What is Reddit? The Front Page of the Internet Explained

What is Reddit?

Reddit is a social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website that has become one of the most popular destinations on the internet. With over 50 million daily active users, Reddit offers a constant stream of new content and conversation across a wide range of topics and interests. 

The cornerstone of Reddit is the concept of subreddits - topic-specific communities that users can subscribe to. The homepage of Reddit displays popular posts from subreddits the user is subscribed to, allowing customized feeds of content. As of 2023, there are over 100,000 active subreddits spanning categories like news, science, movies, books, fitness and thousands more obscurities.

Within each subreddit, users can submit text posts or links. Other users can then upvote or downvote these submissions based on whether they find them interesting, relevant or enjoyable. Highly upvoted posts rise towards the top of the subreddit and may even end up on Reddit’s main homepage. Users can comment on both links and text posts, allowing for dynamic and engaging discussion.

Reddit itself has sparse design with simple voting arrows and buttons to comment, share or save posts. The focus is kept on the content itself and the conversations happening around it. The look and feel is purposefully basic and text-heavy, evoking the early days of internet forums and bulletin boards. 

One unique aspect of Reddit is the culture around anonymity. Usernames are not associated with real identities and information is not displayed the way typical social media profiles would. In a way, the ideas and conversations take center stage rather than the personalities. 

Terminology

Some main terms to know when first visiting Reddit:

• Subreddits - The topic-based communities at the heart of Reddit. Users subscribe to their interests to customize their homepage.
• OP - “Original Poster” - Refers to whoever submitted the post being discussed
• Upvote - Click the up arrow to upvote a post or comment you enjoyed. Higher upvotes increase its visibility.
• Downvote - Click the down arrow to downvote a post or comment you did not enjoy. Too many downvotes can hide it.
• Karma - The total number of upvotes minus downvotes on a user’s submissions and comments. Represents reputation.
• TLDR - “Too Long, Didn’t Read” - A summary for longer posts.
• NSFW - “Not Safe For Work" - Warns viewers that a post contains graphic content.  

Some aspects of Reddit may seem confusing at first, but the platform offers plenty of customization so users can shape it to match their interests.

Signing up is simple and opens access to thousands of active communities and discussions. Read on to learn more about how to sign up and quickly get oriented.

Signing Up

Registering a Reddit account is simple, only requiring an email address, username and password. The username is how other Redditors will identify content you post or comment. 

Usernames cannot be changed later, so give some thought towards picking something appropriate. Many users have multiple accounts for different purposes like separate identities for privacy or novelty accounts roleplaying as a character.

Once registered, subscribers can immediately start participating by commenting, voting and submitting posts. However, some subreddits have minimum karma (upvotes accrued over time) requirements before a user can contribute. Building up karma by posting well-received content earns trust and ability to engage more freely. 

Customizing Your Experience

The first step after creating an account is customizing your subreddit subscriptions. Consider interests topics and hobbies when browsing Subreddits to follow. For example, r/news and r/worldnews provide latest global updates. More niche interests like r/guitar or r/cooking have passionate communities as well. 

Subscribing to subreddits populates the Reddit front page with top trending posts from each community. This creates a customized feed matching precise interests rather than just what is generically popular site-wide.

For even more control, users can create Custom Feeds by organizing groups of subreddits into categories like News, Hobbies, Learning and more. This allows quickly pivoting between different content types.

Users overwhelmed by the amount of content can focus only on the Best Posts filtered by engagement, recency and ratio of upvotes. Lots of comments typically means it’s an intriguing conversation. For breaking news the past hour, browse Hot Posts ranked by how quickly they received votes and comments.

The Reddit search bar is also very powerful for finding communities about specific words or phrases using syntax like:

• r/woodworking - Search within r/woodworking subreddit
• Tesla self-driving car – Search posts about Tesla AI
• Cat pictures – Search for posts with cat pictures

Searching will uncover more niche communities than manually browsing through categories.

