The Obama AMA was in 2012, That to me is the turning point for reddit, it’s when it’s population exploded overnight (which meant old users could no longer enforce cultural norms for the platform), it’s when news media really started taking the platform seriously and I think when a lot of the political influence of reddit was realized.
“Most Reddit Addicted City” was Eglin Air Force Base in 2014. Eglin has a history of research about social media influence at their facility.
https://archive.is/1jhHe
That post has been pretty blackholed by the internet at this point. The bots probably started as early as 2010-2012.
The Obama AMA was in 2012, That to me is the turning point for reddit, it’s when it’s population exploded overnight (which meant old users could no longer enforce cultural norms for the platform), it’s when news media really started taking the platform seriously and I think when a lot of the political influence of reddit was realized.