The

Complete Beginner’s Guide to Reddit

By: Matthew Fuller

This book is a completely beginner-focused guide to setting up and maintaining
a Reddit account for the purposes of staying up-to-date with current events,
commenting on articles, or discovering interesting stories online. It is provided
as-is for educational purposes only and the author does not guarantee that it is
free from errors or that its instructions will become obsolete in the future.
Reddit and all references to the site herein are trademarked by Conde Nast.
1 Introduction
If you’ve been using the Internet for more than a few days, perhaps you’re
looking for a way to find new and interesting stories or learn more about a
certain topic. Luckily, you’ve come to the right place! In this book, I am going
to teach you about a site called Reddit.

If there is one place on the Internet that encompasses the broadest range of
topic diversity, user interaction, and occasional controversy, it is Reddit. Reddit
is a form of Internet bulletin board, a place where users can post links to news
stories, images, video, or just plain text about almost any topic imaginable.
These posts are then voted on by its users and the highest-voted posts reach the
top of the page while the negatively-voted posts slowly sink out of sight.

Reddit was started in 2005 by two students at the University of Virginia: Alexis
Ohanian and Steve Huffman. In 2006, the website was acquired by Condé Nast
Publications, although the company has interfered very little in the site’s
operation. The site has steadily gained users, and its biggest acquisition of new
accounts came between 2009 and 2010 when another similar site, Digg,
changed a number of its policies, causing a mass exodus of users to Reddit.

At the time of this book’s publication, Reddit has almost 3 million active
accounts. In 2013, there were over 56 billion page views on the website.
Actors, comedians, TV personalities, and even the President of the United
States have accounts on the site or have posted on it. Needless to say, Reddit is
extremely popular and influences a wide sector of the Internet.

In the next chapters, I will be walking through every step of using Reddit. I will
cover getting familiarized with the site, setting up an account, securing your
privacy, posting, interacting with users, utilizing the many resources available,
and customizing your experience. By the end of this book, I am hopeful that
you will be using Reddit to its full potential and enhancing your browsing
experience.
2 The Reddit Experience
Demographics
Before I begin walking through each of Reddit’s features and the process of
getting started on the site, I want to give you a bit more background that will
hopefully be helpful in understanding the site and its users. If you’re itching to
just get started, skip ahead to Chapter 3, but I think this chapter should be an
interesting read if you have the time.

The first thing you should understand about Reddit is its demographic. It is
very heavily populated by young-adult males with a liberal political ideology.
The most popular age range on the site is 18 - 29 and the comments and topics
generally reflect this. The site’s users as a whole are intensely political, value
fairness and free speech, and are also quite philanthropic, donating to a wide
variety of causes. If the age or political statistics make you hesitant to visit,
don’t worry, there are a seemingly unlimited number of sub communities that
differ from the sum of the whole.

Reddit has a very nerdy and technology-slanted presence as well. Due to the
fact that a number of its users joined when the site was focused heavily on these
topics, the culture remains strong. Technology-centric posts often get voted to
the top more easily than other posts and many of the site’s users have a high
degree of technological literacy. Users value the openness of the Internet and
any companies that work against that notion are shamed.

Due to the younger demographic of many of Reddit’s users, some of its
content can seem immature, crude, or inappropriate. There is very little
censorship on the site and pictures containing nudity or grotesque injuries are
posted regularly (although they can be easily hidden). Despite this, the user has
the ultimate control over everything he or she sees, and I’ll be walking through
the steps to customize the experience to a personal liking.

While the generalizations above apply to the average of Reddit’s users, there is
no shortage of demographics that do not fit the mold. While the political
ideology is predominantly liberal, there are countless communities for
conservatives, libertarians, anarchists, socialists, etc. Despite the
overrepresentation of male users, female users have a wide variety of
communities to join, including ones for women’s rights, motherhood,
parenting, etc. This pattern repeats, resulting in a site that can cater to almost
any political ideology, age, gender, and hobby.
Common Terms
In this section, I will define some common words and phrases that I’ll be using
in the book or that are popular on Reddit. The definitions will be brief, but
don’t worry, I’ll be getting into much more detail later.

