How to use Reddit for total beginners

May 28, 2024

By Kim Komando

I always want to keep you in the know. You may have heard of Reddit but never really got into using it. Unlike other social media sites, Reddit is more group- or topic-focused. 

Think of it as various rooms of people sharing and talking about one particular topic. About 73.1 million folks use it daily, and there are 2.2 million groups you can check out. If you’re totally new to Reddit, here’s everything you need to know.

Reddit, set … go!

Reddit looks and feels like an old-school forum or message board: Members, or Redditors, can create and post to individual forums called subreddits. 

Posts have comment threads attached where others can weigh in. You’ll see little arrows on posts and comments, too — these are upvotes and downvotes. That’s the crowd-based ranking system Redditors use to weed out spam and promote the good stuff.

You don’t need an account to browse …

But it’s free and come with a few perks. For one, you can post or respond to others’ threads and earn karma, a points system based on how many upvotes your post or reply gets. 

You can also subscribe to subreddits to get the latest posts on your Reddit homepage — look for that big Join button.

Bonus: Lurking is when you only go on Reddit to read posts, not say anything yourself.

💡 Privacy tip: Don’t use identifying traits in your screenname! Reddit accounts are anonymous by default. If you include clues like your city or nickname, it’s easier than you might think for people to ID you.

Lingo to know

Don’t let the acronyms scare you. Here are some of the most common ones on Reddit: 

• OP: “Original poster,” aka the person who started the thread.
• TIL: “Today I learned,” which is used when someone shares something that blew their mind.
• AMA: “Ask me anything.” Good for soliciting no-holds-barred questions. People from CEOs to celebrities and soldiers have done live Reddit AMAs. Bill Gates has done eleven. Guess what phone he uses? (I’ll tell you at the end of this story!)
• ELI5: “Explain like I’m 5” — for when you need someone to explain something generally pretty complicated to you very, very simply.
• NSFW: “Not safe (or suitable) for work,” which is self-explanatory. 

Do’s and don’ts

Or, as I like to call it, “Reddiquette.” Each subreddit has its own rules, most often pinned at the top of the list of posts, so read them before you contribute. The basics: Keep it respectful and don’t say anything that could get you in legal trouble.

Moderators, or mods, manage individual subreddits and keep things civil and on topic. If you want to lend even more support or knowledge to a subreddit, you can ask one of its current mods if you can join them! (You’ll probably need to be a longtime member or have a lot of karma.)

Must-follow subreddits

• r/Komando: A fan just set this up for anyone to post a comment or engage with other people like you who get this newsletter and listen to my shows. Just know if you have a tech question, you can tap into my team of IT experts here in my forum. 
• r/YouShouldKnow: A subreddit with important PSAs, life hacks and fun science facts. 
• /r/AmIthe*sshole/: The real name isn’t asterisked. This is a subreddit to weigh in on others’ arguments or to be vindicated by strangers on a disagreement that’s been bothering you. Juicy, juicy …
• r/Amazing: You never know what you’ll find here, but it’s usually great like the most expensive rope in the world or an incredible throw from a Japanese baseball player.
• r/Aww: Dedicated to all things cute and cuddly. Your daily dose of awwww.

🔎 One more thing: If you’re ever wondering if something is a scam, use the search box on Reddit. Odds are, someone somewhere has an opinion about it.

🤔 So, what phone does ol’ Bill Gates use? A Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4, gifted by the chairman of Samsung himself. I wonder if he has a good voice.