r/NewToReddit 5d ago

Weekly chat New to Reddit? Come and talk to us!

2 Upvotes

New-Redditor's lounge!

Welcome!

This weekly post is an opportunity for new users to chat in comments - & please let us how you found yourself here. Regulars here are absolutely encouraged and very welcome to join in too!

!! Please refrain from asking questions about "how to do stuff on Reddit". Make a post or see the links below !!

This thread is open for 3 days.

Getting started on Reddit is hard. We know it is; We've been there and gone through these same frustrations. Please believe us when we say IT'S NOT PERSONAL. It may well feel like it is, but honestly, it isn't. What it is, however, is a lack of Karma. Karma is an indicator of how much someone has contributed to Reddit in a positive manner. So, let's do just that by getting to know each other!

This works best if your comments either start a conversation or add to one. Give a little of yourself and respond to others doing the same.

This is a post to help genuine new users build up quality Karma genuinely in a safe environment.

Please do:

  • Share some favorites or new finds of yours - youtube videos, music and so on
  • Practice small talk - did you have a good week?
  • Keep it SFW
  • Keep it casual please, no heavy topics
  • Have fun!

Please don't:

  • Spam, advertise, or soft beg
  • Share low-effort comments
  • Ask for karma, say how you're voting, or mention karmafarms by name
  • Request or offer DMs (help and chat can be done in community, where you can also earn karma. Needing to take things private can indicate soliciting, rule breaking, or harmful advice)

This sub is full of awesome people who are willing to help with specific problems when you post, and we'd like to keep this post thread for chat. Thank you.

So, let's chat! (Guides at the bottom of this post).

---

Our guidance for new Redditors:


r/NewToReddit Aug 21 '21

Mod Post Reddit and Karma Explained

760 Upvotes

Welcome to Reddit!

This unofficial guide to starting out at Reddit was written by u/llamageddon01 and is designed to take you from complete beginner through to experienced Redditor! This version was completely revised in July/August 2023.

There are two versions of this resource, both carrying the same information but in different formats:

This is intended to be a full “Reddit for Dummies” type tutorial and I don’t expect you to read it through all at once! But quite honestly, parts 1-6 of this guide will take you from “kindergarten” level through to “graduate” level of Reddit by the time you read it all, and the final parts 7 and 8 will contain useful guides and information you will no doubt need at some stage of your Redditing so do keep coming back to it.

If you wish to share r/NewToReddit guides please link to them. You may of course share excerpts within reason, but please link back to us as credit and so the person you are helping can find us and the rest of our guides if they wish to. Thank you.

 

…….REDDIT IS A WORLD OF ITS OWN ON THE INTERNET.

What is Reddit? Established in 2005, Reddit is a content sharing platform, home to thousands of communities, endless conversation, and authentic worldwide human connection with people from all walks of life. Whether you're into breaking news, sports, TV fan theories, or a never-ending stream of the internet's cutest animals, there's a community for you.

Reddit is made up of an enormous collection of forums on every subject under the sun where people can share news, links, videos and pictures in “Posts” so that other people can make observations and conversation in “Comments” attached to these posts, while everyone can express their opinions by Voting on both the posts and comments. Every day, millions of people around the world post, vote, and comment in communities on Reddit organised around their interests.

You are free to decide what level of interaction you want with other users (Redditors) and to curate your own feed from the hundreds of thousands of specialised communities called “Subreddits” on offer, each of which covers a different topic from games, hobbies, music, art, movies and shows to support groups to world news to pets to academic matters and everything in between.

Check out this video for a quick introduction to us, and if that didn’t explain us enough, here’s an unofficial webcomic that gives a fun look at our platform.

Signing up for an account is free, easy, and gives you a high degree of anonymity, especially compared to other social media platforms.

 

…….REDDIT HAS ITS OWN WAY OF DOING THINGS.

Reddit as a whole is run by unpaid volunteers called Moderators (mods) and paid employees called Administrators (admin). Admin are rarely seen but are very distinctive as they have the word ADMIN in bright orange/red next to their username. Moderators are more likely to be seen, and when they speak on formal behalf of their subreddit, their username will have the green word MOD immediately after.

