Thursday, February 26, 2015

Thank you, reddit. Your efforts led to an historic FCC ruling and this note from the President of the United States

Today's FCC ruling was historic. You thought defeating SOPA & PIPA was a feat? This time the internet rallied to create something that would protect our open internet. Eight months ago, a redditor named TheArmedGamer posted a link to the /r/technology community saying: "Reddit, there are only 45,000 comments on the FCC's proposed anti-Net Neutrality rules. Let's fix that."

They set off a cascade of comments, millions of them, that ended up setting a record for the FCC. You all even helped us, reddit the company, write our own comments to the FCC. And just as recently as a month ago, you responded to our phone-a-thon, making over 15,000 calls in a span of just three hours to your representatives and the FCC. You did this.

A year ago, they said it'd be futile. Today, we defeated opponents of net neutrality who have spent tens of millions of dollars every year lobbying government.

We defeated them by spending our time. Thank you.

And this was not just noticed by all of us at team reddit, but also by the President himself, who sent us this message he asked us to share with all of you:
Earlier today, the FCC voted to protect a free and open internet — the kind of internet that allows entrepreneurs to thrive and debates over duck-sized horses and horse-sized ducks to persist.

This would not have happened without the activism and engagement of millions of Americans like you. And that was a direct result of communities like reddit.

So to all the redditors who participated in this movement, I have a simple message: Thank you.

—President Barack Obama
And here's a note from the President that the community at /r/penmanshipporn will especially appreciate.


Two years ago, the President said this when asked about internet freedom:
Thanks, Obama.

Announcing the winners of reddit donate!

Last week we announced that we would be giving 10% of our 2014 gross ad revenue to support the goals and causes of the entire reddit community. We did this by hosting a vote and allowing our users to vote for any US based charity registered with the IRS.

Every winning charity will receive a donation in the amount of $82,765.95 from reddit.

After +250,000 votes cast on +8,000 charities by 80,000+ voters, we have our top 10 list of charities:


Congratulations to all the winners, and big thanks to all the reddit users who voted, and to Charity Navigator! All winners are asked to email redditdonate@reddit.com so we can work out the details on the best way to get the donation to you.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

reddit donate - 10% of our 2014 advertising revenue will be donated to 10 charities you choose. Voting begins now!

snoos giving huge checks to another snoo in the spirit of charityHere at reddit, one of the things that gets us out of bed every morning is knowing that we have the ability to help the world at a scale that was, until very recently, only imaginable. Remember that time we challenged Digg to see who could donate the most to Haiti earthquake victims through Direct Relief (spoiler: we won, raising over $185,000)? We’ve also been one of the most major participants in Extra Life’s annual gaming marathon for the past four years, where we have helped raise $278,604 to date. Thanks to all of you, we've been able to raise exponentially more funds since our first-ever attempt at fundraising back in 2008 in conjunction with xkcd. And it’s not only monetary donations, we also facilitate good as a platform through subreddits like /r/probono, /r/assistance, /r/favors, and /r/random_acts_of_pizza.

For 2014 we decided to “decimate” our ad revenues to support the goals and causes of the entire community. That means for every $10 in ad revenue we received, we would be splitting $1 equally between 10 charities selected by our community.

We closed the books on 2014 and our total ad revenue was $8,276,594.93. Meaning we are donating $827,659.49! 10 charities chosen by our community will each receive $82,765.95.

We have partnered with Charity Navigator, who has graciously given us access to their charity database. This database includes all charities they have reviewed, as well as all charities that have a US tax identification number (EIN). If you’re unable to find a particular charity by searching by name, just type in the charity’s EIN. This number can usually be found on the charity’s website.

So how do you vote? Head over to reddit.com/donate and make sure you’re logged in. Your account will have to be created before 10 am today in order to reduce any potential shenanigans. You are allowed to vote for as many different charities as you like, but you are limited to one vote per charity.

