The world has a love/hate relationship with Reddit, the "front page of the Internet," as it's known.
If you're anything like myself, you'll refresh Reddit's front page a dozen times between dawn and dusk, if not more. It's worse than a Facebook addiction, I know. Much of what's posted on the site could fall under the "mindless entertainment" category, but just as much of the content could turn out to be educational, if not motivational. Reddit has its controversial content that has earned a lot of criticism, like the now-banned subreddits (communities within Reddit) r/Creepshots and r/Jailbait, which became online libraries of thousands of photographs of underage girls. Most recently, Reddit users received criticism for their involvement in the leaks of celebrity nude photos dubbed, "The Fappening."
For many people, these events might have been their only exposure to the site—but there's a lot more to it than that. We've gathered some of the biggest and most interesting posts in Reddit history so you can acquaint yourself with the site and its community.
"The Button"
Date Posted: April 1, 2015
The subreddit, r/TheButton, dropped on April Fool's day, and is pretty simple in its concept, but is extremely cunning in its ability drive Reddit users crazy. So, if you visit the subreddit, this is what you'll see:
There's a button on the left side (hence, "The Button"), and a 60-second counter on the right side and center. Every redditor who signed up before April 1, 2015, can press the button, which restarts the counter. If it reaches zero, it's all over. What happens then? No one knows, except whoever put this together. (I captured the GIF above, which just happened to reach "24 seconds," the lowest I've seen yet. If you have the option to press the button, you can only do it once. What makes it more interesting is that redditors who press the button at different times get different kinds of flair (badges that appear next to their username). Users who press the button just after the clock resets get purple or blue flair, while those who wait for the counter to tick away get orange, yellow, or red flair. You can check out the ranking here. Most recently, a technical glitch did cause the button to reach zero faster, with nothing happening when it did. So far, the glitch has been acknowledged and "The Button" is still going strong.
"What's your secret that could literally ruin your life if it came out?"
Thread
Date: April 30, 2012
Of course, we all have one. That one secret that, if it came out, would result in some awkward run-ins with your family, friends, and anyone in your social circle. But, if you're smart about it, you can remain anonymous on the Internet, and Reddit can become a playground for your wildest secrets. That's what happened in the thread, "What's your secret that could literally ruin your life if it came out?" that was submitted under r/AskReddit. There's a mix of depressing, funny, and embarrassing secrets that all have something in common: they needed to come out, and Reddit just happened to be the place to do it.
"TIFU after applying for over 30 jobs"
Date: April 16, 2014
We all know searching for jobs can be hard. But the more resumes you send out, the higher your chances of landing a gig is, right? Sorta. As long as you don't make the same mistake that Reddit user Sproutedonthenumber9x3 made. His post, submitted to the Reddit thread, r/TIFU (today I fucked up), showcased one of the main things you shouldn't do when applying to jobs (especially 30 of them) online, by way of the only employer that got back to him:
The profile picture of the service he used to send the resume featured an Ewok with the words, "Prepare your anus."
"Escorts of Reddit, what was your first day of work like?"
Thread
Date: June 7, 2014
Anonymity on the Internet allows for conversations that likely wouldn't have happened otherwise. One of these examples is of a r/AskReddit post that asked escorts what their first experience was like while on the job. Some of the responses were surprisingly chill, while others talk about awkward situations and overcoming nerves.
"HELP reddit turned spanish and i cannot undo it!"
Thread
Date: July 15, 2010
In one of the greatest examples of what could happen on Reddit when there's an opportunity to have some fun instead of helping a person out. When SnailFarmer had a problem with his Reddit page displaying everything in Spanish, he posted on the site to see if anyone could help him out. "5 min ago my reddit all turned spanish....all the tabs, preferences..etc. I went into preferences and made sure they were checked to english....they were....what is going on?" he asked. He got a ton of responses, except there was one problem:
Almost everyone responded in Spanish. "I run [the responses] through Google translator and most of them say stuff like 'the dog is in my pants' and 'where is the library'," he replied in the thread. Check it out.
