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What is Reddit?

Social Media has become a difficult market to break into, and it is now quite possibly as busy as the
M25. There have been numerous attempts to disrupt the dominance of Facebook, for example by everyone’s favourite tax avoiders Google and the former Conservative MP Louise Mensch. But they haven’t been entirely successful. The latter, Menshn, folded after just eight months, whilst less than half are regularly active on the network run by the globe’s most popular search engine. In addition, other social networks which previously held a significant following, the most prominent of these being MySpace, have also faced a decline in users and engagement.

One social network which is developing a following however, particularly in the United States, is Reddit. This is a website which allows users to post links to other websites, an article on the BBC for instance, publish their own content, for example a blog post, and vote on the topics which are the most important. At the time of writing, major subjects included the best job in the world, the refusal of the Hong Kong authorities to detain Edward Snowdon and the myth of accurate wine tasting. Personally, I like to think that I know when a glass of Blue Nun or Pinot Grigio is on the table.

Other features that Reddit provide include the ability, just like other social networks, to comment about stories that have been posted, plus the opportunity to create, join and customise the communities you want to be associated with, whether they be about football and the endless transfer rumours at this time of year, politics across the pond or baseball cards. This social network also distinguishes itself from others by being open source, meaning that members are actively encouraged to develop code, fix bugs and make changes for the better, in a similar vain to Mozilla and Wikipedia. Anything computer science related is beyond me though.

If you have a phobia of manufactured pop stars, then the potential to subscribe and/ or remove the topics of your choice, also known as subreddits, will come as a welcome relief, especially if you’re a frequent user of Twitter, like myself. However, it seems as if the UK hasn’t yet woken up to the potential of this service. Having explored further though, I will be one that will definitely make use of Reddit for the foreseeable future.

Now, where’s that button to remove the supposedly amusing cat photos from my account…

Content Assistant – Alex Blakey – @ajrblakey

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