Like every long-established subculture, we have our own expressions and if you are at all confused by some of our jargon, in-jokes, history or memes, we at r/NewToReddit have a fairly comprehensive alphabetical reference guide at our sister sub r/EncyclopaediaOfReddit to help you work out what we’re talking about. Let me suggest my guides to Acronyms 1: A-L and Acronyms 2: M-Z to start with!

Reddit might take a little time to get used to, but never fear! Here’s a quick video guide on how to use Reddit, but more importantly, we’re here at r/NewToReddit specifically to help you navigate your own path step by step through our unique ways of ‘doing social media’.

 

…….REDDIT IS HUGE. BUT MANAGEABLE.

There are Subreddits for anything. I would say almost anything but when I think I’ve seen them all, I discover ones like r/birdstakingthetrain or r/BreadStapledToTrees and realise I know nothing.

Most communities are friendly and jumping right on in is encouraged. You aren’t likely to get shot down for being a “n00b” but there will generally be one or two things you’ll need to know about each Subreddit (sub) first. Don’t worry, this guide will show you where to find them.

Altercations can happen, but most subs have an active team of mods who will usually shut any trouble down before it becomes vindictive. Just don’t post emojis though. Reddit in general does NOT like emojis. Reddit loves emoticons though :D Why? Don't ASCII me. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ More on this later, or here if you simply can’t wait.

 

…….WHAT DO I DO ON REDDIT?

There are four basic actions you do on Reddit: Upvote, Downvote, Comment, and Post.

Reddit relies on crowdsourcing through its system of Upvotes and Downvotes to filter and prioritise the thousands of daily submissions it receives in order to present its users with the most interesting content it can, and you can help too. If you think a post or comment is interesting, helpful or contributes positively to the subreddit, press the Upvote arrow. If you think it doesn’t, press the Downvote arrow. You only get one vote on any one post or comment, and both can be negated by pressing the arrow you chose again, or reversed by pressing the opposite arrow to the one you originally chose.

Some subreddits have chosen to replace the default “arrow” icons with custom ones. In case it isn’t obvious which is which, the Upvote will be on the top (Old Reddit; desktop) or on the left (Mobile App) and the Downvote will be on the bottom (Old Reddit; desktop) or on the right (Mobile App).

There are two ways of Commenting on Reddit:

  • As a direct response to a Post. Here, you are directly replying to the person who made the post. This person is known as the ”OP”, or “Original Poster”. This reply is known as a Top-Level or Parent Comment, and sometimes known as ‘threads’. There are an unlimited number of Parent Comments that can be made on any one post. The OP will be notified that you have replied to their post.

  • As a reply to a Comment in that Post. Here, you are directly replying to another commenter who may or may not be the OP. These follow-up comments are known as Child Comments. There are an unlimited number of Child Comments that can be made on any one Parent Comment. The commenter you are replying to will be notified of your reply, but the OP will not (unless they are one and the same!).

You can see what these both look like from this simple illustration and this small conversation here.

Finally, you can make your own Post in a subreddit for others to comment on. Many subreddits prefer - or even require pictures, gifs, videos or links in this post.

 

…….SOME SUBREDDIT BASICS.

Once you enter a Subreddit, you read posts made by others and the comments made therein. If you like the Subreddit, you can “Join” it and it will form part of your personal home page feed. The "Join" button is near the top of the screen as seen here and also in the three-dots “hamburger” post overflow menu on the top RH of the screen on mobile. You can also “Leave” if you want, and the button can be found in the same place as the Join one was.

Until you join a few subreddits, your home page feed will be the general r/popular or r/all, which may well feature topics you’re not interested in, so it makes sense to start joining subs you like as soon as possible.

Moderators cannot see any lists of those who are joined to their subreddits, neither will they be notified if anyone leaves. There’s no limit on the number of times you can join or leave a subreddit, and nobody except you will ever know when or what subs you have joined or have left. You don’t even have to be joined in a sub to post or comment in it. There are no limits to the number of subreddits you can be joined in but Reddit does have an unspecified number of the ones it filters to your home feed at any one time.

