People soshalize. They don't care how it's spelled. They just do it.
There is a difference between Reddit and other social news sites. While they have never really staked a claim of being the biggest, baddest, or most powerful, they have demonstrated it time and time again, particularly in the arena of financial donations.
This graphic by WePay takes a look at some of the most significant random acts of moneybombing that have influenced people and charities across the world.
How many software engineers does it take to operate a site that serves over 1 billion pageviews a month? At Reddit, the answer is (hopefully) one, at least for now.
Yesterday Senior Software Engineer Mike “Raldi” Schiraldi resigned to take on his “dream job” at Google, leaving the total headcount of software engines at one. David King left last week to join Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian at Hipmunk.
After eclipsing Digg to take the top spot amongst social news sites, Reddit has seen little in the way of “love” from their owners, Conde Nast. Promises have been made to dramatically increase the size of the skeleton crew that keeps the site running, but is that really enough?
Two sites, Reddit and Digg, went into emergency mode today as Reddit had technical difficulties preventing users from submitting new content to the site.
reddit is in “emergency read-only mode” right now.
you won’t be able to log in. we’re sorry, and are working frantically to fix the problem.
Other social news sites such as Digg experienced a drop in the quality of content as one of the primary sources for content, Reddit, went into “read-only mode” making it challenging for many top Digg users to find content. The front page of Digg has not yet experienced the fallout as most of the top images today were from yesterday’s Reddit front page, but tomorrow is expected to be a low-Digg-count-day with Redditors unable to supply Digg users with content to submit.
Many Redditors were seen outside today. Some made their monthly trip to the grocery store, barber shops, and liquor stores early, while others simply experienced external weather conditions for the first time in ages.
The statement could be pushed over to just about any true Web 2.0 site where voting and popularity determine the success of a piece of content. Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace – overrun by spam. Mixx, Propeller, Yahoobuzz – spam havens.
For social news powerhouses Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon to be so changed by the presence of gobs and gobs of spam hits a little harder. They are the sites where I started my journey in Web 2.0. They are the shiny beacons of user-controlled, traffic-generating goodness that made mainstream media look to the people for their opinions and discoveries.
They are, for all intents and purposes, shells of what they should be, and spam is to blame. Perhaps more importantly, how they handled spam over the years has caused them to close their networks in one way or another through a series of witchhuntesque spam countermeasures.
With the recent happenings at Digg and the apparent rise of Mixx, it would seem that the balance of power in social media is shifting. The question is: why do Mixx front page stories still not drive any traffic?
With huge gains in all of the traffic reports, it would seem that Mixx would be at the very least close to Reddit’s ability to drive thousands of visitors to a website from the front page. As recently as last week, we tested a story that hit the front page of Mixx to see if it was finally there in the way that it sends traffic.
It’s not. [Read more...]
Many people love appetizers. They’re usually overpriced, under-portioned, and loaded with calories, but we love them anyway. Why? Because they’re quick, easy, and too the point.
Social media websites like Digg, Reddit, and Propeller offer the same product in the form of headlines. We get to nibble on the news, taking it in bits and pieces, served to us through headlines that are often sensationalized or pointed. While some people take the nibble and move on the main course by reading the full story, a good portion of us live on the appetizers. We read the headlines, possibly read the descriptions, occasionally scan the story (or even just the first few paragraphs), then it’s back to the social media site for the next bite of news via headlines.
Some never make it past the headlines, establishing a reaction or opinion based on the nibblet. This is good. This is also bad. [Read more...]
In many ways, the top level websites of social media can be compared to the fictional world of The Godfather. Sounds weird? Hear me out.
The Godfather showed us a world of beauty and corruption. Alliances were made and broken. Those who were good to the family were rewarded, while anyone who stepped in the way was hit.
Social media works in much the same way. It can be beautiful, offering the best of the web compiled into loosely organized areas where masses of people can flood a worthy website and enjoy its offerings. It can be corrupt, as spammers use the power of social media to drive traffic to unworthy websites. [Read more...]
There are many social media addicts in this world. You see it every day on Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon. Even Propeller, Mixx, and Newsvine have their share. What you may or may not know is whether or not you are one of them.
It’s often tough to recognize. Perhaps the joy of seeing your first story on the front page of the site was enough to set you off. Maybe it’s a desire to promote your point of view, a political candidate, even your own blog or business. For some, it’s something that passes the time (until too much time has passed). Read these signs below and seek immediate help if 3 or more apply to you. [Read more...]
