For the best part of a decade, the social news site Reddit was neglected.

Abusive users ran free in its darkest corners, its look became dated and “100pc” ugly, and it failed to adapt to modern technology, lacking both an app and a mobile website.

But despite being a bastion of 2009 aesthetics and style, Reddit was far from dilapidated.

It had continued to grow in popularity, and by 2015 had more than 100m monthly active users who were part of an online community renowned for shaping public opinion.

What kept Reddit alive for so long when other social networks such as Myspace and Friends Reunited spluttered and expired is, in its founders’ eyes, the combination of its tens of thousands of different “communities” and its anonymous usernames.

Alexis Ohanian, one of the site’s co-founders, says: “When we left in 2009, there was enough that was right with Reddit to keep it growing in spite of no changes whatsoever. It’s pretty miraculous. I can’t point to any other company, let alone a technology company, that has managed to not evolve for the best part of a decade and still grow.”

Ohanian and his fellow co-founder Steve Huffman, realising that its potential was being left to wither, returned to the helm last year after being away from the company for six years.