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Reddit's algorithm is its community, the rest is just math.

• snowwrestler 13y ago
  This got downvoted but I think it is essentially the right answer. I don't see how Reddit's success is based on the amazing efficacy of its algorithm. For example, I don't think fixing this bug and using the fixed code to launch a competing site would beat Reddit. Its success is based on attracting an engaged audience, who participated heavily, in turn attracting a larger audience, whose participation further attracted even more people... etc. The algorithm may have mattered very early, in the beginning, when it was first attracting people who were evaluating it for the first time. But even then, I think that the content that Reddit's staff continuously posted was a bigger factor than the algorithm.