Reddit has been among the most visible websites since its launch 15 years ago.
The American social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website provides
a platform to users to discuss and vote on content that others have submitted.
The users can submit links, images, and text on which anyone can vote.
There are several reasons why Reddit is preferred by users from across the world.
Founded by the University of Virginia roommates Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, with Aaron
Swartz, the community driven content aggregator is mostly used by people to follow news and
stay updated with brands and companies.
People also use Reddit for entertainment purposes.
Reddit's customer base, known as Redditors, is generally not like Facebook's, Instagram's,
and Twitter's for various reasons.
Redditors consider it a more homogeneous stage than Facebook or Twitter.
With over 160 million unique monthly visitors, Reddit is among the top ten social media platforms
across the US and globe.
How does Reddit work?
As already discussed, Reddit is used to comment on others’ posts and continue the discussion.
The users can cast positive votes (upvotes) and negative votes (downvotes) on a post,
based on which a post’s visibility is determined on the site.
It also makes sure that the most popular content is displayed to the most people.
The users can also earn ‘karma’ for their posts and comments.
It is a status that reflects the standing of a user within the community and his contribution
to the social platform.
The higher the ‘karma’, the better you are status is in the community.
The posts are automatically archived after six months, implying they can no longer be
commented or voted on.
In addition, the most popular posts are visible on the frontpage for the users who browse
without an account.
People can see your posts and comments.
However, your likes are not visible to them.
The users can follow each other.
Subreddits
Reddit is further divided into user-created areas of interest where discussions happen.
These areas are known as subreddits.
The names of subreddits begin with "r/"; for instance, "r/science" is a community for discussing
scientific topics, and "r/television" is a community for discussing TV shows.
Reddit lingo
Reddit has many specific acronyms and expressions.
Here is a breakdown of the most commonly used acronyms used on Reddit by users across the
world:
AMA: Ask Me Anything ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5 (years old)
EDIT and ETA: Edit and Edited To Add TL;DR: Too Long; Didn't Read.
NSFW: Not safe for work TIL: Today I learned
OP: Original poster
Can reddit be accessed on mobile apps?
There are official apps for Android or iOS.
The users can also try the third-party apps for iOS and Android.
Meme stocks and Reddit
In the recent past, meme stocks have exploded in popularity when a few stocks saw an increase
in their trading volumes not because of the company’s financial performance but on the
back of attention generated on social media or online forums such as Reddit.
These stocks generally draw attention of retail investors.
Even as these stocks are popular, these can have far-reaching implications for an average
investor.
A few popular meme stocks of the current times include GameStop, AMC, and BlackBerry.
However, this category of stocks come with high risk based on the volatility associated
with their trades.
Still, these stocks have grown into a lot of prominence in the past few years.