Before Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube and other social networks took over everything, forums were the main means of communication between groups of Internet users. Reddit is not one of the oldest, but it is the biggest forum left, and one of the few that has weathered the hurricane of social networks. Millions of users use it and from time to time it returns to the news.
Is currently page number 21 of the Internet in Amazon’s Alexa ranking, which registers the most influential websites on the Internet. Beats such important pages as Netflix or Microsoft, and to social networks like Instagram.
On Reddit you can find answers, information or help for everything. And it still continues to generate news, proposals and achievements before anywhere else on the Internet. If you are curious, we will teach you how to sign up and use Reddit.
A forum works in a similar way, although it is not exactly the same. You write a message in a community or sub-forum, and it hangs there for anyone to read and respond to.
But there is much more, at the same time it has some peculiarities that you have to know, to get the most out of it. We collect them in this Reddit usage guide.
Index of how and what to use Reddit for
What is Reddit?
Reddit is not a forum or a social network. In a way it’s like a giant information board and a space for activism, where people post their news, curiosities, or proposals, and other people sign up, or respond. This is how communities are created, subreddits, which are similar to subforums within a forum.
An important feature is that Reddit is a user-managed platform. This is one of the keys to your success, the prominence of the user when deciding what is or is not of interest, with their vote. It is the big difference with social networks like Facebook or YouTube, where everything is controlled by algorithms.
Its operation is similar to the Spanish platform Mename, which was created a few months after Reddit, inspired by it.
Reddit was created in 2005 by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian in Medford, Massachusetts, with the help of an investment from Y Combinator. His goal was to improve the Digg news aggregator, which he eventually outperformed over the years.
In November of that same year, it passed into the hands of the unfortunate Aaron Swartz, who agreed to own Reddit by merging it into his own Infogami site. A year later Conde Nast publishing house acquired the portal, and Swartz was fired.
Reddit maintained unstoppable growth from day one. In 2008 it became open source, and in 2011 they became independent from their buyer, which has allowed users to maintain control.
It is important to realize that it is a community mostly Anglo-Saxon and that is reflected in the issues and controversies it deals with. 40% of its users live in the United States.
Subreddits and message types
This is especially important to guide you through Reddit
When you access the Reddit cover, the most popular topics of the moment appear, regardless of the subreddit (sub-forum), to which they belong.
If you log in with an account you can write messages, vote for others and subscribe to the subreddits that interest you. From that moment on, the updates of the subforums to which you are subscribed will appear first on the home page.
An important fact is that messages rarely contain text only. In fact this is penalized. They always usually contain an image, a link, a video, a download, or any other visual content.
Create an account
You can enter Reddit with your Google or Apple account, but it is advisable to use one that is a little more anonymous, and does not reveal information about you.
In the upper right corner of the screen, tap Sign up to create the account. If you do not want to use the aforementioned Apple or Google, enter the email in the box below and click on Continue.
It will ask you to create a password.
You should also choose some communities (subreddits) that suit your tastes, although it is optional.
When you log in with your account, you will see the cover page and you will be able to use this platform thoroughly.
You will see that the cover is going to adjust to your tastes according to the messages you read and the communities to which you subscribe.
The rules of etiquette
Before starting to do anything, it is advisable to read the rules of behavior, which are called here Reddiquette, and are available in Spanish.
They are basic rules for knowing how to vote, and respecting others.
u / yr /
As you have surely seen, the names of the users begin with or/, for example u / Pepe12.
Community names begin with r /, for example r / cinema
This is done to quickly differentiate between users and subforums.
The messages
Tap on a message that interests you to access its content.
As you will see, it is made up of several parts.
In the central part is the author’s content: text, photos, video, etc. Just below are the comments, which are almost always more interesting than the message itself, so they should be read. You can write yours in the central blank box.
In the upper left corner are arrows to vote. Up if you want to support it, and down if you didn’t like it.
But there is much more to learn.
A series of icons under the text allow you to do more things:
- Give Award: You give a prize to the message using coins that you have bought with real money.
- Compartir: You share the message on social networks and other sites
- Save: You can save it to read it later, with access from your account
- Hide: Hide the message
- Report: You report the message, if you think it does not conform to the rules
Finally, on the right you will see the community to which the message belongs.
If you click on Join, you will subscribe and you will see the updates on the cover.
Writing a post
Now we are going to move on if you want to participate in Reddit.
For write a message on Reddit, just tap on the pencil (Create Post) on the top bar.
It does not have much mystery. Tap on Choose a Community to choose the community in which you want to insert the message.
Write the text you want and tap on the flaps Image & Video to add a photo or video, or in Link to add a link to a website, a download, etc. Finally tap on Post to post it.
The Karma
When you receive positive votes and your contributions are liked, you receive Karma.
It is a way of measuring prestige, since you get the respect of the community, and your posts have relevance and appear higher.
But be careful because negative votes and actions that do not like, take away karma…
The searcher
In addition to the messages you see on the cover, you can logically search for topics that interest you.
At the top of the web is the search engine. As you enter words or phrases, related communities or messages appear. Join communities to receive updates.
Follow users and create communities
By using the search engine you will find messages that interest you. You can follow the users who have written them by tapping on their name and clicking on the icon Follow, in your profile.
Also, to the right of the search results you will see an option called Create Community, to create a community. In order to do so, your account must be at least 30 days old, and have positive karmas.
Chat, messages and profile
But there is much more.
On the top bar of the web, on the right, there are a series of important icons:
Those on the left are used to access different popularity lists. The sandwich is to participate in a chat, and with the envelope you open the messages sent by other users.
With Get coins You buy coins (for real money) to give trophies and prizes to other users.
Lastly, the plus icon on the right is the profile. Tap on it to customize your account:
From here you can add a photo to your profile, see the messages you have written, the votes you have received, awards, etc.
If you touch on the nut icon you can customize your username, set privacy options, change the password, etc.
With these indications you already know everything you need to use Reddit. Now it’s a matter of writing, voting, and earning karma … Good luck!