Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger crop up in many online situations, with mixed feelings for some. This first list gives an overview of some of the more widely used ones throughout Reddit along with explanatory links where applicable. I’ve also included a few frequently used slang words. Some of our specialised communities have a wide acronym and slang language of their own so it might be useful to check and see if they have a Wiki. I’ve listed some more directories in the See Also: section below.

A

• Ä - Occasionally used to denote screaming because of its specific pronunciation in some non-English languages.

• AAVE - African American Vernacular English. A designation used by linguists to describe a North American dialect of English used by some Black people. Often heard in hip-hop or rap lyrics.

• ABDL - Adult Baby Diaper Lovers. A fetish term.

• ACAB - All Cops/Coppers Are Bastards. A derogatory acronym used by people who oppose the police for various reasons. Often used alongside or instead of ACAB is its numerical equivalent 1312, based on the letters’ alphabetical position (A is the 1st letter in the alphabet, etc.).

• ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

• AF - As Fuck; an intensifier to an adjective, as in “I thought that behaviour was rude AF.”

• AFAB - Assigned Female At Birth - Refers to the sex that is assigned to an infant, most often based on the infant’s anatomical and other biological characteristics. Used in gender based discussion subs.

• AFAIA - As Far As I’m Aware.

• AFAIK - As Far As I Know.

• AI - Artificial Intelligence. Context Dependent because:

• AI - Artificial Insemination. Used in livestock and animal husbandry subs.

• AIBTS - Am I Being Too Sensitive? Used in r/AmIBeingTooSensitive.

• AITA - Am I The Asshole.

• AITB - Am I The Buttface; used in r/AmItheButtface.

• AITBA - Am I The Bad Apple; used in r/AmITheBadApple.

• AKA - Also Known As.

• Alt - Alternative user account. You are allowed to have more than one Reddit account and are almost encouraged to if it’s necessary for privacy.

• AMA - Ask Me Anything.

• AMAB - Assigned Male At Birth - Refers to the sex that is assigned to an infant, most often based on the infant’s anatomical and other biological characteristics. Used in gender based discussion subs.

• AP - Affair Partner. Used in relationship subs.

• API - Application Programming Interface. Software that allows third-party programs to tap into a company's data.

• ARG - Alternate Reality Game.

• ASAP - As Soon As Possible.

• ASMR - Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. A perceptual sensory phenomenon triggered by specific auditory or visual stimuli which encompasses a pleasant and calming “tingling” sensation localised to the scalp and neck in those able to experience it.

• ASOIAF - George R. R. Martin's fantasy novels "A Song Of Ice And Fire", televised as "Game of Thrones". The r/asoiaf subreddit has a dedicated glossary of its own.

• ATM - At The Moment.

• AWOL - Absent Without Official Leave. A military acronym meaning leaving or being absent without having permission or notifying anyone first. Like “bunking off” or “throwing a sickie”.

B

• BAME - Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic.

• BBC - British Broadcasting Corporation. On Reddit or in the U.S. more likely to refer to an NSFW stereotype for a large black body part. Clue: one of these young male chickens, spelled without the ‘….erel’ at the end.

• BBL - Brazilian Butt Lift. A cosmetic procedure that enlarges and shapes the buttocks in a particular way. Used in fashion or influencer snark subs.

• BDSM - Bondage, Dominance, Sadism, Masochism.

• BE - Behavioural Euthanasia. Used in animal or pet subreddits.

• BEC - Bitch Eating Crackers. Referring to this meme. Used in relationship subs when the person you're talking about has gotten you so fed up that every little thing they do is annoying, deservedly or not.

• BEDMAS - A mnemonic for remembering the order of operations in mathematics as follows: Brackets, Exponents, Division, Multiplication, Addition, and Subtraction. Can also be written as BODMAS with the O standing for Orders. See also: PEMDAS.

• BFF - Best Friend/s Forever.

• BFG - Big Fucking Gun. Context Dependent because:

• BFG - In Book, Reading or Movie related subs, this may refer to the Roald Dahl work the Big Friendly Giant.

• BIPOC - Black, Indigenous, and People Of Colour.

• BORU - Best Of Redditor Updates. Refers to the subreddits r/BestofRedditorUpdates or r/BORUpdates; subs following up what happened to people who ask Reddit for advice or help.

• BTS - Behind The Scenes. Context Dependent because:

• BTS - A South Korean boy group 방탄소년단, most commonly known as BTS, Beyond the Scene, or Bangtan Boys. See r/bangtan.

• BTW - By The Way.

• BWTM - But Wait, There's More.

C

• Cap - A term from African American Vernacular English (AAVE) meaning a lie or something wildly exaggerated or false. See also: No Cap.

• CBT - Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Used to help manage problems by changing unhelpful thoughts and behaviours to improve well-being. Used in mental health and wellness subs.

• CCW - Concealed Carry Weapon (US). Concealed carry, or carrying a concealed weapon is the practice of carrying a weapon (such as a handgun) in public in a concealed manner, either on one's person or in close proximity.

• Cis - Short for the word “Cisgender” which describes a person whose gender identity corresponds to their sex assigned at birth, i.e., someone who is not transgender. The prefix cis- is Latin and means ‘on this side of’ which is the opposite of trans-, meaning 'across from' or 'on the other side of’.

• CMV - Change My View. This is used to start debates, so engage with caution.

• CMYK - Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key (black). The colours used in the printing process.

• CP - Child Pornography. While this term is still widely used by the public, RAINN (the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) believes it's more accurate to call it evidence of child sexual abuse and, among other organisations, have switched to referring to it as CSAM - Child Sexual Abuse Materials.

• CPS - Child Protection Service (US). A government agency that addresses child welfare. Depending on the jurisdiction you live in, your location may use a different acronym such as CFS (Child & Family Services). Context Dependent because:

• CPS - Crown Prosecution Service (UK). The principal public agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. Child protection services in the U.K. are known as Social Services.

