“I want to gain Karma points”. That was my intention when I first started using Reddit a few days ago. For an instance, I thought that it must be an easy process: submitting some interesting stories, and adding some comments! And that’s it. It should work. Unfortunately, and after 2 hours on the site, I learnt otherwise. My aim suddenly shifted into trying hard to keep my Karma indicator positive.
What goes around comes around
I tried to be a good Reddit citizen. I voted up stories that interested me and refrained from voting down those who don’t. I cheered up insightful comments and added supportive ones. I have also made sure to submit good stories that would interest people. And then, I waited for a full circle, knowing that my good deeds would most definitely come back to me in the form of higher Karma points.
Obviously, being a good Reddit citizen doesn’t entail the above actions! It is more about submitting good quality stories and posting comments that are not redundant and which “add” to the conversations.
Laughing out loud
Laughing Out Loud
That was one of my very first mistakes. It cost me 3 comments karma points! I thought a comment was funny enough, and thus I just posted those damn 3 letters “LOL”, only to realize later on that this kind of comments is a NO NO at Reddit.
It has also taken me some time to realize what I had to do in order to control the damage of such mistakes. *Delete it* as fast as you can!
Polls and Rediquette
In a cheap attempt to gain some easy karma points, I posted a stupid poll about Microsoft’s new search engine – Bing -. At that time, I didn’t realize that “self” posts don’t add Karma points. I didn’t realize either that “self” polls are against the Reddit users’ etiquette. It is one thing to post a question or information using the “self” feature where you offer some value, and totally another thing to use it in a way that abuses the system.
Vote up if you think that you are never going to use Bing
It only came to my awareness when barsoap – a Reddit user – shouted at me “Read the damn Rediquette”. He is so right, Rediquette is a must read for every new Reddit user. I would suggest for Reddit to add it as an optional step for people to read while signing up for an account.
Catchy titles
As much as a submission needs to be good, as much as its title needs to be catchy. Reddit only shows titles without any description below it. If you want your story to be read, then you better come up with a catchy title.
Catchy Titles
It took me 21 submissions to come up with a catchy title for a story that seems to catch up some attention. The story has been submitted by 2 other people with its original title but hasn’t picked up like my own submission.
Two other submissions of the same story
Last word
Reddit users are a tough crowd. You need to go the extra mile by making sure you’re submitting good and worthy-of-reading content. The crowd over there won’t mercy you. Success on Reddit has a lovely taste, because you feel that you have really got rewarded for your hard work. It may have been a hard start for me, but maybe one day I would make it like QGYH2 and collect even more than his 259683 karma points. He has been over there for 2 years now. Let’s see how it goes.
Did you face any similar situations, or made any mistakes while playing around Reddit.com? Join the discussion by leaving a comment and sharing your experience…
