Reddit, Microcosm of the Bow-Tie Web
The bow-tie structure (13), has proven to be an effective way for information to spread. Increased reachability has helped many achieve previously impossible goals.
In many ways, reddit can be seen as a microcosm of the internet. One of the most popular websites in the world, reddit sees an increasing number of visitors every month, with 202 million unique visitors in its most recent month. Reddit is a website that has many subsections for a variety of user chosen topics such as news, personal stories, images, gaming, sports, etc. Almost any topic one can think of is covered on the website. It is also closely paired with an image hosting site imgur, facilitating the easiness to share anything that one desires. Anyone can make an account and start sharing their own stories, referencing links that they find interesting, uploading pictures that they find funny, or just exploring the content.
The main reason for the reach of this website can be attributed to its huge user base. It can be seen as mutually beneficial to have one’s website or picture referenced on reddit, for it increases traffic if the reference “goes viral”. Not only do reddit’s users visit the site, but also most likely, the referenced page will move up significantly in terms of page rank. Reddit provides otherwise obscure websites with a much improved reachability. On the other side, reddit also potentially gains dedicated users, which in itself improves the website, as an active user base is what keeps the site afloat.
Just as the internet started with simple navigational hyperlinks available to anyone using a browser, and improved through richness expanded from authoring styles growth and linking styles, reddit takes it a step further and improves on that by giving structure and facilitating search of desired subjects, giving users ease of finding links to specific websites that they find interesting.
Reddit can be seen to have the bowtie structure that represents the web. Its strongly connected component can be identified as reddit, imgur, upvoted, and the variety of other websites that always reference to each other. Users adding links to websites and pictures onto reddit expands the “out” portion and websites referencing to reddit but not the other way around expands the “in”. There will of course always be tendrils that are not referenced in the central hub but are by other websites in the “in” or “out” sections of the bowtie. Lastly, there will always be the obscure components that are not referenced by any.
The bowtie structure is one that seems to be consistent with many large systems of websites in the internet, and its facilitation of information flow proves to be very effective. The internet has expanded and becomes such a useful resource because of this, and similarly, Reddit will likely continue to be a hub of activity, and many will continue to benefit.
Specifically, in this case, an indie game maker gained substantially increased sales on his game after making a post on reddit. His game previously had little reachability, but after going on reddit and talking about it, he had boosted viewership and sales. Examples like these prove the effectiveness of the bowtie structure, and the potential good it can do.
http://gamasutra.com/blogs/AkselJunkkila/20151009/255807/How_a_front_page_Reddit_post_affected_the_sales_of_an_indie_game.php