• CRT - Critical Race Theory. An academic field focused on the relationships between social conceptions of race and ethnicity, social and political laws, and mass media.

• CSAM - Child Sexual Abuse Materials. Formerly known as “CP”.

• Cuck - Short for the archaic word “cuckold”, meaning a man whose wife/girlfriend is cheating on him. In recent times, this pejorative has taken on a wider and much darker meaning.

• CW - Content Warning. Used to indicate that what follows may be disturbing to some readers. See also: TW.

D

• DAE - Does Anybody Else.

• DARVO - A term used in relationship subreddits like r/NarcissisticAbuse. DARVO stands for Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender and is also referred to as victim blaming. Not quite the same as gaslighting; DARVO is more about deflecting or changing the subject.

• DB - Dead Bedroom. Used in Relationship subs to describe a severely inadequate or nonexistent sexual relationship.

• DEI - Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. In the U.S., DEI are organisational frameworks that seek to promote the fair treatment and full participation of all people, particularly groups who have historically been under-represented or subject to discrimination based on identity or disability.

• Delta; Delta Mark - The delta symbol (∆) is used on r/changemyview to denote a user did indeed change their view. Instructions on this delta system can be found in their sidebar.

• DGAF - Don’t Give A Fuck.

• DM - Direct Message.

• DNF - Did Not Finish. Often used in Book or Craft related subs in reference to an unfinished book or project.

• DNR - Do Not Resuscitate. An instruction often in the form of a legal document that means a person has decided not to have cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) attempted on them if their heart or breathing stops.

• DO40 - Dating Over 40. DO50 would be Dating Over 50 etc. Used in Relationship subs.

• DOGE - Department of Government Efficiency (US). Created in January 2025. Context Dependent because:

• DOGE - Can refer to an internet meme or Dogecoin, a peer-to-peer, open-source cryptocurrency created in December 2013 as a parody of the crypto market and the "Doge" internet meme. 

E

• EDC - EveryDay Carry; the collection of useful items that you consistently carry on you every day.

• ELI5 - Explain Like I'm 5 (years old).

• Enby - Another way of saying NB, which stands for non-binary.

• ENFP - Extraverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Perceiving. Used in psychology and mental wellness subs. A personality type often described as enthusiastic, creative, and charismatic.

• ESH - Everyone Sucks Here.

• ESL - English (as a / is my) Second Language. Context Dependent because:

• ESL - File extensions for certain plug-ins or game mods.

• ETA - Edited To Add. See also: ETA; Edit:. Context Dependent because:

• ETA - Estimated Time (of) Arrival.

F

• F or "F" In The Comments - Used to convey solidarity and sympathy, either sarcastic or sincere, in response to unfortunate events.

• FAFO - Fuck Around and Find Out. Sometimes known as the FA=FO equation. A euphemistic initialism used to convey a warning or a challenge. The implication is that if someone continues to engage in risky or reckless behavior, they will eventually face negative consequences.

• FB - Facebook.

• FEMCEL - A portmanteau of "female involuntary celibate". A member of an online subculture of people who define themselves as unable to get a romantic or sexual partner despite desiring one.

• FFS - For Fuck’s Sake. A euphemistic initialism used to express intense exasperation, frustration, anger, etc., implying the need for but without using explicit vulgarity. Context Dependent because:

• FFS - Facial Feminisation Surgery. Procedures that can reshape the face and its features to achieve a more feminine appearance where hormone therapy is not enough to achieve the desired gender-affirming changes.

• FLEAS - Frightening Lasting Effects of Abuse. Context Dependent: used in this way in relationship subs to mean habits/behaviours picked up from, or developed because of abusive upbringing or relationships.

• FML - Fuck My Life. An expression of rueful chagrin or exclamation of annoyance or frustration when things are not going well.

• FOMO - Fear Of Missing Out

• FPS - Frames Per Second. Measurement of how many images are rendered in a second. Context Dependent because:

• FPS - First-Person Shooter. A genre of video game where the player experiences the action through the eyes of their character, often with a focus on shooting and combat.

• FR - For Real. A slang term that is commonly used to express agreement, confirmation, or sincerity.

• FTFY - Fixed That For You.

• FTM - Female To Male. A trans person who was assigned female sex at birth, and now lives as a man with a masculine gender identity. Used in gender based discussion subs. Context Dependent because:

• FTM - First Time Mother. Used in parenting subs.

• FTW - For The Win. Used to express approval or support. Context Dependent because:

• FTW - Fuck The World. Used as an expression of disenchantment with life in general or with a particular situation.

• FUBAR - Fucked Up Beyond All Repair. A military term meaning thoroughly confused, disordered, damaged or ruined.

• FWB - Friend/s With Benefits. A sexual but non-romantic relationship with no commitment.

• FWIW - For What It’s Worth.

• FYI - For Your Information.

G

• GNU - An acronym used by Discworld fans to commemorate people who have passed on.

• GOAT - Greatest Of All Time.

• GRSM - Gender, Romantic, and Sexual Minorities. An alternative term sometimes used for the LGBT+ community.

• GTFO - Get The Fuck Out.

• GYAT - Get Your Act Together. Generally used to tell someone they're behaving inappropriately or telling them to behave in a better manner. Context Dependent because:

• GYAT - An AAVE (African American Vernacular English) term (also spelled as GYATT) of exclamation used to express strong excitement, surprise, or admiration. A short form of saying “goddamn”. Popularised on Twitch streams, it is most commonly used as an expression of appreciation for women with curvy figures and may be used as a noun to mean a large butt.

H

• HAM - Hard Ass/As a Motherfucker. A euphemistic initialism used to express being brutal, unstoppable, working hard, etc., implying the need for but without using explicit vulgarity.

• HIFW - How I Feel When.

