both are made from the softest, snuggliest fabric ever that you just won't be able to keep your hands off of. (Sadly, Snoo is genderless and thus may not return your affection in quite the same way.)

    Get the 15" or 27" snoo here!

    (Looking for a smaller, less rotund snoo? Try this one.)

    See Snoo Go! (and win gold)

    We'd like to formally invite all of you to join /r/snoospotting, a community for fans and paparazzi to document snoo's every move out in the wild. It can be a doodle on your notebook from class, a sticker on a parking meter, or anywhere you want to take snoo with you, even if that's just watching TV with you on the couch.

    If you decide to turn professional Snoo stalker, there's even a chance it could turn into a paying gig. Each day for the next week, we'll be picking our favorite five photos submitted to /r/snoospotting and awarding the user with a month of gold. After that, we'll be picking our most favoritest photo of all each month to receive a YEAR of gold. Yay!


    Daily trivia: A Snoo plush was actually what Alexis wanted the first piece of reddit merch to be back in 2005, but he and Steve got into a fight about it because they didn't have enough money and didn't know anything about stuffed animal manufacturing, so they had to settle on shirts instead. Maybe these plushes will make your dreams come true too?

    Wednesday, December 10, 2014

    Welcome Drew, Ryan, Mike, Daniel, Joe, Dave, & David!!!

    We are very excited to be introducing seven amazing new people to our growing team. As is our tradition we have asked the new admins to introduce themselves:

    Drew Ditthardt (/u/drew), software engineer

    I am so excited to be here! I’ll be working on reddit’s guts and API related stuff. My favorite things to do are spending time with my wife, programming, brewing, sailing, fishing, and gaming! I really enjoy turn based strategy as well as rpg style games. My favorite subreddits are /r/technology, /r/homebrewing, /r/mead, /r/dwarffortress, and /r/gonewilder.

    My claim to fame is that I worked on a ragnarok online server application many years ago (I was 14) and that I run an online mmorpg called Neflaria (https://neflaria.com)! It’s awful though, don’t play it. Maybe in a few years =)

    If I weren’t an engineer, I would probably make beer and mead.

    Ryan X. Charles (/u/ryancarnated), cryptocurrency engineer

    I discovered bitcoin on May 13, 2011 and never recovered. After developing a reputation as the bitcoin guy at the physics department, I eventually quit my physics PhD program and went full-time bitcoin. I worked for the best bitcoin company in the world, BitPay, but couldn't pass up an opportunity to bring bitcoin to millions of reddit users. I'm working on reddit's digital asset, as well as general purpose bitcoin infrastructure to enable things like micropayments and contracts. My favorite things are elliptic curves, hash functions, and Merkle trees. My favorite subreddits are /r/bitcoin, /r/sloths and /r/earthporn. If I had written bitcoin, it would have been in javascript.

    Mike Doherty (/u/kaitaan), data infrastructure engineer

    Hey redditors!  I recently fled the Pacific Northwest to move down to sunny(ish) California, where I’ll be plying my data-munging skills as reddit’s first data infrastructure engineer.  I’m super psyched to build out some awesome data-pipelines with the vast amount of data you guys provide, while fully honoring the letter AND spirit of our privacy policy.

    I come from the Great White North, but have spent the last few years in Seattle, hating rain.  In my non-work time, I’m looking forward to exploring SF (what’s the best restaurant, San Franciscans? Bar?) with my camera in hand, checking out wine country, and meeting some awesome new people.  I’m spend most of my reddit time over on /r/photography and /r/photocritique, but spend time lurking in /r/books, /r/wine, and a lot of other subreddits.

    Daniel Lim (/u/akahotcheetos), product manager

    Hello, reddit! Besides eating hot cheetos, I’ll be working on anything related to cryptocurrencies. I have a background in mobile ads and golf - I played professionally in Asia and Canada, eh! I love to play soccer, eat spicy food, and watch sports all day sunday (BPL and NFL). My favorite subreddits are: /r/fantasyfootball, and /r/tifu. Oh, btw, penguins rock.  

