Reddit's Live Feature Is Now ... Live

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Reddit has rolled out its live thread feature to all users.

Image: Image: Mashable composite. Reddit

By Jason Abbruzzese2014-07-23 18:53:07 UTC

Reddit's live thread feature, which has been embraced by the site's news junkies covering topics like the Syrian civil war and the conflict in Ukraine, has been rolled out to all users.

"I’m pleased to announce that reddit live is now… ahem… live," a Reddit representative wrote in a blog post.

See also: Reddit's Newsgathering Comes of Age After Growing Pains

Reddit live is the site's first project that exists primarily outside the subreddit system that the site uses to organize topics, links and comments. The project was born out of interest on the comment boards of reddit for a way to track live events without having to refresh each page.

"Unlike with self-post or comment based live threads, there's no limit to how many updates can be posted during the course of an event," the company wrote in the blog post. "These live threads ... are designed to be submitted, like any other link, to whichever (multiple) subreddits are relevant to the thread. Pictures, video, and more can be embedded in the updates by simply pasting a link."

The project had been in "semi-open beta" for a few months, and generated popular, long-running threads on Syria and Ukraine as well as numerous smaller ones centered around a variety of topics including Twitch Plays Pokemon, an experiment in which thousands of people took part in a real-time videogame.

Users previously had to request a live thread. Now, they can visit reddit.com/live to start one.

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Topics: Apps and Software, Media, real-time news, reddit, Tech