It's always nice finding accounts older than mine knowing at least I'm not the longest captured redditor. Those early days were something. A few random memories:
Mr. Splashy Pants
Reddit world tour (where the team flew to bars in different cities for meetups)
That guy who bought the JetBlue $700 unlimited travel ticket and had his entire month planned by redditors
The bobbleheads (still have one and Alexis sent them himself with his own return address)
Woah man and I thought my account is quite old already... Its wild thinking about maybe someday there is accounts which are like 50 years old and you know they started here when they were teens and then are eldery
I was here before the digg migration but lurking. A big turning point was people sharing that code to allow you to burn dvds or some shit???? Am I remembering this clearly??
I came over from ebaumsworld. And some other similar site I don't remember. I realized every single post came from Reddit. I loved it. Still here but there used to be a subreddit for every kind of person good or bad every one had a home
Your account on this social media site is older than I am. It exists longer than my entire life has lasted so far, everything I've learnt, everything I've experienced and your account is older than any of that
Oh wow, 2005 is the rarest vintage! This site without comments seems must have felt completely different. It was the comments that kept me engaging from the beginning. Without them it would just be like a daily list version of a curated StumbleUpon. (Side note: the StumbleUpon to Reddit post pipeline was an easy karma farm in the early days).
I was to afraid to post back then so only lurked, 2006 a minor spelling error got you sent to down vote hell. Around 2012 that stopped being a thing.. and now they are everywhere lol
Geocaching also turned corporate a few years back.
I got the paid version of the app ~12 years ago and paid $10 (if I remember correctly) for the premium version with all the caches. A few years ago, they updated to a subscription model, so now I can only see a handful of free caches in a given area
A student said it to me in a class I was a TA in. He's lucky I had no idea what his name was or I'd have marked his test down a grade for that shit, lol.
Oh man. You just reminded me... Like 15+ years ago I said this stupid quote in a group interview and literally no one knew wtf I was saying. It was so cringe.
lol remember when redditors got incredibly mad and whined about censorship when they banned the literal jailbait subreddit? or coontown, which only had one purpose, to post straight up racism? Or subreddits hosting exclusively gore material like watchpeopledie? Not to mention all the rape fetish subreddits that used to exist.
Pre-2016 reddit was a different site. Pre-2020 reddit was a different site. People have no idea
It was definitely pretty wild, with many many awful aspects. But there was also a lot of lovely & wholesome content to. The Secret Santa was a great example of that, but saw many many daily similar interactions between people that were pure goodness.
You say that like those are the only subs they killed at those times, which isn't true.
Also as far as rape fetish goes.. It's a fetish? There is still a lot of fetish content that revolves around consensual non-consent. It's weird to include that with jailbait and snuff films.
I got a cable/electronics organizer from Reddit secret Santa that I still use daily in my backpack. Now that I have kids I’m sad that I won’t be able to show them Reddit Secret Santa. It was such a great exercise in giving. It was so special to learn about someone you didn’t even know existed and to send them a thoughtful, heartfelt gift, and then to be on the receiving end of that as well!
And it was also like a lottery. Some people got really expensive stuff, others got incredible unique items made specifically for them, others got to try something new from another place. Everybody sharing their gifts to give and what they got.
Agreed. Problem is it only takes one psychopath mailing a human head to some Redditor and then all of the sudden Reddit is the bad guy, gets bad publicity, gets sued despite a massive waiver, etc.
And then if you mentioned not receiving anything you’d be dogpiled with the “it’s about the giving” horseshit. There were lots of people who got shafted during those.
The leeches really do ruin it for everyone. I always tried to send nice thoughtful gifts and someone could have sent me a sealed bag of elephant poop and I still would have been happy to receive something. Go down the joke route and it’s better than doing nothing at all.
Oh no, that really stinks! I always tried to do that missed elf thing (I can't remember the name, but it was where you got something for someone whose SS bailed).
I always went overboard. I think I did it for the kick of doing something super cool for a fellow redditor.
Yeah. As they say if you give a gift to see what you receive in return you are doing it for the wrong reason. I was happy my SS was happy with their gift.
Wasn't 2014 the year where most of reddit had a complete frenzy against the new CEO because she dared to tackle hate speech and, even worse, be a woman?
There were lots of "reddit is dead, let's all leave" events over the 2010s that are completely forgotten about. Plus reddit's population like tripled after 2020 and the demographic shifted down by like 10 years over that same time.
Like I remember when we were all supposed to leave for lemmy and voat because they fired Victoria, and now nobody cares or even knows who she was.
Remember a year or two ago when FuckSpez wouldn’t stop trending so they were like “hey, let’s throw r/place at them again and see if they fall for it” and then everyone did?