    Joe Gallagher (/u/jophuds), data team lead

    Hello reddit! As a datanerd, I’ll be working on understanding how the world uses reddit while making sure we are doing right by our privacy policy. We'll use data but we'll also use crystal balls, tea leaves, the phase of the moon and just straight out ask sometimes.

    I'm an Irish guy who now knows far much about the existence of sunshine to leave California. You'll find me lurking in /r/dataisbeautiful, /r/music and, most recently, /r/peakyblinders. I'm obsessed with science, sports, music and people. But mostly, The Clash and I'm looking forward to working on making reddit the only site that matters for more and more people.

    Dave Wick (/u/aurora-73), software engineer

    Hello internet friends!  I'm here to write javascript for reddit, with a focus on growth and ads.  What that means is hopefully someimprovements for old and new users alike.  Since joining I've also been learning python and the ads business.

    Lately I've been wasting spending my time lurking on /r/nfl (go raiders!), /r/soccer, and /r/sailing.  When I'm not attached to a computer I enjoy the outdoors: sailing, snowboarding, biking, and hiking; as well as all the delicious beer and food /r/oakland has to offer.

    David Forsythe (/u/dforsyth), mobile engineer

    Hey folks! I'm the new Android engineer at reddit and I'm super excited about it. I can't wait to make Android the best platform for a mobile reddit experience. Over the last few years I've worked on things like package managers, infrastructure, web apps, and mobile apps. Sometimes you'll find me lurking /r/watches or /r/foodporn, but I spend most of my time mashing /r/random and learning about some of the crazy things redditors have built communities around. If you somehow find me away from a computer, it's probably because I'm consuming burritos and cheap beer or enjoying my daily coffee constitutional.


    If you are interested in working at reddit, you’re in luck as we’re still hiring! You can check out /r/redditjobs for the open positions at reddit. reddit is a global platform, and we know we need a diverse team to reach maximum potential. We encourage everyone to apply and are partnering with great organizations like Women Who Code to actively recruit women developers, and we know we've got a lot more work to do. If you are seeking work, but we don’t have any positions that are for you, here is recent blog post we did highlighting helpful subreddits for finding work. Happy job seeking!!

    Friday, December 05, 2014

    Help us make reddit better by taking this 5-minute survey (Edit: Survey closed for now, thank you reddit!)

    Today, we're beginning a research effort to learn more about, well, you!

    reddit doesn’t require users to share any personal or demographic information with us, because respecting user privacy is one of our core values. But, as our community grows and our culture changes, it’s important that we know how we can make (and keep!) your experience on reddit awesome.

    To learn about redditors, we’re going to be launching user surveys, like the one below. In addition, we’ll be interviewing some of you and making it easier for you to give us feedback.

    Many redditors love to navel gaze (hi, /r/theoryofreddit!), so we're going to make sure we share what we learn back with the community. You’ll see these in occasional blog posts or in /r/redditdata (and /r/dataisbeautiful, if we feel we can uphold ourselves to their standards).

    Edit: Thank you so much for the overwhelming response, reddit! Literally. Our google form can't handle any more data for now. We're looking into alternate methods of conducting surveys so we can hear from everybody. In the meantime, we've taken this survey down and are poring through the awesome amount of data we got. We're so grateful for your interest, and we're sorry if you didn't get to take the survey this time. There will be more!

    Wednesday, December 03, 2014

    Because cats.

     
    we just can't handle this excitement

    Everyone knows reddit and cats are inseparably and beautifully bound together in internet matrimony, and we want to celebrate this union by sharing a box of cat love for you and your pet, from the front page of the internet. We're excited to announce a partnership between the redditgifts marketplace and KitNipBox formed specially to make all your cat's dreams come true this holiday season.
    Recognize the new packaging for the marketplace from when we did our scavenger hunt? Did we also mention it turns into a cozy cat cottage?