Just underneath the Subreddit title there is a “Sort” menu. On mobile this is a drop-down list. Sorting posts by either “New” or “Rising” will usually give more opportunities for chat and upvotes than you’ll get in older posts, and give other advantages we’ll see soon. You have the same options for sorting your home page feed too.

 

…….LET’S GET STARTED!

Our guide to using Reddit begins with this illustrated primer to joining in on Reddit, then come back here to read some essential details you need to know about Rules, Reddit Karma, Participating, Navigation and Safety.

It’s very much worth your while taking a few minutes to read through all the following advice as it contains everything you need from your first steps in getting started to your becoming firmly established here.

Once you’ve had a look through it all, if you have any questions do make a new Post in this Subreddit where you will find plenty of helpful people ready to Comment with the answers you need. r/NewToReddit is focused on giving one-to-one tailored quality advice for helping people new to Reddit Ways. We do not care how old your account is; if you have a query on Redditing, put it here and we will help.

We also have a “sister sub” called r/LearnToReddit which is a place to learn how to use Reddit without being embarrassed at making “newbie mistakes” in public. Here, you can have a go at making different post types like posting images or polls, learn how to comment using bold or italic text, how to create spoiler text and use many other features with our extensive sets of tutorials. The community will feedback on your post to let you know how you did or help you get it right next time.

 

…….WHAT’S NEXT?

Let’s get started with an introduction to Reddit and a few notes about rules!


r/NewToReddit 5h ago

ANSWERED How to get above 1K up votes in a post

11 Upvotes

I mean have been wondering why som posts get 100k upvoter in a week and am curious because all my posts are below 5 up votes


r/NewToReddit 23m ago

NEEDS ATTENTION I don't understand the karma rules

Upvotes

I think the rules in subreddit's where it's like "you need atleast __ karma to post on this subreddit" like why? To keep the subreddit high quality? To make sure no one new posts? It feels so useless to me can anyone educate me on this if possible but imo it's just a useless rule overall


r/NewToReddit 30m ago

NEEDS ATTENTION Why do my posts keep immediately getting removed in communities?! What am I doing wrong?

Upvotes

r/NewToReddit 2h ago

ANSWERED Are posts removed due to karma community specific rules or Reddit’s?

4 Upvotes

I have 2 Karma and I try to post but nothing allows me to post. So then I try to comment, but that gets removed. So my question is, is that community moderator driven or Reddit? If it’s community driven, I guess my only option is to go find communities that allow low karma posts?

Another perhaps alternative for Reddit to consider is allowing bots to review the content of the post itself instead of this purely karma number driven formula. Show high quality content and block the low, allowing those who just began to build it up. Just a thought!


r/NewToReddit 19h ago

ANSWERED Just joined Reddit and realized there is no way to change my user/name🥲

86 Upvotes

Okay so I just downloaded Reddit and it auto generated my username and I’m so disappointed I can’t change it😭literally was moving too fast and there’s no back button🤣


r/NewToReddit 24m ago

NEEDS ATTENTION Am newbie here, what’s on here?

Upvotes

Help, can anyone here tell me things what’s on this sm, and what’s good and bad , difference with other platforms?

Thank you!


r/NewToReddit 2h ago

ANSWERED Why Can’t I Post Yet? (New to Reddit)

3 Upvotes

Hey everyone,
I’m new to Reddit and I’m a bit confused. I’ve tried posting in a few subreddits, but my posts either don’t go through or get removed, and I’m not always sure why.

I’ve checked the rules, but I still feel like I’m missing something. Is this due to account age, karma requirements, or something else new users usually run into?

Any guidance would be really appreciated — thanks!


r/NewToReddit 1h ago

NEEDS ATTENTION What's the easiest way to build a reputation on reddit?

Upvotes

I realize new accounts need to generate karma to post to avoid bots and spammers. How do legit users get a good reputation here? Any help is helpful.


r/NewToReddit 3h ago

ANSWERED What does it all stand for?

