Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.
— Oscar Wilde.
This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.
Navigating Reddit
THE VALUES OF REDDIT
Some of the values that this group holds to me just seem to be that everyone recognize that everyone is transparent, authentic, and empathetic or vulnerable. One of the biggest values of reddit is of course having a sense of humor and being able to take a joke. While there are so many different sub groups focused on so many things throughout reddit a central value seems to be that everyone is honest with who they are. I saw a lot of groups focused on helping people and the big expectation I saw in the groups helping was that no one was judgmental of those that needed help. Other things I saw was people updating each other on sports and sharing thoughts and just generally dialoguing. What I really took away from going through and learning about reddit
APPEALING TO REDDITORS
There are a few main rhetorical appeals. These are logos ethos and pathos which basically means logic emotion or credibility as a means to persuade the audience in this case to share or respond. On reddit I feel that pathos or emotion is the best way to get to this group. They will respond to logic and reason of course as anyone will but I think most of them, especially the large group which are part of a younger generation, have been taught for so long to be skeptical of the internet that they are less likely to believe credibility without some extra research they likely don’t want to do while surfing a social media platform. Logic of course everyone responds to some degree but again people are skeptical, and the logic has to make sense and pertain specifically to them. So, pathos or emotion is the way to go when on Reddit!
REDDITS PURPOSE
When I first got onto reddit is struggled to figure out what its purpose really was. When you google reddit its tagline reads “Reddit is a network of communities based on people’s interests. Find communities you’re interested in and become part of an online community!”. (Reddit.com) This if course was clear, it is obviously a site focused on creating unique forums and niche groups which in some way fit everyone’s interests but what I couldn’t understand was what was important to people. People found value in the posts which added to others’ lives in either helpfulness or humor or sometimes just general relatability, but the posts that did the best and made the popular page, or at least the popular page which was catered towards me, did all three. Those who posted earned ‘karma’ based on the upvotes on their posts, so people seemed very interested in delivering what the community was looking for. It made me compare it to sites like twitter where, while likes and retweets are nice, they are not the most important thing and people were fine posting self-catered posts which talked or complained only about their own life and added no value to anyone else’s. Through their ‘karma’ system reddit seems to have done a great job of preventing this and creating a community which added to people’s lives and engaged with others, its seemingly biggest goals.
While navigating through this site I tried to learn what reddit’s larger patters of discussion were throughout their history, but I came up short for several reasons. First off, I haven’t been on the site for very long, so it is very hard to recognize patterns in such a short period of time. With football season being here I of course saw a lot of discussion about sports and other currently trending things. The groups I subscribed to were baking groups so of course my feed was full of that. I saw some conspiracy theories and such on the popular page as well as some current news and I’m sure both of these are pretty common. To try and figure out some of Reddit’s patterns of discussion I looked it up and was taken to a Reddit post titled “The 200 most active subreddits, categorized by content” which had been posted a few years ago but seemed like things which I saw still trending in discussion today. (“r/TheoryOfReddit – The 200 most active subreddits, categorized by content”) Some of the most popular subreddits were ‘askreddit’ or ‘bestof’, simple tags which adapt with time and people continue to go to. The number one subgroup was just titled ‘pics’ which is of course and easy category to fall into. I myself saw a large range of pictures and videos on my feed and realized quickly that reddit is drawn in by imaging and loves to discuss something which is accompanied by a visual.
REDDIT & THE RULES
One thing I thought was interesting about Reddit was how basic and blunt their rules were. I am more familiar with sites such as Facebook or twitter where we all know that there’s things you can’t do or say but it’s not really told to you, we have all just learned it from years of seeing other people removed for what they’ve done. Maybe now when you join these sites they give you a few basic rules, but I joined them all around 2012 and don’t remember this being the case. When I joined Reddit a few weeks back there were blatant instructions on what is allowed when posting and how to message people and comment on stuff. Basically, it told me when I joined that this was a place where I should be adding value and that they don’t allow posts such as this negativity or that crude message. Instagram doesn’t tell you that you are not allowed to comment things it just flags and deletes certain words or phrases. Twitter puts you on time out and removes you for a few days. In reading up on this it seems reddit has not always been focused on positivity. According to theverge.com they faced backlash a few years ago because their ‘hands off style created a toxic environment’. One of the popular subreddit groups from the list I talk about earlier was ‘fat people hate’. According to the verge this is one that was a toxic environment full of hate which was finally taken down by reddit once they started to become more focused on curbing harassment.
MY EXPERIENCE
I didn’t have the most successful time with my own posts. This is not a huge surprise though. With any major site being a first-time poster means a definite lack of interaction is expected. As I figured out what worked and what didn’t though I got some more attention. My first post was only talking about myself and got no attention. This shouldn’t come as a surprise. I realized I needed to ask questions and engage people. My other problem was my first post was far too general. I posted about baking in a baking subreddit group. It was a massive group with a ton of general stuff. The second post I also posted in this group and although I asked questions and tried to engage my readers I got no attention still. After this I tried to find a group that was more based for me and low and behold I found a group for me! I stumbled across a cooking for begginers subreddit group and posted basically about how to cook while broke and got some tips and recipes. I also got some good karma or likes. Here’s a picture of the recipe I ended up making and loved! I’m still checking on my posts and trying to interact with them.
https://www.reddit.com/r/cookingforbeginners/
Once I finally figured out the best way to get interaction was to ask questions and post pictures to catch people’s eyes I of course did this. Still though I did not gain the attention or interaction I wanted. I have a low karma number still. I think the best way to boost these interaction numbers in the future is to interact with other people. Ive noticed the people who have a lot of interaction on their posts also interact a lot with others. They respond to people with help and original content that gets attention. If you’ve commented on someone’s post, they are also more likely to feel comfortable commenting on yours. This can lead to others joining in on a discussion which is exactly what we want!
REDDIT AS A PLATFORM
Reddit like the Instagram popular page uses meta data to show what is popular as well as cater popular niche posts to its users. It promotes posts to your page based on their likes and shares as well as the key words you talk about, groups you post in, and groups you follow. On my page I see that Reddit is catering more to showing me the general popular and well shared content over the content of the two groups I follow. It also shows me posts from posters I have previously liked or shared, and I’ve seen titles based on my interest. They cater all this to me using metadata, specifically descriptive metadata, tracking my page and everyone else’s to give me what and all of you exactly what we want to see. This is something you see happening on all sorts of social media sites. Reddit does this very well catering to their users in a way that flows naturally and gives diversity.
Lecher, Colin. “Reddit Is Turning on a New ‘Block User’ Tool to Help Curb Harassment.” The Verge, The Verge, 6 Apr. 2016, https://www.theverge.com/2016/4/6/11379250/reddit-mute-option-harassment-blocking.“r/TheoryOfReddit – The 200 Most Active Subreddits, Categorized by Content.” Reddit,
“Reddit.” Reddit, https://www.reddit.com/.
Introduce Yourself (Example Post)
This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.
You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.
Why do this?
- Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
- Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.
The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.
To help you get started, here are a few questions:
- Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
- What topics do you think you’ll write about?
- Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
- If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?
You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.
Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.
When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.
WR 303 