Reddit claims to be "the front page of the internet" for many reasons. Since things have less boundaries, Reddit can have entertaining conversations. However, things in there can be loud, often crude and pretty nasty. This is where Imzy took its role.
Imzy was launched in the summer of 2016 by Dan McComas and Jessica Moreno. McComas was Reddit's product chief before leaving the company due to disagreements about how the site should be run. McComas then founded Imzy, along with several former employees of Reddit and Twitter.
After launching the site for six months in beta, and added 50,000 members and 6,000 communities, Imzy opened its doors to the public.
Imzy and Reddit share common things: they want to be the community where engaging conversations happen. Imzy was also using the same kind of threaded comments similar to Reddit's.
The distinct difference between them is that Imzy started out with basic rules on how people should kindly treat each other. This is a contrast to how Reddit that tends to carelessly favor trolls to manipulate certain conversations. Imzy also has zero tolerance on harassment and contents such as pornography.
In short, the self-styled friendlier alternative to Reddit, offers a kinder, nicer and safer place for people to communicate.
But quietly as it came, the community site is shutting down after a year of operation.
@imzyhq 3/3 - But for today, I am heartbroken to say, that @imzyhq is shutting down. https://t.co/JQBxXxPisC
Thanks for the support everyone.— Dan McComas (@kickme444) May 24, 2017
Imzy was able to raise a total of $11 million, and it a great and friendly dream. But given that the internet is a harsh place, its approach didn't fit well into the masses in the long run.
Dan McComas made the announcement in a blog post:
Imzy is offering everyone time to get their data off the website. It is also redirecting its community members to other online meeting places. The whole site is planned to go dark on June 23rd.