And now for something new and different!

That seems to have been a theme these past few weeks on timotheories, eh Pacha?

You know what I mean… I tell you I’m going to try something out here, and then I simply start doing it. Not to sound like a broken record, but that’s one of the major points of this blog, to give creative types new information, different perspectives, and a forum to think about topics that might not normally get together IRL. Eh Pacha?

That’s why Wednesdays are henceforth known as WISDOM WEDNESDAY’S. The plan is to share with you a resource I’ve found to be useful, usually something from the world-wide-web.

Yeah, I’m going to focus primarily on websites, but I’m sure to venture into the realm of books (people still read), inspirational quotes and such, documentaries, and interesting people of course.

But where the heck should I start?

Well I have a pretty fantastic resource that lots of folks have heard about, but I’m not sure that everyone uses as much as they could. I am referring to a little old community that has been around for the better part of a decade. A wonderful place called Reddit.

I’ll start by sharing this tidbit of the site, from the site, by one of the site’s users and employees. Original link can be found here.

There isn’t just one answer because Reddit is a lot of things. It’s a news site and it’s a forum, but it’s also very much used for porn, and, well, cat pictures. (The latter two are not synonymous. Usually.) When I first started working at Reddit and I had to explain to my Mom what the site is all about, I tried referencing some of Reddit’s better known features.

“Well, there’s the Ask Me Anything community, where people from all walks of life answer questions about their professions or personal experiences. For example, one day a vacuum repair man will be the most upvoted post, and the next day, it’s President Obama.”

And then there’s the inevitable “Wait, what are upvotes?” question.

“Well, the community decides what it thinks other users on the site should see, but these little arrows on the side called upvotes. You can either vote something up, or down.”

Then my Republican step-father chimes in, “Well I hope nobody votes for Obama again.”

I awkwardly dry laugh. I’ve lost their attention already.

…

I’ve been using the site now for many years. I think I started around 2008, right around the time it started to see more exposure in search results and had become more of a fixture in online culture. I’ve always thought of Reddit primarily as an online forum, which combines the best parts of a niche forum and assimilates it into a system with a bunch of other niche formats, without having to circle the internet itself.

Wikipedia has a pretty nice little description which tells us what it thinks Reddit is.

…a collection of entries submitted by its registered users, essentially a bulletin board system. The name “Reddit” is a play-on-words with the phrase “read it”, i.e., “I read it on Reddit.”[10] The site’s content is divided into numerous categories, and 50 such categories, or “default subreddits”, are visible on the front page to new users and those who browse the site without logging in to an account.

But truthfully its more than that. Sure there are categories, and subreddits (sub categories) which exist to further define submitted content, but there is also a voting system, which good or bad, allows users to rate what should be good content, and effectively separate the wheat from the chaff, putting the cream at the top of each page. There are even reddit points, called reddit gold (which have no real value), which reward users that make interesting posts and/or comments.

The major reason why I recommend the site, is because you can make your own feed of the content that works with your interests, so if you are into the arts like me, your feed can be primarily subreddits like r/movies, r/games, r/comics, r/Music, r/LifeProTips, r/DIY, r/GetMotivated, r/Art, etc.

So whatever you are focused on in your career/personal goals, Reddit content will show up every day that feeds that drive. You dictate what shows up on your newsfeed!

One of the other major draws of the platform is that it can be used to raise publicity for all sorts of causes and markets. You just might be surprised at the influence Reddit can have and has had on the Internet.

But don’t take my word for it. Try it. I think you’ll like it. And don’t forget to leave some comments! Do you like Reddit? Do you use it? Would you if you haven’t?

No more theories to day, dear readers!

Tim!