Reddit is a community of communities. These communities are called subreddits (subs, for short). If you are choosy about the communities you patron on Reddit, it can actually be a pretty nice experience. I’ve learned things on Reddit, gotten questions answered, found good deals, and significantly built up the number of cute pug photos I have saved.
If you’re not using Reddit, I mean, don’t, probably? Read books or something. But if you’re going to use it, here are my recommendations for seven good subreddits:
1) r/pugs
Just what it says on the tin. Good: lots of pictures of cute pugs (which is all pugs, by the way). Bad: the occasional “Bug the Pug passed over the rainbow bridge today, here’s our last photo together.” When I see those I say out loud “you were a good pug” and it helps a little.
I saved a few hundred bucks last year from good deals that get posted here. There are deal subs for many hobbies and interests; I also follow one for Nintendo Switch deals and have saved some money there, too.
There’s a van in my neighborhood with a big hand-painted plea on the side to remember Benghazi. Oy. It seems like every neighborhood has one of these “InfoWarrior Rides” these days, and this sub collects them. I find them endlessly fascinating and terrifying; a dark folk art of our modern era.
This sub documents the “boring dystopia” that late capitalism has created. No killer robots or mutant raider gangs, just the perfectly predictable consequences of our own collective actions.
You have to be careful here because sometimes there are fatalities, but it’s usually at a distance — air show plane crashes and the like. A lot of engineering types and heavy equipment operators hang out in this sub and add interesting context. I don’t expect to ever have to operate a crane but if I do I know like 30 different ways I could fuck it up now.
People find (or observe) a thing. They don’t know what it is. They post a picture. People figure out what it is (often terrifyingly quickly). Good: people often find unexploded ordnance and then there’s DRAMA. Bad: You can tell cops are using the sub sometimes.
7) r/scarysigns
Very interesting from a UX design perspective. I enjoy the various solutions designers — often amateurs — come up with to communicate that something is Seriously Bad News, please don’t be an idiot, this is going to kill you, yes even you.
*** Originally published as List No. 60 of the 7x77 newsletter project.