From LIS 460 Summer 2007
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Reddit ( pronounced "read-it"), is a social news site that has an active and loyal user base. Currently, Reddit attracts over 70,000 unique visitors per day. Users praise Reddit for having a very quick load time and no advertising. Like Digg,news stories on Reddit are submitted by users, and other users vote up or down on the story. When it gets enough “up” votes, the story appears on the home page.
History
Reddit, founded and funded in 2005 was based in Somerville, Massachusetts until October of 2006, when San Francisco-based company, "Conde Nast Publications ,acquired it.University of Virginia graduates Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian started the website in June 2005 with the help of the "Y Combinator" venture firm in Cambridge. They were later joined by Christopher Slowe and "Aaron Swartz
Voting on Social News Networks
The top- three social news networks are Reddit, Digg, and Netscape. When using Reddit, up-votes and down-votes appear to carry equal weight, and no reason need be given for either. To vote for a specific article that is on Reddit, you’ll just have to click on the arrows located on the left of the link. Clicking on the up arrow will register a positive vote and add 1 point to the overall point score for the article while pushing it closer to the front page. Clicking on the down arrow will register a negative vote and deduct 1 point from the overall link score and moving it further away from the front page.Web content posted to Reddit tends to center on politics, opinion and world news. Reddit also consists of several sections which are known as "subreddits. These sections cover topics such as science, web 2.0 and programming.
On Digg, the value of individual actions is closely guarded, but it seems that “burying” an article carries more weight than “digging” it, although here you must supply a reason. On Netscape, they have a team of full-time “Netscape-Anchors who select the stories in "Netscape Anchors recommend..." box at the top of the page and do follow-up journalism on many of the stories that are voted to the Home Page. Of these three sites, only Reddit makes any attempt to harness the "wisdom" of crowds.
Uses for Reddit
Community news site Reddit integrated its software into [Slate.com], owned by the Washington Post. The goal was to give Slate readers a new way to find and discuss its best content When the publisher, Conde Nast, purchased Reddit, it wanted to create a single destination site where all the articles from its various publications could be aggregated and voted on using Reddit technologies. As this technology relates to the education field, if a master index could be created which links to all things that are happening in education.finding ways to aggregate existing resources dealing with the education field,this would create an incredibly valuable resource.
Questions concerning Reddit
My Question: What does "karma" refer to when used in Reddit?
Reddit Answer: "The formula for karma is constantly evolving (or, being intelligently redesigned, if you'd prefer). Presently, the easiest (and most effective) way to gain karma is by making good submissions: items that other people want to read and will subsequently become popular. Those redditors who best understand what people want to be reading about will be the best rewarded.
Once you've registered and logged in, you'll see your username (#) in the upper-right corner of the screen (the (#) is your karma score)."
Sources and Links
"Reddit"
