Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Reddit

So you’ve moved beyond email, you’re a Google machine. You’ve seen most of Youtube, and every cat meme. You’ve Yahoo’ed for years and while their news is fun, there must be a place for some real discussion.

Where can you go to delve into topics, to make your online experience a touch less myopic? Could there be a place where your niches are served, where funny and helpful get the praise that’s deserved?

Terrible impromptu poetry aside, it can be a real challenge to find quality information when nearly everyone in the world can be a content creator. From endless dubstep remixes to crushingly dumb questions, we face a glut of mediocrity neck-deep – and rising. Even if one knows well their specific interests, it’s easy to be frozen at the search cursor, simply overwhelmed by choice. It can also be tough to truly branch outside of one’s usual sphere, as search algorithms tend to provide links that reinforce a narrow spectrum of interests.

We’re a social animal, and we’ve accomplished so much throughout history through by working together. Theoretically, the internet should be a paradise of cooperation: ease of interaction, shared interests, time and passion. So finally you’ve found your niche and you’re ready to engage the community, but oh my god, who are these people? How can anyone find something worthwhile in this conversation toilet? Surely there must be a way to filter; to reward those who are kind and relevant, and to deter the subhuman nuttery of an average comments section.

So where does one go to find novelty, expertise, humor, politeness and community? Okay, it’s been spoiled by the title of this post, but yes, it’s Reddit. Founded in 2006 and continually gaining popularity, its system of voting on both comments and content provides direct reward – or, in the case of down-voting, quiet ignominy – for those who post interesting, thought-provoking, hilarious, and otherwise worthwhile media. It features a nearly limitless breadth of subreddits – seriously, what – and a camaraderie that is hard to find anywhere else.

Come by, do some voting, and post some original content. They love that.

Just, please – don’t tell /r/poetry about what I did up there.

See WhoIsHostingThis on Reddit

Transcript: Beginner’s Guide to Reddit

Reddit, also known as “The Front Page of the Internet” is a social bookmarking community. In March of 2014, Reddit had 114,943,104 unique visitors from 190 countries.

How Reddit Works

• Someone submits a story on Reddit.
• Members, known as “Redditors”, vote content up or down based on how important they think it is.
• • Content voted up gets more visibility.
  • Content voted down eventually disappears into the deep layers of the website.
• Members can add comments to any story.
• Members can create independent communities known as “subreddits,” that are monitored by a team of volunteers called volunteers.
• Members earn “karma” based on what others think about them.
• • Contribute well and often and you’ll get higher karma.
  • Higher karma numbers let other redditors know to trust you.

How to Use Reddit

• Jump in and comment on things.
• • You’ll get a feel for the community and how things work.
  • Read each subreddits FAQ before getting sucked in.
  • • The FAQ will outline what’s allowed and what’s not.
  • Focus on subreddits that interest you and that you are knowledgeable about.
  • Comments are often more valuable than the originally submitted material.
• Submit things to the site and subreddits.
• • Don’t submit your own stuff.
  • Find articles, photos, and videos you think are interesting or would be valuable to the members of subreddits.
  • • Write a title that stands out-it’s the only thing you’ll have to grab attention.
    • Use the full URL with a permalink, not a URL shortener.
    • Submit manually, or not at all.
  • Actively vote things up and down.
  • • Don’t arbitrarily vote. Make sure you’re voting on content you’ve viewed.

Use Reddit Lingo

• OP: Original poster
• OC: Original content
• TIL: Today I learned
• AMA: Ask me anything
• IamA: Say what your profession is and answer questions
• TL;DR: Too long, didn’t read
• Lurker: Someone who visits but doesn’t participate in conversation
• Doxing: posting identifying information about someone
• Throwaway: An account made for the purpose of revealing embarrassing or personal information while preserving anonymity
• ITT: In this thread
• IRL: In real life
• HIFW: How I feel when

Reddit Etiquette

Do:

• Search for duplicates before submitting new content
• Visit the new submissions page and vote content
• Write with proper grammar and spelling
• Report spam you may find
• Cross post material if you believe it fits in more than one community

Don’t:

• Repost deleted information
• Post personal information, yours or someone else’s
• Attack other commenters
• Ask for votes, or hint at it
• Vote up or down based on who submitted the content
• Use time-sensitive words in your title submissions
• • By the time your submission makes it to the front page of Reddit, it won’t be “breaking” anymore.

Reddit Memberships

• Reddit Gold is a premium membership to help the community.
• • For $3.99/month or $29.99/year, you can get access to premium features, including:
  • • Highlight new comments since the last time you visited a thread
    • Remember links you’ve already visited across computers
    • Access to special deals with Reddit partners
    • Notifications when you’re mentioned in comments
    • Turn off ads
    • Keep up with your friends on Reddit

Why to Use Reddit?

• Find what’s popular on the Internet in any given niche at any time.
• • If Google is where you go to find things, Reddit is where you go to find the things people have found.
• Build a community with discussions inside subreddits.
• • Find out what people in your niche are looking for to develop new content for your own website/blog

Sources

• About Reddit – reddit.com
• About Reddit Gold – reddit.com
• The TL;DR Guide to Reddit Lingo – mashable.com
• Reddit 101: A Beginner’s Guide to the Front Page of the Internet – digitaltrends.com
• Reddit: How To Use It And Why You Should – cinemablend.com
• The Reddit Guide to Massive Traffic – searchenginejournal.com
• How to Reverse Engineer Success on Reddit – siegemedia.com
• Reddiquette – reddit.com
• Unmasking Reddit’s Violentacrez, The Biggest Troll on the Web – gawker.com