Comment by llamageddon01 on 14/08/2023 at 14:42 UTC*

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies (showing 0)

View submission: Reddit and Karma Explained

Part 6b: Subreddit Silliness!

Before you go any further, please press “View All” to make sure you have read the previous parts of this guide.*

Not every Subreddit is what it appears to be. There are many subs with misleading or ambiguous titles which you might like but pass right on by because of their names. Here’s an introduction to the Reddit Phenomenon of…

*…….MISLEADING SUBREDDIT TITLES**

Reddit has many subs with misleading titles that are:

outright puns (e.g. r/Superbowl which is about owls, which we all know are superb)
bizarre (e.g. r/disneyvacation which has absolutely nothing to do with r/DisneyVacations)
swapped out with other subreddits (e.g. r/trees and r/marijuanaenthusiasts)
unintentionally misleading (e.g. r/bugs which is about reporting code errors and glitches in Reddit and not insects or other minibeasts)
intentionally misleading to be humorous (e.g. r/manholeporn; a sub for SFW pictures of sewer covers in all their cast iron glory and absolutely no NSFW pictures of man holes.)
intentionally misleading to be literal (e.g. r/stormfront which isn't a neo-Nazi sub but a weather-related one)
intentionally misleading to be very, very wrong (e.g. the extremely NSFL one-letter omitted version of the lovely r/eyebleach)
totally absurd (e.g. r/JohnCena which is about potato salad)
sardonic (e.g. r/PeopleFuckingDying which is videos and GIFs of people figuratively dying inside)
sardonic yet poignant (e.g. r/AlzheimersGroupBackup; people posting a particular Garfield strip as if it were brand new each time. (That’s actually not a strip I’ve seen before. Or have I?)
clever (e.g. r/estoration which is about photographic restoration)

There are many more of these to be found throughout Reddit. All will have their different origin stories, sometimes in their Sidebar.

*…….FAKE SUBREDDIT TITLES**

A link to another subreddit is often helpfully posted in a comment when the subject under discussion would fit there too. For instance, if you saw a cat sat on a glass table in r/cats, you’d comment r/catsonglass. But in the same way, you will also find links posted to subreddits that don’t exist; i.e. r/catsonglasslookinglikederps. These are fake subreddits generated by someone putting the prefix r/ before a random word or phrase to turn it into a link for comic effect. Welcome to the meta world of Fake Subreddits!

r/SubsIFellFor - a sub dedicated to documenting the times you fell for a fake sub that seemed real in comments but wasn’t.

r/subsiwishexisted - a sub dedicated to documenting the times you were disappointed at the times you fell for a fake sub that seemed real in comments but wasn’t.

r/subsithoughtifellfor - a sub dedicated to documenting the times you thought you might be falling for a fake sub that seemed real in comments which is indeed real and does actually exist.

r/subsyoufellfor - a sub dedicated to bamboozling you into falling for a fake sub that seems real in comments which is indeed real and does actually exist but with no content or purpose other than the bamboozle you were meant to fall for by clicking the sub. Reddit loves being meta.

r/subsopfellfor - a sub dedicated to documenting the times the OP fell for a fake sub[1] that seemed real in comments but wasn’t.[2]

1: https://www.reddit.com/r/SubsIFellFor/comments/15fyws7/looks_surprisingly_convincing/

2: https://www.reddit.com/r/subsithoughtifellfor/comments/15i0d87/he_went_as_far_as_to_create_it/

r/wowthissubexists - a sub dedicated to documenting the times you thought a sub couldn’t possibly exist for something but it does.

r/21CharactersAndNoMore - a sub dedicated to documenting the replies to someone posting an obviously fake sub name that's too long to be a subreddit.

r/AlreadyHere - a sub dedicated to documenting the times when someone suggests the sub they’re actually in. See also: r/thatsthesubwereon because of course Reddit needs two subs documenting the times someone links the sub that you’re already on.

Reddit being, well, Reddit have also turned the tradition of commenting subreddit titles into a meta-realm all of its very own:

r/secondsub - When people say one subreddit name, you comment this one.
r/thirdsub - For when there are 3 subreddit links in a row. And yes, this list goes on and on and on…

*…….THE “CIRCLEJERK” PHENOMENON**

Despite the name these subs are non-sexual in nature (unless they’re mocking NSFW content, of course). Circlejerk[3] subs exist in a strange world of mock self-hatred where fans of a particular thing also like to ridicule said thing. These will have a variety of prefixes and suffixes including:

3: https://www.reddit.com/r/EncyclopaediaOfReddit/comments/110mmcg/circlejerk/

r/RunningCirclejerk (for r/running)
r/AnarchyChess (for r/chess)
r/ShittyTodayILearned (for r/TodayILearned)
r/minimalism_jerk (for r/minimalism)
r/OkBuddyFresca (for r/TheBoys)
r/CricketShitpost (for r/Cricket)

There are shitpost, circlejerk or meme subs for almost every topic on Reddit. Just don’t take them too seriously.

*…….AMBIGUOUSLY NAMED SUBREDDITS**

There’s a large number of subs which have the word “fuck” in their title but have nothing to do with sexual matters. These include r/interestingasfuck, r/FairytaleasFuck and r/NatureIsFuckingLit which are not just SFW but as wholesome as fuck - just like r/wholesomeasfuck.

In the same way, many subs have the word “porn” in their titles, such as r/AbandonedPorn which is not for lost nudie magazine collections but for beautiful photos of places, houses and objects left for nature to reclaim. Subreddits like this with the "porn" suffix are focused on collecting media of the best or highest quality and not in the slightest bit NSFW.

There is also a whole network of former Porn subs[4] now repurposed to be all about cats (e.g. r/GirlsWithHugePussies and r/wetpussy).

4: https://np.reddit.com/r/redditrequest/comments/6ruv62/requesting_rprettypussy_banned_subreddit_7_years/dl80lvg/

Of course, there is also porn on Reddit. This is the internet; there is always porn. Have fun sorting out “porn” from *porn*. Don’t forget, you do have an NSFW filter as you read in part 6 of this guide.

*…….WHAT’S NEXT?**

Talking of which, let’s go on to part 7 with some notes on keeping safe on Reddit.

Replies

There's nothing here!