Subreddit - A subreddit is a community within Reddit that covers a particular
topic. For example, the “politics” subreddit centers on political topics, news
stories, images, and videos. Subreddits are denoted with a /r/ after the
reddit.com address, such as reddit.com/r/politics.

Upvote - A positive vote on a submission or comment. It is displayed as an
orange up arrow.

Downvote - A negative vote on a submission or comment. It is displayed as a
blue down arrow.

AMA - Ask Me Anything. Although this is an entire subreddit by itself, the
term is used across the site to indicate to other users that they can ask questions
of the original poster. For example: I work at Google, AMA.

OP - Original Poster. Refers to the user who originally submitted the content
or made the first comment.

Thread - The collection of comments on a particular submission.

ITT - In This Thread. Used to reference something happening in the chain of
comments. For example, “ITT, everyone is talking about the wrong event.”

Karma - When a post is submitted or a comment posted and other users vote
on it, the resulting votes are added to a user ’s “karma.” Karma is meaningless
other than indicating how active a user is. There is post karma (for
submissions) and comment karma (for comments).

NSFW - Not Safe For Work. Used to indicate that the post may contain
inappropriate material not suitable to be viewed in public.

Repost - Indicates that the submission has already been posted previously.
Users are quick to point out reposts and often downvote those posts.

Cross Post (X-Post) - Indicates that a post is being made in multiple
subreddits for increased visibility. For example, a post about a new law
involving computers may be posted in the “politics” subreddit and cross-
posted in the “technology” subreddit.

TIL - Today I Learned. Indicates something interesting the user has just
learned.

Throwaway - User accounts are easy to make on Reddit, so many users make
a new “throwaway” account when posting NSFW or personal information so
that their identities are not revealed.

TL;DR - Too Long; Didn’t Read. Used to summarize a long post.

There are many more terms that you will come across, some that are only used
in certain subreddits, but I will do my best to describe them as they arise.
3 Getting Started
Your First Account
Now that you have enough information to understand what Reddit is at a high
level, let’s get started. Head on over to reddit.com. You may want to bookmark
this page, as it is quite addicting and I’m sure you’ll be spending a lot of time
on the site.

The Reddit Homepag e

At the top right, click “register” above the search box. The registration window
will appear. At this point, I want to take a moment to talk about usernames.
Usernames on Reddit are quite varied; some people use their own names (not
recommended) while others user puns or random strings of characters. Your
username is completely up to you; however, I do not recommend using a name
that can be connected back to you, either in real life or online through other
accounts. Redditors are notorious for tracking people down in real-life, and
you don’t want a comment you make on the site to cause someone to attempt to
find out who you are.

You do not need to enter an email address unless you want to have a way to
reset your password in case you lose it.

Reddit User Reg istration Pag e

Be sure to create a strong password, and then click “create account.”
Congratulations, you now have a Reddit account and can be called a
“Redditor.”

Let’s now take a look at the various places you can go throughout the site.
User Account Page
Once you log in, you will notice that your username, followed by a (1) is
located at the top right-hand corner. Clicking on your username will take you
to your account page.

User Account Pag e

On this page, you will (soon) see a collection of all of your posts and
comments made throughout the site. Since you have not posted anything yet, it
is currently blank. On the right side, your link karma, as well as your comment
karma are listed. Your trophy case contains special “awards” for various
achievements such as being a member of the site for one year (the one year
club).

At the top of the page, you can see several tabs that will take you to comments
you’ve made, posts you’ve submitted, your posts which have been “gilded”
(essentially, there is a concept called “Reddit Gold” which is a special token
that can be given from one user to another in response to an extra helpful,
insightful, or funny post. When gold is given, the post is considered “gilded”),
and posts you’ve liked, disliked, or hidden.

