Parody site drags Reddit 1,000 years into the future
An ambitious Reddit contributor builds a beautiful parody that envisions Reddit far into the future, and it's full of aliens, fire mites and hoverboards.
Nobody can truly see into the future, but a spoof website imagines what popular social news and discussion site Reddit would look like 1,000 years from now and it sure feels real.
Reddit3016 takes a deep dive into a world where Mars is populated, people slice genes for fun, and pocket whales are the hot pet trend. The look is spot-on, right down to the light-blue banner across the top.
Reddit3016 is thick with inside jokes. There's a post noting that subreddit category /r/cringe is now /r/ShameSingularity. Cringe is known as a hotspot for people who want to share their most embarrassing moments. In 3016, it becomes known as the place where "all humiliation across the universe will be transcendentally absorbed, experienced and shared in total."
On Reddit3016, the world of Star Wars is real. There's a subreddit called "/r/DebateAJedi" and there's a reference to a future Netflix called Holoflix acquiring the rights to the Bible and creating a Boba Fett crossover.
Some things don't really change. There's a debate about safety issues surrounding hoverboards, but the 3016 boards are actually the wheel-less flying boards from "Back to the Future." Hopefully, we won't have to really wait that long to all get our hoverboards.
The phrase "going down the rabbit hole" might as well have been invented for Reddit3016. The labor of love includes working links to fake articles from fictional future publications and sites like The Huffington Planet and MindTube. Imgur, Reddit's much-beloved photo-sharing site, is now Hologur.
Reddit3016 is surprisingly absent from most of the real Reddit. There is at least one existing discussion about whether the company is secretly banning Reddit3016. The parody site's creator Blair Erickson writes, "After it was shared by myself and others, it has quickly and inexplicably been erased by behind the scenes reddit censors in every subreddit it was shared in."
Reddit director of communications Ashley Dawkins told CNET the site's volunteer moderators run each community as they see fit. "While some communities have opted to remove the link, many have approved its placement. We have over 10k active subreddits and just like any large group, opinions and needs can vary. Reddit Inc. is impressed with the creativity and thought behind Reddit3016 and looks forward to the continued conversation around its content," she said.
Erickson is a moderator on Reddit and spent two years building out the spoof site. While Reddit3016 may not rule in the realm of today's Reddit, it has certainly done an excellent job at conquering the future of humor.
(Via NextWeb)