Does anyone use Reddit and how does it work?

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Pergamum

Ordinary Guy (TM)
Ok, I know...I am behind the times maybe.

What is Redditt? And do any of you use it? Is it useful? I've seen a few funny memes from there. How does it work, do you sing up and maintain a page like Facebook? Is it like the Puritanboard?
 
Reddit is a mixed bag because it's not like "one" forum so much as a whole bunch of different kinds of forums (on practically any topic you want) in one place.

You sign up for a Reddit account, but you can essentially make an anonymous account (on the new site, it prompts you to put an email, but you can type whatever like "bob.com" and it won't need to be verified or anything so you can move on to the username and password page it can be completely anonymous if you consider anonymity in your username).

Because anyone can join, of course it's a mixed bag depending on the subreddit you're in and how well it's moderated. Each "subreddit" is a different community that has discussion (or whatever their format is) that centers around that topic. It can be really broad like r/Christianity (which covers the spectrum from Eastern Orthodox to Protestants to people seeking or studying it in university...) or it can be really specific like r/turtles (a personal fan of that one...) or r/spongebobmemes (never been but it's an example of how specific these subreddits can get). There's just about every kind of hobby community there and lots of other general topics, some more "serious" than others.


My husband and I both recycle through several accounts...Partly because we have different accounts for different hobbies/communities or because we like to freshen up with new anonymity. For instance, my husband has a different account for more frivolous reddit participation (like looking at funny animal pictures or memes) and a more serious one for asking or giving advice on financial subreddits. You can do it all in one...but that's just our personal preference to have some of that separation because it can be pretty vast otherwise! With one account, you can essentially be a part of hundreds of micro-forums.

So that's Reddit in a nutshell. As with all other things on the internet, it can be hit or miss depending on where you are and who is participating. But, because it is so vast, it's likely you may find some helpful niches that suit your needs/goals.
 
Ok, I am getting the hang of it now.

I typed in interests such as grappling, nature hiking, news, memes, etc and it is like a wall of different posts with those interests. I think I am a fan now. There is even a Reformed Reddit.

What are your favorite sub-reddit's?
 
Ok, I am getting the hang of it now.

What are your favorite sub-reddit's?

Some helpful ones for life include:

r/personalfinance (My husband both gives and receives great advice from there)

r/books is a great place to view book recommendations (not that it helps me dwindle down my impossible list of to-reads...)

I also end up in a lot of reading/writing/worldbuilding groups personally because I'm interested in that area.

During my personal struggle to be diagnosed with endometriosis, I found the endo subreddit there particularly helpful, so I imagine that there might be other helpful communities of particular ailments or troubles where people can turn to for commiserating or advice.

I'm personally a sucker for feel-good things like r/AnimalsBeingBros and r/BeforeNAfterAdoption. I also like a lot of the nature subreddits.

Occasionally I try to identify something, but can't and there are several identifying subreddits like r/whatisthisthing or r/whatsthisbug or r/whatsthisbird.

r/ColorizedHistory is pretty intriguing.

I don't think I'm the right person to ask for favorite subreddits! I like so many random ones!

It's so endless.
 
Some helpful ones for life include:

r/personalfinance (My husband both gives and receives great advice from there)

r/books is a great place to view book recommendations (not that it helps me dwindle down my impossible list of to-reads...)

I also end up in a lot of reading/writing/worldbuilding groups personally because I'm interested in that area.

During my personal struggle to be diagnosed with endometriosis, I found the endo subreddit there particularly helpful, so I imagine that there might be other helpful communities of particular ailments or troubles where people can turn to for commiserating or advice.

I'm personally a sucker for feel-good things like r/AnimalsBeingBros and r/BeforeNAfterAdoption. I also like a lot of the nature subreddits.

Occasionally I try to identify something, but can't and there are several identifying subreddits like r/whatisthisthing or r/whatsthisbug or r/whatsthisbird.

r/ColorizedHistory is pretty intriguing.

I don't think I'm the right person to ask for favorite subreddits! I like so many random ones!

It's so endless.
Thanks, just subscribed to colorized history.

Can other people see the groups you subscribe to? For instance you subscribed to endometriosis as a group for help. But this is all rather personal.

If you have a personal medical condition and subscribe to a group, will others see you in that group if you don't post, for exampe, "Bedwetting as an adult" sub-reddit? How is privacy controlled?
 
Thanks, just subscribed to colorized history.

Can other people see the groups you subscribe to? For instance you subscribed to endometriosis as a group for help. But this is all rather personal.

If you have a personal medical condition and subscribe to a group, will others see you in that group if you don't post, for exampe, "Bedwetting as an adult" sub-reddit? How is privacy controlled?

So if people go to an individual's username profile/page, then you can see all of the places they comment/post but you can't see where they subscribe to.

