Reddit is launching a brand new website today to unearth news from its social aggregator. Called Upvoted, the site will surface pictures, videos and commentary from Reddit and present it as news — without the option to comment on a single thing.
Wired reports that the new website, which is set to launch later today, “looks and feels much like any other news site out there.” That means you should expect stories, pictures, videos, infographics, podcasts and the like, covering anything from politics and science to sports and, presumably, cats. The Verge suggests that the new website will dig a little deeper, too, “providing more context on their background through interviews with the Reddit users behind the stories” — something that will be powered by a dedicated editorial team.
The new website, upvoted.com, will draw its content exclusively from Reddit. Crucially though, and unlike Reddit, there won’t be any option to really interact. It’s said that there won’t be any ability through which to upvote stories, let alone comment on the content.
Update: The guys at Upvoted got in touch with small clarification about commenting, explaining that “the comments are not disabled on upvoted stories. You can click through to comment about the article via a thread auto-created in the /r/upvoted community. We’re keeping comments separate from the original thread so older, archived content on reddit will still be able to encourage lively discussion.”
In an email to Wired, the team behind the new site explained:
“The stuff our community creates on a daily basis blows our mind. Unfortunately, rather than telling that story, some news outlets take our users’ content and repackage it as their own. They don’t tell the backstory of our communities. We think our users’ stories need to be told, but with them at the center of it.”
The site has been in development for a year. Each of its stories will link back to a Reddit post as well as appearing on a new /r/upvoted subreddit where people will be able to comment. Initially the team hope to post 20 stories per day, with that number hoped to reach 40 in the future. The site won’t feature banner ads or pop-ups, but it will feature sponsored posts written by the same editorial team.
It’s fair to say that Reddit hasn’t had the easiest of times recently. With the launch of a new site like this, it’s clearly keen to put some of the troubles behind it, as well as making the most of the content it generates instead of having other media outlets cannibalise it. Whether it can achieve such a feat remains to be seen, but we’ll begin to find out later today.
Images by Reddit from Wired