Every post wasn't always about programming specifically, but it was a site primarily populated by programmers and other IT professionals, which is how what would be fringe material topped the front page. But there was the other stuff, just as there is on HN.
Just to make an aside about something I found interesting on the archived reddit page - the header "reddit learns what you like as you vote on existing links or submit your own!". The premise was that Reddit would use clustering and other intelligent logic to individualize itself to the viewer. They abandoned that and went the "subscribe to subs you like" notion.
It was poorly worded so I apologize for that. I meant that I heard the same thing as @corresation that it was mainly a porn site at first, which wasn't true at all.
Exactly - that's how I found reddit, back in the day.
First it was mostly hacking, startups, and some libertarian politics. Then there started to be more politics, and less hacking and startups. And more "outrage stories". And it went downhill fast enough that PG started Hacker News.
That's one of the reasons I loathe the political stories so much - they build a momentum of their own and wreck sites like this one.
Interestingly enough, you can see PG helping to get reddit off the ground:
What is the "furthest thing from the truth"?
While you selectively chose a generalist front page, how about-
https://web.archive.org/web/20051204033222/http://reddit.com...?
A Ruby post up at number 1. Heck, almost all of the front page is exactly the sort of material you would find on HN.
Another 2005 day -
https://web.archive.org/web/20051230160447/http://reddit.com...?
Another day with four LISP front-pagers - https://web.archive.org/web/20051210015338/http://reddit.com...?
Every post wasn't always about programming specifically, but it was a site primarily populated by programmers and other IT professionals, which is how what would be fringe material topped the front page. But there was the other stuff, just as there is on HN.
Just to make an aside about something I found interesting on the archived reddit page - the header "reddit learns what you like as you vote on existing links or submit your own!". The premise was that Reddit would use clustering and other intelligent logic to individualize itself to the viewer. They abandoned that and went the "subscribe to subs you like" notion.