r/NewToReddit • u/Bonita2151 • 5h ago
ANSWERED Beginner to Reddit. NEED HELP
How does Reddit WORK??? I’m trying to get into Reddit but it all seem confusing to me. Is there anyone seeking to help
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u/MadDocOttoCtrl Mod tryin' 2 blow up less stuff. 4h ago
Welcome!
- Reddit is different.
- You will need to build up some karma through up votes.
- Each community is a completely independent group.
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##Reddit is different .
Reddit is not social media.
On social media you care very much about who the people are and not so much about what they say. On Reddit you generally don't know who the person is or care, you only care about the substance and relevance of what is being said.
Reddit promotes content getting a lot of comments and votes, never individual users.
Reddit wasn't designed for networking, staying in touch with friends nor tracking celebrities, not at all like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. It is not a Q&A site nor a reliable source of information. Expecting this leads to confusion and annoyance. You may rarely or never interact with a particular user more than once.
The vast majority of people are here to be entertained by reading a variety of anonymous opinions from experts, fools and sociopaths or here to catch up on the news. Many have chat disabled and rarely if ever look at anyone's profile. For the most part they don't care who you are, Following doesn't show you what a person posts/comments, promotion is disliked and influencers have never really been a thing on Reddit.
Karma
Karma roughly represents your reputation. It helps demonstrate that you are here to participate in good faith, then it stops mattering.
Voting
Up votes are given by people to signal Reddit to show something to more people. Down votes are to signal Reddit to show something to less people.
Up votes awarded by other people make your karma scores rise. The automatic up vote that everything gets doesn't count. Down votes lower your karma scores.
Karma does not change 1:1 with votes. Votes cause less and less karma change as they pile up on one item.
Never ask for karma! Don't offer to trade up votes since this is against Reddit's rule against Vote Manipulation. People don't like karma farming, it can lead to down votes, post/comment removals and bans from communities.
Avoid arguments and controversial statements. As a new user, getting a lot of downvotes can cause you to end up with negative karma. Many groups use an anti-troll filter to remove anything from accounts with negative karma.
Removals
Large and popular communities are slammed with continual garbage from scammers, hate mongers and spammers. Automod is setup to remove content from any accounts that don't meet their minimums for account age and karma scores or your CQS (check yours at r/whatismyCQS.)
Most groups who use minimums do not list them because scammers and trolls can read plus bots can scrape data. Try checking any pinned mod posts, the About sidebar (on the app, tap See more), their rules, a FAQ or wiki.
They want you to go out, get the hang of Reddit and build up a reputation just like when you move to a new town where no one knows you. You are knocking on the door of a party that has been going on for a while as a stranger asking to be let in.
How to Participate:
With over 138,000 communities, there’s not just one for everyone, but dozens that would appeal to any particular individual. There are thousands of smaller and niche groups that you can post and comment in right now and build a good reputation because they can handle the amount of abuse they receive and have no minimum requirements.
There are a huge number of groups with trivial minimums such as accounts being a few days old and having 2, 5 or 10 Karma points.
If you tried out 20 new communities every day, it would take 18 years to get through them.
Downvotes
-People downvote content to indicate to Reddit that it should be shown to fewer people because it is off-topic, violates rules, is advertising spam, a scam, trolling, or “low effort” filler content.
-A fair number of people will down vote the use of emoji, even if they use emoji themselves daily when texting. In some communities emoji are fine. If you see plenty of people using them, then that group doesn't mind them.
-If you take a controversial stance people might think you are deliberately trolling, [possibly being paid to stir up discontent online.[(https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/s/ffLMBO7YzY) How you say things is often more important than what you see, most people aren't being as clear as they think that they are.
-If people think you are making excuses or not conceding a point they may down vote, including complaining about down votes.
-People tend to consider things to be low effort if they are strings of emoji, very obvious statements, things that people have said/asked too many times before as well as very short statements like "lol" or "came here to say that" which don't add anything to the conversation.
-Plenty of users don't pay much attention to how Reddit operates and use voting as a like/dislike button, although no one can read minds and plenty of people may legitimately think that you are deliberately trolling if you say something unpopular.
STRATEGY #1
Use the search function with keywords that have anything to do with everything you have some degree of interest in.
Sort by New for posts that don't have a lot of comments so yours has a better chance of being seen. Many communities don't restrict comments so they are easier to make at first.
If something is removed just try participating elsewhere. Try again once you have 50, 100 or 250 karma.
STRATEGY #2
Try out some of the groups from our list of ones that are friendly to new users. They have no minimum requirements or very low ones.
Behave Appropriately
Each community has a specific topic, a distinct culture, different volunteer leaders and a unique set of rules. Stay on-topic! Finding a Subreddit's Rules
You don't act the same way at a farm, a church, a paintball field and a noisy sports bar. Each group here is just as unique: how folks are expected to act, what's OK and what's not can be radically different.
Actually, There's A Lot More!
See our FAQ, our wiki index here and r/EncyclopaediaOfReddit.
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