Reddit has kicked off a brand new news website called Upvoted. Despite its name and origin, however, it's very un-Reddit-like: no upvotes or downvotes and even comments are allowed.
The design of the website is intentional. As an experiment, Reddit is going for something new, and it wants to be as different as possible from its original site. It's more of an editorial site rather than a community-based social site.
Vicky Chang, former Myspace editorial director, has taken charge of Upvoted and plans to post about 10 to 20 stories daily at first, with the hope of increasing it to approximately 40. She has an editorial team with about 10 individuals who will write original content.
Aside from finding out how Reddit can grow further, Upvoted aims to compete with other news sites that use Reddit as their source without appropriate citation or attribution. Chang intends to put a stop to those news sites that take advantage of Reddit's community.
The stories on Upvoted will be based on posts on Reddit. The editorial team will find a post, confirm its details and interview its original poster. The team will then write an article that includes the story's original Reddit thread and poster. In a way, it's a repackaged Reddit post.
"Everything will have a direct tie back to Reddit. I want to find the tiny thread that connects it back to Reddit," Chang stated.
Chang also said nothing is "off the table" when she was asked about including controversial stories surrounding Reddit on Upvoted. This means that the voice of Reddit's community will vividly reflect on the editorial site. Stories will also be in a subreddit called /r/upvoted where Redditors can upvote, downvote and comment.
Upvoted has been under construction for almost a year now, and it is similar to other news sites, covering a wide range of article categories, such as lifestyle, sports and animals. Aside from stories, it will also have other media, from infographics to podcasts and videos.
"It could be a piece on Tesla, a piece on how Wi-Fi works. No matter what, it'll be good content—and it'll just happen to be sponsored," Chang said.
