Community news aggregation website Reddit.com recently launched Upvoted.com, a website curating the most interesting user-generated content from Reddit's many sub-communities. The domain name 'upvoted.com' seems to have been registered in July 2007 and was updated on April 1st of 2015, most likely after it was bought from the person who originally registered it:
Updated Date: 01-apr-2015 Creation Date: 09-jul-2007 Expiration Date: 09-jul-2016
Source: public whois data
Interestingly enough, about a week before the launch of upvoted.com someone at Reddit also registered 'upvoated.com':
Domain Name: upvoated.com Registry Domain ID: 1964806093_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.gandi.net Registrar URL: http://www.gandi.net Updated Date: 2015-10-06T22:48:21Z Creation Date: 2015-09-29T23:29:48Z Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2016-09-29T23:29:48Z Registrar: GANDI SAS Registrar IANA ID: 81 Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@support.gandi.net Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +33.170377661 Reseller: Reddit Inc Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited Domain Status: Domain Status: Domain Status: Domain Status: Registry Registrant ID: Registrant Name: Domain Administrator Registrant Organization: Reddit Inc Registrant Street: 548 Market St., #16093 Registrant City: San Francisco Registrant State/Province: California Registrant Postal Code: 94104-5401 Registrant Country: US Registrant Phone: +1.4156662330
Source: public whois data
'Upvoated' appears to be a clear reference to Voat.co, a rival community news aggregator similar to Reddit in design and functionality. Voat started as the hobby project of Swiss student Atif Colo, known as 'Atko' on the site. Voat received a large influx of Reddit users in 2015 after a part of Reddit's userbase revolted at certain policies aimed at curtailing offensive and harrasing content.
Reddit founder and current CEO Steve Huffman recently claimed Voat's subscriber numbers were bogus:
Huffman insists he's not worried about a Great Reddit Migration, now that Voat is holding itself out as a truly uncensored alternative. "Voat is just a copy of Reddit," he says. "I wish them the best. I know their subscriber numbers are totally bogus, that's obvious to me. We used to fake those numbers, too, when we were little, so I can't blame them for that."
Source: nymag.com
Registering a domain name similar to a rival and claiming their statistics are bogus? Doesn't sound very confident to us...
Addendum: Voat user adsnell2004 claims he bought 'upgoated.com', so if Voat ever wants to make a similar site curating its best content it seems they can. However, another Voat user snarkily remarked:
I think we already have that, it's called the front page.
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