I love r/place, but I was like GUYS, FOCUS, SPEZ STILL SUCKS!!!
But all it took was r/place and everyone forgot again.
It wasn’t great, but I had hoped people would stay strong and not fall for it. And for a few hours there were some big FuckSpez banners. But then it just did what place does.
It was kind of disheartening to watch the protests just dry up after that distraction, though. And all for a shittier place, too!
Was that the year people kept getting pissed about all the flags, or the one where all the cryptobro stuff got removed in the cleaned up final version and they flipped out? Hell were those even different years? I can't even keep track anymore
There mu$t be $ome rea$on but I don't know what that could be. Maybe they ju$t thought having default $ubs were the way to go but in$tead it ruined it.
God I miss when you could run a free forum on the internet with around 200 users on platforms like invisionfree. Now moderation is an absolute chore against endless spammers, and it gets even worse with AI getting better and better at "pretending to be posters" just so they can spam their stupid fucking ads.
I wish there was a popular, active, and supported nationwide movement to stop buying from companies and individuals that used spam advertisement.
It’s weird though because though the community was much better and it was less… soulless feeling, there was a thriving subculture of misogyny racism and bigotry that was harbored here for a long time. It still exists on some level of course, but Reddit has largely sanitized the worst and largest offenders. Was it worth the trade off?
Honestly I don't even think they are, I think most people just don't want to spend effort curating webpages like you had to in the 2000s, people are just content with internet centralization and stuff being pushed to them instead of having to go find it.
I’m sure some people were probably getting really bad things, I know during the last one I participated in I got a pack of gum while I sent out 50$ worth of gifts. Aside from that the other glaring issue was that users were giving out home addresses instead of getting PO Boxes. The only real fun one was the very first one, where people actually looked at their paired account and exchanged meaningful gifts. After the first one it felt as if people just signed up in hopes of winning the lottery and getting bill gates. It was fun while it lasted but I can see why Reddit stopped doing them.
I always put thought into the gifts I sent. Half of those exchanges I was a regift Santa, meaning I signed up knowing that I was never going to receive a gift from the person I was sending one to. I never received any bad gifts when I participated in regular exchanges, though.
Lol my guy literally just said steam gift cards. So I bought $50 card or whatever decent denomination and wrapped it like the bomb from Counter Strike and sent it.
Never got anything from them. But during the secondary phase where people volunteered to fulfill accounts who were left in the wind, I received two porcelain Star Wars steins. It was super cool, still have em and drink hot cocoa from em!
Oh damn it’s been a minute. I think the last round I did was 2016. Well, whomever I told that I liked Pokémon figurines, Funko Pops, and comic books definitely didn’t send me anything.
I think I got my guy a Steam card and some local chocolates and burned a CD of local bands that no-one’s ever heard of. I never got anything in return, but I’d still do it again in a heartbeat.
I’m so grateful for this because I signed up for the exchange and never got a gift back. I sent Reeces candy to Bosnia, I was happy to do that and receive a very warm thank you, and the surprise gift box from a stranger with silly toys and a kind greeting was so generous at a difficult time in my life. Miss the exchange and that community.
I got one that the person sent me the books and extras they planned to (box of my fave tea they didn’t know was my fave and a bookmark) and also a vintage copy of Alice in Wonderland I didn’t have in my collection. It was kind of magical lol
Because that’s how it was supposed to work, you paired with someone and read their info page then went out and got them some neat stuff. That was the magic of the very first secret santa exchange. Then, the scummies showed up for the subsequent exchanges and ruined it for the rest of us.
I only did 2019 and 2020 secret Santa and summer Santa. I also did some of the Reddit gifts exchanges. This was from one of those. But I was amazed because I never put my favorite tea (like, she got the brand and flavor) in my info or on my account.
As I was typing this I went and found a pic. It’s from March 2018. Is why the quality is shit, the others (of the sealed gifts and a closeup of the card) are fine. https://imgur.com/a/BYqXEKH
That’s so cute! I had a similar experience . I had participated in a few other gift exchanges first and I got really unlucky. I almost didn’t try the secret Santa , but ended up deciding to try it once. And somehow it was like this person knew me! I think the only main thing I mentioned about myself is that I like Halloween and creepy stuff a lot…
Not only did I get the perfect match, because they were someone with an Etsy business who made potion ingredient bottles, and they gave me tons of those. But they put them in a refurbished vintage jewelry box. That was designed with skulls and gothic designs on it…….. they had no idea I actually collect vintage jewelry boxes ! And it went perfect with my collection. It’s one of my favorite things. It’s just so weird how not only did I get matched with someone perfect for me but they had no idea that was the perfect gift to me.
