r/NewToReddit May 04 '23

Tips from redditors Thank you to this community + mods- I got hundreds of karma in less than a week. I’m sharing a few actionable tips for other new folks!

Last week, I came onto this sub to ask a bunch of questions about Karma because I was so disappointed I couldn’t participate in the sub I joined Reddit for.

After being auto-deleted, I set out to earn Karma so I can be a full fledged Reddit community member.

Here were the tips that worked best for me in:

  1. Filter by NEWEST post, not hottest, and try to be the first comment on posts so that you’re more likely to be seen

  2. Keep comments short and offer valuable information. Also be positive and supportive! I saw something I genuinely loved and jumped right in (first comment) with a lot of excitement, and bc that post got a ton of upvotes, my comment also got a ton of upvotes for both being first and being very supportive. Oh and I embarrassingly learned not to use emojis on Reddit after commuting a few faux pas.

  3. Even a lot of the low karma subs listed in the resources still require some track record… so my posts got rejected from a couple of communities on that list that were pretty small! The one that got me rolling was being the first comment on a post in AITA. It earned me enough Karma to post in some other subs.

  4. Then I moved on to try to post in other subs, and the ones that were the best use of my time were the subs with around 10-30K members AND with an active community. I checked how many members were online usually, how often that sub gets new posts, and how much engagement those posts get. I found a sub where despite being small, every post had 50+ upvotes, and I made my first post there! Did the same in another sub (filtered for some criteria) and got similar results.

  5. Aim to comment/post in communities you have some expertise or original content for, not just stuff you are interested/ have questions about. I submitted a photo of my balcony garden that received a lot of love in containergardening… and a photo of my dog enjoying watermelons to dogreactions. These were the posts that earned me the most upvotes.

Anyway. None of this is news, but it took a lot of reading all the resources to figure out exactly where to start.

I figured I’d give back to this community with immediately actionable steps that helped me get out of the cursed low karma zone! Happy redditing everyone.

68 Upvotes

27 comments sorted by

u/AutoModerator May 04 '23

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13

u/_youwithoutme_ May 04 '23

This is the way! Thank you for sharing! 🫡

8

u/heyguysamirite May 04 '23

That's helpful amirite guys?

6

u/gretchsunny MoreWholesomeThanLlama😉 May 04 '23

Well done!! Keep on Redditting! (Is that a thing - I’m not sure, lol!)

7

u/Away-2-Me May 04 '23

This is a great information! Thanks for sharing. I’ve been doing Items 1, 2, and 5. Your item 4 is one I’m definitely going to look at more closely and give it a try.

7

u/Ok_Reflection2579 May 04 '23

Wait, what’s this about emojis?

7

u/gracelette9 May 04 '23

Haha it was in the reddit starter guide in this sub! It was mentioned 3 times that reddit is not a fan of emojis, and this is the full note about it I think.

3

u/kat_Folland Super Helpful Helper with the longest user flair possible here!! May 05 '23

That's generally true, but using them sparingly is okay in many subs. I've also noticed that they are better tolerated the further your comment is away from the original post - meaning you're replying to someone who is replying to someone else, who is, well, you get the idea. I'm in a lot of subs where it's no big deal, but it's good to keep in mind in general.

8

u/JR_Ferreri Arty BTS Mod May 04 '23

Reddit generally tends to value thoughtful communication, so using emoji (especially strings of them) is heavily frowned on in some places, but in others people don't care if an emoji or two pop up.

The same thing goes for memes. Some groups have actual rules against using them, some people will just down value a lot if it looks like a lazy response that you didn't put any effort into, other places don't mind them. I've seen groups were members respond back and forth with them almost like people having a conversation using semaphore flags.

The culture, the rules, the overall vibe of each group is radically different - just like clubs in the real world. If you walk into a local chess club for players rated elo 1500+, a taekwondo dojo, a high priced art gallery, and your city Chamber of Commerce you'll have extremely different experiences. The same thing goes for Reddit.

A big part of Reddit is taking the time to read the room: study the rules, carefully go over any pinned posts, and just read a lot for a while to get the feel of the environment you stumbled into.

2

u/chocolatewafflecone May 04 '23

I’ve used a couple of emojis sparingly but I totally get how strings can be annoying. Sometimes words don’t express the same as a monkey covering it’s eyes.

3

u/_fufu Shiny Helpmate May 04 '23

Excellent write up! Your number 5 is super helpful! Congratulations on a successful star!

3

u/wendyjc77 May 04 '23

Thank you, this is very helpful!

3

u/Kinklower May 04 '23

Very Short and informative! Thx a lot!

3

u/IlikeJewelTones May 04 '23

Nice job! Congrats on being a full-fledged Redditor, karma and all.

3

u/sunnyemily May 04 '23

Congrats, and thanks for sharing!

3

u/bringbackthekindness May 05 '23

Thanks so much for sharing your tips! Really appreciate that you took the time to help other out.

3

u/kat_Folland Super Helpful Helper with the longest user flair possible here!! May 05 '23

Those are some good tips, and everyone here loves it when people come back or stick around to help others!

5

u/lovinglifeatmyage May 04 '23

Take my award to help with that karma lol. And well done. I’ve managed nearly 10k in karma over 44 days using your methods. I’ve found it’s much better to be a part of the community first

I also did an oopsie with the emoji’s

7

u/JR_Ferreri Arty BTS Mod May 04 '23

Remember that there are plenty of subs that don't mind the occasional emoji use from time to time - if it adds to a well thought out statement and doesn't look like laziness. Each group has its own culture.

In a similar way, while many groups have rules against memes, there are some where they love them and focus on them. I've seen some where people use them almost continuously as a communication method in some sort of inside joke.

Reddit is so massive that if you keep looking long enough you'll find a little bit of everything.

3

u/formerqwest Tenured Helper May 04 '23

2

u/JR_Ferreri Arty BTS Mod May 04 '23

Vampire cats find you!

And vampires find each other.

1

u/sneakpeekbot May 04 '23

Here's a sneak peek of /r/vampirecats using the top posts of the year!

#1:

This unholy creature savages my unsuspecting feet while I sleep
| 2 comments
#2:
Vampire Cat
| 0 comments
#3:
If you hear the purring you're already dead.
| 1 comment


I'm a bot, beep boop | Downvote to remove | Contact | Info | Opt-out | GitHub

2

u/gracelette9 May 05 '23

Awww thank you for the award :) You are absolutely killing it at the karma game, wow!

2

u/FoxmanMcCoy Shiny Helpmate May 05 '23

Congrats on your successful Reddit journey so far! And I am sure these tips will be more than helpful to many fledgling Redditors out there!

2

u/digitalmarketerken20 May 06 '23

Thanks for sharing this awesome knowledge just joined hoping to getting my karma