[fuckpig]

Reddit's real product has always been its hipness. You introduce something on Reddit, and 1000 bots-or-people "upvote" it, and suddenly the press picks up on the story.

How does this translate into dollars and cents? Reddit could use its platform to popularize new hip counterculture products. When advertisers purchase ad space, the real ads would be in the links and comments.

All it takes is about a dozen people to upvote something within the first 8-10 minutes after it is posted and it stands a good chance of "going viral." That's harder to sell than ads, but perhaps more valuable.

[Havoc]

>Reddit's real product has always been its hipness.

I disagree. Their strength (in my view) is that its a build your own community DIY. If you feel strongly about turnips then start a turnip subreddit. vb forum etc doesn't have that flexibility.

EDIT: FML...someone claimed /r/turnips already.

[onebaddude]

>I disagree.

I think it's both. Your turnip site instantly becomes the hippest turnip site due to it's location on Reddit.

[Havoc]

Fair point - building a community is easier if you've got a bunch of community's that are effectively neighbors.

The other thing I just realized is that the smaller subreddits benefit from elitism - as ugly as that sounds. i.e. /r/pics is driven by raw masses, while /r/turnips would likely be driven by a small group of die-hards.

[fuckpig]

I'll just leave this here:

http://www.reddit.com/r/FRUITUNION