"The Magic: The Gathering Tournament"
Date: March 10, 2014
Reddit user OB1FBM posted images of his time at a Magic: The Gathering tournament (it's a card game, if you didn't already know). Except most of these pictures show him with fans who were in the middle of playing the game, and, well, see if you can catch a recurring theme here:
Peep the whole collection on Imgur. His Reddit post currently has more than 38,000 upvotes.
"What's the grossest/nastiest thing that's happened to you in a sexual encounter?"
Date: October 21, 2009
While talking about your nastiest sexual encounters is bound to be a juicy thread, the user who posted the thread, finebushlane, set the bar pretty high with his own descriptive story of going down on a girl who was less than clean.
But, that bar was surpassed by a legendary post known as the"Jolly Rancher Story." Read at your own risk:
Read more here.
"Rome Sweet Rome"
Thread
Date: August 31, 2011
Reddit user The_Quiet_Earth wanted to know if they could destroy the entire Roman Empire during the reign of Augustus if they traveled back in time with a modern U.S. Marine infantry battalion. Of course, a question like that deserves a good answer, and Prufrock451 had one. Or, dozens of them, actually. It what's now become known as "Rome Sweet Rome," James Erwin, the man behind Prufrock451, wrote an epic account of what such an encounter might look like if it happened. His story spanned more than 3,500 words within a week, and, sometime later, the post got enough attention that Warner Bros. came calling and cut Erwin a movie deal. Not everything worked out though, and Erwin was booted from the project and his draft was rewritten by a dude who worked on Apollo 18. Not much has been heard since that happened in 2013.
Read his story here.
"What is the most humiliating thing your parents found you doing?"
Date: April 30, 2012
At some point, we're going to have an embarrassing moment with our parents. It comes with growing up (and a lot of it will happen when you hit puberty, unfortunately). If you're lucky, your parents might never speak of it, and no one will ever know about it, until you post it on the Internet.
"Test"
It was upvoted more than 21,000 times. Some things are better left unexplained.
"I've been playing the same game of Civilization II for 10 years"
Thread
Date: June 12, 2012
The Civilization series of video games lets you build an empire, starting in the year 4000 BC, and lets you see how long you can make that empire last (it can stretch far into the future). Reddit user Lycerius had been playing the same game of Civilization II for 10 years (impressive!) just to see how far he could go, and he made it to the year 3991 AD.
I’ve been playing the same game of Civ II for 10 years. Though long outdated, I grew fascinated with this particular game because by the time Civ III was released, I was already well into the distant future. I then thought that it might be interesting to see just how far into the future I could get and see what the ramifications would be. Naturally I play other games and have a life, but I often return to this game when I’m not doing anything and carry on. The results are as follows.
The world is a hellish nightmare of suffering and devastation.
The details of what has happened to his world within the game is interesting, but he has a problem: only his empire, and two others, are still around, and they're locked in perpetual war for 2,000 gaming years, with no end in sight. Reddit users came through to give him some tips, while others just wanted to give him props for his gaming commitment.
It's been upvoted more than 12,000 times.
"What do insanely poor people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about?"
Thread
Date: January 13, 2015
A powerful Reddit thread in January revealed some of the saddening, and eye-opening, experiences people have gone through while living in poverty in America.
"I am Barack Obama—AMA"
Thread
Date: August 29, 2012
That's right, the POTUS himself hosted an AMA (Ask Me Anything), and redditors did just that. President Obama didn't just offer fast responses to casual questions like, "what's your favorite cereal?" He actually had a few responses in the half-hour that he participated that were lengthy, and touched on subjects like money in politics and unemployment. The AMA received more than 23,000 responses, and Obama called the experience, "Not Bad!"
"Soon I Will Be Gone Forever"
Date: February 27, 2015
O.K., so we had our laughs, now it's time to get motivational. Just two months ago, a Reddit user by the name mylasttie submitted a heartbreaking post that announced that he was diagnosed with cancer, and was picking out the tie he would wear at his funeral. He was only 24 years old. He wanted to give out some last bit of advice to Reddit that reminds us to put things into perspective, and not to waste the precious life we have left:
Now, enough Internet for today. Go out and do something.