The user account page is a great place to see an overview of all of your
activity on Reddit. As you become more active on the site, it will fill up
quickly. If you need to refer to a post or comment you’ve made in the past, this
is the place to do it.
The Inbox
At the top right of the page, there is a small envelope next to your username.
Sometimes, especially after you’ve submitted a post or made a comment, you
will notice that it is orange instead of white. Clicking on it will take you to
your inbox.

User Inbox

Your inbox is where your messages appear. Messages could be direct
messages from another user who wanted to send you a private message or
comments on a submission you posted. The messages remain unread until you
click on them individually.

There are a few other pages on Reddit you should be aware of, but we will
come back to those later.
The Default Subreddits
When you first create an account, Reddit chooses a number of subreddits to
which you are automatically subscribed. Being subscribed to a subreddit means
that submissions posted to that category are automatically added to your
homepage. Typically, your homepage consists of a number of subreddit
submissions mixed together in one giant list. These default subreddits cover a
variety of topics such as “technology,” “news,” “world news,” etc. However,
with its diverse user base, these topics do not always suit every user. For that
reason, I’ll walk you through the process of selecting your default subreddits.
Personalizing Your Default Subreddits
The easiest way to setup your default subreddits is to visit the subreddits page
and manually subscribe and unsubscribe to every topic in which you are
interested. This page is located at: http://www.reddit.com/subreddits/ when you
are logged in.

Visiting that page will give you a long list of subreddits, sorted by the number
of subscribers. Keep in mind that it would likely take you days to scroll
through the complete list, and much smaller communities with fewer
subscribers appear towards the bottom of the list. Massive subreddits, such as
/r/funny, appear at the top. As you scroll through the list, click the “subscribe”
and “unsubscribe” button to customize your experience to your liking.

Keep in mind that you can always edit this list later. On every page containing a
subreddit, there is usually an unsubscribe or subscribe link which will allow
you to configure your homepage as your browse.
 Subscriptions Pag e

Once you are finished, return to the Reddit homepage at http://reddit.com and
you will now notice the new content from your updated subscriptions.
4 Participating
Voting
One of the core aspects of the Reddit experience is voting. Users vote on every
submission and comment on the site which causes these submissions and
comments to rise to the top (for highly rated content) or fall to the bottom (for
poorly rated content) of the page. On each submission on the homepage, you
will notice small up and down arrows to the left. These arrows indicate
whether you like or dislike a post. By default, your vote is neutral; you haven’t
impacted the submission in any way. However, pressing the upvote button will
cast a positive one vote. The opposite is true for the downvote button.

Casting an Upvote

Casting a Downvote

Notice the color change between an up and down vote. These colors are used
throughout the site to indicate positive or negative votes for both submissions
and comments.

Voting on comments is done the same way as voting on submissions. Simply
click one of the arrows to the left of the comment.
Commenting
Commenting is one of the easiest ways to engage with the Reddit community as
a whole, as well as a specific subreddit community. Every submission to Reddit
has a page where users can comment on that submission. In the case of news-
related submissions, these comments often relate to the article; however some
submissions simply ask users to comment in answer to a specific question or
prompt. For example, a submission may ask users to share their favorite joke.
Remember that when posting a comment it will be voted on by other members
of the community.

To post a comment, first locate the comments page for the submission. Under
each submission, there is a link called “comments” with the number of
comments the submission has received so far.

Comments Link

This submission has received 202 comments so far. Clicking on the link takes
us to the comments page where you will find a threaded hierarchy of
comments. Each comment has a number of replies, sub-replies, and so on,
beneath it. There is also other information about the comment, including the
user who posted it, the time, number of votes it has received, etc.

At this point, I want to point out that some subreddits have chosen to style their
pages differently than the main site. This means that each page may look
slightly different; however it should still follow the same general style.