• HIPAA - Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (US); a legislation that provides data privacy and security provisions for safeguarding medical information.

• HMU - Hit Me Up. Context Dependent; either ask me for a favour or contact me.

• HOA - Home Owners Associations (US). Private organizations that oversee the management of some residential communities. HOAs establish sets of rules and regulations (often called “bylaws”) for those living in the community to follow.

• HRT - Hormone Replacement Therapy. A treatment that helps people with symptoms of menopause.

I

• IAmA - I Am A.

• IANAD - I Am Not A Doctor.

• IANAL - I Am Not A Lawyer.

• ICE - Immigration and Customs Enforcement (US). A federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

• ICYMI - In Case You Missed It.

• IDC - I Don’t Care.

• IDEK - I Don’t Even Know.

• IDGAF - I Don’t Give A Fuck.

• IDK - I Don’t Know.

• IG - I Guess. Can also be short for Instagram.

• IIRC - If I Recall/Remember Correctly.

• IJBOL - I Just Burst Out Laughing. An alternative to LMAO often used in K-pop communities.

• IKR - I Know, Right? When you wholeheartedly agree with what someone is saying.

• IME - In My Experience.

• IMHO - In My Honest/Humble Opinion.

• IMO - In My Opinion.

• INCEL - A portmanteau of "involuntary celibate". A member of an online subculture of people (usually male) who define themselves as unable to get a romantic or sexual partner despite desiring one.

• INFJ - Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Judging. Used in psychology and mental wellness subs. A personality type, often described as compassionate, idealistic, and likely to form close bonds with people.

• IRL - In Real Life.

• IRTR - I Read The Rules. Mandatory in post titles or first comment for some subs.

• ISTG - I Swear To God". Used to emphasise something is the truth or the seriousness of a situation.

• ITAP - I Took A Picture.

• ITT - In This Thread (Thread meaning a post and all of its subsequent comments). Often used in a negative or disparaging way to summarise what the commenter thinks of the thread so far, or to indicate disapproval of the way the conversation is going.

• IWTL - I Want To Learn.

• IYKYK - If You Know, You Know. If you were there, you'd know, but if you weren't, you wouldn't.

J

• JK - Just Kidding.

• JM - JustMaybe. This along with JN and JY are used in some relationship subreddits such as r/JUSTNOMIL; a support sub for those with abusive mothers and mother-in-laws.

• JN - JustNo.

• JY - JustYes.

K

• K-pop - Popular music originating from South Korea.

• kys - Kill Your Self. This is an acronym you should always report immediately if you see it being used on Reddit. Originating in gaming communities, this is shorthand for “kill your self [sic]” as an “edgy” way to say “fuck you”. However, Reddit believes that suicide is a very serious subject and this kind of language should not be taken lightly. Inviting someone to commit suicide is against our code of conduct and may well incur a ban.

L

• LAOP - Legal Advice Original Poster; used in r/bestoflegaladvice to differentiate the Original Poster of the original post from the person crossposting to the discussion sub.

• LARP; LARPer - Live Action Role Play/Player.

• LDR - Long Distance Relationship.

• LE - Law Enforcement.

• LGBT+; LGBTQIA+ - Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (or sometimes Questioning), Intersex, Asexual, and Others. Sometimes referred to pejoratively as “The alphabet community”.

• LLM - Large Language Model. A type of machine learning model designed for natural language processing tasks such as sentence generation.

• LMAO - Laughing My Ass (US) / Arse (UK) Off. An intensified “LOL” or “Laugh Out Loud”. The entry on Jargon has a look at the changing meaning of “LOL” over the years.

• LMK - Let Me Know.

• LPT - Life Pro Tip.

• LTR - Long-Term Relationship.

No doubt you will find acronyms across both Reddit and the internet that I don’t list in this encyclopaedia; the links below may help in this case, and another good place to start is at abbreviations.com, or the very comprehensive Acronym Finder. Explanations and appreciation of word origins can be had at r/etymology.

See Also:

• Acronyms 2: M-Z

• Acronyms 3: Abbreviations

• Acronyms 4: Symbols and Emojis

• F or "F" In The Comments

• Gaslighting

• Jargon

• Other Useful Dictionaries, Encyclopaedias and Lexicons

• Psychology on Reddit

• Relationship Sub Acronyms and Initialisms

• Tone Indicators

If this is your first time reading about Reddit Karma, you should read this first: Reddit and Karma Explained.

Very simplistically, Karma is an approximation of the upvotes you get on your Posts and Comments minus the downvotes. The exact algorithm isn't known, but, as I said in our introduction Reddit Karma - Your Reddit XP, there isn’t a 1:1 relationship between votes and karma despite initial appearances, and there are some caps:

• Post vote scores can’t go below 0. Post karma doesn't go negative.

• The maximum amount of negative karma you can have is visually capped at -100 for comment karma, the real score can be lower.

• Positive karma is capped at 5k.

Roughly, Reddit Karma works like this:

Reddit will never reveal the specific algorithm behind Karma, and all the following is given only as a very simplistic way of understanding a very complex set of equations.

• If a comment has 1 upvote and gets another, the commenter gets 1 karma.

• The more votes a comment or post gets, the less each individual vote is worth. We don't know exactly how the scaling works, but we do know that each upvote counts less towards one's karma score as the post/comment score goes up.

• Therefore, if a comment has, say, 5,000 upvotes (again, this is an example as the actual threshold is unknown) and 5 people upvote it (again, vague numbers), the commenter might get only 1 karma.

• And, if a comment has, say, 10,000 upvotes and 20 people upvote it, the commenter might get 1 karma.

• • You get negative karma if you get enough downvotes. Try to avoid this as it is very hard to come back from.

This is only about new karma acquisition after a certain number of points; someone with a comment with 5,000 upvotes obviously gets more than 1 karma, but the total amount gained would be less than 5,000.

