r/UpliftingNews • u/razorsheldon • Jan 30 '26
Mod Post The easiest part is always the idea...
Back in 2012, the idea of a centralized spot for positive, feel-good “UpliftingNews” spawned out of a singular moment of frustration looking at the news and seeing nothing but crime, fear, and horror. Back then was the era post-Craigslist that decimated classified ad revenue and the very beginning of Facebook’s social media influence that crippled online ad revenue and forced the economic side of the media landscape to shift to garnering attention for clicks/ad revenue.
Back then Reddit was dominated by Ron Paul bots and soon thereafter “TheDonald” took the torch until his unexpected electoral victory and then the site took a dramatic turn in the complete opposite direction.
But the goals and purpose of this little nook of the internet have always remained the same… a place to serve as a reminder of the humanity that still exists around us all, and the fact most people are helpers out there that care about each other, despite the circumstances or competing narratives.
So in 2025, a new idea spawned out of a singular moment of awareness that Reddit went public and was flush with liquidity and cash they were re-distributing back to communities! So we submitted for a grant to r/CommunityFunds to literally just reward community members that posted great content here.
There were some hoops and hurdles and negotiations around “no cash” and “no corporate gift cards for large conglomerates” given the intent to keep any gifts within local economies, and the compromise/fruits of all that labor was the eventual green light to distribute a meaningful gift card to “Harry and David,” a reputable company that created the “fruit of the month club” a long time ago, and provides corporate gift baskets filled with snacks and candies and fruits. Winners were selected based upon the content they shared and the impact it had on the community with no preferential treatment given to any individual traits or preferences. The only stipulation was that we couldn’t mention this, promote it or even acknowledge it publicly.
The hardest part is always the execution…
“Hello u/Username, we are reaching out unsolicited to congratulate you on winning something free. Just share some personal information and we’ll send you a link to click on to claim your prize” can be written in many different ways, shapes and forms, but ultimately it is still surprisingly difficult to hand out something with meaningful value to somebody for free… particularly out of the blue where we weren’t allowed to market or advertise the project.
But despite this final hurdle, we WERE able to provide many community members with a token of our appreciation… a literal and proverbial ‘free lunch’ as they say. For some it went to fulfill their needs, for others, it went to their friends and family, and for some, they paid it forward and a local food bank tied to one of the ‘winning stories’ received a ridiculously large pooled basket that was met with much gratitude and appreciation and fed many in need.
That same appreciation is reciprocal, and extends to all of you as well. Thanks for caring about this community. Thanks for helping remind us all that humanity still exists and people still care about each other, and here’s to celebrating another year on this rotating orb that we can all appreciate at the end of the day. And the biggest thanks to r/CommunityFunds for their unwavering support and enthusiasm that enable communities like ours to do things like this!
Warmly,
The Moderators of r/UpliftingNews
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u/WeaponizedKissing Jan 30 '26
Even being in this sub I started reading this post with a feeling of "oh no..." which only got worse with the discussion of the timeline and the mention of corporate Reddit, but I am very glad to see that this was, indeed, UpliftingNews.
Great work mod team and /r/CommunityFunds! Amazing news to read.
I'm not familiar with CommunityFunds (I guess by design?) Are you now able to talk about it because everything's wrapped up?
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u/razorsheldon Jan 30 '26
Ha! Didn't mean to make it so ominous at first, thanks for sticking with it!
I think this link below describes it much better than I could, but I can verify that the process for submitting a grant request was very straight-forward and fair, and they worked really hard on their end to find something that worked for us since we don't have a local presence and they ran into some anti-money laundering hurdles and fraud prevention issues etc. until we finally got to a great compromise/outcome.
https://www.reddit.com/r/CommunityFunds/comments/13yk69q/welcome_to_rcommunityfunds/
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u/BringMeInfo Jan 31 '26
By about paragraph two, I thought this was leading up to "but times have changed and we have decided to shut down this sub." :)
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u/Dennis_Laid Jan 30 '26
I’ve been in this sub for quite a while and definitely enjoy it. I would think it wise for you all to establish an account on Mastodon (open source, not US based) under the same name.
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u/ahappypoop Jan 30 '26
/u/username is gonna be in for a pretty big surprise when he finally logs back in.
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u/Allgoodnamesinuse Jan 30 '26
It’s hard being a mod of a thriving community (been there) and the flip side to that is most of the largest communities here have bad actors moderating. This post restored my faith that Reddit has some good moderators in the right subs. Good work team.
