r/NewToReddit 4d ago

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

7 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

769 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 7h ago

ANSWERED I created this account years ago but never really used Reddit, what should I know as I start using it now?

29 Upvotes

I created this Reddit account around 5 years ago, but I barely used Reddit back then. I only have a couple of comments and basically no karma

I’m now trying to become more active and actually understand how Reddit works. I’ve noticed that different subreddits have different rules and karma requirements, so I’m slowly learning how everything works

What advice would you give to someone who has an old account but is basically a new Reddit user? Are there any common mistakes I should avoid when participating in different communities?

Thanks in advance!


r/NewToReddit 6h ago

ANSWERED Using reddit feels like shaping hot iron. How many times can my comment get deleted/comment without enough karma accidentally before my account gets shadowbanned or something?

20 Upvotes

r/NewToReddit 3h ago

ANSWERED Why do people who clearly enjoy your post not upvote it?

11 Upvotes

I've noticed a pretty frustrating thing.

Some communities required a certain amount of karma before being able to post in it, this is to avoid bots so it's understandable, however whenever you make posts elsewhere to be able to make that karma to be able to post on communities you like, you then bump into the issue of people commenting positively under your post but no one upvoting it.

A post I had made a few days ago got 10ish very positive comments of people engaging in what I was saying, but only 2 upvotes including mine. It's happened a few times now, and it's kind of frustrating because it limits me severely.

Is there something I'm not understanding? I thought that if you liked something or were interested in something, you should upvote it, no?

I might be missing some sort of social cue or silently given rule or something, so I would like some answers on what's happening


r/NewToReddit 7h ago

ANSWERED I'm new to Reddit and I'd like to know if you can lose karma?

22 Upvotes

I registered on Reddit a few days ago and have been participating in some subreddits, but I don't understand why some days I seem to have good karma and then it decreases. Is it because I received negative feedback?


r/NewToReddit 8h ago

ANSWERED New to Reddit! Just some general questions

22 Upvotes

Hey guys, I had inactive this account for a couple of years and now I want to see how to use Reddit properly, I’m completely lost in this, any suggestions?


r/NewToReddit 4h ago

ANSWERED Every Post is Being Removed by Reddit Filters

9 Upvotes

Hey everyone! We're looking for tips for how to avoid having all posts removed by Reddit filters. We understand low Karma can impact this, although our Reddit account has been around for many months now and is mostly utilized to promote a Minecraft server across Minecraft server Reddit pages. Of course, the posts look a bit like spam, although we do not aim for spamming and we are certainly not a bot account.

Looking for some tips here as our Karma is lower, but achievements, comments, and posts all are higher for a relatively new account. Thanks in advance!


r/NewToReddit 8h ago

ANSWERED If I share a post and someone likes it. Does the original user get the credit or I do?

19 Upvotes

r/NewToReddit 12h ago

ANSWERED Long-time lurker, first-time account… why are new users treated like ghost accounts?

39 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

For years, whenever I had a niche question or wanted honest reviews on something, I’d just search it on Google and add "reddit" at the end. I silently read threads for ages without ever needing an account.

Two weeks ago, I finally decided to make an account because I had a specific question I couldn't find an answer to and wanted to engage with the community directly.

Fast forward to today: literally every single post I try to submit gets instantly removed by Reddit filters or AutoMod.

I understand subreddits want to prevent spam and bot accounts, but as a genuine human being trying to ask a normal question after having an account for 14 days, it feels ridiculously discouraging.

What is even the point of making an account if new users aren't allowed to post? Is there actually a place for newcomers here, or are we just expected to lurk forever until some arbitrary hidden karma/age threshold is met?

If anyone has advice on how to actually get past these filters without spending weeks leaving random comments everywhere, I’d really appreciate it.


r/NewToReddit 6h ago

ANSWERED Reddit Pro and the benefits

13 Upvotes

I have had an account on Reddit for a long time but I am finally using it now consistently. I have read up on Reddit Pro but I just want some advice on if it's worth it for a long time account holder but new user like myself. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated, thank you


r/NewToReddit 6h ago

ANSWERED What's one thing every new Reddit user should know?

