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Moving an online Reddit community into offline community action

Molly Wood Oct 2, 2013
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Moving an online Reddit community into offline community action

Molly Wood Oct 2, 2013
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The social news and entertainment website Reddit has grown exponentially in recent years. It now accepts 19 million up or down votes every day on links to everything from celebrity advice to pornography. This weekend, thousands of the website’s users will be going offline to gather in the real world for Reddit’s second annual Global Day of Service. Redditors — as the site’s users are called — plan blood donation drives in Sydney, Australia and park clean ups in Austin, Texas. 

Erik Martin, Reddit’s General Manager, says Redditors meet offline often for various organized events — as often as every day in major cities. Many of those smaller meet-ups are service-oriented too, but declaring a single day can encourage more regular engagement.

“The bigger goal is to get more people involved in something that matters in their local communities,” Martin says. 

Erik Martin, Reddit’s General Manager, joined Marketplace Tech host Ben Johnson to discuss. 

Click on the audio player above to hear the full interview. 

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