    But wait, there's more!

    We’re even putting stuff in the cat-house-box. KitNipBox is filling it with amazing cat toys, including LOTS of catnip, high-end feline fashion accessories, and delicious all-natural treats to check off every item on your kitty’s wishlist. On average, people spend $50 on Christmas gifts for their pets. This box is worth that $50—but we’re selling it for $25. You can learn more about everything that’s included here.
    Sound too good to be true? It is. Here’s the catch: We only made 500 1000* of them. Get yours now before they’re gone, and do something nice for your cat this Christmas!

    *EDIT: WOWWW, you guys and your cats are amazing! We just decided to make another 500 boxes because you guys bought the first 500 in 42 minutes. Please make your kitty companions happy!

    Want your cat to be famous?

    After you receive your box, take pictures of your cat and share them in one of the many great cat-love subreddits on reddit, whether it's /r/cats, /r/catgifs, /r/catvideos, /r/catpictures, /r/aww, /r/catsinbusinessattire (because your cat will totally belong there once the bowtie arrives), /r/catsstandingup, /r/startledcats (because our boxes are totally scary),/r/catloaf, /r/catsvstechnology, /r/blep, /r/catpranks, or helping to grow the tiny /r/catsinboxes. We'll be on the lookout for our favorite photos and feature them in ads on reddit (with your permission, of course) so your cat can achieve internet fame.

    As always, we appreciate your continued support of reddit through buying gold and advertising, shopping the reddit marketplace, creating campaigns on redditmade, and of course, spoiling your cat rotten.

    Tuesday, November 25, 2014

    Baby, it's cold outside*! Subreddits to get you through.



    It’s that time of year again! The time where people begin discussing things like cold-weather tips, football rankings, and tryptophan. All of us here at reddit are wishing everyone a great rest of the year, as well as highlighting some awesome subreddits that are extremely relevant during these winter months.

    Without further ado, click, subscribe, and be merry!

    Thursday, November 20, 2014

    redditors around the world do make the world spin right round!

    Hello! Hola! Hallo! Olá! Bonjour! Привет! Ciao! Hej! Привіт! Witaj!

    We wanted to celebrate our redditors from all around the world so here are a couple of fun facts!
    Did you know that ~45% of our users on reddit are outside the United States? Well, now you know.

    also...

    Surfing through reddit, you'll find subreddits for towns, colleges, and many sports teams around the world. I'd like to give a shout out to /r/brasil, /r/france, /r/de_iama for some wonderful growth over the last couple of months!

    Keep scrolling to see more awesome subreddits around the world. :)


    can't find your country? just search for them on reddit 
    or check out the maps below!

    ...and here are just some of the many local subreddits on reddit!

    are we missing your town or city? let us know on this form.

    we are definitely missing colleges on this map. let us know on this form.
    Still can't find a subreddit for your town, country or university? Well, then it might be a great time to make a new subreddit!

    Wednesday, November 19, 2014

    Finders keepers, losers weepers? The hunt starts NOW!

    Hello, fellow redditors and friends. We have a little special something in store for you today. But—we’re going to make you work for it.

    That’s right. This is a scavenger hunt. With the assistance of a few of our most trusted community members over in /r/secretsanta, we’ve hidden 56 packages for you to find. 50 states, 1 District of Columbia, and 5 additional countries. You’re on the search for a box full of fun, and inside you’ll find a variety of goodies for you and anyone you choose to share them with.
    special thanks to /u/stuff_of_epics for the awesome gif. also Brad Pitt.

    Your mission, should you choose to accept it

    In each local subreddit, you’ll find a clue posted by someone from your community, hinting at where this box will be hidden. Then they'll post again once the box is officially in its hiding spot with another hint. Clues will be linked below, so you don’t have to worry about chasing waterfalls. Use these clues to go on your own local adventure to find the box hidden in your town! As the day progresses, if it hasn’t been found yet, they’ll post more clues.

