In 2010 Reddit was a spartan, text-heavy site owned by Condé Nast, far smaller than Digg at the start of the year. Digg's disastrous August redesign sent a wave of users to Reddit, and subreddits like IAmA, AskReddit and the rage-comics board f7u12 defined its culture.
Reddit's design barely changed for years: a tiny alien mascot, upvote and downvote arrows, blue links, and comment threads with collapsible replies. Reddit Gold launched in July 2010 as a way for users to support the site, and 2010 was the first year the site's user-run "Secret Santa" gift exchange went big.
- Domain in 2010
- reddit.com
- Launched
- 23 June 2005
- Founders
- Steve Huffman, Alexis Ohanian
- Owner in 2010
- Condé Nast (Advance Publications)
- Status today
- Still active
What people used it for
- Link and text submissions voted by users
- Subreddit communities
- Ask Me Anything interviews
- Rage comics and advice animals
Interface characteristics
- Bare white page with small Verdana text
- Orange upvote and blue downvote arrows
- Alien mascot Snoo in the header
- Collapsible comment threads
Notable features
- Reddit Gold (July 2010)
- Self posts and IAmA threads
- Subreddit creation by any user
What happened later
Reddit was spun out of Condé Nast in 2011, grew into one of the world's biggest sites, redesigned in 2018, and went public in 2024.
Archived on the Wayback Machine
Archived pages open on web.archive.org (Internet Archive). They are historical captures, not part of this exhibit.
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