Happy April, Transcribers of Reddit! Today might be April Fools’, but we have something serious to celebrate…
On April 1, 2017, /u/itsthejoker and /u/CaptCoe launched Transcribers of Reddit to organize their hobby of transcribing greentext over on r/DnDGreentext. Almost immediately, they realized two things: 1) people were actually interested in participating in this little project, and 2) these transcriptions they were doing for fun had the potential to seriously improve accessibility on Reddit for the blind, visually impaired, and anyone else who needs or wants transcriptions to engage with content.
Here’s a little trip down memory lane to remember all of the things we’ve accomplished in the past five years!
February-October 2018: We refer volunteers to Boston Public Library’s project transcribing their archives of anti-slavery manuscripts. 56 ToR volunteers transcribed 281 pages over 104 documents. Check out our wiki page about it here.
June 23, 2018: We hold our first Clear the Queue, launching one of our most popular events and transcribing 267 posts in 24 hours. For a comparison of how much we’ve grown, our most recent Clear the Queue in January 2022 transcribed 851 posts! See where it all started here, and last month’s meta for our most recent attempt!
June 2018: Our parent organization, Grafeas Group, is granted 501(c)(3) charity status and becomes a nonprofit! Our nonprofit status is critical to our ability to organize and fund this project. Check out our website here, and a meta post we did last year discussing life as a nonprofit here!
October-December 2018: We are featured in a display at the Indianapolis Public Library! Check out some photos of our display case: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
February 23, 2020: Our work is the subject of an article in WIRED, featuring an interview with two mods and two volunteers. Read it here.
November 11, 2020: Our Engagement Team launches the ToR Treasure Hunt, a recurring ten-day challenge to transcribe a particular set of posts in pursuit of exclusive stars in our Discord. We just celebrated our fiftieth Treasure Hunt! Admire the winner’s board here.
May 16, 2021: We launch our merch shop! Proceeds from merch sales support the costs of keeping this project running. Buy our swag here, and for the next three days, use the coupon code FIVEMOREYEARS to get 10% off any order of $20 or more!
June 11, 2021: we officially leave Beta with the launch of our new infrastructure, nicknamed Bubbles. Read our blog post about it here!
November 2021: We hit 5,000 volunteers! Look back at our celebration, including a custom balloon confetti tribute, here.
January 15, 2022: Our Dev Team launches our new Discord bot, Buttercup. Check out our open-source code here.
And finally, here are some truly incredible stats: In the first five years of our project, 5,440 volunteers have transcribed 233,748 posts in the name of increasing accessibility on Reddit and spreading awareness of digital accessibility around the world.
We would like to genuinely thank everyone who has participated in and supported this project: all 5,440 volunteers across all seven continents (yes, even Antarctica), the 33 people who have served as mods present and past, the non-mod behind-the-scenes folks who keep us running including our fantastic lead dev /u/personal_opinions, our 97 partner subreddits and each of their wonderful mod teams who have welcomed us into their communities, the 909 people in our Discord, the r/blind community and mods for their vital feedback to help us better meet accessibility needs, and everyone who has supported us with their donations, merch purchases, upvotes, awards, kind comments, and “good human”s. We truly could not have done this without every single one of you!
Let us know in the comments about your experience with Transcribers Of Reddit over our first five years. What has this project meant to you? What are your favorite memories? Do you have a favorite transcription you’ve done? Let’s celebrate!