Reddit Gets into Crowdfunding with Redditmade | Hacker News Reader

Reddit Gets into Crowdfunding with Redditmade

techcrunch.com

110 pointssk24iam28 comments

I just like imagining the discussion that happened at the conception of this idea. It probably starts something like this: "Guys, we need a way to monetize the reddit."

I know you're just joking, but I think it actually makes a lot of sense. Reddit has given birth to a lot of successful businesses, websites, projects, and careers. I bet internally the question was more along the lines of, "how do we monetize without taking away from the community, and perhaps, even further enhancing it?" This is one solution that helps them monetize by further supporting the community.

If they've got the traffic, and they can provide the same or better experience as Kickstarter or Indiegogo, why not? Better it fund the community than a third-party site.

Considering the increased scrutiny behind authenticity of crowdfunding (e.g. Anonbox), and given the anonymity of the campaign owner, this seems like an accident waiting to happen.

Looks more like a Teespring-type thing than a Kickstarter-type thing, which should mitigate this quite a bit

"the best designs and products by the community"

That's pretty non-t-shirt-y language. They'll have to tighten that.

I meant that Reddit handles the manufacturing, so there's less risk than with Kickstarter, where the creator also does manufacturing. It's like more like Teespring or Quirky than like Kickstarter or IndieGoGo

From https://redditmade.com/create :

> If enough people pledge to buy your product by then, we’ll start making it!

From https://redditmade.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/202364265-W... :

> Most importantly, you'll also need to be willing to work with us. We'll connect you with sourcing partners, work with you to finalize designs, and help you step through all the other creative, legal, logistical, promotional, and financial hoops to make your campaign happen, but we can only help you as much as you'll let us.

That sounds nuts. So what will be next? Apple is gonna sell hamburgers?

It sounds less nuts than imagining the guy with a cool t-shirt design to know anything about running a mail-order distribution business (i.e. Kickstarter).

Okay, what about copyrights? I have already seen logos used on TV shows being put on a shirt where the profits all go to the owner of the campaign. Somehow I doubt the network that own the show or the shows creators themselves would not have a problem with some fan starting campaigns like this for their own personal gain.

Agree completely. This sounds like an amazing idea but trust is the #1 problem with crowdfunding. If Kickstarter has a massive problem with trust, how is this going to work with a site that doesn't require emails to sign up and that vehemently defends the right to anonymity of highly suspect users. And I say all this as someone who loves Reddit and is super active on the site.

Hopefully, we'll see some intense scrutiny a la /r/AMA verifications. :-)

Bear in mind that most of the Anonabox scrutiny came from Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/2j9caq/anonabox_to...

Interesting idea, but it's going to be a hell of a sight when the first one goes catastrophically wrong. Think back to the Boston bomber hunt - in a repeat of that incident, not only does Reddit accuse the wrong person of being guilty, they also crowdfund an attempt to track him down with private detectives or something.

Reddit has already swallowed gallons upon gallons of bad press. Half the time Reddit hits the mainstream news it's about paedophilia or harassment or misogyny. Not saying that Reddit is full of incredibly vile people, but that's the "if it bleeds it leads" news about Reddit that hits the larger media world. At this point anybody who uses Reddit is either immune to scandal or already gone.

> At this point anybody who uses Reddit is either immune to scandal or already gone.

At this point anybody who uses Reddit is hearing the scandal via Reddit.

We've kind of learned from that incident now. It's still very fresh in people's minds, and mentioned quite often.

The article calls it a "cult website". I can't stand the place personally. They want to be mainstream so bad , they call themselves the front page of the internet.

> The move comes at an interesting time for the cult website.

An obscure cult, consisting of roughly 175 million members.

Too much data! Too much data!

"Cult" does not necessarily have the same meaning as "niche" or "obscure."

Here they're using it to describe the fanaticism rather than the small audience. You could legitimately call star trek a "cult show" IMO.

Do you think it would be fair to refer to football (either one) as a sport with a cult following?

Good point. Probably not. It needs some sort of outsider status. Which star trek doesn't really have any more but that's debatable.

But that's my whole point -- reddit may once have been comprised of outsiders, but those days are long gone.

It's bigger than Twitter was in 2012. Could you imagine a journalist in 2012 calling Twitter a cult website?

I didn't know it had grown that large. How much bigger has twitter gotten in the last two years?

I agree that in the context of journalism it's a loaded term that's probably not fair.

The outsider status is about more than the user count though. They maintain that status with all the weird stuff they get up to.

> How much bigger has twitter gotten in the last two years?

They're up to 284M: https://about.twitter.com/company

I think users of reddit still approach it like it is composed of outsiders (even though it isn't). For example plenty of people I know use the site but people don't talk about it like they would twitter. Using twitter is a sort of normal social network. Reddit is treated far more analogously to a tv show that some people like and others don't.

Of course I can't really back this up with anything as it is just a feeling.

I don't think "cult" means "small group" in this context, but "strongly followed".

At least, that is how I always interpreted stuff like "apocalypse now is a cult movie".

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