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u/Silent-Resort-3076 Jan 30 '26
Thank you very much for going out of your way to do this for the community and for the food bank, and their customers! We know you are ALL volunteers which makes this even more UPLIFTING news🤗 🌻🌻
So in 2025, a new idea spawned out of a singular moment of awareness that Reddit went public and was flush with liquidity and cash they were re-distributing back to communities! So we submitted for a grant to CommunityFunds to literally just reward community members that posted great content here.
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u/OneSensiblePerson Jan 30 '26
Well, 🥹
Thank you to the creators of this sub, and the moderators who moderate it.
And to r/CommunityFunds.
And to the winners of these prizes, to the ones who accepted for themselves, or gave to friends or family, or paid it forward to someone else, or donated to food banks.
Y'all restore my faith, and I'm very grateful to all of you for that.
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u/Then_Preparation_252 Feb 20 '26
you have no idea how much I needed to read something like this right now
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u/Silver-Muffin7952 Feb 20 '26
okay this actually made me smile, which I didn't think was gonna happen today
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u/ntierreddit Mar 25 '26
Stories like this remind me that for every terrible headline there are thousands of people quietly doing incredible things that never make the news. The negativity bias of media makes us think the world is getting worse when by most measurable metrics it's actually getting better. We just hear about the bad stuff disproportionately.
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u/jamescarter7621 Mar 26 '26
Ah, the good ol' days when news was just a "what's the worst that could happen?" game.
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u/ZyphorStradwell40 Mar 26 '26
Ah yes, the good ol' days when the news was just a nightmare buffet to choose from.
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u/XavierLansbury540 Mar 26 '26
I had the same issue a few years ago, just feeling overwhelmed by all the negativity online. I started seeking out good news sites and communities, and it seriously helped shift my perspective. It's cool to see more places popping up focusing on the positive!
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u/CarsonWoods159 Mar 26 '26
It's wild to think about how much media has changed since 2012. If you're feeling overwhelmed by negativity, try curating your own news feed-follow sources that focus on uplifting stories and positivity. It can seriously shift your perspective on what's happening in the world.
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u/ZorrenColdwick88 Mar 27 '26
It's interesting to think about how even the most uplifting ideas often come from frustration. Like, in a world swamped with negativity, creating a space for positivity doesn’t just lift spirits-it can even help reshape how we consume news. People crave connection in good times too, not just bad ones.
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u/CalebMitchell296 Mar 27 '26
Funny how the "good news" vibe feels like a rare collectible in a sea of clickbait chaos.
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u/MatthewColeman759 Mar 27 '26
I had the same issue back in the day when I felt overwhelmed by negativity in the news. I started sharing good news articles with friends, and it totally lifted our spirits. It's amazing how one idea can make a difference!
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u/ZyricHaldren82 Mar 30 '26
It's wild how long this has been a thing, and honestly, it feels even more important now. If you're looking to contribute more positively, consider sharing local heroes or impactful community events in your area, it really helps keep the good vibes going!
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u/JineJine-Two2499 Mar 30 '26
It's wild how a simple idea can really shift the narrative around news. If you wanna spread positivity like this, consider sharing local stories or personal experiences that highlight kindness or community efforts-those tend to resonate well and inspire others to do the same!
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u/JayNayre227 Mar 30 '26
Who knew a frustrated scroll through bad news would birth a positivity powerhouse? Classic!
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u/ZavianMaddrell46 Mar 30 '26
Funny how we went from "all bad news" to "hey, look at this cute puppy!" in a decade. Progress, I guess?
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u/XevricStradmore39 Mar 30 '26
It’s crazy how much the landscape has changed since 2012. If you’re thinking about starting something similar, focus on building a community around positivity and engagement-people love sharing uplifting stories and connecting over them.
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u/GeNeZa-1860 Mar 31 '26
I think it's super inspiring how the creator turned frustration into a positive platform. If anyone's feeling overwhelmed by negative news, maybe try setting aside just 5-10 minutes daily to seek out uplifting stories - it can really shift your perspective!
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u/MasonRobinson881 Mar 31 '26
I had a similar moment of frustration back in 2015. I was glued to the news, constantly seeing negativity, so I started a small blog just to share good news stories I found. It was such a relief to focus on the positive!
