For a long time, AITA would only receive one or two entries a week, the occasional armchair philosopher stumbling upon the sub and rendering a judgment. (Beaulac’s AC predicament, for instance, was resolved by just one person, who ultimately deemed him not the asshole.) Gradually, as the forum jumped from 5,000 to 15,000 subscribers and then beyond, Beaulac recruited some mods to help engage with the users, and expanded the idea of what the sub could be.In addition to the final judgments (YTA, NTA, etc.), which appear in little flairs on the side of each solved question, the top commenters could now accrue points for leaving the most upvoted comment in an entry. Users with one point ascend to the rank of Partassipant. Those in possession of 20 or more are Certified Proctologists. After that comes Craptain (150 points), Commander-in-Cheeks (200 points), and Prime Ministurd (400 points), all pit stops along the way to the highest station, Galasstic Overlord (1,500 points). Gamifying the judgments helped ensure that the commentariat kept on commenting.Around Thanksgiving 2018, after five years of steady build, AITA hit the quarter-million subscriber mark. Power users on other, more popular subreddits started regularly cross-posting entries, getting fresh eyeballs on potential a-holes. More and more people would show up and stick around, until an entry or two from the sub began to appear on Reddit’s front page just about every day. An AITA Twitter account, not affiliated with Beaulac, sprang up next spring, serving as a best-of outpost and driving some traffic while building a quarter-million followers of its own. Chrissy Teigen then tweeted about her descent into AITA addiction, bringing some of her massive following on board. Around the same time, the sub inspired a podcast, also unaffiliated with Beaulac, who has not profited from his creation in any monetary way.But the major turning point was probably the micropenis."
News
Contexts
- r/AITA is a 🏷️#subreddit