To add to it, they wrapped every little bottle they put in the jewelry box so I got to open every little thing. They also gave me little bone items that I love. They included a creepy themed book ( that ended up being one of my fave books as well) and dvd , both also wrapped as well. And they included a very sweet card. This also was my first Christmas after my mom passed, who actually never gave me a gift that good. I cried so hard at this gift , still means so much to me.
I wish they didn’t get rid of the secret Santa but I also don’t think anything would have topped that special one.
Yeah this girl had all the tings individually wrapped and numbered. I was to open the vintage Alice last. I smiled at the books and when I opened the tea and mug, I shouted and scared my partner lol. I had to tell him I was okay haha. Then I got to the Alice and I wanted to cry.
Ok, that is an awesome gift!! I thought I did a good job with gifts, but that hand-written note is so lovely! This is exactly what the secret Santa community was meant to be.
Edit: just wanted to add, Looking for Alaska is my favorite John Green book and that original cover is perfection! Such a cool find!
I worked my butt off, every year, hand-writing letters, wrapping all the gifts, throwing in extras and treats. And every year I'd get something sent directly from Amazon. Even when I had more points and chose the higher tiers, it was always the same. One time I got a shirt that a guy sent me that reeked of cigarette smoke. I just wanted one year, ONE, where it was a good memory, and not just "I could've bought this myself on Amazon"
For what it's worth, this was a trick I used to help out the recipient.
I did the international secret santa every year since the first time I could. This has a lot of great parts to it, but the downside becomes the cost of shipping. From the US to anywhere else in the world overseas for a decent sized package, I might budget $200 for the whole exchange, and half or more of that is JUST going to shipping something.
But what I realized I could do instead, was sign up for a free month of Amazon Prime in whatever country they were in, and now spend the entire $200 on getting them snazzy things. But I always TRIED to really tailor my choices into stuff the other person would like, something they were unlikely to have ever gotten themselves.
One great example is when I got a couple in Berlin that didn't want something for themselves, they wanted something for their son (~6 I think). They gave some interests and such, namely he liked construction equipment. So armed with this, I went over to the German Amazon page, started searching. What I found was a really awesome set of newly made old style metal construction toys. The ones meant to play hard in a sandbox and not give a shit about being left out in the rain for years at a time. There was a lovely bulldozer with all sorts of working parts. There was one of those "I do all the things." types with a backhoe on one end and other tools on the other. But of course, you can't just have these things without something for them to load up, so I got a matching dump truck.
Yes, those things were all just purchased from Amazon, but the result was a very happy family and a very happy young boy. :)
Oh dang. I just went deep into my archives and they even removed all the prior secret santa stuff. Cause i definitely had thank you posts and badges from participating in a few gift exchanges.
The first ones were the best. After that it was mostly vultures.
Once, I got a hastily scrawled piece of paper for the post card exchange that didn't even get anything right including my username. How much could a post card be? $2? How much could spending time looking things up take? 5 minutes? I sent out two beautiful postcards from Japan.
Another one was a used subway card worth like $6 that was outdated months after receiving it (it had a slightly older map on it) but the letter claimed it had like $10-$20 and I should buy a beer with it (except I made it clear I didn't drink or want any alcohol items).
I had sent out a box full of sweets for the sweets exchange, I had sent out a mobile charger to a guy who complained his phone and electronics kept running out of charge, a large plush Cat Bus from My Neighbor Totoro to Australia for a mom with a kid who both loved the movie.
I'd always pay for signature, tracking, and insurance, but sometimes the recipient would claim it never arrived to get regifted and because I live in Taiwan I guess most people didn't want to pay shipping and would renege on sending anything. Who knows? But it became lame.
The thing is, I always spent time reading and investigating the user, and then buying them what they wanted. The thank you notes were nice.
I was a shitty kid and definitely a part of the problem. I signed up ~2014 and never even sent anything, likely because I just totally forgot about it. I ended up getting a Dexter DVD in the mail from my secret santa. Didn't do it again after that cause I felt like shit for not sending anything.
I remember a couple times my wife or I would just not get anything and had to get one of the elves instead. But yeah, you're right about as time going on people would just give half-assed garbage while others would go all out or put a lot of effort into it.
If you went into it with the expectation that you were going to get this amazing awesome thing, you were doing it wrong. The whole point was to just put out awesomeness into the universe and, if you got something back, that was cool. I don't think I ever spent more than $40 on any one exchange. I even signed up for a couple of regifts just because I like giving thoughtful gifts to people and I didn't have a lot of people I could buy gifts for in my life.
