[Journey] I'm building a platform to compete with Reddit!

fatech said:

I know it might sound ambitious, but it’s not crazy — the internet is vast and full of space for healthy competition.
Here are a few key ways I plan to do things differently:

1. Unlike Reddit, which doesn’t reward users for engagement, ​

My Advantage: I will share ad revenue with users. As long as a post keeps generating views, the creator keeps earning — recurring income, not one-time rewards.​

2. Reddit is mostly global and topic-based.​

My Advantage: Let users discover and engage with trending posts, communities, and creators in their city, region, or country — enabling hyper local relevance.​

3. Reddit thrives on anonymity, but that also invites trolls.​

My Advantage: Offer optional identity verification and user trust scores, helping build safer, more accountable communities.​

​

4 . Reddit is still largely text-focused.
My Advantage: Support short videos, reels, and visual content as core features — giving creators more engaging formats than plain posts.



5. Reddit’s app is cluttered.
My Advantage: Offer a sleek, mobile-first experience with intuitive posting, editing, analytics, and tools made for creators.

6. Reddit often bans entire communities without warning.​

My Advantage: Use AI-assisted moderation, appeals, and community-guided filtering to avoid heavy-handed censorship while still protecting users.​

7. Gamification Beyond Karma.​

My Advantage: Turn user engagement into points, rewards, badges, and unlockable features — making participation more fun and valuable.​

Why It Will Work:
SEO content alone isn’t enough — quality content drives true rankings. However, many in the younger generation are more drawn to the social side of the internet than in-depth discussions. So my platform would bridge that gap by offering dedicated spaces for both — vibrant social interaction and meaningful, high-quality conversations. This ensures a balanced experience that caters to both engagement and substance.


How am building this:
I am currently solo on this, am a full stack dev and a digital marketer with more than 10 years experience, this project would be worth my time and i know it would yield a good revenue overtime.


Estimated launch date:
Monday 15th, September, 2025.



Journey Logs:
Stage 1 - Get a premium domain
Stage 2 - Dev phase 1 - Pre-register landing page
Stage 3 - Dev Phase 2 - MVP of the entire platform
Stage 4 - Phase 1 - SEO & Pre-Marketing
Stage 5 - Partnership & Collaborations
Stage 6 - Dev phase 3 - Integrations & Functional Back end APIs
Stage 7 - Phase 2 - SEO & Pre-Marketing
Stage 8 - Dev phase 4 - Integrations & Functional Back end APIs - completion
Stage 9 - Internal & external User experience testing
Stage 10 - Deployment to main servers and Paid third party APIs
Stage 11 - Rigorous testing phase 2
Stage 12 - Penetration testing phase 1
Stage 13 - Penetration testing phase 2
Stage 14 - Penetration testing phase 3
Stage 15 - Official launch & Marketing





Your suggestions are most welcome

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fatech said:

Over 450 pre signups! From a very small test campaign done.

This is all the motivation needed!

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TimmyJohn said:

That’s an ambitious project, but honestly the space is always open for alternatives if the product solves a real pain point. Platforms like Reddit became huge because of community structure and user-generated content, but many users complain about moderation policies, algorithm changes, and declining organic reach. If your platform focuses on **better community ownership, fair moderation, and transparent algorithms**, it could attract early adopters especially niche communities that feel underserved. The hardest part won’t be the tech, it’ll be **solving the network effect problem**, so starting with a specific niche or vertical community first might be a smart way to grow traction.

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fatech said:

I know it might sound ambitious, but it’s not crazy — the internet is vast and full of space for healthy competition.
Here are a few key ways I plan to do things differently:

1. Unlike Reddit, which doesn’t reward users for engagement, ​

My Advantage: I will share ad revenue with users. As long as a post keeps generating views, the creator keeps earning — recurring income, not one-time rewards.​

2. Reddit is mostly global and topic-based.​

My Advantage: Let users discover and engage with trending posts, communities, and creators in their city, region, or country — enabling hyper local relevance.​

3. Reddit thrives on anonymity, but that also invites trolls.​

My Advantage: Offer optional identity verification and user trust scores, helping build safer, more accountable communities.​

​

4 . Reddit is still largely text-focused.
My Advantage: Support short videos, reels, and visual content as core features — giving creators more engaging formats than plain posts.



5. Reddit’s app is cluttered.
My Advantage: Offer a sleek, mobile-first experience with intuitive posting, editing, analytics, and tools made for creators.

6. Reddit often bans entire communities without warning.​

My Advantage: Use AI-assisted moderation, appeals, and community-guided filtering to avoid heavy-handed censorship while still protecting users.​

7. Gamification Beyond Karma.​

My Advantage: Turn user engagement into points, rewards, badges, and unlockable features — making participation more fun and valuable.​

Why It Will Work:
SEO content alone isn’t enough — quality content drives true rankings. However, many in the younger generation are more drawn to the social side of the internet than in-depth discussions. So my platform would bridge that gap by offering dedicated spaces for both — vibrant social interaction and meaningful, high-quality conversations. This ensures a balanced experience that caters to both engagement and substance.


How am building this:
I am currently solo on this, am a full stack dev and a digital marketer with more than 10 years experience, this project would be worth my time and i know it would yield a good revenue overtime.


Estimated launch date:
Monday 15th, September, 2025.



Journey Logs:
Stage 1 - Get a premium domain
Stage 2 - Dev phase 1 - Pre-register landing page
Stage 3 - Dev Phase 2 - MVP of the entire platform
Stage 4 - Phase 1 - SEO & Pre-Marketing
Stage 5 - Partnership & Collaborations
Stage 6 - Dev phase 3 - Integrations & Functional Back end APIs
Stage 7 - Phase 2 - SEO & Pre-Marketing
Stage 8 - Dev phase 4 - Integrations & Functional Back end APIs - completion
Stage 9 - Internal & external User experience testing
Stage 10 - Deployment to main servers and Paid third party APIs
Stage 11 - Rigorous testing phase 2
Stage 12 - Penetration testing phase 1
Stage 13 - Penetration testing phase 2
Stage 14 - Penetration testing phase 3
Stage 15 - Official launch & Marketing





Your suggestions are most welcome

Click to expand...

TopYTPro said:

the biggest challenge with new platforms is the empty network problem. If people land on a site and see almost no posts or discussions, they leave. Even Facebook started inside Harvard, and Reddit had founders seeding content early. Communities often grow from a small niche, then scale when activity feels real. imho

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