1 — Report subreddits

Users can currently report stories and comments with the “report” feature:

With this feature, comments and stories scale with site growth. Every user helps to report foul content.

There should be a similar monitoring tool for subreddits. A “report” button can be added to the top navigation menu:

reporting /r/WOAHPOON (not that you’d want too)

If enough users report a subreddit, then it should be quarantined by the site.

What is a quarantine? The subreddit will not be indexed in search or visible through browsing the site. You can only see it with direct link and go past the warning sign, or if you are subscribed.

This means taking down a subreddit is not anymore in the hands of the few & privileged but shared amongst the users. Even if a small group of users decides to create a hundred subreddits to trash the site, the majority of users can still work against it.

Of course, a “report” feature should not be abused. First, this algorithm should be inspired by how stories get on the frontpage, i.e. taking into account the velocity of user reports. Also, we know too well that user groups self-organizing through external chats or with influential users can currently storm or subvert a subreddit. As such, the quarantine algorithm needs to to take into account as well legit activity such as karma, subreddit age, number of upvotes. Those are all defenses against malicious raids. This means if a subreddit has had valuable stories and comments in the past, then it will be very hard to report.

This would be a good starting point:

To extend this feature, I see two possible directions:

The subreddit report feature could be extended into a downvote/upvote system. The more upvotes it gets, the more likely its content would surface on /r/all or picked up by random Machine learning can group similar subreddits and protect them against opposite subreddits. For example, if enough users from /r/UltraOrthodox report or downvote /r/GayAndFabulous, then users from those subreddits should not able to interact with each other. This means ecosystems with different values and beliefs can thrive and co-exist within reddit.

2 — Community advertisements

In recent weeks, it is clear the reddit board and its management is pushing to get major advertisers on board.

There are staff, servers, and overhead costs. Advertisers are valuable and can certainly help pay those.

But it should not be at the expense of the community! Don’t be naive, big advertisers want a sanitized, politically correct space.

The real gem of sites like reddit or voat.co is its community of users. Most are employed, smart and have valuable disposable income, much more than what all the big companies and agencies would want to spend on the site.

To balance with corporate ads, I propose self-serve “community ads”, where users can promote a story with a few clicks.

Promoting a story should be as easy, instead of being on a separate site. Click a promote button, choose a budget and subreddit, pay, and done!

Take for example a web developer who’s been working on evenings and weekends on a web platform. He should be able to publicize his work on reddit, and get his first users.

Another user could be a hobbyist filmmaker. He should be able to share his film on /r/movies and get attention. Here is a #2 position on the frontpage:

Launch of an indie film on /r/movies

This means reddit can become a showcasing tool for creatives and entrepreneurs, alongside Kickstarter, Patreon, ProductHunt, Behance etc. They can find support and views for their new work, without necessarily being a power user or multi-million dollar budgets.

Of course, the relevancy of the content should balance the user advertisement. Votes can make it stick on the frontpage, or make it disappear real fast. As an example, a few dollars could be equivalent to the first 10 votes, but much more money should be necessary to keep the item on the front page if it receives downvotes.

I also note that currently, reddit offers free ads for communities and subreddits for free with the trending feature. However, if users contribute directly to the bottom line of the company, then reddit can give proper attention to users. It will also make the site sustainable for years to come.

Of course, this system is different from the cpm (cost per million) system used currently. cpm is an obsolete metric and more relevant to mass media such as Facebook or Buzzfeed.

This would model community ads:

If this feature is accepted by users, it can be extended to an actions-based model like Google Adwords. If more and more users begin to advertise, then the price should increase significantly. The goal would be to have the least possible number of self-served community ads on a frontpage. After all, users come for genuine content, not for ads.

3 — Equity Crowdfunding

reddit could offer shares to its core users in an equity crowdfunding campaign.

This will provide valuable earnings and liquidity to Condé Nast and other shareholders.

More importantly, it will ensure that management will not sacrifice the world’s biggest community site. Users could also better understand management issues by accessing documents and filings reserved for shareholders.

Imagine if 10% or less of the shares could be offered to current users. A user representative could be a board member, and be invited to vote on major decisions. Users who have contributed to the equity crowdfunding campaigns could be showcased with a special icon:

Here a diamond, but other symbols are possible!

To extend this idea, if reddit accepts the idea of community representatives, why not implement an upvote/downvote system for the next features and reddit plans? Users who have been elected or users above a certain karma can upvote, discuss and surface concerns.