The Mefi guide to Reddit

July 25, 2012 6:38 PM

Some mefite has a great guide to reddit on their user profile, that talks about getting rid of the default subreddits and a bunch of other tips that are good for a new reddit user. In fact I want to point a new reddit user to them, but I can't find a link to that user! Does anyone recall who it was?
posted by mendel to MetaFilter-Related at 6:38 PM (35 comments total)

Geocities seems to have deleted my page. Can anyone help me find it?
posted by Frank Grimes at 7:01 PM on July 25, 2012 [2 favorites]

(On their MetaFilter user profile.)
posted by mendel at 7:02 PM on July 25, 2012

I vaguely recall something like this, but I'm pretty sure it was in a comment on the blue. Or it could be a totally different comment I'm thinking of. I'll poke around in my favorites.

You probably know that if the new redditor isn't also a mefite, they won't be able to see this user's profile - those are invisible to non-mefites.
posted by rtha at 7:03 PM on July 25, 2012

Is it Jpfed?
posted by Ritchie at 7:07 PM on July 25, 2012 [25 favorites]

Whoever it is links to it regularly in threads about reddit, which makes it doubly frustrating that I can't find it!

I can see my own profile when I'm not logged in...

On preview: Yes, it's Jpfed Thanks!
posted by mendel at 7:09 PM on July 25, 2012 [5 favorites]

Doh, I confuselated myself - I was recently in the flag meta a few doors down and somehow conflated spiders/robots and regular people.
posted by rtha at 7:16 PM on July 25, 2012

You probably know that if the new redditor isn't also a mefite, they won't be able to see this user's profile - those are invisible to non-mefites.

Actually, you can see MetaFilter user profiles even if you aren't logged into MetaFilter. The only hidden part is some of the personal data in the left column.
posted by grouse at 7:17 PM on July 25, 2012

I realize that this is a way that people name their things, like fuckyeahwhatever tumblrs, and nothing I say will change it, but I suspect that there are workplaces where nothing with 'porn' in its name is entirely SFW.

(Not mine, thankfully.)
posted by box at 8:30 PM on July 25, 2012

lifeprotips
posted by Ad hominem at 8:39 PM on July 25, 2012

artisan videos
posted by nadawi at 9:35 PM on July 25, 2012 [2 favorites]

This here is the jpfed++ guide that I have most recently come across.
posted by bukvich at 9:43 PM on July 25, 2012 [4 favorites]

Wow, Reddit just changed from a seeming shit-firehose to someplace I might actually be interested in spending time once in a while. Thanks!
posted by RogerB at 9:47 PM on July 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

Uh, yeah. Wow. I think tomorrow morning I may poke at Reddit a bit over breakfast. I always had a hunch that there must be good stuff in there, but I couldn't be bothered to go sifting through the shit to find it. Hmm.
posted by Scientist at 10:09 PM on July 25, 2012

What you need is some kind of filter.
posted by flabdablet at 10:12 PM on July 25, 2012 [11 favorites]

Damn it, I fell into the breaking bad subreddit rabbit hole and I'm never coming out.
posted by peep at 10:16 PM on July 25, 2012

Oh, this is great. I've been verging on closing my account, but this may keep me from jumping ship for now.
posted by brundlefly at 10:25 PM on July 25, 2012

This comment on Reddit changed my entire experience there.

It explains how to (using the Reddit Enhancement Suite extension - very easy to install) set up individual Reddit accounts tailored to specific interests, and switch between them with a single click.

The author provides some pre-made subreddit bundles and once you understand the concept it's easy to make your own. I've got about 8 now and any time my regular account's front-page is making me rethink my participation there, I switch over to one of the interest-specific ones. Fantastic stuff.
posted by pseudonymph at 12:22 AM on July 26, 2012

Andddd now I feel silly, as that same comment is indeed linked above. I figured they were different due to different author names. That'll teach me not to double-check.

But still! Give it a go, it really changed Reddit for me.
posted by pseudonymph at 12:24 AM on July 26, 2012

Actually, multireddits were change a few months ago to use a normalizing sort, so the advice that you need RES and multiple accounts is no longer necessary. RES is still inordinately useful, though.
posted by Rhomboid at 3:35 AM on July 26, 2012

Can someone with an account over there go kick whoever 'Grither' is in the pants and tell them to give me my account name back? Thanks!
posted by Grither at 4:16 AM on July 26, 2012

/r/popping.

I WILL NOT APOLOGISE.
posted by Jofus at 4:20 AM on July 26, 2012

Wow. jpfed's guide is excellent. I think I was using Reddit pretty well. I wasn't into a lot of the main subreddits and had found a few strong ones that I checked now and then. I didn't realize how much quality content was available though. /r/depthhub is amazing.
posted by synecdoche at 10:02 AM on July 26, 2012

TrueReddit crossed 40,000 and has been experiencing a degradation in signal-to-noise.

I suggest r/foodforthought to supplement.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:50 AM on July 26, 2012

jpfed's guide pointed me to discover subreddits that I am actually very interested in, so much so that I've had to set up a reddit Leechblock set. Yay! Boo!
posted by Wordwoman at 11:11 AM on July 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

This thread de-swampifies reddit.
posted by telstar at 1:16 PM on July 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

Here are a few of my favorite sub-reddits:
Botanical Porn (safe for work; just pics of flora)

It's funny how things that are labeled "Porn", and things that are porn, never intersect on Reddit. At least /r/pornporn exists.

Also, applying Usenet principles to Reddit works surprisingly well.

woo look what I started!

here is my obligatory mlp link
posted by mendel at 5:29 PM on July 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

Wil Wheaton is always going on and on about how much time he spends on Reddit, and I could just never understand it. Now I'm motivated to give it another shot. Because, you know, I need more reasons to spend time on the interwebs.
posted by antifuse at 5:56 PM on July 26, 2012

Whoa! I was not expecting a MeTa!

Uh, this is embarrassing. The stuff on my profile is a teensy bit out of date. Aside from /r/DepthHub , there is a new set of reddits that I would encourage people to give a spin. Blackstar9000 spearheaded the creation of a new kind of subreddit with a number of new rules aimed at improving quality. These are the RepublicOfReddit reddits.

The RoR reddits have a barrier to entry in terms of posters- submitters must request and be manually approved by an RoR mod. This barrier to posting has made them less popular than DepthHub reddits, so any given post might not have a lot of discussion. They need subscribers! Go forth and multiply!
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 6:09 PM on July 26, 2012 [8 favorites]

Oh my, Jpfed. Thank you sooo much for this.
posted by Evernix at 1:05 PM on July 27, 2012

This makes a much bigger difference than I thought it would. Thanks.
posted by Ery at 12:43 PM on July 28, 2012

Okay, I've been at this all day now, and it's changed my opinion of Reddit completely. I used to never understand what people saw in it; now I'm wondering how I'll get the time to read all the great stuff I just discovered.

Thanks, Jpfed and mendel too!
posted by MrVisible at 1:07 PM on July 29, 2012

The neat part is, if you set up your subscriptions right, it's like reading MetaFilter from the future.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 1:23 PM on July 29, 2012 [6 favorites]

I recently discovered r/vexillology which is awesome because the Reddit thumbnail is the perfect size to show off some cool flags I've never seen.
posted by grouse at 9:29 AM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

r/malefashionadvice is like AskMe for men's clothing.
posted by Ritchie at 10:11 AM on August 8, 2012

And a reddit comment on beginning to refine reddit.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:49 PM on August 11, 2012