If you are a Reddit user, than you probably use r/lifehacks as a life manual. Where else than the "front page of Internet" could you learn how to get red wine out of your carpet, how to never lose your phone again and how to know if pants will fit you without trying them on?
While these are all real life hacks posted on Reddit, you may be more interested in hacking the news and social networking site itself in your quest to become a pro Redditor.
Whether you are new to the site and don't know where to start or already know the most popular subreddits, there's nothing better than knowing some inside hacks to enhance your Reddit experience. This guide will finally stop you from wondering how to increase your karma, where and what kinds of things to post and if you should reply to comments. At the same time, you will learn some insider tips that you'll wish you would've known sooner.
Here are five Reddit tips to help you master the front page of the Internet.
1. Know The Popular Subreddits
If you never used Reddit before, what took you so long? All jokes aside, logging in for the first time can be overwhelming. On your front page, you can see what is hot, new, rising and controversial, but because there is just so much information being shared, Reddit separates topics by what it called subreddits. There are thousands of subreddits, so you should start by subscribing to the subreddits focused on what interest you. This may be /r/Tech, /r/WorldNews, /r/movies and so on, so forth.
Search for subreddits by clicking on the My Subreddits dropdown on the topmost banner of the site. Click EDIT on the right-hand side and type in what you are interested in or search a subreddit by name. Some more popular subreddits include: /r/todayilearned, /r/showerthoughts, /r/internetisbeautiful, r/mildyinteresting and /r/explainlikeimfive.
Once you subscribe, these subreddits will appear on your front page. You can unsubscribe at any time. Subscribing to popular subreddits will allow you to stay on top of what kinds of posts people like reading so you know the type of content to post that has the potential to go viral. Check out all the popular subreddits by using Reddit Metrics.
| Subreddit Hack: Slash the time it takes to get to subreddits by not entering in the ‘/.’ Instead, type in funny.reddit.com, rather than reddit.com/r/funny. |
2. The Tricks To Commenting
Reddit is known for its highly expressive comment sections, so you must master the art of the perfect comment. Be aware that line breaks are ignored when typing in the comment box. To create a line break, put two spaces at the end of the line.
There are also ways to use linguistic elements in your comments. Type *italitcs* to italicize a word, **bold** to bold, and ~~strikethrough~~ to have the word crossed out like this: strikethrough.
If you wanted to include numbers in your comment, follow the number with a " ." For example, writing "2105. It's a great year," will show as, "1. It's a great year." Type in "2015. It's a great year" to have the year typed out properly.
You can also add emoticons on Reddit by using Unicode characters from the Kannada language. To create the popular Reddit disapproval look, copy and paste ಠ_ಠ.
Always make sure to write funny comments since humor is the best way to get upvoted. Find more about upvotes in the next section.
3. How To Increase Reddit Karma
Reddit karma is the technique the site uses to engage its users. The way to increase your karma is by having your posts and comments be upvoted by other users. Conversely, your karma will decrease the more you get downvoted. User's don't "get" anything for high karma, but since this info is public, true users take pride in having high karma. It sort of makes you a Reddit expert, which earns lots of respect.
| Free Karma Hack: Go to /r/freekarma, where everyone upvotes comments. This hack will increase your karma more quickly —just make comments on popular posts and upvote other’s comments. Click “A” to uproot a post you are targeting and "J" for Next. |
Next to each numbered post are arrows that allow you to up- or downvote the post. The same applies for comments. You should aim to get 5 to 20 upvotes for each comment you make, starting with a few at first. Comment on the most popular subreddits such as /r/pics and make sure to always follow the subreddit's rules. When posting a photo, ask a question along with it to engage users. Cat posts, GIFs, celebrity birthday shoutouts with quotes and memes all typically do well. So, make sure to post funny content and comments, and over time your karma will increase.
4. Picture Display Tip
Instead of clicking on every single post in /r/pics, you can see all the photos in a sideshow to easily view and upvote by adding "p" at the end of reddit in the subreddits URL. For example, https://redditp.com/r/pics will pull up a slideshow all off the posts in the pics subreddit, but this display tip works for all subreddits.
| Reddit Easter Egg: There is a Pi symbol at the bottom right of the page. Hover over it and you will see Reddit’s info. The Pi symbol is a reference to the 1995 movie The Net. |
5. Mobile Tricks
If you are looking at the desktop version of Reddit and not using the app, you can read it more easily by adding .compact to the end of the subreddit URL. For example, www.reddit.com/r/internetisbeautiful.compact.
If you are on the site on your desktop or laptop, but visually prefer the look of the Reddit app, you can turn the regular site into its mobile format by adding "i" in the beginning of the URL. For example, i.reddit.com/r/aww.
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Photo: Jurgen Appelo | Flickr