The Front Page of the Internet

One appeal of Reddit is the sheer breadth of topics covered. There are popular mainstays always trending like r/news, r/funny, r/aww, r/AskReddit (for open-ended discussions), r/todayilearned, r/worldnews, r/pics and more. The pulse of what’s happening on any given day plays out across these communities.

But Reddit also drills down to thousands of hyper-specific topics. Obscure hobbies, career fields, medical conditions, cultures, passions...any imaginable interest likely has a built-in audience on Reddit. Support groups on Reddit provide meaningful community for those struggling with grief, illness, trauma or addiction where people constructively empathize and encourage each other.

The idea of the “front page of the internet” holds up when scrolling through the ever-updating feed of top conversations across this spectrum. Content stays fresh and relevant to exactly your interests.

Conversation Culture

The other half of Reddit beyond content consumption is participating in conversation. Comment sections host genuine back-and-forth dialogue, productive arguments, silly humor and everything between. 

For news-based subreddits, the comments are where context gets filled in, perspectives get challenged and interesting insights arise. The discussions reveal public perception, social norms, cultural divides and current events in ways sterile news articles alone cannot.

In hobby communities, Reddit conversations provide an opportunity to exchange specialized knowledge. A woodworker can learn new techniques from peers or a chef can share an original recipe. Getting past surface-level small talk, Reddit reflects meaningful human interaction tied to people’s passions.

And of course, with a slight veil of anonymity and little consequence, the humor and lighthearted sides of people emerge through Reddit exchanges as well. The average comment thread contains no shortage of friendly banter, clever jokes, memes and pop culture references.  

Moderation

Behind the scenes, moderators of each subreddit help maintain civility and healthy standards. Some communities allow anything within Reddit’s general content policy, others have nuanced rules tailored to their purpose. Moderators remove posts and comments that violate policies, often clarifying why.

If behavior is extremely offensive or dangerous, Reddit administrators can intervene with suspensions or permanent bans. They generally take a hands-off approach to let subreddit moderators dictate their own culture though. Users can appeal administrator decisions through support tickets citing extenuating circumstances.

The democratic nature of Reddit relies on participatory moderation from regular users as well through upvoting and downvoting. The most useful, interesting and positive contributions gain visibility while irrelevant, distracting or harmful content fades from view. This curation keeps communities helpful and fulfilling rather than devolving into chaos.

While Reddit is an open platform welcoming free speech and dissenting opinions, even controversy stays grounded in constructive dialogue rather than hostility thanks to moderation.

Custom Styling

Optionally, users can enhance aesthetics using the Reddit Enhancement Suite browser extension for desktop. This adds user tagging, filters, themes, custom shortcuts and other helpful features.

Apps like Reddit is Fun and BaconReader also offer strong mobile experiences. Each have similar functionality but slightly different interfaces, so try a few to find a favorite.

Third party apps let users customize notifications for replies so they stay updated on conversations without checking manually. They also support multimedia content better than the basic Reddit interface.

Roundup

As one of the most visited sites worldwide, Reddit is an online destination with something for everyone. The platform’s breadth and depth make it far more meaningful than a simple aggregator of content or social media network filled with self-promotion.

The thoughtful exchange of ideas and sense of community not found elsewhere online is what earns Reddit the reputation as the “front page of the internet”.

Ready to explore further? Here are some great subreddits to start with:

• r/explainlikeimfive – Breaks down complex topics into layman terms
• r/IAmA – Q&A’s with celebrities, politicians, astronauts and more
• r/InternetIsBeautiful – Fascinating obscure corners of the web
• r/LifeProTips – Crowdsourced lifehacks and advice
• r/ShowerThoughts – “Aha” realizations to ponder 

The above overview covers the basic workings of Reddit, but the platform offers advanced features like multi-reddits, Reddit Premium benefits, live chat rooms and more to discover at your own pace. With over 100 thousand active communities, there will always be something new. Reddit says “Dive into anything” and that diversity is the magic. Sign up to start your journey!