It is a social network that we don't talk about much, and that has very little weight in France. However, it is undeniably influential and is often the source of content that we then see repeated over and over again. Reddit is a community and social site that has a fascinating dimension since it offers information and content on absolutely everything. At first sight, its interface and its own codes can keep the neophyte away. It would be depriving oneself of a wealth of often relevant information, a very particular eye on current events... and entertainment as well as a shower of memes that never stop! To shed some light on what Reddit is, here is a short definition of the network as well as an explanation of how it works, and some subreddits that we think are important to follow. Feel free to share your favorite subreddits in comments!

Reddit: history and definition of the platform

Creation

Reddit was founded in 2005 by two University of Virginia roommates, Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian. In October 2006, the site was bought by Condé Nast, who published Ars Technica, Vogue, Wired, The New Yorker and Vanity Fair.

User Generated Content and subreddits

The principle of Reddit (read it) is simple and has not changed since the platform was created. The proposed content is UGC (user generated content) and each user post can be upvooted or downovated. In other words, an upvote will raise a publication, a downvote will lower it and lose it in the limbo of the site. The contents are organized into subreddits, themselves organized into categories. There are general subreddits with many subscribers (Pics, History, Ama, Video Games...) and subreddits as bizarre as original (or even outright twisted). Some examples of subreddits that show the unlimited possibilities offered by the site: /r/ggggg (dedicated to the letter G), /r/cableporn (dedicated to tidy cables, cables being a real passion among redditors), /r/enlightenedbirdmen (a subreddit who imagines a war between birds and humans).

Frontpage

The main feature of Reddit is its "frontpage" which includes all the subreddits to which you are subscribed. If you do not have an account and are not logged in, it will include information from the main subreddits, which gives an excellent overview of what will make noise on the web and in the news. Overall Reddit will offer a digest of LOL images, memes, breaking news, scientific news, web news, video games and cinema culture, not to mention GIFs and images. Everything that appears on the front page has been voted up by the redditors. Any logged-in user can vote for content and upload it.

You can buy frontpage service and buy Reddit upvotes from some services such as drreddit

Reddit is a community with the overflows inherent in this form of organization. Volunteer moderators ensure that the rules of each subreddit are respected. However, there are currently major tensions between users and Reddit executives. Reddit seems to be becoming more and more adult and is committed to fighting defamatory and racist content. To learn more about the latest "war" between the community and Reddit, you can read this excellent article from Pixels.

Usage figures

In terms of usage, Reddit has 36 million user accounts, 195 million unique visitors last month from 215 countries. The most impressive being the number of page views: 8,064,678,112 in July. In 10 years there have been 16,063,942,290 upvotes and 190,227,552 posts. Finally, it should be noted that the platform is very desktop-oriented and that there is no official app. Some third-party apps such as Alien Blue still offer a rather pleasant mobile experience.