How exactly did Reddit become a top website and what does Lemmy need to do to eventually get there?

decadentrebel@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 275 points –

Did Reddit get massive because of Digg users making a beeline towards them or were they already big before that?

185

You are viewing a single comment

Reddit experienced migrations earlier from disgruntled users at slashdot and was already somewhat known and in use among the tech crowd before the Digg influx. It already had a sizable user base before which is why it was able to absorb so many users. Service issues and downtime were pretty regular issues at the beginning though just as they are now on Lemmy.

Service issues and downtime were pretty regular issues at the beginning though just as they are now on Lemmy.

Yep, unscheduled service interruptions and planned downtime were a fact of life on reddit for years. I can still remember when the reddit admins always announced downtime before swapping out the hamster powering their server.

Actually, I'd say when reddit stopped announcing downtime that's when things started to noticeably change. Admins stopped even trying to pretend to be redditors themselves and their comms became a lot less casual and authentic.

What year do you place as the beginning?

The large jump off point for Reddit was 2006, and I would say it was truly mainstream by about 2012.