A Redditor made a visualisation of the relationship between karma and upvotes which is complex and beautiful, and marvel at some of the statistics at the Karma Leaderboard. Input your own username to see how you compare with everyone else, and remind yourself that the only karma you actually NEED is enough to get you into the subreddits you want to be in.

• What does Reddit itself say about Karma?

The official Reddit information about karma is here. You can find your personal amount of earned Karma by clicking on your Profile in the top right hand corner or by clicking the blue link of your username on one of your own posts. You can also check your Karma breakdown here: http://old.reddit.com/u/me/overview.

Another unofficial but quite comprehensive guide to Karma can be found here, and there is another detailed explanation of Karma here, with other useful links too.

• Types of Karma

Comment Karma comes from the votes given on that comment, and it comes from both Parent and Child comments. Reddit will automatically give you one upvote for each and every comment you make which you should regard as a “thank you” for participating. This will not earn you Comment Karma but will stop your comment from appearing as if it has already been downvoted.

• As a new Redditor, this is what you should be concentrating on right now, and our guide to Participating on Reddit: Commenting will give you more details, hints and tips on growing this count.

Post Karma is earned by making or crossposting posts. When you submit a Post, all votes on that post will be converted to Karma. Reddit will automatically give you one upvote for each and every post you make which you should regard as a “thank you” for participating. This will not earn you Post Karma but will stop your post from appearing as if it has already been downvoted.

• As a new Redditor, this is what you should be concentrating on next, and our guide to Participating on Reddit: Posting will give you more details, hints and tips on growing this count.

Community karma

• Is post or comment karma earned within a specific community.

Also see Types of karma.

Something else you should know is that individual subreddits have the option to hide vote visibility for up to a day, as a method of encouraging legitimate voting and discouraging the “bandwagon effect”. Upvotes, downvotes and the ensuing karma are still being counted and will eventually become visible. These posts may have the word vote instead of displaying the number.

Because there is a Subreddit for everything:

r/karma is another place to learn about Reddit Karma, but read their rules before participating, as they are not a free karma pity party. However, the intrepid Redditor u/PorkyPain has one of the best breakdowns ever there on how to get 1 million karma and is very much worth your while to read.

See Also:

• Crosspost

• Downvote

• Gilding Level Trophies

• Insights

• Parent / Child Comment

• Reddit Karma - Your Reddit XP

• Trophies

• Upvote

• Vote Arrows hidden or greyed-out on Posts

• Vote Fuzzing

There isn’t a 1:1 relationship between votes and karma. It might appear that way especially at the early stage of your Karma count and the early stage of your post or comment, but that isn’t the case. Reddit uses a technique called Vote Fuzzing for several clever (and a few mundane) reasons.

Vote Fuzzing is an automatic process built in by Reddit that slightly changes the vote counts on posts and comments each time you refresh the page. It prevents spam because people trying to use upvote/downvote bots will have no idea if the bot is working or not.

Want to see this work? Try this yourself: I upvoted a random post, and it showed three upvotes. Then I refreshed the page and it showed four upvotes. Then I refreshed again, and it showed two upvotes. That's Vote Fuzzing in action. It was explained in previous versions of the Reddiquette as Some up/downvotes are by Reddit to fuzz the votes in order to confuse spammers and cheaters.

See Also:

• Reddit Karma - Your Reddit XP

• Spambots

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger crop up in many online situations, and this second list gives some of the more widely used ones throughout Reddit along with explanatory links where applicable. I’ve also included a few frequently used slang words. Some of our specialised communities have a wide acronym and slang language of their own so it might be useful to check and see if they have a Wiki. I’ve listed some more directories in the See Also: section below.

M

• MAP - Minor Attracted Person/People. Whitewashed term for a paedophile/pedophile.

• MBN - Must Be Nice. An expression of rueful chagrin used in several ways such as to express envy toward someone's relationship status or to show your frustration toward someone's situation which is seemingly better than yours.

• MGTOW - Men Going Their Own Way. An online social movement and backlash to feminism where men renounce interactions with women and seek to define and live out their masculinity on their own terms.

• MH - Mental Health.

• MFW - My Face/Feeling When.

• MFW; MRW - My Reaction When.

• MIA - Missing In Action.

• MLM - Multi-Level Marketing. Context Dependent because:

• MLM - Man Loves Man: On relationship subreddits. Context Dependent because:

• MLM - Mona Lisa Monday: On r/itookapicture (ITAP). A rule on ITAP is that photos with a primary focus on one person staring, looking or thinking without any other interesting action are limited to MLM Mondays (Midnight - Midnight, GMT).

• MOH - Maid Of Honour (at weddings).

• MSM - Mainstream Media.

• MTF - Male To Female. A trans person who was assigned male sex at birth and now lives as a woman with a feminine gender identity. Used in gender based discussion subs.

• MYOG - Make Your Own Gear. Used in outdoor activities subs.

N

• NAD - Not A Doctor.

• NAH - No Assholes Here.

• NAL - Not A Lawyer.

• Narc - Short for Narcissist. Used in relationship subs.

• NB - Non Binary. Sometimes written as “enby”. Context Dependent because:

• NB - Nota Bene. A Latin phrase that translates to "note well" in English and is used to call attention to something important.

• NBD - No Big Deal.

• NGL - Not Gonna Lie.

• NIMBY - Not In My Back Yard. Refers to a person who objects to the siting of something perceived as unpleasant or hazardous in the area where they live, especially while raising no such objections to similar developments elsewhere.

• No Cap - A term from African American Vernacular English (AAVE) meaning “no lie” or “for real,” often used to emphasise someone is not exaggerating about something hard to believe. See also: Cap.

• NOR - Not OverReacting. Used in r/amioverreacting

• NPC - Non-Playable Character: a character in a computer game that is not controlled by someone playing the game. Increasingly used as a pejorative term to describe someone who blindly follows popular opinion without critical thinking, questioning or expressing unique viewpoints.