If you want to add your own voice to the discussion, you can either create your
own top-level comment or reply to someone’s comment left previously. To
create your own comment, simply click inside of the textbox near the top of the
page and enter your text. When you’re finished, click submit and your
comment will be added to the list.

Submission Comment Pag e

Note that if you comment on a popular submission long past its submission
time, it is unlikely that anyone else will see your comment due to the sheer
volume of comments already posted. If you want your comments to be noticed,
it is best the comment early and often.

 Entering a Comment

Commenting is an integral part of the Reddit experience, so I have included a
full chapter on comments later on.
Submitting Posts
One of the easiest ways to get involved in a community on Reddit is to submit
content that you think will benefit that community. Subreddits tend to be very
particular about the content they accept, so make sure you read the rules on
posting first. For example, some groups disallow the posting of animated
images, or GIFs. Others only allow links to certain sites while others forbid
certain domains. Only post content that you think is interesting (or funny in the
case of some subreddits) and worth other users’ time. If you post content that
violates the guidelines, you risk being banned.

One final thing to note is that almost every subreddit values original content
(content that hasn’t been posted previously) over reposts, as well as giving
credit to the original author. This means that if you come across a blog post by
an independent blogger, don’t take a screenshot of it, post it elsewhere, and
submit a link to that. Always link back to the original author if you can.

Now that you have some background, let’s make our first post. I’ll continue
using the subreddit /r/aww as an example. Say you’ve come across an adorable
picture of a puppy on a blog. First, copy the link to the page. Next, head over to
http://reddit.com/r/aww/submit and paste the link into the “url” textbox.

In the title section, give your content a title that is accurate, eye-catching, and
relatively short. Content on Reddit lives and dies by its title, so coming up with
the perfect title is imperative. Oftentimes two posts linking to the exact same
content are voted up and down differently depending on the title.

Make sure that the “subreddit” section lists the “aww” subreddit. At the bottom
you can choose to have replies (comments other users make on your
submission) sent to your inbox (the page we visited earlier). You may be
presented with a “CAPTCHA” asking you to prove you are not a bot. Enter the
letters and numbers and then click submit.

Submitting Content

Once you click submit, you’ll be redirected to your post. It will also appear on
that subreddit’s “new” page for some time until users vote it up or down. If
users like your content, you will likely see comments added to the page, as
well as “upvotes.” If you don’t, and instead users are “downvoting” your
submission, don’t worry. Redditors are notoriously picky about the content
they accept on the site.

Now that you have a basic understanding of how you can participate on Reddit,
I will be moving on to some slightly more advanced topics.
5 Multireddits
Introduction
Subreddits are an excellent way to organize submissions by topic. However,
many subreddits follow a similar theme or cover a similar topic. To address
this, and allow users to categorize their subreddits, Reddit introduced a feature
called “multireddits.” A multireddit is essentially a collection of subreddits.
For example, a multireddit called “news” could include the subreddits /r/news,
/r/worldnews, /r/technology, etc.
Getting Started
Reddit has collected a number of multireddits that you can browse before
creating your own. To see these, head to http://www.reddit.com/r/multihub and
browse through the posts. Feel free to sort by “top” to see the most popular
groupings.

Multihub Homepage

Once you find a multireddit you’re interested in, click on it, and click “create a
copy” on the right-hand side. This will add the group to your multireddit
sidebar on the left. Once you give it a name and save, you can also add
additional subreddits to the list via the suggestions box.

 Creating a New Multireddit

As you create more multireddits, they will appear in the sidebar on the left.
Keep in mind that you do not need to subscribe to every subreddit in a
multireddit that you are subscribed to. Your subreddit subscriptions are just for
your front page.
Public Multireddits
If you create a multireddit you are interested in sharing, you can make your list
public by going to the multireddit’s page and selecting “public” on the right
side.

