Reddit has announced a brand new feature that they are currently testing out in closed beta - the ability for users to make their own Reddits. Reddit has long had the "other reddits" featuring ones specializing in programming, science, politics, etc, but by allowing users to create their own they are essentially turning Reddit into a platform - nice move.This appears to fulfill exactly what Dave Winer was asking for a few months ago when he proposed that someone create a new "Elite Digg" where only selected members can contribute stories. This could be created under Reddit's new "restricted" Reddit creation (where anyone can view the Reddit, but only select users can submit stories). The other two types of user-created Reddits will be "public" - which anyone can view and submit, and "private" where only invited users can both view and submit.
The closed beta testing of this new service will last only a week or so at which point it seems Reddit will open it up to a larger audience, if not the public. As long as these user-created Reddits are easy to set up and use, this has the potential of being huge. Sports fans can now create their own individual team Reddits, hobbyists can create their own, and yes, maybe there will even be an elitist tech one created.
Sure there are other Digg-clone makers out there, but the prospect of having a successful site like Reddit dish out its known look and feel should add an element of legitimacy to these newly created spin-offs.
Will Digg respond?
3 comments:
Saw the announcement today and was initially excited before I considered how badly Reddit has implemented the sub-reddit system. Then again, it could just be the users not adopting it appropriately. Either way, there needs to be some sort of usability shift among the reddit community/developers before these sorts of features become truly useful.
I love Reddit though, so I do hope that these new features are successful despite my worries :)
@devindra - I agree that how they implement it will depend on if it can take off or not. I have a feeling a few user-created ones might hit it big. I know that most Digg/Reddit/etc clones fail, but an officially branded clone could be interesting.
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