    Not sure what your local subreddit is? We’ve listed the state and city subreddits we’ll be posting in at the bottom of this post. If you find the package, please report back to your subreddit with photos so everyone can enjoy! The contents of each package are unique, filled with special products from some of our merchants (many of whom are redditors!) in the reddit marketplace.
    just a teensy little hint of what you're searching for

    GO FIND WIN!

    Find your location below and start searching! Note: International packages may be posted up to 1 day late.

    North America
    FOUND!! Montgomery, AlabamaFOUND!! Juneau, AlaskaFOUND!! Phoenix, ArizonaFOUND!! Fayetteville, Arkansas
    FOUND!! San Francisco, CaliforniaFOUND!! Denver, ColoradoFOUND!! Hartford, ConnecticutFOUND!! Wilmington, Delaware(+udel)
    FOUND!! Miami, FloridaFOUND!! Atlanta, GeorgiaFOUND!! Honolulu, HawaiiFOUND!! Boise, Idaho
    FOUND!! Chicago, IllinoisFOUND!! Indianapolis, IndianaFOUND!! Des Moines, IowaKansas City, Kansas
    FOUND!! Louisville, KentuckyFOUND!! New Orleans, LouisianaFOUND!! Bangor, MaineFOUND!! Baltimore, Maryland
    FOUND!! Boston, MassachusettsFOUND!! Detroit, MichiganFOUND!! Minneapolis, MinnesotaFOUND!! Southaven, Mississippi
    FOUND!! St. Louis, MissouriFOUND!! Helena, MontanaFOUND!! Omaha, NebraskaFOUND!! Las Vegas, Nevada
    FOUND!! Manchester, New HampshireFOUND!! Princeton, New JerseyFOUND!! Albuquerque, New MexicoFOUND!! New York, New York
    FOUND!! Charlotte, North CarolinaFOUND!! Fargo, North DakotaFOUND!! Columbus, OhioFOUND!! Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
    FOUND!! Portland, OregonFOUND!! Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaFOUND!! Newport, Rhode IslandFOUND!! Greenville, South Carolina
    FOUND!! Sioux Falls, South DakotaFOUND!! Nashville, TennesseeFOUND!! Austin, TexasFOUND!! Salt Lake City, Utah
    FOUND!! Burlington, VermontFOUND!! Richmond, VirginiaFOUND!! Seattle, WashingtonFOUND!! Beckley, West Virginia
    FOUND!! Madison, WisconsinFOUND!! Jackson, WyomingFOUND!! Washington D.C.FOUND !! Vancouver, British Columbia
    International
    FOUND!! Sydney, Australia
    FOUND!! London, EnglandFOUND!! Amsterdam, NetherlandsSingapore, Singapore
    adorable
    Edit: The people who hid these boxes are all just normal redditors who were awesome and volunteered to help out. They also have jobs and school and other things, so please be patient with them if a few clues are posted late or you don't think the clues are as good as they should be. They had to come up with the hiding spots and clues all on their own and they did it for your sake, and you should thank them!

    If you like getting boxes full of surprises from random strangers, there’s something really awesome you should try

    Over 144,000 redditors in 174 countries have already signed up to participate in our 6th annual Secret Santa and exchange gifts and holiday cheer this year. We’re already on track to beat last year’s Guinness World Record, and we know this year is going to be more full of amazing, hilarious, touching, and fun gifts than ever. Don’t miss out!

    Thursday, November 13, 2014

    Coming home

    Yishan Wong sent the board his resignation notice. We are grateful for his contributions over the last few years, including growing reddit from 35M to 174M, and we have a team in place to ensure that reddit’s best years are still ahead of it.

    Ellen Pao is stepping in as interim CEO and has already shown tremendous capability + poise over the last two years holding the #2 role at the company. In addition to running operations for the entire company, she was responsible for building our mobile team, acquiring Alien Blue, and her team already shipped our AMA app.