Sharing a Public Multireddit

Your Own Multireddit
Now that you’ve subscribed to an existing multireddit, it’s time to create one
from scratch. To do this, first click on “create” in the sidebar on the left under
“Multireddits.” Enter a name and then click “create.” You should now be
redirected to your blank multireddit where you can begin entering subreddits
that will comprise it.

Creating a New Multireddit

Add each subreddit until you’re satisfied with the collection. Once you’re
finished, you can either share it as described above, or keep it private.
6 Comments
This will be a semi-short chapter regarding comments on Reddit. Each
comment has a number of options available, including how it appears, the
ability to edit it, and the ability to delete it.
Formatting
Reddit has a number of special symbols it uses to format its comments, all of
which you can use throughout the site. On most subreddits, the formatting
options are available by clicking “formatting” beneath the comment box.

Reddit Comment Formatting Help

This chart shows the basics of formatting your comment. For example, using
double asterisks around a set of words causes them to be **bolded**. Be sure
to match the formatting exactly or you will end up with odd characters in your
comment.
Editing Comments
If you’ve posted a comment and then realize you want to change it for some
reason, it is easy to go back and edit it. Simply click “edit” under your
comment, make the changes, and save. Keep in mind that all comments that are
edited are marked with an asterisk to indicate when users change their
comment after other users have replied to it. Additionally, it is considered
proper “reddiquette” (more on that in the next chapter) to explain why you
edited your comment by including “EDIT: some reason” at the end of your
changes. Reasons typically include spelling or grammar corrections.
Deleting Comments
If you wish to remove a comment you’ve made from the site, simply click
“delete” under it. However, please be aware that other users could have quoted
your comment, saved it, or copied it, so it may never truly be “gone.”

Deleting a Comment

7 Reddiquette
As you browse on Reddit, you will notice a number of unspoken rules. These
rules are developed by the site's users and are primarily used to keep the
conversation civil. While it is impossible to list every rule here, I will do my
best to explain the general principles. Reddit maintains a wiki of the most
popular suggestions that you can refer to as well:
http://www.reddit.com/wiki/reddiquette.

The summary of these guidelines is to avoid being confrontational, be polite to
other users, and follow the general style rules of the site. Additionally, Reddit
requests that you avoid sharing the personal information of others, posting
links to user ’s social media accounts, and exposing users who post under a
certain username. Ultimately, the goal of Redditquette is to help users get along
with one another while maintaining the quality of the site.

In regards to posts, the most popular Redditquette guidelines are to avoid
reposting content, give credit to the original author, and avoid use of all
capitals in titles.

For comments, the general rules are to avoid sharing personal information,
avoid starting petty arguments with others, only downvote for unrelated
information (not information you disagree with), and to be respectful of other
commenters.

Reddiquette is not a mandate, but rather a grouping of suggestions to help
everyone maintain a more respectful and helpful community. Some subreddits
may be more strict with their guidelines than others, so it is important to
always read the rules of an individual subreddit before participating.


8 Reddit Enhancement Suite
As Reddit has grown, so has the demand for various features on the site. To
answer this demand, a browser extension known as “Reddit Enhancement
Suite,” or “RES” has been developed (by a third-party). The extension is very
popular among Reddit users and can change a variety of settings on the site.
For example, RES can add “unlimited scrolling” to a page so that the next set
of submissions load automatically as you scroll down the page. Another
example is “night mode” which inverts the colors of the site for more contrast.

RES can be downloaded at its official site: http://redditenhancementsuite.com/

Be sure to download the correct version for your browser, whether it is
Chrome, Firefox, Opera, or Safari. Once the extension is installed, visit Reddit
and you’ll be greeted with a popup with a number of settings.

 Reddit Enhancement Suite Control Panel

You can access this new settings window at any time via the gear icon at the top
right of the page.

Feel free to scroll through all of the available options and toggle them one-by-
one to see how they can improve your browsing experience.

