I will, however, say that it is essential to read and write comments in order to master the game that is Reddit, if only to get a better sense of the communities you’re apart of, which helps with the whole front page bit as well. But that’s a whole other beast, so we’ll have to leave that skill for another day. The comment algorithm was the brainchild of XKCD cartoonist Randall Munroe, and you can read about that in depth here.įor many, reading and writing comments is the most enjoyable part of Reddit, more so than getting a link on the front page. Read an in-depth explanation of the Reddit ranking algorithm here.Ĭomments can also be upvoted or downvoted, and each user receives comment karma points, which is separate from submission karma points. In other words, the faster you can get upvotes the better. As Amir Salihefendic, founder of productivity app design firm Doist, explains in a helpful blog post, “The first 10 upvotes have the same weight as the next 100 upvotes, which have the same weight as the next 1,000, etc…” Also, newer posts rise more quickly than older posts with the same attention by users. Note: Karma has no value, and gaining karma does not make it easier for your posts to get to the front page.įor a post to have a chance at success, it must first receive the first 10 upvotes as quickly as possible (hopefully without too many downvotes). The user who submits the post (the “OP,” as Internet cool kids call it) is awarded the cumulative “karma” score for all posts he or she submits to Reddit. Submitted posts rise or fall based on the number of upvotes, which add to the overall “karma” score of the post, versus the number of downvotes, which are subtracted from the overall score. Once a link is submitted, other users can either “upvote” or “downvote” the link. Think of something, and there is probably a subreddit for it. But there are subreddits (just “reddits” for short) for sub-sub-sub-groups. Pictures, videos, politics, news, funny – these are the most obvious ones. Reddit basically works like this: Users submit links to different communities, which are called “subreddits.” There are subreddits for nearly everything. But these tips should help you get to the top, one way or another. And no guide – not this one or any other like it – guarantees success. So it’s no surprise that submitting a link to Reddit, something anyone can do, is one of the Holy Grails of Internet achievements. The digital home away from home for tens of millions of people each month, Reddit helps shape the news, start memes, create overnight celebrities, and change the world in surprisingly significant ways. No place on the user-generated Web is more coveted than the front page of Reddit.