Voting ends one week from today (February 25, 10 am PST) and we’ll announce the winners within 48 hours.

Do you have a favorite charity and want to tell the world about how awesome they are? Click the “Discuss this charity on reddit” link on /donate to create a post on reddit.com/r/redditdonate.

We look forward to seeing all of your votes tally up, and continuing to give back.

Friday, February 06, 2015

reddit resources and subreddit ads

Every once in a while, it’s always good to brush up on some reddit basics and resources. A while ago, we did a blog post about reddit 101, but we wanted to remind you of some awesome reddit resources you may not know about or have forgotten about! In addition, we have created /r/subredditads, the new, official subreddit to request free advertising and promotion for your subreddit or multireddit! In the past we’ve had subreddit ads for magic internet money and baby elephants, but we want you to create more! If you are passionate about a subreddit and want to grow the community, you can create a 300x250 pixel static image and post it in /r/subredditads. We’ll be going through submissions as often as possible and choosing the best ads to circulate around reddit!

Without further ado - here’s some links to brush up on your reddit resources.

Looking for new reddit communities? Try pressing the random button, or check out these subreddits:

Need help with understanding reddit, or just want to chat about reddit, hypothesize, theorize, or submit cool ideas? Try these subreddits:

Not sure what that advice animal means, or what the left shark is referencing? Check out /r/outoftheloop.

Are you part of the reddit aristocracy? One of the select few that have reddit gold? Here are some invaluable subreddits for only our finest, most sumptuous community members:

Whether or not you have ever participated in an exchange, you should check out redditgifts to join in sharing gifts and happiness around the world with other redditors! We also have an amazing marketplace filled with reddit swag (including our new vinyl snoo), squishable animals, and tons more. The subreddits below are the places to go with questions, comments, and general redditgifts love:

reddit.tv is the go-to place to watch all of reddit’s videos seamlessly in one place. We also have /r/redditpicks, a subreddit with our staff’s favorite videos.

Curious about our ads? Check out /r/ads to discuss all the current ads reddit is running, or /r/selfserve to chat with people that are using reddit’s ad platform. If you work for a nonprofit, you can submit to /r/probono for the chance to get free reddit advertising for your company. Don’t work at a nonprofit, but still want to create some ads for good? Take a look at /r/adsforhumanity.

Try /r/live to catch up on the newest, and hottest live threads on reddit. Also, check out /r/upvoted, a subreddit about reddit’s newest podcast hosted by none other than Alexis Ohanian.

Finally, are you curious about the reddit staff’s karma machines? Check the reddit pets multireddit!

Don’t see your favorite resource? Let us know in the comments!

Monday, February 02, 2015

A Snoo like you


There are 174 million people who visit reddit each month and come together to create this internet home we call reddit. And each one of you is unique, contributing something only you can share to create change and shared experiences and increase understanding.

The 8,000+ active and amazingly diverse communities on reddit came as a blank slate and were turned into something magnificent by you. You are the ones who make reddit what you want it to be. The ones who have customized Snoo in amazing ways to become the perfect mascot for your subreddit.

And now, Snoo can become your own personal mascot. We've already launched Snoovatars for those of you with reddit gold. And now we're doing one better.

Today, we're launching DIY vinyl Snoos that will allow you to show off your individuality or make yourself into whatever you want to be.


No creativity? That's okay. Get the official vinyl Snoo to celebrate reddit's 10th anniversary this year!


Share Snoo with the world

We'd like to invite you to join us in /r/snoospotting to show off what amazing customizations you create with your DIY Snoo or where in the world you take the painted Snoo with you. It's also a place where you can show off any Snoo spottings, whether it's a doodle in your own notebook, a sticker on someone's car, the plushy hard at work, or anything else. We pick our favorite post each month to win a year of gold!


Get the DIY vinyl Snoo here for $8.99!


Get the official vinyl Snoo here for $8.99!