In the arena of crowd voting sites there is Digg and then there is everyone else. Every once in a while a challenger will come up that looks promising, but it fades away.
For a while that was Netscape (now called Propeller), then it was Mixx, but now one of the original (and best) challengers is coming back with a vengence. Reddit.
Today the service is announcing that it is going open-source. This means that any developer will have access to the sites’ code and will be able to help improve upon it.
The code for the site can be found here: http://code.reddit.com.
In theory, this could also pave the way for other sites to build their own voting systems based on Reddit.
While Reddit itself hasn’t been able to catch Digg (statistics from Compete show Reddit growing at a faster pace than Digg, but the site is still roughly only 1/10th the size), crowd-sourcing is exactly in line with its ideals. One thing that separates Reddit from its competitors is that it has a large programmer crowd, site co-founder Steve Huffman told us. These individuals often have ideas for how to improve the site and now will be able to actively participate in doing so.
Huffman also noted that since Reddit was acquired by Conde Nast (the parent of Wired) in 2006, the site has grown to 4.4 million monthly uniques and 120 million monthly pages views. He also notes that 23 percent of the sites’ users have signed up since it rolled out its user-created Reddits in January. (Disclosure: I started one of the more popular ones of the those, the l33t Reddit, but I gain absolutely no financial or any other incentive from it.)
When asked specifically about Digg, Huffman would only say that Reddit has stayed true to its ideals — which indicates his feeling that Digg hasn’t. He noted that Reddit will only censor content in the most extreme circumstances, whereas Digg has gotten into trouble with its user base for doing that in the past.
Reddit also allows users to see who is voting a particular story down as well as who is voting it up. This lies in stark contrast to Digg, which will show you who dugg a story, but will not show who buried it. This has led to many accusations that the site is fixed or that there is a “bury brigade” out there who work to carry out vendettas against certain sites.
Huffman noted that this idea to open source Reddit has been in the making for several years. It felt like now was the right time because several other projects Reddit is working on will rely on this openness.
Reddit unveiled a major redesign to the site last month and also announced plans for a TV show in partnership with PBS.
It will be interesting to see if Digg responds to this move by Reddit. It’s probably unlikely. It simply doesn’t need to at this point.
Tags: co:Digg, co:Reddit
7:31 am
Reddit Goes Open Source: What Does That Really Mean? | TechConsumer said:
[...] Reddit has a fairly large programmer crowd among its 4.5 million monthly visitors. So these programmers can take ideas for the site and [...]
7:52 am
Digg, Slashdot, Reddit, Del.icio.us, Menéame, Barrapunto, Fresqui… | Incognitosis said:
[...] ¿Cuál es el mejor agregador social de noticias? La pregunta es más complicada de contestar de lo que parece, y aunque parezca que la respuesta sea sencilla tomando solo cifras netas (Digg en el mercado anglosajón, Menéame en el hispano), lo que yo trato de evaluar es la calidad real del servicio. Ya he hecho algún que otro post (”Wisdom of Crowds: ¿existe la sabiduría popular?“, parte I y parte II) con salsilla sobre el tema, pero la pregunta que rondaba mi mente hace semanas ahora ha vuelto con fuerza al leer la noticia de hoy: Digg this: Reddit goes open source [...]
8:04 am
Reddit Goes Open Source, Releases Code To Public | Laughing Squid said:
[...] Siegler has a great write-up on Reddit’s announcement over on Venture [...]
8:31 am
Widgets, Technorati Ads, Reddit, Bloggkoll vs fav.or.it och podradiopriset « Fyra nyanser av brunt said:
[...] Digg-klonen Reddit blev idag open-source. Rätt intressant steg att ta för en sajt som i övrigt är helt inplastad i sig själv och sina användare. [...]
8:36 am
Reddit Has Opened Their Source Code said:
[...] company’s monthly uniques has grown by 4.4 million and page views have grown by 120 million according to co-founder Steve Huffman. Reddit will be launching a new design and a partnership with PBS [...]
8:42 am
ScribeMedia.Org | Reddit Goes Open Source said:
[...] Digg when it comes to overall users in the the social bookmarking space, but they’ve now gone open source and released their code to the wild. We give it our double thumbs up. Michael Cervieri is [...]
8:49 am
Reddit Opens Up the Source : The Last Podcast said:
[...] move towards openness, as MG Siegler also writes, has to be at least partly inspired by the accusations against Digg for having secret and shady [...]
11:02 am
Reddit se hace Open Source - Foros de CHW said:
[...] puede ser descargado aqu
1:39 am
netscape com said:
[...] it was Mixx, but now one of the original and best challengers is coming back with a vengence. …http://venturebeat.com/2008/06/18/digg-this-reddit-goes-open-source/Is Vic Franqui From Bloggerunleashed.com A Scammer?Copyright ? 2008 Steve McGrath. Visit the [...]
11:39 am
The Recommendation Engine may well make Digg useful again » VentureBeat said:
[...] (formerly Netscape) continue to grow. Meanwhile, arguably Digg’s biggest competitor, Reddit, recently open-sourced its code. This will not only allow developers to use all of their code as they see fit, it will also allow [...]
12:00 pm
The new Propeller: Less Digg, more Yahoo Buzz » VentureBeat said:
[...] Digg recently rolled out its new Recommendation Engine to encourage more diverse content. Another competitor, Reddit, recently open-sourced its site. [...]
2:46 pm
Digg to offer sub-Diggs for niche audiences — sounds like a good match with Facebook Connect » VentureBeat said:
[...] or if users will be able to use Digg’s software to create completely separate sites — Reddit’s service, for example has open-sourced its software code to enable the latter Also, this is especially interesting [...]
11:41 am
The OPLIN 4cast » Blog Archive » OPLIN 4Cast #107: Reddit, Election, Top 10 Social Sites, LinkedIn said:
[...] Digg this: Reddit goes open source (VentrureBeat) [...]
8:24 am
Reddit Goes Open Source : Michael Michael said:
[...] Digg when it comes to overall users in the the social bookmarking space, but they’ve now gone open source and released their code to the wild. We give it our double thumbs [...]
8:22 am
Reddit Goes Open Source: What Does That Really Mean? | Bob Caswell said:
[...] Reddit has a fairly large programmer crowd among its 4.5 million monthly visitors. So these programmers can take ideas for the site and [...]
11:39 am
Custom Reddits get even more customizable » VentureBeat said:
[...] to numbers from web analytics company Compete. Ultimately, its bigger move may have been the opening of its source code, which it did back in June. Though it’s not yet clear how much that is being used by [...]