A Beginner's Guide to Reddit

By Malcolm Aquino on July 23, 2013

In 2005, Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian created Reddit, and since then, it has become one of the most popular hubs of information on the internet. Lots of people have become ‘Redditors’, drawing in more than 30 million users a month. Composed of completely user-generated content, Reddit is an internet playground mixed in with an online encyclopedia of every type of knowledge imaginable. It is easy to get lost in the amount of information there is, so here are a few things you should do when you begin your path to becoming a true Redditor.

Photo via reddit.com

Subreddits 

Subreddits are niche sections of Reddit that have a specific focus. From the childhood nostalgia to the downright strange, subreddits cover just about every thing you can imagine (yes, everything). The key to finding the right subreddits is just to subscribe to things you like. Love food?  There’s one for that.  Is the latest in low budget spending techniques more your speed? Done.  Need some new Wikipedia entries to read? No problem.  Subreddits are what makes the Reddit experience. Without them, you would be stuck with enduring a non-stop  barrage of cute pictures of animals, things posted to r/atheism (my vote for worst subreddit in existence – and no, I’m not religious), or some meme describing some mundane random act of kindness or douchebaggery. Reddit has a very open policy in free speech, meaning that they allow just about anything to be posted, from subreddits like r/nsfl (acronym for “not safe for life”) posting what is probably some of the most offensive content you’ll see ever and will make you question human beings to the Silk Road, which is the internet drug trade hub.  Reddit took some heat with the law with the user violentacrez and his mod work on sites, a subreddit where pics of underage girls were posted, usually in some sexual way, and the subreddit was shut down. While the creators of Reddit disagree with a lot of the stuff being posted, they continue to uphold the absolute freedom of speech that Reddit supports. So don’t get discouraged when you see something disturbing. Instead, just make sure you make an account right away and subscribe to the stuff that you do want to see.

Quick Guide to Lingo

The internet has gotten so big that it has developed its own language, and I don’t mean coding. Phrase, abbreviations, and other variations of wording have spawned to take away the need to completely spell things out.  It is easy to get completely lost in a conversation, or “thread” as users like to call it.  So here are a few key terms that you should know as a novice.

  • FTFY – fixed this for you

This term tends to be thrown out when someone disagrees with another person about something. Here’s an example:

“Bacon and chocolate are the two greatest things ever.”

“FTFY – Bacon and sleep are the two greatest things ever.”

Disclaimer: I love all of them equally.

  • TIL – Today I Learned

Both a subreddit and a phrase, its pretty self explanatory in its meaning. You use then when, you guessed it, you learn a new random fact, which will happen a lot.

  • Karma – points received from upvotes

Karma is the fuel that keeps the Reddit machine running. Upvotes are just like likes on Facebook, except with Reddit, the more upvotes you have, the more prevalent your post is on the front page of Reddit, or if its a comment, higher placement in the thread. There are users that specifically aim to accrue a large amount of karma; these people are called “karma whores” and are generally looked at with disdain.

  • Mods – moderators

The police of Reddit, making sure that every post follows the guidelines of the site. Every sub has its own set of guidelines, so be sure to check them before you post anything so that the mods don’t come after you and you can reddit (yes, it’s a verb too) in peace.

Reddit is probably the best thing to happen to the Internet, but it takes some time to learn the ins and outs of it all. I’ve been using Reddit for a few years now and I’m still learning things about it all the time. Reddit is the place that you can go and enjoy things from all aspects of your life and find a community that share interests. I hope this guide helps you find what you’re looking for out of Reddit and enjoy it as much as I do.

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