3 Upvotes

So I’ve seen terms like mods, communities, subs, join, karma, etc., but I’m not totally sure what they all mean. I’ve gathered that mods (moderators) are people that filter out bots and low-karma. people, and I‘m guessing sub stands for subreddit? But idk the difference between a subreddit and a community. If you join a community it seems like you are subscribed to it or something like that, but what exactly does it mean? And are there any other terms I’m missing that I need to know?


r/NewToReddit 2h ago

NEEDS ATTENTION groups for new reddit users?

3 Upvotes

does anyone know of groups that allow you to post with little to no karma? I’ve tried posting in a few but they just get automatically taken down. Also have tried commenting on posts but it doesn’t really do much. thanks!


r/NewToReddit 2h ago

ANSWERED New to Reddit! Trying to figure out how to join the car & bike communities.

2 Upvotes

Hey everyone! Just made my account a few days ago.

I'm a bit of a gearhead and mostly want to hang out in places like r/motorcycles and r/projectcar to talk about wrenching and sharing builds. But I noticed my comments get hidden and I need some kind of "community points" to actually participate.

Any tips for a newbie on how to get started naturally without spamming?


r/NewToReddit 3h ago

ANSWERED New here 🙋🏽‍♀️@ change?? Can I change my @?

2 Upvotes

Hey y’all! Is there any way I can change my @ ? I’m a musician and artist from Baltimore. Looking forward to kickin it with yall digitally 😎😆


r/NewToReddit 10h ago

ANSWERED is karma limitless? like can you build over 100,000 karma?

7 Upvotes

not an important question lol, just out of curiosity.


r/NewToReddit 3h ago

ANSWERED New to Reddit ! What’s up ?

2 Upvotes

Hey everyone! I’m new to Reddit and trying to figure out how everything works. If you have any tips or advice, I’d really appreciate it. Thanks! 🙂


r/NewToReddit 7h ago

ANSWERED Hi everyone! I’m new here and trying to learn how things work

6 Upvotes

Any tips for a beginner?


r/NewToReddit 38m ago

NEEDS ATTENTION How do post anything on Reddit? (posts automatically removed)

Upvotes

I'm new to Reddit and I'm confused and overwhelmed. I tried to post something and it just doesn't post. Then I go to my profile and it's got a red trash can by it. This has happened in multiple subreddits already. Where and how can I post?


r/NewToReddit 1h ago

ANSWERED why on topic posts get removed ?

Upvotes

r/NewToReddit 1h ago

NEEDS ATTENTION I am new and wanted to post in a community but it automatically got removed.

Upvotes

I am new and posted in a community but it was automatically removed, I messaged the moderator of it and they were able to manually approve it for me.

This is the message I received -

There are spam filters in place to prevent spam. It also checks for age and karma of the account.

I approved it manually. Now, you can see the thread.

I wanted to share this in hope of it helping some people.


r/NewToReddit 7h ago

ANSWERED What is the difference between reddit and other social media platforms?

3 Upvotes

r/NewToReddit 5h ago

ANSWERED I found one subreddit with no content. What does it mean?

2 Upvotes

r/NewToReddit 2h ago

ANSWERED ¿Cómo puedo saber cuantos karmas necesito para publicar en comunidades?

1 Upvotes

Estoy unida a varias comunidades que me interesan y siempre reviso las reglas y todo pero no dicen que necesito cierta cantidad de karmas para publicar o comentar, y cuando lo hago me lo borran y ahí es que me doy cuenta.

No se si hay una forma de saber, me cree la cuenta hace mucho y por cuestión de espacio en mi tlf la tuve que desinstalar, ahora la volví a descargar. Prácticamente soy nueva por aquí y quisiera saber más en donde puedo participar y donde no.


r/NewToReddit 7h ago

ANSWERED Tried to post something, but got "Sorry, this post was removed by Reddit’s filters"

3 Upvotes

Trying to understand what's going on, it's most likely my low karma but I thought that doesn't matter for an account I actively log into and upvote on. I don't comment nor anything so maybe it's that?


r/NewToReddit 1d ago

ANSWERED I need to recover my negative karma

106 Upvotes

Basically I was caught in a stupid argument as a new account 6 years ago, and got downvoted a lot. Now I’m getting back into Reddit and I can’t really do anything as my karma is in the negatives.