RSVPs, scheduling, and live tags make AMAs feel more like their own thing.
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Reddit’s “ask me anything” posts, or AMAs, could feel more like special events than standard posts with a twist, thanks to changes that go sitewide on Thursday. While none of the updates reflect a total overhaul, they do put a new kind of emphasis on the popular Q&A sessions.
Starting on Thursday, a new AMA tab will offer special options like the ability to schedule and promote an AMA in a single post. Creators of the posts can also add up to five cohosts, whose answers are tagged as such in the comments section. When the AMA is over, hosts can also add an ending note with closing thoughts, links, or final promotional info.
For ordinary site users, a new RSVP option will let them get notifications so they don’t miss one. Once the AMA is live, new tabs let readers filter comments by questions the hosts have answered or those they haven’t. Also, scheduled AMAs will get labels noting if they’re coming soon, already live, or have passed.
Here’s an image gallery with some of the changes:
Reddit has been testing its new format for a while, so you can see how it works in a few AMAs. There’s one hosted by Slipknot percussionist Shawn “Clown” Crahan, another cohosted by a pair of journalists and a man who was falsely imprisoned for almost four decades for murder, and a session from, er, Homelander of Amazon Prime’s The Boys.
Like a lot of people, I always feel the need to brace myself whenever Reddit announces it’s doing something new. But these tweaks to the site’s Q&A sessions feel like genuine improvements. Having missed my share of AMAs that I really wanted to be a part of because I simply forgot, I’m looking forward to getting reminders for them.