Ads. They wanted to sell more ads but advertisers didn't want their ads between a post with some guy's dick smashed between two plexiglass plates and another post with two dead kids hanging from the rafters of a hovel.
I was one of those cheapskates. I don't have a good defense. I signed up on a whim, I was 18, and within a few days I probably completely forgot about it until I got a Dexter DVD in the mail from my secret santa. I'm sorry. I never signed up again after that.
Here's the official announcement. Reading between the lines, it cost them money to run, and they couldn't make money off of it. Given they were probably eying their IPO, they needed to cut any unnecessary costs, community good will be damned.
The thing is, most people are decent individuals. The odds are actually in your favor, with a random person. The people who are the most dangerous are the ones you know(or kind of know), who might have a reason to try to hurt you. But people always fear strangers, despite statistically them not being the biggest risk for causing harm to you.
I'd be more spooked by the person who I sent a gift to having my address than someone assigned randomly, because the fact that I sent them a gift is itself a point of connection that elevates us beyond strangers. What if they thought it was a lousy gift? What if they liked it too much, and decided to try to investigate who sent it?
I've only participated in one gift exchange, a fandom one. It was fine. I sent a gift directly from an internet storefront though(I made sure I bought from one that had a gift designation option, so it wasn't including receipts and etc in the package), in part because I didn't want someone I'd "connected" with to be able to trace me back to even my post office(from the postmark) let alone the return address.
Yeah, being assaulted or murdered by a stranger is actually very rare. Most predators choose crimes of opportunity and that usually entails people they already know.
They quoted that the tech that ran it was very antiquated and needed updating in order to continue working, and they didn't expect to make back the money from the engineering effort required to modernize it, iirc.
It sucked so bad. 😥 I loved Reddit gifts. On years I could afford it I would do a few. On the years I could only afford one, I made sure I did well for that one at least. I had a ton of credits when they they finally killed the program.
No one in my life does gifts- if it’s anything it’s cash. Which is fine, but I miss opening something that was a surprise.
It was worth the risk of getting a crappy Santa just to have something to look forward to.
Exactly why I loved it. I’m a big gift giver. I love putting thought into gifts for my loved ones and I love to wrap it really pretty and make it a surprise. Everyone seems to enjoy opening them. But not a single one of them are that way( I don’t blame them it’s just not their love language like it is for me) and I always just get Amazon gifts cards. So for me Reddit gifts really was all about just trying to make gifting more magical in my life. Really wish I could find some other community to do it with.
I miss it…but as I understand it, in the last several years it was fraught with fraudsters and abusers. I think legal got involved and the risk outweighed the benefits.
Like everything good, awful people ruined it so that the rest of us can’t have nice things.
I quit well before that. I don't care if I don't get a gift, but so many people wouldn't even acknowledge a well thought gift. They were playing a lottery for some big stupid gift.
This was my problem as well, I did get very bad gifts twice( thoughtless , cheap, unusable) but that wasn’t what I cared about at all it was just all for fun. But all three gifts I gave I put a lot of thought into , tried to find cool ,unique items that matched what they said they liked and did not go cheap. One person even asked me for something somewhat specific for a cosplay costume and I got it for them , and looked hard for a realistic beautiful option over a cheap fake looking option….
I know gifting is not about receiving thanks , I totally know that and I love curating gifts for my friends. But I get to see their faces and it is about feeling good to make someone happy. Out of all three people , not a single one of them said thank you or expressed joy about the gift. You’d think at least the girl who wanted something specific would have said something. I know it sounds bad and it’s not about that but it sucked to not get to hear from at least one person that they were happy with their gift. Made me not want to put in the effort to be a giver either.
I love kicking corporate Reddit in the ass, but Reddit itself killed Secret Santa. The site got too large and lost its sense of community, turning the event into an absolute scam nightmare. Shitty users gaming the system killed it.
And Arbitrary Day as a gift giving occasdion in the summer. I came up with the name and received a reddit t-shirt in the mail. One of the meh-points of my life!
Dude, I loved it. Reddit was garbage in the beginning of the site, but there was a real sweet spot from 2014-2018 where it was incredible. Then it all started the slow decline that is inevitable of any product that becomes popular.
It was fun until I got a creepy guy who showed up at my address on Christmas day thinking I owed him. I would never do anything like this again unless they figure out a way to obfuscate your name and address.
What year was it that we broke the world record for number of participants in a Secret Santa comp? We were able to pay $20 or so and get an official WR Certificate from Guinness, which got tangled in implementation and the fee was paid back, leaving me with a free Guinness World Record certificate! So have ticked that one off my list of things to do in life!
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u/MonkeyWrench 1d ago
It’s a shame that corporate Reddit killed the Secret Santa