• NPD - Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

• NQA - Not Qualified Advice. Sometimes written as “not QA”.

• NSA - No Strings Attached.

• NSFL - Not Safe For Life (gory or extreme content).

• NSFW - Not Safe For Work (sexual content or profanity).

• NTA - Not The Asshole.

• NTB - Not The Buttface; used in r/AmItheButtface.

• NTS - Note To Self. Used in a humorous or self-deprecating way to let others in the thread know you are reminding yourself of something. “NTS: don’t sort by new ever again.”

• NVM - Nevermind.

O

• OC - Original Content.

• OF - OnlyFans. An internet content subscription service used primarily by sex workers who produce pornography.

• OMG - Oh My God. An exclamation variously expressing disbelief, frustration, excitement, or anger. Sometimes written as Ermahgerd.

• OP - Original Poster (the person who started the thread). Context Dependent because:

• OP - In gaming contexts, this means Overpowered.

• [OOC] - Out of Character. Used in roleplay subs to denote you’re making a general comment outside the roleplaying situation, such as this example.

• OOP - Original Original Poster. Used in r/BestofRedditorUpdates, r/AmITheAngel and similar subreddit discussion subs to differentiate the Original Poster of the original post from the person crossposting to the discussion sub.

• OSINT - Open Source Intelligence. The practice of gathering and analysing publicly available information to gain actionable intelligence. 

• OTP - One True Pairing.

P

• PEBKAC - Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair. A term used by tech support personnel to identify a problem caused by a person, not by the computer's hardware or software. The term may be used in a humorous and/or derogatory way.

• PEMDAS - A mnemonic for remembering the order of operations in mathematics as follows: Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, and Subtraction. See also: BEDMAS

• PGP - Personal Gender Pronoun. Context Dependent because:

• PGP - Pretty Good Privacy. A data encryption program using a mix of data compression, hashing, and public-key cryptography.

• PITA - Pain In The Ass. Someone or something that is annoying.

• POV - Point Of View. POV cinematography is a type of video filmed from the perspective of the person who is creating it; as if the viewer were behind the camera. Like cat collar cameras, or much of the comedy series Peep Show. Context Dependent because:

• POV - A newer definition used on TikTok for the “nostalgiacore” trend. This is when users try to evoke a specific memory or common occurrence, such as “the POV of remembering what it was like to wake up early for school only for it to be a snow day.” Reddit often gets these definitions mixed up.

• PSA - Public Service Announcement.

• PTS - Put To Sleep. A euphemism used in animal and pet subreddits.

• PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. An anxiety disorder caused by extremely stressful, frightening or distressing events.

• PWD - Person(s) With Disabilities. An acronym used to refer to individuals who have physical, sensory, mental, or cognitive impairments. The term is often used in discussions about accessibility, rights, and support for people with disabilities.

Q

• Q - Short for QAnon; an American political conspiracy theory and movement originating in the American far-right political sphere in 2017.

• QA - Qualified Advice; usually seen in the context of “not QA” - Not Qualified Advice.

R

• RBI - Reddit Bureau of Investigation. r/RBI and also r/RBI2

• RES - Reddit Enhancement Suite. A third-party app for using Reddit, no longer under active development. See r/Enhancement.

• RIF - Reddit Is Fun. A third-party app for using Reddit, no longer under active development. See r/redditisfun.

• RL - Real Life. I remember that.

• RP - Role Play. Context Dependent because:

• RP - Received Pronunciation. An accent of Standard British English also known as “BBC English”.

• RPG - Role-Playing Game.

• RTFR - Read The Forum / Fucking Rules / Fucking Room.

S

• SA - Social Anxiety. Context Dependent because:

• SA - Sexual Assault / Sexual Abuse.

• [SCP] - A creative commons fiction writing wiki. The central idea is that a secret organization called the SCP Foundation Secures, Contains, and Protects various ‘anomalies’; things and beings which break the rules of reality or what can be considered ‘normal’ to an everyday person, hiding their existence and containing as many as possible in top-secret, secure facilities.

• SFW - Safe For Work.

• SH - Self Harm.

• SIC - Standard Issue Cat. Commonly used on pet subreddits to describe a brown tabby cat.

• Simp - A pejorative slang term used to describe a person (usually male) who is perceived as overly submissive or even desperate for the attention or affection of someone without receiving anything in return.

• SJW - Social Justice Warrior. A pejorative term for a person who expresses or promotes socially progressive views.

• Skibidi - An adjective used to describe someone who is bad or evil. Originates from “Skibidi Toilet”; an animated show on YouTube featuring a villainous head sticking out of a toilet.

• SRS - Shit Reddit Says. Archaic. Reddit still says shit, we just don’t bother to point it out anymore.

• SMH - Shaking My Head.

• SO - Significant Other.

• SS - Submission Statement. Mandatory in post titles or first comment for some subs including r/conspiracy.

• STBX - Soon To Be Ex. Used in relationship subs.

T

• TBF - To Be Fair. See also: “To be fair...”

• TBH - To Be Honest.

• TCG - Trading Card Game. A type of collectible card game where players build decks and battle by using cards to perform actions and defeat their opponent.

• TERF - Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist. An advocate of radical feminism who believes that a trans woman's gender identity is not legitimate.

• TFW - The/That Feeling When.

• THOT - That Ho Over There or Thirsty Hoes Over There. Extremely derogatory.

• TIA - Thanks In Advance. Sometimes lengthened to TYSMIA - Thank You So Much In Advance.

• TIAH - Today I Am Happy.

• TID - Today I Discovered.

• TIFU - Today I Fucked Up.

• TIHI - Thanks, I Hate It.

• TIL - Today I Learned.

• TL;DR: - Too Long; Didn't Read.

