Reddit launches Upvoted.com featuring curated stories from Reddit
Things have been quite difficult for Reddit on many levels this year. There were several user revolts, closed forums, new policies, employees that had to go and more, and all of this seems to come down to turning the millions that visit Reddit every day into profit.
Reddit has implemented several monetization schemes on the site including Reddit Gold and subreddit advertising.
Enter Upvoted, a new site launched by Reddit today that features curated stories from Reddit. One idea behind the product is to take popular posts on Reddit and turns them into stories by investigating the story and adding value to it.
What sets Upvoted apart from Reddit is that there is no voting, no commenting and little community involvement apart from letting users share articles and follow links back to the Reddit community page the post was made on and to the page of the original poster on Reddit.
The frontpage of Upvoted lists stories that seem to come from all corners of Reddit but the main focus seems to be popular Reddit topics such as gaming, funny or news.
The site itself is colorful and you will find drawn pictures for nearly all articles made for it which, to be honest, makes it look like any of those other entertainment sites out there that try to lure you in with fancy graphics and little text.
If you can look beyond that you will certainly find interesting content on Upvoted but this it is all over the place, may have hard time finding stories of interest depending on your interests. You may use the menu at the top to filter by topic to limit your exposure to other stories on Upvoted.
There is also sponsored content on the site which is clearly labeled as such.
Closing Words
I can see Upvoted.com doing really well. The site will attract Reddit users who are interested in these topics as they may find out more about them but even more than that, it may attract users who don't know Reddit or don't use it for one reason or the other.
Now You: Have you been to Upvoted.com yet? What's your first impression of the site?
Reddit in general is just a failing site. The very basis of its operation is flawed at facilitating any meaningful conversation without external influence. It combines all of the worst of social media into one big pit. It was a neat idea for a while, but quickly showed the cracks in its foundation.
Like the point-whoring, the vote brigading, the sock-puppets, the thread-bots, and the pocket moderators. What’s funny is that everything I just listed are things that Reddit themselves deny existing despite the fact that they’re ruining the site.
This doesn’t even count the problems with the post content. The #1 reason comments have become worthless is because the point system has made it where no one wants to post anything of value. Instead, they want to post little snippets, lame jokes, and tidbits that no one can disagree with so they get the most upvotes. By doing that, they make posts which have no content.
Before Reddit, a post like “Well I guess that makes him an !” would have been considered another form of spamming and the poster would have been rightfully punished for it. Now it’s lauded as some of the finest the internet has to offer simply because every Social Media site adopting Reddit’s policies have made people terrified to discuss anything of worth lest the little number which rates them as a person goes down. It’s bananas the site hasn’t collapsed sooner.
Well, I would certainly agree with you, in that that some portions of Reddit have huge problems and issues, particularly with some shockingly abhorrent subreddits I’ve heard about, in which the comments are entirely dominated by people who appear to very likely be suffering from actual clinical psychotic mental conditions.
(I’m not even exaggerating when I say that: I mean quite literally, many of those people on certain subreddits really and truly do seem disturbed and psychotic, sadly.)
I avoid those subreddits like the plague.
The small number of such subreddits that I encountered by accident were indeed truly troubling, and left me with some post-traumatic-stress that took days to recover from from and feel normal inside again! But thank God I have never visited most of those disturbing subreddits, so my exposure to them is very small.
HOWEVER, as for the vast majority of subreddits that I visit several times per week seem (usually related to science, technology, or art, or the occasional sports subreddit), they really seem to be vibrant and thriving social-media-communities, which I personally find EXTREMELY useful and insightful, and they contain very well written comments by many people with great knowledge in the subject at hand, that have taught me a lot, and helped me solve complex technological issues.
Also in terms of the downvoting issue you mentioned…
I’ve actually found that I often receive upvotes even when expressing an opinion that the majority of them might disagreed with (and sometimes those upvotes soar into the hundreds or thousands) — again, even when the majority may disagree with me.
Essentially… if I type my comment when I’m in a rational, articulate, friendly, upbeat frame of mind, I’ll often get big upvotes (again, even if they disagree with me)… but if I’m in a tired, negative, complaining type of mood that day, or if my comment is worded in a “preachy” sounding fashion, then I’ll certainly be faced with a barrage of downvotes!
Anyways… I guess like the overall Internet in general, Reddit itself is a mirror of humanity in general. As such I try to avoid the portions of the mirror that reflect horrors!
No plans to visit. Reddit should ditch the downvote and fix its ridiculous sockpuppet problems with upvotes before trying to monetize anything.
Amen, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg regarding reddit’s problems. The downvote button is a plague (anywhere it’s employed, IMO), but moreover reddit has a major troll problem and is full of racists, mysoginists, homophobes and just plain a-holes.