We built a Reddit alternative and it has taken off way faster than we had planned
About a month ago we launched rhyme.com, a Reddit alternative we'd been joking about building for literally years. It stopped being a joke at some point we're spending our days watching signups climb on the dashboard every single day with basically zero traditional marketing, so I figured I'd share what it is and a few things I've learned.
Rhyme is topic-first instead of community-first. A few things we do differently:
- One topic per subject. No r/gaming vs r/games vs r/gamers situation where the same conversation is split five ways.
- No volunteer moderators putting their thumb on the scale. Moderation is global and consistent.
- Posts can automatically appear in multiple relevant topics, and topics have an actual hierarchy (so posts about Airpod Max appear in Airpods, and Apple, and Technology...big win for discoverability).
- Optional verification if you want it (and/or want to filter by it!)
- No public like counts. And dislikes require a reason, so people hopefully aren't just downvoting because they disagree.
- The algorithm softly deprioritizes outwardly unpleasant behavior, trolling, flaming, aggression, that kind of thing, and quietly prioritizes positive interactions instead.
It's browser based and it works great on desktop and mobile, there's an iOS app and the Android app is pending review. Shout out Google, should be any day now.
We put up a waitlist before launch, had a little bit of Reddit drama along the way that honestly I think worked in our favor because people started talking about us, and since then it's just been steady growth. The reception has been really good too, surprisingly there's been almost no negative feedback on the concept itself. People send feature suggestions and we implement the ones that make sense, but nobody's really ragging on the core idea, which is really cool.
A few things I've learned:
Don't go looking for an idea. This project was something our team talked about for years, we joked about it because of how unlikely it would be to compete with giant established social platforms. But eventually it became obvious that this was something we'd wanted for ourselves for a long time, and that's the easiest thing to build (something you want for yourself). Don't create a solution looking for a problem, and don't sit around hunting for problems either. Just keep an open mind and you'll notice something in your day to day that you could actually play a role in fixing.
Stick to your guns. We've had a couple people pop up wanting public like counts, or wanting to claim topics so they can moderate them themselves. We hear them, and they're awfully loud about it, but for every one person griping there's ninety nine people quietly enjoying the thing as it is. Don't let a vocal few steer you away from your actual core vision.
Be honest with yourself. Don't chase buzzwords or the next big thing. Talk to people you actually trust and figure out if your idea has legs before you sink real time into it.
Happy to answer any questions and if you want to check it out it's rhyme.com !