One particularly beneficial feature is the ability to hide NSFW (Not Safe For
Work) posts. This is helpful if you’re browsing in a public place or just not
interested in seeing that kind of content. This setting can be enabled via the
“Filters” tab by marking “NSFWfilter” to “on.”

NSFW Filter via RES

If you are interested in keeping up with development of RES and being notified
of new features or releases, be sure to subscribe to the /r/Enhancement
subreddit which is managed by the extension’s developer.
9 Reddit on Mobile
Reddit can be quite addicting, so to make the experience seamless on mobile
devices, there are almost limitless ways to access its content. I’ll cover a few of
the most popular options here.
Native Mobile Site
The easiest option for accessing Reddit on the go is to just use the native
mobile website. You can access it by going to http://i.reddit.com on your
device.

Reddit Mobile Site

Reddit Is Fun
If you prefer apps that you can install over using the web browser, “Reddit Is
Fun” is one of the most popular Reddit applications. It is available for Android
only (for the time being) and has over one million users.

Reddit Is Fun Android App (Screenshots via Google Play)
Alien Blue
If you use iOS, the go-to application is Alien Blue. It has been continually
updated to support both iOS and Reddit changes and has received 4 stars in the
App Store.

Alien Blue App (Screenshot via the Apple App Store)

Additional Options
There are no shortage of Reddit apps for Android or iOS. Other apps include:
BaconReader, Reddit Now, Reddit Sync, Reddit News, and Reddit Pics. Many of
these are available for both iOS and Android, although some are platform-
specific.
10 Safety and Security
While Reddit is certainly a very active and engaging place to share stories,
converse with other users, and find articles on almost any topic, it does have a
darker side. Just like any website on the Internet, you never completely know
who the user is that is posting from behind a username. Reddit is particularly
noteworthy because signing up for an account is incredibly easy (we did this
earlier in just a few steps). For this reason, I will outline a number of safety
tips, many of which are applicable anywhere online.

Never post personal information in a submission, comment, or elsewhere.
Redditors are particularly good at finding out who a user is by browsing
through his or her posting history.

Posting in too many very specific subreddits can help narrow users down
considerably. For example, if you post in your hometown subreddit, your
school’s subreddit, and several other subreddits for particular hobbies, it
wouldn’t be difficult for someone with enough time to locate you.

Your username should not be used anywhere else online for your accounts. It is
incredibly easy for someone to search “gamerGuy50” on Google and find
your YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook accounts.

Do not harass other users. While this is certainly part of the guidelines for the
site, it also contributes to your safety as other users have less incentive to
single you out for targeting.

Always check the links you see posted before clicking. While Reddit does a
good job of filtering spam, it is possible, especially on smaller subreddits, that
spam or malware links will make it through. If the link has very few votes (or
has many downvotes), chances are it is spam.

Never agree to meet users on the site unless you’re confident in your ability to
arrange a common meeting place.

Use a different password for Reddit than you use on other sites. This applies to
passwords for all of your online accounts as well.

Never copy and paste commands from Reddit to your computer without
thoroughly understanding what they do. Users are notorious for posting prank
commands or even malicious commands that could harm your computer.

Finally, just use common sense. While it sometimes feels like a very small,
homogenous community, Reddit is amazingly diverse, spanning the entire
globe. When you post comments or submissions, you are essentially
presenting them to the world forever.

11 Conclusion
If you have followed this guide closely, you should now be well on your way
to posting, commenting, and voting on Reddit. Hopefully you have setup your
homepage with your favorite subscription topics, as well as searched through
the various multireddits that are available for almost any interest.

As you continue to use Reddit, don’t forget that it may sometimes alter your
views and perception of events. Don’t forget to balance out the viewpoints with
one another, especially if you only subscribe to subreddits from a particular
ideology.

Additionally, remember that there are always new and interesting subreddits
forming. Be sure to browse the list of subreddits occasionally to ensure you
aren’t missing out on the latest ones.

Finally, have fun, and build your Internet karma!