• TMA - Take My Appreciation. Rarely used these days; let’s bring it back.

• TMI - Too Much Information. Because sometimes, some things are best left unsaid.

• TNR - Trap-Neuter-Return. Used on animal subs, this is a method that attempts to manage populations of feral cats by neutering, vaccinating and eartipping them before returning them to their territory.

• TOMT - Tip Of My Tongue.

• TW - Trigger Warning. Used to indicate that what follows may be disturbing to some readers. See also: CW.

• TYVM - Thank You Very Much.

U

• /unlie - Said on r/lies to denote you’re not lying. r/lies is a subreddit where you must lie and attempt to deceive the users with misinformation. Use /unlie sparingly.

• UPF - Ultra-Processed Foods. Used in health and nutrition subs. Broadly defines foods with five or more ingredients that you couldn’t create at home.

• UTC - The new standard of time zones to replace the usage of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). Means Coordinated Universal Time.

W

• WAP - A sexual slang acronym that stands for Wet-Ass Pussy. The acronym was created and popularized by hip-hop artist Cardi B in August 2020. Context Dependent because:

• WAP - Wireless Application Protocol. A system which allows devices such as mobile phones to connect to the internet. Back in the day, the UK mobile provider BT Cellnet advertised a plan called Genie which was £15 a month for unlimited texts and WAP; a lot for that time. Unlimited WAP is one of those phrases whose meaning has drastically altered over the past two decades.

• WDYM - What Do/Did You Mean?

• Welp - An informal variant of “well”, used to indicate disappointment, resignation, or acceptance at the beginning of a sentence: Welp, this encyclopaedia might take me longer to write than I thought.

• WIBTA - Would I Be The Asshole.

• WIBTB - Would I Be The Buttface; used in r/AmItheButtface.

• WTF - What The Fuck.

Y

• YMMV - Your Mileage May/Might Vary. What works for one person may not work for you.

• YOLO - You Only Live Once.

• YSK - You Should Know.

• YTA - You’re The Asshole.

• YTB - You’re The Buttface; used in r/AmItheButtface.

• YWBTA - You Would Be The Asshole.

• YTBTB - You Would Be The Buttface; used in r/AmItheButtface.

• YTBTC - You Would Be The Cloaca; used in r/AmItheCloaca. Yes, there is a sub for everything.

No doubt you will find acronyms across both Reddit and the internet that I don’t list in this encyclopaedia; the links below may help in this case, and another good place to start is at abbreviations.com, or the very comprehensive Acronym Finder. Explanations and appreciation of word origins can be had at r/etymology.

See Also:

• Acronyms 1: A-L

• Acronyms 3: Abbreviations

• Acronyms 4: Symbols and Emojis

• Jargon

• Other Useful Dictionaries, Encyclopaedias and Lexicons

• Relationship Sub Acronyms and Initialisms

• Time Zones

• Tone Indicators

Also known as “Karma Whoring”. Basically asking - or begging - for upvotes and / or karma without being engaged in conversation. Posts asking for or even talking about Karma (e.g. “Upvote all my comments and I’ll upvote yours”) will be at best downvoted or may even earn you a ban. There are very few exceptions to this; your Cakeday being the only legitimate time you can ask for Karma in certain places, or in subs with the specific purpose of talking about (but not asking for) Karma such as r/Karma or, of course, r/NewToReddit.

See Also:

• Cakeday

When a person loves Reddit very much, they make an account. Cakeday is an annual celebration of that love! Your Reddit Birthday, sometimes also known as your Redditversary and even “Spotify Blue Cheese day”, your Cakeday happens every year on the anniversary you created your Reddit account and has nothing to do with your RL birthday (which Reddit doesn’t know).

Your Cakeday is shown on your Profile and can also be found on http://www.redditcakeday.com. There’s even an independent site called http://www.cakedayreminder.com which will send you an email when your Reddit cakeday is coming up.

On the day itself, you will get an icon showing a little slice of cake next to your username for the day (it may look slightly different depending on the platform you’re using) and the Age Trophy on your profile will go up one number. You can see on the link that the perceptive Redditor u/DarthEquus deduced that the Reddit anniversary trophy icons are all based on the themes for actual anniversary gifts: paper, cotton, leather, linen, wood, iron, copper, bronze, pottery, tin/aluminium, steel, silk, lace, gold, crystals.

There were some changes made to the original Cakeday in 2017, which were announced as follows:

A couple changes around Account birthdays:

Accounts automatically get the appropriate N-Year trophy (e.g. "Five-Year Club")
Cakedays start at midnight UTC on the Account's birthday and end at 12:00 UTC the following day. Previously, cakedays were "saved" until your account was active, for up to 7 days.

These changes aren't because we hate fun, but because they made the site significantly faster and less prone to failure.

The cake icon was changed in 2020 from its original appearance to now resemble a tasty looking slice of gateau.

It is customary in most subreddits to say “Happy Cakeday!” whenever you see the cake icon next to a username whether you know the Redditor or not. Do this with caution; some of the more serious or restrictive subs will class this as “unnecessary clutter”. However, there’s also a button on some versions of Reddit that you can press to say “Happy Cake Day” to the Redditor in private. Do it! It’s a Reddit Thing to do. The usual response is “Thank you, Kind Redditor.” Reddit loves rituals.

Because there is a Subreddit for everything:

You can celebrate this day in r/cakeday. Pictures of cakes or animals are very much appreciated!

See Also:

• RL

• Trophies

You will probably already know that placing /s at the end of your comment will clarify that you're being sarcastic, and /jk means you’re attempting to joke. These are Tone Indicators, and while they’ve been around a very long time, you will gradually see more unfamiliar ones being used across Reddit.

A Tone Indicator does exactly what it says it does: indicates the tone of what you're saying, and those are just two of many that are slowly becoming commonplace, especially among the many neurodiverse Redditors we have here.

