Watch out, Kickstarter, community news sharing site Reddit is getting into the crowdfunding sector.
Today Reddit announced its new crowdfunding platform Redditmade, allowing Reddit’s huge user base to raise money for projects created within the site’s subreddit communities.
Just in case you’re not completely familiar with Reddit, it’s essentially a dauntingly huge internet community for literally everything from metaphysical or religious discussions to whatever the heck this is. The amount of creativity and brilliant ideas that are casually thrown around in this forum is absolutely unbelievable. So, tapping into this ginormous, diverse internet community was quite possibly the best decision Reddit could’ve made. It also means that we’re about to see a metric crapton more of random, inside-joke-esque, or hilarious t-shirts and merchandise out there. Like this. Or this.
“One of the biggest reasons we created Redditmade was to allow subreddits an easy way to create official subreddit merch for their communities,” wrote Reddit marketing manager Kaela Gardner in the announcement post. “Whatever you want to make, we’ll connect you to our network of quality sourcing partners for a variety of products and walk you through every step of the process so your community can celebrate your connection and show off your pride without all the work.”
Reddit, fostering arguably the most diverse internet community out there, has broken into the crowdfunding scene. Get ready for an outpour of internet memes and odd creations flooding through Redditmade, their new portal. A true Redditors’ dream.
Reddit’s community is already one of the strongest, most loyal communities on the internet, but giving it this kind of permanence and tangibility might just make it even stronger than ever. Personally, I think this is one of those ideas that you scratch your head and think, “Why wasn’t this done before?”
I see this development as mutually beneficial for both its users and Reddit itself, allowing it to monetize its immense traffic and allowing its users a way to bring their online community to life. Good move, Reddit! Now to go see if there’s anything on Redditmade that I could actually wear in public…
by Rafah Ali
Quotes and photos sourced from Tom Cheredar, via VentureBeat
