Reddit Alternatives: Where Will Ellen Pao’s Detractors File Out?

Reddit first gained traction as an alternative to similar mega-forum Digg. For those users who were around long before Ellen Pao took over as CEO, there’s a been a touch of déjà vu in the past few weeks.

Whether or not Ellen and the rest of the management at Reddit has overplayed their hand remains to be seen, but for the second time in a month, the long list of Reddit alternatives are being flooded with traffic. Most of these sites might be classified as Reddit clones than real alternatives, which makes the playing field pretty level for who is going to emerge as the next go-to media sharing site if Pao can’t keep it afloat.

Snapzu, which has been gone down several times in the last 24 hours due to an influx of traffic, is one possible candidate. The site retains the basic spirit and a similar layout to Reddit, but as an alternative it changes some key Reddit lingo: For instance, subreddits become tribes.

However, Reddit users fleeing because of the Pao’s team’s decision to shut down negative subs like r/fatpeoplehate might be disappointed. Users on Snapzu are telling new users that one of the main reasons they migrated was to “escape the hate.” One member, Midas Toren, doesn’t think this has anything to do with the site itself.

“Everytime I’ve been with a community, whether it be a Usenet group, or forum, or Digg, or Reddit, once it becomes popular, it attracts new people that don’t absorb the culture or share the same attitudes as the founding members. After a time, it gets worse and worse until, well, this happens. Hopefully it won’t befall this community or Voat or whatever new site takes the mantle of Reddit, but it almost always does in the end, people, sorry to say, just aren’t very nice in large groups, you add money/politics/special interest into the equation as well, and it just makes it doubly terrible.”

Unfortunately for Reddit addicts who have really had it with Ellen’s changes, the site does require an invitation to join — though you can request one and join within 24 hours if you tweet a message about the site.

Voat, Hubski, and a whole slew of other possible destinations for Reddit refugees are also in the game for possible alternatives, but one sarcastic redditor reminds people that there was one there for us all along.

Are you going to stick with Ellen Pao or try out one of these Reddit alternatives?

[Image via Reddit and Justin Sullivan/Getty Images]