Reddit announced redditmade, a new way to celebrate subreddit communities, and it's mostly going to function as a means for them to produce their own merchandise. It does, however, implement the crowdfunding concept on the side, allowing supporters to donate to a cause.
The crowdfunding functionality is good news given reddit has been known to bring together users to create attention for an important issue as well as raise money using crowdfunding platforms. With reddit's own crowdfunding platform, users need not go anywhere -- redditmade is enough for all their money-generating needs.
"Redditmade is a new place to turn the best designs and products by the community into reality. redditmade gives you the flexibility to create almost anything you want, easily raise money, and support causes you care about. It's also a great way for others to find awesome new products they'll love and support other redditors while knowing their information and money will always be secure," explained Kaela Gardner, reddit marketing manager.
Anyone can create a project for funding, but official subreddit campaigns will be distinguished as "featured campaigns," which will receive complimentary ads that will run on reddit for the specific subreddit they represent. The ads will be auto-generated, though, and will not show if an ad space has been already sold.
When an individual opens a campaign and wants to connect their merchandise to a certain subreddit, the moderator of that subreddit will be notified. Moderators may endorse the product as an official campaign if they feel the merchandise accurately represents their community.
The first few campaigns running on redditmade's beta usually involve Snoo, reddit's official mascot. There are Santa-themed Snoo stickers and bumper stickers, t-shirts with zombified Snoo, and a reddit lapel pin in the form of Snoo. Non-Snoo merchandise include an official t-shirt for the /r/pcmasterrace subreddit and a Lost Letters Office Seal t-shirt by /u/rebeccaademarest.
As reddit has also struggled in the past to become profitable, redditmade is being considered by some as a potential source of revenue for the site. Not that it needs any help right now after recently finishing a funding round and raking in $50 million in support.
Like other crowdfunding platforms, redditmade campaigns last for 30 days. When enough people pledge to buy, redditmade will start producing the merchandise. Depending on what the campaign creator wants, they may receive all of the proceeds of their campaign or donate the money to a person or cause.
