I love reddit. I spend far more time there than I care to admit, but it is extraordinarily useful, so it doesn't matter really: whatever your area of interest, there's a community on there for you. In fact, there are several. Perhaps hundreds. It's impossible to keep track of them all, or even of all the intersections between communities, topics, ideas and trends. Such is the internet, and the nature of our tiny, individual brains.
Recently I've been using reddit to generate some traffic to this blog, and it's working out very nicely I have to say, so it seemed appropriate to post about some of favourite parts of this vast resource, which if you're visitor with interests in a the world of green and simple living, gardening, veganism, zero waste and environmental or minimalist issues in general, you may find useful too.
A quick primer on reddit culture for the uninitiated.
1. www.reddit.com is divided into subreddits or "subs". Each of these has an URL that begins with "http://reddit.com/r/..." Add anything you can think of that people might want to talk about on the internet after the "/r/" and chances are you'll find what you're looking for. Some subreddit's URLs are more, shall we say, esoteric than others - /r/trees for example, isn't exactly about trees - but it's not hard to get your bearings generally speaking. Inside reddit, subs are always referred to by their /r/URL - and typing any such sub address in a comment will automatically link to that sub.
2. Subreddits are started and maintained by moderators or "mods", who have control over the content of their subreddit, as well as the power to ban subscribers who violate their rules. Some mods are liberal, others are very strict. Some have abandoned their subs altogether, leaving them vulnerable to SPAM, trolling or other unpleasant realities of internet life. It's usually a good idea to read the sidebar of a subreddit page and get a feel for how things work there. You are, of course, free to start your own subreddit and become a mod yourself. In theory, it's the internet at its best, though there are some very dark corners of reddit indeed. As the site has grown, its founding ethos of total free speech has come under strain with controversies surrounding subreddits that bullied, doxed, exposed and otherwise humiliated the innocent (and not-so-innocent) people. For a tumble down that particular rabbit hole, have a look here, here, here and inside reddit itself, at /r/ShitRedditSays
3. You have to have an account to subscribe to subreddits, and to post and comment, but not to browse the site. Some subreddits are "closed", requiring you to have an account in order to access them, but this is the exception. Once you're a signed up "redditor", you'll be known and referred to as /u/USERNAME - the "/u/" here functioning in the same way as the "/r/" for linking to subs. Posts and comments you make will be public and displayed on your profile page. For this reason, many people prefer to remain anonymous - which is one thing about reddit that still distinguishes it from social media in general. Users sometimes have multiple or "throwaway" accounts, for various obvious reasons.
That's all you really need to know, except to say what really should go without saying but on the internet often does not: remember Wheaton's Law.
3. You have to have an account to subscribe to subreddits, and to post and comment, but not to browse the site. Some subreddits are "closed", requiring you to have an account in order to access them, but this is the exception. Once you're a signed up "redditor", you'll be known and referred to as /u/USERNAME - the "/u/" here functioning in the same way as the "/r/" for linking to subs. Posts and comments you make will be public and displayed on your profile page. For this reason, many people prefer to remain anonymous - which is one thing about reddit that still distinguishes it from social media in general. Users sometimes have multiple or "throwaway" accounts, for various obvious reasons.
That's all you really need to know, except to say what really should go without saying but on the internet often does not: remember Wheaton's Law.
"Green Reddit"
Now for a tour of what I loosely think of as "green reddit" - the parts of the site where you can explore the kind of things that might have brought you to this blog in the first place: environmentalism, veganism, zero waste, anti-consumption, etc. Enjoy.
13.6K subscribers. Focused on discussion of specific, practical zero waste questions.
Nearly 100K subscribers. A variety of topics, ranging from the philosophical to the practical.
120K subscribers. Sometimes a little heavy on the memes and 'food porn' (which has its own subreddits, naturally, both of the vegan and non-vegan stripe) but that's to be expected for a popular sub. Other vegan subs include /r/veganism, /r/eatcheapandvegan, /r/likeus, /r/debateavegan, /r/veganarchism and /r/animalrights
/r/frugal
Over 700K subscribers. Very active, not surprisingly with that number of subscribers, and quite "American" in its topics of discussion, but full of useful information, inspiration and ideas (/r/frugalUK sadly, is virtually empty). Doesn't allow you to promote blog posts, but I suppose that's fair enough.
Over 700K subscribers. Very active, not surprisingly with that number of subscribers, and quite "American" in its topics of discussion, but full of useful information, inspiration and ideas (/r/frugalUK sadly, is virtually empty). Doesn't allow you to promote blog posts, but I suppose that's fair enough.
/r/minimalism and /r/minimalist
The first of these is by far the larger, and tends to favour the more, let's say, superficial aspects of minimalism: design, appearance, lifestyle fetishism, and so on. That's not to say it's useless, but it can be distracting. /r/minimalist is stricter about that sort of thing, and ties in more closely with the zero waste, simple living philosophies.
Subs like /r/climate, /r/environment and others are both large and general more "news" oriented subs, but through these, you can find yourself some more specific avenues, including:
The first of these is by far the larger, and tends to favour the more, let's say, superficial aspects of minimalism: design, appearance, lifestyle fetishism, and so on. That's not to say it's useless, but it can be distracting. /r/minimalist is stricter about that sort of thing, and ties in more closely with the zero waste, simple living philosophies.
Subs like /r/climate, /r/environment and others are both large and general more "news" oriented subs, but through these, you can find yourself some more specific avenues, including:
/r/latestagecapitalism
Perhaps not to everyone's taste and is pretty specific on what it will and will not tolerate politically, but well worth a look.
For the darker/radical sides of environmentalism and a possible future, have a look at:
Perhaps not to everyone's taste and is pretty specific on what it will and will not tolerate politically, but well worth a look.
For the darker/radical sides of environmentalism and a possible future, have a look at:
Some gardening related subs I've learned a lot from:
And finally, though moving off topic slightly, I can also recommend
/r/antiwork, /r/anticonsumption and /r/basicincome
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