How To Use Reddit Better

Many trend setters and early adopters who are looking for the fastest way to find up-to-date and daily information online repeatedly come back to one particular website — the self-styled front page of the internet, Reddit.

Despite looking like it’s from the ‘90s, the site went live in 2005 and has become a hotbed for creative ideas, news and current events, and can be a powerful tool if you know how to use it.

That said, Reddit can be an impenetrable maze of links and comments that span for thousands of pages, turning away all but the most dedicated bunch of procrastinators or hard-core information activists.

So over the next few hundred words we’ll provide a number of helpful hints and tips to make getting around the world’s largest repository of information that little bit less stressful. Let’s start with a recent addition.

Install the Reddit Enhancement Suite

The ever-popular Reddit Enhancement Suite — or RES — is a browser add-on that grants swift access to what you need, when you need it, and version 4.0 sports a redesigned and searchable settings console with improved filtering options and a fully customizable dashboard.

One of the best things about it is the feature that lets a Redditor subscribe to a discussion thread so they never miss a post on a topic they care about. The suite is compatible with Google Chrome, Safari and Opera, but Firefox users will need to install the Greasemonkey add-on before diving into things.

The tool’s Never-Ending Reddit module can bypass the “more” button typically found at the bottom of each page and create a seamless thread of user-generated content. If you haven’t installed it yet, you probably should.

Make Use of Reddit Companion

If you’re like most people, you may have entertained the thought of calling it quits after finding out upvoting particular items is sometimes too time-consuming. Thankfully, there is an integrated add-on by the name of Reddit Companion that solves this problem once and for all.

This is your browser’s best friend when it comes to voting links and lets you do this even when they open in a new tab, eliminating the need for a lot of backtracking. In the words on one Redditor, “It actually makes the Internet an interactive experience.”

You can even set the extension to push desktop notifications about comments and look up topics from external sites on Reddit, allowing you to submit new links via the unobtrusive info bar. Consider this for what it is — a companion — and run it alongside the Enhancement Suite.

We’re now going to move on from the add-ons that can improve your browsing experience to focus on what you can use to boost your efficiency. But if you’re interested to see what else is on offer, take a look at this list of tools and choose your favorites.

Sort Through Subreddit Submissions

Reddit provides a sorting feature at the top of the page than can be great for discovering new content when browsing new subreddits. You’ll see the options are listed by category from left to right and include hot, new, rising, controversial, etc.

This will often be your go-to method of search and helps you to keep a relevant focus that can be narrowed by selecting the best of the hour, week, month and more. That said, there is a more comprehensive category system in place just under the Reddit URL.

Combine Subreddits Into Multireddits

This is a way for you to group different subreddits together and view them within the same page, making things progress much more smoothly. All you need to do is be logged in, navigate to your front page, and hit “create” on the left-hand side of the page.

Then you’ll need to name your multireddit and add in the subreddits you’d like. After that you’re free to explore any multireddits created by other users.

A Quicker Way to Reach Your Subreddit

One thing few people are aware of is the ability to skip the forward slashes of a subreddit URL by changing the way you type it in. For example, instead of typing “reddit.com/r/news,” try entering “news.reddit.com” instead, and revolutionize your subreddit searching.

Finally, just remember there are plenty of other sites around sharing a wide range of hints and tips, and if you run into any serious trouble, you can always post to Reddit and ask the online community to lend a helping hand.

[mc4wp_form]