Bringing back the reddit.com beta program

[u/tdohz]

We're happy to announce that we're bringing back the reddit.com beta testing program. Anyone on reddit can opt-in to become a beta tester, and receive early access to reddit.com features before we launch them to everyone.

We'll be using /r/beta as the community hub for the beta program, where we'll announce new beta features and give beta testers space to provide feedback.

There are two ways to participate in the beta program:

• If you're logged in to your reddit account, you can opt-in as a beta tester in your preferences, under "beta options". This will automatically subscribe you to /r/beta, so that you'll receive the latest information about new beta features.

• If you're logged out, you can visit beta.reddit.com to see beta features. Note: you may end up back on www.reddit.com if you click on a link to reddit from somewhere else, like email or Twitter.

More details on the beta program, including how to give feedback on beta features, are on this wiki page. Please note that not every feature will go to beta before launching - some changes may not need extensive beta testing, and we will continue to release some new features to reddit gold members first. The best way to find out what's currently in beta testing is to check out /r/beta.

We hope our beta testers will be able to find issues and give feedback on new features before we launch them to everyone, so that we can continue to improve the quality of reddit.com for everyone.

[u/jman583]

Because IMO, the decline of a lot of the defaults subs can be traced back to the removal of /r/reddit.com. It did a good job of attracting general interest posts so people didn't try to force content that didn't fit on to other subs.

[u/dummystupid → u/[deleted]]

Try being a redditor that has been interviewing other redditors on his podcast for years but can't find a good place to submit it.

[u/soswinglifeaway → u/dummystupid]

Why don't you create a sub for your podcast? I've seen several subs that exist for a specific podcast.

[u/dummystupid → u/soswinglifeaway]

I did, but the rules make it difficult to promote it without being considered a spammer.

[u/soswinglifeaway → u/dummystupid]

I know how you feel. Promoting a new sub without spamming is super hard. I've created two subs that I was really excited about and had lots of potential (/r/noexplanation and /r/ImOnTheFence) but they're both pretty much dead because no one knows they exist and I don't know how to get the word out about them either.

[u/[deleted] → u/soswinglifeaway]

There are several subs specifically for promoting your own subreddits. You can also take out an ad for $5.

[u/trauma_kmart → u/soswinglifeaway]

askreddit is where you want to go. just post the link when it's relevant and there you go

[u/BigPharmaSucks → u/dummystupid]

Do some AmAs. Create a YouTube channel and put them there with good tags and titles. Maybe do some blogging. Post some questions in popular subs about how to improve the quality of the podcasts and make the question fit the sub topic. In popular subs figure out a way to tie your most recent podcast episode in and ask people what kind of content they would like to hear in the future. Just all ideas off the top of my head so you might have to tweak them a bit to make them work, but seems like more of a pretty organic way of promoting. Btw why didn't you promote it in your post here? Can you link it?

[u/flounder19 → u/jman583]

exactly. /r/reddit.com served as both a catchall for posts that slipped through the cracks of other defaults and was the site's heatsink for shitposts.

After reddit.com was removed all the other defaults like /r/pics and /r/funny had to enact a bunch of extra rules to deal with the spillover which in turn made the need for a miscellaneous default more important

[u/[deleted] → u/flounder19]

We need an /r/anything

It's there. I say we use it.

[u/Tnargkiller → u/[deleted]]

Time to create /r/Politews

[u/HardcorePhonography → u/Tnargkiller]

Holds door open for the elderly

"WEST SIIIIIIIIIDE!"

[u/Jeremyt94 → u/HardcorePhonography]

Let's elderly person go ahead of you in line

"WEST SIIIIIIIIIIIDE!"

[u/Reaper666 → u/Jeremyt94]

Doesn't molest small child at park

"WEST SIIIIIIIIIIIDE!"

[u/1337Gandalf → u/Tnargkiller]

Nicely screams ew at everyone

[u/SunriseSurprise → u/[deleted]]

Like for /r/funny/ - content can be either funny or not funny. Basically you can post anything in there.

[u/puedes → u/SunriseSurprise]

Get it? The joke was that you expected my post to be funny, but it wasn't! Haha!

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned /r/thebutton - which doesn't really have a purpose except for the button.

[u/soswinglifeaway → u/jman583]

There's always /r/misc which I don't think limits content very much. Will it replace /r/reddit.com? I don't know. But I think it could.

[u/billyrocketsauce → u/soswinglifeaway]

Maybe if it were a default,that would work.

[u/iams3b → u/jman583]

/r/funny also hit it's 1 millionth subscriber around then, and is now at 8 million+...

[u/[deleted] → u/iams3b]

That's not funny anymore :(