There's a common term for a "lurker" or someone who reads/views material but doesn't really participate, and I honestly do a lot of that for subs where I view content but don't participate. Also, you are always free to view the contents ina subreddit without even joining it. This is often what happens for certain sort of advice or identification subreddits where more people are just "visitors" for a one-time-thing. For something more personal like my endo, because I was active in commenting and asking questions, I do have a separate account just for more health/wellness stuff because I didn't want people to see both my hobby stuff and my body stuff in my comment/post history! There's not a limit on how many accounts/profiles you make, so it's easy enough to subdivide my time. But I would say those are your easiest options for privacy: be aware of what you say in your comments/posts (similar to the rest of the internet!), manage which subreddits you want to be "known" in (subscribed to, though people can still see your comments if you decide to post in a subreddit that you're not subscribed to), and don't be encumbered to keeping the same account for all things reddit for all time. It's just some basic internet privacy/safety protocol you would use elsewhere, I just think it's even a little bit easier because you have more control over what reddit itself can ask/know of you.
 
Should Christians use Reddit? Reddit is a huge hub of p0rnography and all manner of vile things.

By using Reddit you are directly supporting a company that makes a large portion (if not a majority) of it's money from wickedness.

Thoughts?
 
Should Christians use Reddit? Reddit is a huge hub of p0rnography and all manner of vile things.

By using Reddit you are directly supporting a company that makes a large portion (if not a majority) of it's money from wickedness.

Thoughts?

By that argument, do you not use any other sites that allow for multiple types of user created content? Blogger/Wordpress, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, etc. all make lots of money from allowing the sharing and creating all kinds of wicked content. Reddit is kind of like the Internet in general where it allows lots of different types of content, though Reddit does have more restrictions then it used to. If we took your argument to its extreme, I wouldn't be able to use the Internet, because the same company that owns Reddit also owns a large stake in my ISP (Charter).

Reddit has actually changed for the better some. Atheism used to be one of the default sites on the home page, and they used to tolerate many types of illegal content not allowed in the US. Now that they are owned by a major media company, they tend to follow similar rules to other major websites. As has been stated above, Reddit is only as useful as the subreddits (custom sites) you follow. I don't follow any of the "default" ones, but there are many profitable discussions that happen there.
 
Certainly I think that it also applies to any company that you directly support by veiwing their content (because they make money off of advertising and more viewers = more money). Any company that actively allows, supports and promotes evil things should not be supported by Christians. Or is that statement incorrect?

Would you buy groceries at a company that also owns brothels?
 
Jake,

Your point is certainly well taken. Where exactly do we draw the line? I used Google to get to Puritan Board after all. Most of my business comes from Google leads.

In the past I feel I have not been discerning enough as a consumer. I wouldn't use a p0rn website just for a fishing forum attached to it. Similarly I do not feel comfortable using Reddit. Not making a claim that using Reddit is 100% wrong, but it is worth discussing. (Probably in another thread...sorry perg)
 
Jake,

Your point is certainly well taken. Where exactly do we draw the line? I used Google to get to Puritan Board after all. Most of my business comes from Google leads.

In the past I feel I have not been discerning enough as a consumer. I wouldn't use a p0rn website just for a fishing forum attached to it. Similarly I do not feel comfortable using Reddit. Not making a claim that using Reddit is 100% wrong, but it is worth discussing. (Probably in another thread...sorry perg)
I just subscribed to a Reformed redditt and a Christianity reddit... Doesn't your content depend on the groups you subscribe to? Just like Google has a "safe search" option, doesn't what you see on redditt depend on the groups you subscribe to?
 
I just subscribed to a Reformed redditt and a Christianity reddit... Doesn't your content depend on the groups you subscribe to? Just like Google has a "safe search" option, doesn't what you see on redditt depend on the groups you subscribe to?

I believe that is how it works, maybe looking at it like Google is a better way to approach it.

My introduction to Reddit was when I was in the army and all those guys used it for was p0rn. That may be coloring my perspective because you could say the same about Google.

But then again Google doesn't host communities that are soley dedicated to the worst kind wickedness.
 
Would you buy groceries at a company that also owns brothels?

Let me turn that one back on you.

Would you buy groceries at a company that sells Plan B?
Would you buy medications at a company that sells Plan B?
 
I believe that is how it works, maybe looking at it like Google is a better way to approach it.

My introduction to Reddit was when I was in the army and all those guys used it for was p0rn. That may be coloring my perspective because you could say the same about Google.

But then again Google doesn't host communities that are soley dedicated to the worst kind wickedness.

I find this quote from you a bit odd and would like to examine it deeper:

"But then again Google doesn't host communities that are soley dedicated to the worst kind wickedness."

I am not so sure about this assertion. Google seems to be gathering data. And they seem to favor left wingers.
 
Well, I used to only associate Reddit with cat pictures and was surprised when I found out I could have valuable conversations there. I wasn't aware of the side you're talking about. Same thing with Tumblr -- I used to use it as a simple blogging platform (theology related) back in the day, but apparently now that Verizon owns it they were alarmed to find a third of the blogs were p0rn-related and are trying to limit that.

Google has and has had some pretty bad stuff too. Elsagate is an example that Google was behind: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsagate Who knows what all is on Youtube, Blogger, Google Sites, and other content-hosting properties which receive varying degrees of moderation and have all kinds of users.
 
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