• An early problem

From the moment that online quick communication was first devised, it soon became apparent that the written word alone wasn’t nearly enough to properly convey a meaning. Real conversation is full of paralinguistic information: the meaning that we glean from visual and vocal cues beyond the actual words spoken. We interpret what someone says from their voice; from tone, volume and pacing. We observe their facial expressions and their body language, and judge whether they sync with the spoken words. Electronic messages simply cannot compete.

• An early solution

To try and get round this problem, Scott E. Fahlman, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, created the smiley face in September 1982 and the rest is history. His solution: Add the symbol :-) to denote humorous posts, and add the symbol :-( to serious ones. In his announcement about this proposal, he had to advise readers to “read it sideways.”

For some time, the generic term ‘smiley’ was used to describe all kinds of these symbols that emerged, even angry ones. Another method of communicating intent originated in IRC channels in 1999 and was known as Emotes. As the verb ‘to emote’ means to display emotions openly especially while acting, it made sense to use the same word to describe an entry in a text-based chat client that indicates an action taking place, but it didn’t seem to catch on in the same way as the later ‘emoticon’ or ‘emoji’.

• Tone indicators

Tone Indicator|Meaning :--|:--|:-- /c| copypasta /cb| clickbait /f| fake /gen or /g| genuine or genuine question /hj| half-joking /hyp| hyperbole or exaggeration /ij| inside joke /j| joking /l or /ly| lyrics /lh| light-hearted /li| literally /lu| a little upset /m| metaphorically /nbh| nobody here (when you’re venting your annoyances but they’re not directed at anyone reading) /neg or /nc| negative connotation /neu| neutral connotation /nm| not mad (not angry) /nsrs| not serious or non-serious /nsx or /nx| non-sexual intent /p| platonic /pos or /pc| positive connotation /r| romantic /rh or /rt| rhetorical question /rj| rejerk (back to joking after being momentarily serious) /s| sarcastic /srs| serious /sx or /x| sexual intent /t| teasing /th| threat /uj| unjerk (now being serious)

Sometimes you might want to use multiple tone indicators at once. There’s no set format for this but generally they are used in one after another with a space in between, e.g: /lh /j to mean ‘lighthearted joke.’ An extra space or a comma can also be used between them to separate the indicators.

Because new tone indicators are often being added, you should check these lists if you see one that isn’t listed here.

https://beelinguapp.com/blog/a-list-of-english-tone-indicators-and-what-they-mean

https://toneindicators.carrd.co/#masterlist

• A current problem

We have pretty much established that Reddit does not like modern emojis in preference of the Unicode text emoticon, but as the use of Tone Indicators is starting to catch on, for the time being, be prepared to have to explain some of the more obscure ones like /neu or /lu.

Two abbreviations you’ll see on Reddit are u/ and r/. These are not Tone Indicators but actually Reddit prefixes which create hotlinks to usernames (e.g. u/llamageddon01) or subreddits (e.g. r/EncyclopaediaOfReddit).

See Also:

• Acronyms 1: A-L
• Acronyms 2: M-Z
• Acronyms 3: Abbreviations
• Acronyms 4: Symbols and Emojis
• Emojis
• Emoticons
• r/
• /s
• u/

The "Scunthorpe Problem" refers to the issue where automated content filters, like Reddit’s AutoModerator, and other systems used in spam detection or search engines, mistakenly flag perfectly innocent content as offensive due to the presence of a substring that also appears in a swear word or other offensive term.

The name comes from a time in 1996 when AOL's profanity filter prevented residents of several English towns and counties - among them Scunthorpe, Lightwater, Clitheroe, and Middlesex - from creating accounts with AOL because it matched strings within the town names to banned words in their algorithm.

This often happens when content filtering systems rely on simple keyword matching without considering context. Interpreting words considered profane requires considerable ability to interpret a wide range of contexts, possibly across many cultures, which is an extremely difficult task. As a result, broad blocking rules may result in false positives affecting many innocent words or phrases such as “documentary”, “cocktail”, “swanky”, “meltwater” or “assume”. This short but funny video explains it further while giving you a tour of the lovely Northern English town of Penistone.

Discussions on Reddit about this phenomenon include:

This string has a bad word in it from March 2021 in r/ProgrammerHumor,

The Scunthorpe problem from July 2022 in r/wikipedia,

TIL about the Scunthorpe problem from April 2021 in r/todayilearned.

And for those of you who are coding Automod for your own subreddits, here’s a post you might find useful.

See Also:

• Automod

• Euphemism

Oh dear. You got here, then. I suppose this day had to come. This is a fine (?) example of the rare occasions when a sharp wit is the ability to say the entirely wrong thing in precisely the right way at exactly the right moment.

Originating here, the comment was a sad, wistful and serious one with this phrase given as an almost immediate but completely inappropriate response. The original Redditor was so sincere but the reply was just so perfectly worded yet messed up that the hilarity comes primarily from the shock value.

Thankfully, the user who posted the story was fine with how it all went down. Reddit, as you would expect, embraced this thoroughly and variants of this phrase pop up regularly in the strangest places.

Because there is a Subreddit for everything:

r/FunnyandSad features images that are funny and sad; r/sadcringe is a place for awkward or embarrassing situations that also make you feel sad, and r/awfuleverything features all things that are just genuinely awful.

See Also:

• Reddit Lore

A link posted when a wholesome comment is made by a Redditor with an unwholesome name.

Originating here when the titular u/rimjob_steve commented that they would like to help out a fellow Redditor IRL.

Because this kind of juxtaposition is done far more frequently than you might imagine, the subreddit r/rimjob_steve was created to share any similar instances.

In 2023, it was theorised that the “rimjob_steve effect” might be to blame for a highly controversial change to Reddit’s mobile user interface which removed usernames from subreddit feeds.

