Social media pro: Reddit
FIND A DEDICATED ONLINE COMMUNITY FOR THE THINGS THAT ACTUALLY INTEREST YOU.
THERE ARE THOSE rare moments in life when you come across something that simply must be shared. It could be a humorous cat GIF, viral flash mob video, or that random thought you had at 2:03 am the previous morning [ You, not Trump — Sub-Ed]. But where is the best place to share said piece of content? Before you begin typing that Facebook post, think about just how many of your friends would actually be interested in a photoshopped image of a bird with arms (yes, it’s a thing). Instead I’d ask you to redirect your attention to an entirely different social network called Reddit. A website housing an extensive number of communities each dealing with something different, you’re likely to find one that meets your needs in a matter of clicks. Follow us as we take you through the smooth and occasionally rocky site that is Reddit.
THE BASICS
SUBREDDITS: In its most basic form, Reddit is an enormous library of user-created pages focused on topics ranging from the extremely broad to surprisingly niche. For example, r/gifs is a community devoted entirely to animated GIFs, while r/philately is for all your stamp collecting needs. Personal favourites of mine include r/dataisbeautiful — an endless feed of satisfying charts and graphs, r/whitepeopletwitter — humorous tweets presumably made by and about white people; and r/wtfstockphotos — self explanatory. Subscribing to a subreddit adds posts from that page to your home feed so you can access them easily and keep up to date.
VOTING: Reddit is often referred to as a digital democracy based on the fact that ordinary users decide what does and does not trend on the site. The things that appear on the Reddit homepage aren’t decided by site admins, but rather by what could only be described as a popularity contest. Relying on a poll-based system, each post (and accompanying comments) can be up- or downvoted by other users. Note that you shouldn’t downvote a post simply because you disagree; on the contrary, it’s best used when a post or comment is irrelevant to the topic being discussed. Posts with the highest number of upvotes and the least amount of downvotes will automatically move to the top of a subreddit.
POSTING: After exploring the site, eventually, you’ll want to go ahead and post something. Reddit lets you contribute photos, videos, links and text. Tap the textbox at the top of your feed or subreddit and choose what you wish to contribute. One important thing to remember is that each subreddit will have a unique set of rules and guidelines around the types of posts that can be submitted — tap the ‘rules’ button whilst writing a post to see these, or press the three dots (...) button on a subreddit and tap ‘Community info’. Fail to follow these rules and a moderator could delete or even ban you from the page.
REDDIQUETTE. They say people can’t have nice things when it comes to the internet, and in some ways, they’re right. While many Reddit users choose to play by the rules, there are some who prefer to go rogue on the site. Reddit frequently performs crackdowns on highly controversial and illegal subreddits, but sometimes posts and comments fall through the cracks. Reddiquette is a set of working guidelines written by the site’s community at large outlining how to behave and interact on the social network. Notable points include reading the rules of a subreddit before posting, being conscious of what you type whilst behind a computer screen, and not posting any illegal activity. The guide can be accessed here www.reddit.com/wiki/reddiquette.
STEP IT UP A LEVEL
COMMENTS: Each post is accompanied by what can often seem like an endless stream of comments and replies. Like posts, comments can be up- or downvoted, meaning the most favourable ones appear at the top.
MESSAGES: Like almost every other social network, Reddit allows you to send private messages to others. Tap a person’s name next to a post or comment to be taken to their profile. Click the About button and you’ll see an option to send them a message. FRIENDS: While having friends on Reddit isn’t essential, it’s still a useful way to keep track
of posts and comments made by interesting people from the site’s community. Navigate to the about section of a person’s profile and press add friend. Tap the Friends button on your own page to be shown a list of friend posts and comments.
PROFILE: Also on a person’s profile, you’ll see a list of their past contributions to the site. Tapping the follow button will put any future posts they make in your home feed. From your own profile, you can also see a history of viewed posts, upvotes and things saved.
ORGANISING POSTS: In addition to seeing what’s ‘hot’ in a particular subreddit, feeds can also be organised to display the newest, most controversial or top posts at any point in time. Press the button in the top-left of a feed to alternate between these. You can also change your location to see what’s trending in different parts of the world. Finally, tap the button in the top-right to change how posts are displayed in your feed.
KARMA: At the top of your profile, you’ll see a score representing karma. This number reflects the positive contribution you’ve made to the Reddit community. Karma accumulates based on the number of upvotes received for content you post to the site. Whilst acting as little more than a status symbol, it helps others form judgments about your performance as a Reddit user.
GOING PRO
GOLD: If you find yourself overly enjoying the Reddit experience, then why not upgrade to premium. Paying for Reddit gold unlocks additional tools and features such as customisable avatars, no ads, themes and the ability to view gold-only subreddits.
AMA: One particularly notable subreddit is r/AMA — short for ‘Ask Me Anything’. Here, you’ll find interesting Q&As with a diverse range of interesting people. It could be someone with a unique life experience, physical illness or strange interest. Even notable celebrities and well known figures such as Barack Obama and Bill Gates have participated. r/IAmA is another popular subreddit worth checking out.
MULTIREDDITS: Rather than repeatedly move between subreddits dealing with similar topics, you can group multiple communities together so they appear in a single feed. For example, you could create one for gaming, photography or sport. Note that
KARMA ACCUMULATES BASED ON THE NUMBER OF UPVOTES RECEIVED FOR CONTENT YOU POST TO THE SITE.
multireddits can only be created from the desktop site.
CROSSPOSTING: If whilst browsing a subreddit, you see a post you think would be suitable for another page, you can choose to share it directly. Tap the crosspost button under a post and choose another subreddit that you’re subscribed to. When crossposting, it’s common courtesy to include ‘crosspost’ or ‘x-post’ along with the original subreddit you’re posting from — for example, ‘x-post from r/gifs’ — to alert the audience. Once again, this feature is desktop only. ABBREVIATIONS. Working your way through the Reddit community, it’s likely you’ll come across a few unfamiliar abbreviations. For example, TIL is short for ‘today I learnt’, OP refers to the ‘original poster’ of content, while TL;DR means ‘too long; didn’t read’ — used when someone says something without reading the entire stream of comments. SAVING CONTENT: Whilst Reddit can be a great way of passing time, the same can’t be said for your mobile data, especially if it involves a constant stream of videos. Luckily, Reddit allows you to save posts for later viewing. Simply tap the three dots on a post or comment to see an option to save it. Previously saved items can be accessed from the profile section of the app.
IF YOU FIND YOURSELF OVERLY ENJOYING THE REDDIT EXPERIENCE, THEN WHY NOT UPGRADE TO PREMIUM?