No. 60 | Seven good subreddits

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

A gray and white pug wearing a crown looks up at the camera.
Redditor puglifemama reports that Linkin is SEVENTEEN! That is one resilient little puggo. Happy Birthday Linkin.

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.

2) r/frugalmalefashion

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.

3) r/infowarriorrides

Screenshot of a reddit post featuring an image of a pickup truck completely covered in Trump/Pence bumper stickers.

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.

4) r/aboringdystopia

Screenshot of a Reddit post with the headline: “Driver stuck inside smart car for an hour until it completed a software update”

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.

5) r/catastrophicfailure

Screenshot of a Reddit post featuring image of an old steamship dramatically run aground on some rocks.

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.

6) r/whatisthisthing

Reddit post with photo of bicycles and the headline: “In Copenhagen - why do so many bikes here have the exact same blue tape around the left handle and break?”, and a tag next to the headline reading “Solved!”

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

Reddit post featuring photo of a red and yellow sign reading: WARNING DO NOT SKI PAST THIS POINT DANGEROUS TERRAIN PEOPLE HAVE DIED HERE

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.

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Originally published as List No. 60 of the 7x77 newsletter project.
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