What Is Reddit?

Reddit is a large collection of forums, social news, and discussion threads where users can share content, ratings, comments, and news regarding a variety of different topics.

What are subreddits?

The platform is divided into a total of 1.2 million communities also known as “subreddits”, each of which is basically a board dedicated exclusively to a specific topic.

Some examples of popular subreddits include r/AskReddit, r/IAmA, r/Gifs, and r/bestof. The subject matters discussed within these communities can involve everything from science, movies, and video games to extremely specific topics like squirrels eating unconventional things.

What is Reddit used for?

In a nutshell, you can find pretty much anything in the vast world of Reddit – which is why the platform is popularly referred to as “the front page of the internet”.

The home page of Reddit offers users a quick rundown of the latest posts that happen to be trending on the site, picked out from across a wide array of subreddits. In order to navigate the platform more efficiently, users can click the sort button and choose which posts will appear on their feed based on categories such as “top”, “hot” (trending), or “controversial”.

You can also subscribe to different subreddits in order to customize your feed so that it shows mostly content that you know you would already be interested in viewing.

Generally speaking, each subreddit comes with its own set of community guidelines and rules. Failing to abide by any of these can result in permanent bans (not only from the community but from the platform itself). Every subreddit has a set of moderators who actively filter the posts and look for content that is not allowed or appropriate. Admins are a cut above moderators, as they can ban entire subreddits if they find that they violate Reddit’s general guidelines.

Origins of the word “reddit”

The origin of the name comes from a little play on words – “read it” or “I read it on Reddit”. Coincidentally, the word Reddit is also the Latin word for “to render”, meaning “to submit for consideration or approval”.

What is voting on Reddit?

When it comes to content, Reddit can include anything from shared text and links to gifs, videos, and images. There is a simple rating system based on upvotes and downvotes that determines which posts are popular and make it to the trending board.

The votes you receive from fellow Redditors convert into karma – the reward you earn for posting popular content. Over time, your karma points can build up your reputation on the platform and help others gauge that you’re a highly valued member within the community.