    Dan McComas and his team are moving to San Francisco to unite with the rest of the reddit team after joining 3 years ago via the redditgifts acquisition. The platform is more vibrant than ever, with over 100,000 participants signed up for Secret Santa already (there’s still time to sign up!). Dan will be reddit’s SVP of Product.

    I’m returning to be Executive Chairman. Allow me to re-introduce myself.

    My name is Alexis Ohanian and when Steve Huffman and I launched reddit in June of 2005, it was a very humble beginning. Today it's a global platform for online communities to connect and share that far exceeds our initial expectations.

    I left reddit in 2010 to volunteer for kiva.org in Armenia and have been in an advisory role to reddit ever since. When reddit became independent in 2011, I was asked to return, but turned it down because there were exciting non-profit projects I wanted to do, a book I wanted to write, and I loved advising early stage startups at Y Combinator.

    Instead, I joined the board and have done everything I can to not be a helicopter parent, but rather support reddit and all the amazing people who make it work as best I can. But reddit is and will always be my baby (yes, reddit has two dads, and that's awesome).

    Now at a little over nine years old, with thousands of communities, reddit is at an amazing inflection point and I'm thrilled to return to help it achieve all that it can. We've got a lot of work to do: mobile, user experience, and community tools are on the top of our list, but as always, we can't do it without you.


    Time to call the FCC. We are nearing the home stretch for net neutrality at the FCC.

    The tide is turning in Washington! Let's make this the home stretch for net neutrality at the FCC.
    All throughout the summer, millions of people like you have repeatedly stood up and made your voice heard on net neutrality. You've been calling Congress, filed comments at the FCC, melted the FCC's servers multiple times, attended protests all across the country & a group of redditors even helped file reddit, Inc's comment at the FCC headquarters. And now this week, President Obama has helped turn the tide & released a strong announcement for Title II as the basis for net neutrality rules.

    Now the sole target is the FCC. Now we need to focus all our attention on telling Chairman Wheeler that the time for net neutrality is now. The FCC has already spent enough months gathering data and comments from nearly 4 million people. Now is the time to make a decision.

    We are going to make this a simple call-to-action for redditors in the United States. Just click the big button below to automagically be connected to an FCC official.

    Click this to call the FCC!
    this will take you to a tool to automagically call the FCC

    It's easy and there is a caller script you can use when you call. Be sure to be polite and tell the FCC official that the time for net neutrality is now—not later. Also, be sure to tell 'em that Title II reclassification is the only way to protect the internet.

    Let's go #teaminternet

    Wednesday, November 05, 2014

    I'll take one hygge, please.

    Hyggeligt! It’s November, and here in the northern hemisphere, temperatures are falling, jackets and sweaters are being donned, and we’re already reflecting on warmer months gone by.

    Even if you’re in a warm place, I’m here to wish everyone hygge, a concept I recently learned about and immediately applied to reddit. “Hygge” is a Danish word with no direct English translation which, from what I am led to understand and interpret in my own way, means togetherness, coziness, and in a large part, sense of community.

    In real life, hygge is akin to keeping warm with friends around a campfire. Curling up under a soft blanket with a warm cup of tea and relaxing after a long day. Making the best of the situation you’re in with friends, loved ones, and on your own. It’s a mindset, a lifestyle, a call for sanity in this crazy world.


    Online, the practice may differ, but the meaning remains.

    The internet is a strange place. It can be weird and confusing and sometimes dark. Nobody denies that. But I — and I think I’m also speaking for those of us who work every day to keep reddit alive and running — believe that through inspiration, empathy, humor, and fun, hygge is achieved every day on our site.

    On reddit, hygge is opening an orangered envelope that makes you smile. It’s helping people kick bad habits. It’s when a meme turns into a way to sponsor Olympic teams and NASCAR drivers. It’s being able to cross enemy lines without being enemies.

    So, in closing, as we grow and diversify as a community as well as a group of communities, we wish you hygge both online and off.