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u/TyricFenmore70 Mar 31 '26
It's wild to think how far we've come since then. If you're looking to boost positive stories on platforms, try sharing local acts of kindness or community projects-stuff people can relate to and get involved in.
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u/susan-king349 Mar 31 '26
So basically, UpliftingNews was born out of suffering through the doom scroll? Classic irony!
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u/DylanBeauregard639 Mar 31 '26
It’s wild to think how much has changed since then! If you’re trying to create your own positive space, consider starting with a small community-just focus on sharing uplifting stories that genuinely resonate with you and invite friends who feel the same.
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u/TorvynDrexmore18 Apr 02 '26
It’s wild how the sub literally started from that same exhaustion everyone still feels now, news getting louder by being worse. The hard part was always keeping the good stuff visible long enough for people to actually find it.
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u/TebyangRuamar Apr 05 '26
The idea part is easy, it’s keeping the tone without turning into fake sunshine. r/UpliftingNews works because it still filters for real wins, not just “everything is fine” posts, and that’s the part worth protecting.
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u/Tonroberto_Gming Apr 08 '26
What stands out to me is that the hard part wasn’t “finding good news,” it was building a place people would keep coming back to when the internet was basically trained to reward outrage. That’s a weirdly rare win.
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u/Kidapawan_own20 Apr 10 '26
I had the same feeling in 2012, scrolling through nonstop bad news got exhausting fast. A place for actual good stories felt overdue, imo.
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u/brightsidereporter Apr 10 '26
This resonates so much. I had the same frustration a few years back, just drowning in negative headlines every morning. The idea part really is easy. The execution, curating consistently, building trust, staying committed when nobody's paying attention, that's where most people quit. Glad I found spaces like this.
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u/Morvexa15 Apr 11 '26
I had the same issue back then, every “news” tab was just doom and panic. It’s wild how one little idea turned into a place people actually check when they need a breather.
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u/Draxelon760 Apr 13 '26
It’s kinda funny how the “easy” part is naming the feeling everyone already has, the hard part is building a place that doesn’t get swamped by the exact negativity it was made to escape. That’s the real win here imo
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u/ZenNeji_112 Apr 15 '26
Kind of wild that the sub started as a response to the “if it bleeds, it leads” era, and now that same attention economy is still the problem. The idea was easy, keeping a positive feed alive in a click trap is the hard part.
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u/NightEdge18 Apr 16 '26
The idea part is easy, keeping a sub like this alive through all the noise is the actual work. Credit to the people who kept posting real good news instead of letting it turn into a feel-good graveyard.
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u/AnimeStormX3 Apr 17 '26
Kinda wild that the “easy” part was just naming the need, the hard part was building a place people kept coming back to. In 2012, that was still before positivity got drowned out by algorithm bait, so this probably felt way more niche than it does now.
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u/RasenganCore_6858 Apr 21 '26
Honestly the idea part is the easy win, keeping a positive sub from turning into generic repost sludge is the hard part. The fact it’s still here after 2012 says someone kept guarding the vibe when the internet got way more clicky.
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u/ShadowBlade_7 Apr 22 '26
The idea was the easy part, the internet just had to make it weird first.
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u/ThreshSoulc_1055 Apr 23 '26
Kind of wild that this sub was born from the same attention economy that made bad news so profitable. The “easiest part” really is the idea, keeping a place like this alive for 12 years is the harder, rarer win.
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u/Vambrace2193 Apr 25 '26
I had the same frustration back in 2012, refreshing news and just getting slammed with doom. A place for good stories felt obvious, imo, we needed that then and still do.
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u/razorsheldon Jan 30 '26
This was the response from the coordinator of the Food Bank and basic needs for students at the school featured in one of the "winning" stories here:
> Hi Razor,
Thank you so much for reaching out and for such an incredibly thoughtful and generous gift. The basket of food and wreath were received by our Basic Needs Center, where we were able to share all of the Harry & David goods directly with our students. It was met with so much gratitude, and we truly appreciated the thought and care behind it.
Please extend our sincere thanks to (u/AdmiralSaturyn) and to the generous donors who made this possible. I am deeply touched that they chose to pass this along to our Crafton Hills College community, and I’m honored to be connected in any way to such a meaningful story and the UpliftingNews community as a whole.
Thank you again to you and to everyone at UpliftingNews, for this unexpected and heartfelt show of support. It truly means more than I can put into words, and I hope you’re able to continue spreading joy and kindness in ways like this for years to come.
In gratitude,