Friday, September 21, 2012

The Front Page of the Internet

Reddit. 

The sole reason you failed your Calculus class. The easy to use interface makes the website so addicting, causing hours and hours of procrastination. 



Users get a taste of the easy interface as soon as they enter the world of Reddit. Creating a new account is as easy as 1, 2, 3. They comment, "is it really that easy? only one way to find out..." Yes. It really is that easy. 

Once an account has been created, users can subscribe to different subreddits of their choosing. There's a subreddit for anything and everything. 

Reddit will even help you find the subreddits right for you.

All of the posts from the subreddits you subscribe to will show up on your front page. From here, you can up-vote the posts you like and down-vote the posts you don't like. The links with the most up-votes will be higher up on the front page. 
Each user can also post links to any subreddit. Users submit everything from their own creative pieces to links to articles they found interesting. 

As a BlueGlass blogger says, here are 19 reasons why Reddit could be the world's most influential website
  1. Being on Reddit is like sitting in a group discussion of thousands of moderately intelligent people, interested in the topic at hand.
  2. Reddit is a magnifying glass of the Internet.
  3. Reddit allows for intense and evolving communities of special interests. 
  4. Reddit is highly collaborative and easily spawns or expands collaborative efforts.
  5. Reddit helps determine the news cycle.
  6. Reddit is the ultimate investigator.
  7. Reddit is a meme maker and trend setter.
  8. Reddit is a live saver (literally).
  9. Reddit is an idea engine, giving birth to new ideas constantly.
  10. Reddit includes experts from nearly all fields, vocations, talents, and specialties. 
  11. Many of whom share their inside knowledge freely.
  12. Reddit allows for in-depth discussion over topics that otherwise would never be talked about in a group way.
  13. Reddit provides an unparalleled opportunity for research into sociology, groupthink, hivemind, memology, and self-selected groups.
  14. Reddit is a virtual confessional. It prompts people to tell their secrets.
  15. Reddit is like always having the wittiest, funniest people in the room. 
  16. Reddit can celebrate individual victory or achievement in a BIG way.
  17. Reddit can be a source of power and revolution for the people.
  18. Reddit encourages interaction in a completely unique way.
  19. Reddit is perhaps the best existing example of an entirely internet based culture. 

Click here to read more.

As you can see, Reddit is a user-run website that is chock full of all kinds of content. The easy to use interface allows users to navigate through the site with ease and get to what they're looking for in a heartbeat. 
The internet has a tremendous amount of content. Reddit users organize this into their respective subreddits and promote thought provoking discussions involving millions of people from around the world. 

While Reddit is full of thousands of different subreddits varying from r/politics to r/funny, a website known as 9GAG offers nothing but "funny" content. 9GAG fails at attempting to be like Reddit. 

9GAG vs. Reddit 
The winner is clearly obvious after spending just 5 minutes on each site. 
You be the judge.