Steve Huffman says he’s embarrassed by the underlying programming that currently powers Reddit, the social media platform he cofounded in his dorm room alongside Alexis Ohanian in 2005.
“My identity is of an engineer, programming is my first love, and when I’m talking to engineers at work and giving them advice they’re like ‘Go away, Grandpa, I’ve seen the shit you wrote,'” he said.
Having such outdated underlying code powering America’s fourth most visited website (the world’s ninth most visited)–with approximately 300 million monthly active users–has made innovating the platform difficult. After all, the company just released its first mobile app last year and only just began allowing users to upload videos directly this past summer.
Related: Steve Huffman: “Reddit Has Been Home To Some Of The Most Authentic Conversations”
As a result that bare-bones interface has become a trademark of the platform and a key part of its charm. Huffman acknowledges that Reddit’s users are quite protective over the platform, and that some may fear that a redesign will alter those elements that attract them to it today.
“People fear change, and we share their concern, because we love Reddit too, but in order to survive we need to evolve, so that’s what we’re doing,” Huffman told Fast Company during the Web Summit technology conference in Portugal last week. “I’m trying to set (users’) expectations and get some feedback so I can adjust (our plans).”
