Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Front Page of the World

www.reddit.com
A boring or plain website is exactly the type of visual rhetoric that will keep many people off of one.  It’s hard to say whether Reddit chose their layout on purpose to keep certain people away from their webpage, because it is extremely simplistic.  The front page has a white background and a list of links in blue about different pieces of news that other members on the site have posted.  It also looks a little clustered at the top due to all of the specific news tabs you can click on to indicate what you feel like reading about.  The material posted to Reddit includes world news, funny photos, gross or creepy photos, new facts that people learned that day, political news, and so much more.  There are also subreddits created for very specific things, such as pimple popping or any other type of obscure habit or hobby.  Reddit is nicknamed the front page of the world and I couldn’t agree more.    Although it may seem very plain but complicated to first timers, once you try the website you are absolutely addicted.  Reddit is just a vast website of knowledge from people all over the world.  Due to all of the information that is posted on Reddit it doesn’t need a flashy background to attract new users.  The people who take the time to at least try Reddit are immediately addicted and that is what the website it all about.  It wants to attract users with the information is gives from other people rather than rely on flashy tactics.  Reddit also has so much going on with all of its specific search engines that if it did try to be flashy a lot of the smaller subreddits would be completely over looked.  Since every tab looks equally plain the website itself avoids a lot of controversy even though many of the users don’t.  If favored one tab over another my making its font bigger or a different color Reddit would be favoring one type of information posted.  The front page of Reddit is decided by the number of “upvotes” or points that each link gets.  The users of Reddit, or redditors, get to upvotes certain links depending on how much they liked it.  Therefore it is up to the users of the website as to what links are first seen.  Even though the website is plain, to some people it seems too complicated to use or not attractive enough to captivate them.  To those individuals it is their lose, and a big on at that. 

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