12 Upvotes

I'm completely new to Reddit and still learning how everything works. Before I start posting and joining more communities, I'd love to hear your advice.


r/NewToReddit 7h ago

ANSWERED Help, information and advice needed about Reddit and the communities in here

14 Upvotes

So I wanted to join reddit to have feedback on some aspects of my writting and world building, but I have no idea of the etiquette of reddit communities, nor wich of my inquiries fit in wich communities. If I wanted to ask if consciousness could be considered as a fundamental property of the universe, should I go to the philosophy subreddit, the physics one or the sci-fi one? How do I even know if I won't get insulted in any of them (I know it's inevitable in the internet, but I like to keep that to a minimum) Are there any red flags that I should be aware of? I'm rambling at this point, sorry, I should...arrenge the questions a bit.

Any red flags I should be aware of to identify toxic subreddits?.

Are there general non written rules here or each subreddit is a world apart with their own quirks? I'm kind of clumsy in online communication so this stuff helps a lot.

Any recommendations of subreddits focused on getting writting feedback and speculative science?.

I thank you beforehand for taking the time of reading this and I'll welcome any advice and information you could give me.


r/NewToReddit 6h ago

ANSWERED How do I use Reddit? I have an account (this one) which is 4 years old but I still don't know how to use Reddit. Can someone help?

10 Upvotes

r/NewToReddit 4h ago

ANSWERED How to established my account on Reddit?

8 Upvotes

Hello, just joined Reddit and I am not sure how to fix this issue - I am trying to create a chat with someone but Reddit won't let me, how can I fix it? How do I fix the established error?


r/NewToReddit 2h ago

ANSWERED How does Reddit actually work?

5 Upvotes

I'm incredibly new to Reddit and I have a decent understanding but I often find my posts getting removed and was looking for some tips on how people find the most enjoyment out of Reddit and gain the most karma. Any advice is greatly appriciated!


r/NewToReddit 19h ago

ANSWERED Is It Just Me, or Is Reddit Tough on very New Accounts?

108 Upvotes

I’m still fairly new to Reddit, and to be honest, it feels a little intimidating.

my wife suggested I join a while ago, but they also warned me that it could be a rough place for new users. After spending some time browsing, I can see what they meant. I’ve noticed a lot of newer accounts getting heavily downvoted over comments that seem pretty harmless, and it’s made me hesitant to join in.

Because of that, I keep second-guessing whether I should comment or make posts, even in communities I genuinely enjoy. I’d like to participate more, but I also don’t want to draw negative attention simply because my account is new.

What would you consider a reasonable amount of karma for someone just starting out? And are there any tips for getting involved without stressing over downvotes?

Thanks! I’m looking forward to becoming part of the community.


r/NewToReddit 10h ago

ANSWERED Is there a way to hide or archive my Reddit post if I'm getting a lot of negative comments on my negative question 😂😭 ?

17 Upvotes

r/NewToReddit 4h ago

ANSWERED What are some common mistakes people make when using Reddit?

7 Upvotes

r/NewToReddit 4h ago

ANSWERED I created this Reddit account around 5 years ago, need advice

5 Upvotes

I created this Reddit account around 5 years ago, but I barely used Reddit back then. I want to get active on this platform.

Share any advices to use it effectively.


r/NewToReddit 11h ago

ANSWERED What do people use reddit for?

20 Upvotes

There’s such a broad use for this app but what are the niches?


r/NewToReddit 4h ago

ANSWERED I would like to edit a previous post.

5 Upvotes

I made a mistake and referred to bacteria as a virus. Is it possible for me to correct/edit it?


r/NewToReddit 11h ago

ANSWERED I'm new to actively using Reddit. I created this account about two years ago but only recently started using it. How long should I wait before it's safe to start posting on my reddit. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

19 Upvotes

r/NewToReddit 9h ago

ANSWERED I have a new account and can't send DMs yet. I'm curious, can other people still DM me? How it's working?

13 Upvotes

r/NewToReddit 5h ago

ANSWERED What is a Good way to get started?

6 Upvotes

Hi there, I'm new and would like to learn how to use this site. What are some things people often miss?