Reddit showers gold on drugs, hippies and Tor-rorists

In colossal shock, Redditors want to be free to understand mind-bending substances

4chan-for-beginners website Reddit has announced the winners of its charity give-away.

The site said that it would donate 10 per cent of its ad revenues from the last year - US$827,659.49 - to 10 charities selected by its user base. Each charity will receive a check for $82,765.95 from Reddit.

True to form, Redditors settled on giving much of the cash to tech-focused charities. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) was the top vote-getter after the 250,000-odd ballots were tallied. The Wikimedia Foundation was fifth in the vote, while the Free Software Foundation was eighth and the Tor Project came up 10th.

"We are totally thrilled," EFF development director Richard Esguerra told El Reg.

"One of the really wonderful things about it is they were taking votes from the community, we have always focused on user rights and being a champion of the community."

Other recipients were similarly happy to get a big wad of free money from Reddit.

Woah! FSF is one of 10 non-profits given $82,765.95 each by Reddit Donate. If you voted for us, thank you! https://t.co/yyNe1p8Jlb

— Free Software Fndn. (@fsf) February 26, 2015

We are blown away by this unexpected gift from the @Reddit community to support #Tor! Thank you! \o/ #redditDonate pic.twitter.com/vTFLqMQC1p

— torproject (@torproject) February 26, 2015

The $82K will make more of a difference to some recipients than others: the EFF recorded around $9.5m in contributions in its 2013 financial report, while Tor reported holding $1.7m in total assets for the same period.

Planned Parenthood placed second in the vote, followed by Doctors Without Borders in third.

Also well represented in the vote? Drugs. A pair of psychoactive research projects tripped their way into the top 10, with the Erowid Center ranking fourth and the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies placing sixth.

Other winners included National Public Radio (seventh in voting) and the Freedom from Religion Foundation (ninth).

Reddit said earlier this month that it would "decimate" its yearly ad revenues, committing 10 per cent of the year's take to charitable organizations selected by its readers. ®