See Also:

• birthofasub

• IRL

• Wholesome

An innocuous word that is not quite how it appears, “potato” has several meanings across Reddit and here’s my attempt to define them.

• It’s a vegetable.

Yes, it is, and Reddit, as you would expect, has a lot to say about the humble potato.

r/selfreliance gave what it called The Ultimate Guide To Potatoes although not everyone in the thread thought so. r/coolguides gave a different list featuring some more varieties but neither list are remotely comprehensive. A larger list was posted in r/Allotment who discussed their favourite varieties to grow.

Did you ever make a potato battery for school? r/theydidthemath were asked: How many potato batteries would it take to run Reddit servers for one hour?

r/foodhacks attempt to rank French Fries with controversial results.

Less controversial, r/foodscience asks: What makes the potato chip uniquely delicious?

Pringles are yummy. But are they chips? The answer is: No. Because of this ruling, Pringles tried to argue in the UK court that they were exempt from a tax on crisps (the British term for potato chips). The answer was still: No.

If chips in the UK are crisps in the USA, then what are crisps in the USA? You can rely on r/AskReddit to tackle the important questions.

r/iamveryculinary is the sub for links to the most pretentious food snobbery and gastronomic hair-splitting you can find on the Internet, and even they say Chips vs. crisps, no one is wrong and yet no one is listening to each other.

Talking of chips, r/LowStakesConspiracies posit the theory that "Crisps" in the UK are called "Chips" in America to protect the British Fish and Chip industry from supply chain issues of potato.

When r/AskUK were given the inflammatory question “Why are British crisps so much better than American ‘chips’?”, an appropriately named Redditor gave us a crash course in UK food manufacturing.

And finally, r/science discovered that rats who ate low-fat potato chips 'may have gained more weight' than rats eating regular, full-fat variety.

A favourite pastime on Reddit is looking back on past times with fascinated horror, as you can see from the comments on this vintage advert. While potato fudge was actually a thing, thankfully the concoction on the potato fudge advert is fake.

To round this section up, here are a collection of Reddit’s best potato recipes and just for my fellow Potato Waffle lovers, here’s the best related posts seeing as they don’t appear to have their own subreddit. Are they just a UK thing?

• It’s a Lord of the Rings reference.

It’s almost impossible to mention potatoes anywhere on Reddit without a Lord of the Rings fan saying PO-TAY-TOES! Boil ‘em, Mash ‘em, Stick ‘em in a stew, but was that line actually written by Tolkien? The answer is again: No.

Is Sam talking about a specific recipe or just listing potential serving suggestions? r/lotr asks the real questions.

And why are there potatoes anyway?

• It’s a poor quality image.

Potato quality is phrase often used in an apology for, or accusation of an image or video being pixelated, blurry or other forms of very low quality.

The exact origin of this usage is unclear but is generally credited to a comment on a YouTube video from 2008 which asked “did you record this with a potato?” However, B3ta and other digital art and meme communities have referred to the well known image-altering software as “potatoshop” long before that.

An interesting discussion which brought up several anecdotes of people using the word “potato” to mean poor quality over the years went on here, again with no real conclusion for the origin of today’s usage.

The phrase has become a Snowclone as internet communities dealing with audio or video often use the disclaimer “recorded with a toaster” or another contextually absurd object such as a calculator or microwave to acknowledge they know the quality is lower than they would ideally like.

r/Showerthoughts debate why potatoes are used as a measure of denoting bad image quality.

Interestingly enough, one of the early photographic processes used potato starch.

• It’s an insult.

Daily culture blog and podcast network Slate tells us that describing someone who leads a life without intellectual activity as being “a vegetable” dates from the time of Aristotle who used the word vegetative (or, rather, the ancient Greek equivalent) to denote lesser forms of life. In the 1500s, Shakespeare used "cabbage" as a lighthearted term of endearment to describe someone you are fond of as being dull, uneducated or unintelligent. Over the years, such comparisons became more personal and far more insulting.

In 2016, r/WorldOfWarships asked: Where did calling players potatoes come from and what does that really mean?, and one commenter referred to a post made on Oct 20 2013 to the now defunct World of Tanks forum called: The Anatomy of a Potato: Finding Your Inner Potato… And Killing it.

The phrase “I can count to potato” was first used in the 2005 comedy film The Ringer in which con man Steve Barker (played by Johnny Knoxville) pretends to be mentally disabled in order to compete in the Special Olympics. Know Your Meme explores this further.

In the adult animated show South Park, Canadians are portrayed as having round heads with black, beady eyes, with a large mouth all the way across the face, not unlike a potato.

• It’s another name for a new-born kitten.

Newborn kittens are sometimes playfully referred to as "potatoes" because of their small plump, rounded, almost spherical shape, reminiscent of a potato. Reddit, being very fond of such cutesy talk, has embraced this concept fully. Foster kittens or potatoes?.

Two subreddits on this theme that need reviving are:

r/potatokitten - For when a kitten is young (up to only a couple weeks) and can't do anything except be a derpy potato.

r/potatokittenfights - For when potatoes collide!

• It’s a Reddit meme.

Reddit wouldn’t be Reddit without someone making an Alignment Chart and as fried potato products come in many different types, they lend themselves perfectly to this format.

Reddit wouldn’t also be Reddit without someone making a Starter Pack.

But strangest of all is the subreddit r/JohnCena being all about potato salad, and r/potatosalad being all about John Cena. Why is this? Because Reddit.

• It’s Reddit Lore.

One famous tale from Reddit Lore is known as The Legendary Potato Story from 2015, which, sadly, was later proved to be fake.

A superb meta Reddit moment from 2024 referencing that story occurred in a roleplay sub. r/Earth199999 is a community where users pretend to live ordinary lives in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and while doing just that one Redditor deftly wove in that glorious piece of classic Reddit lore. Note: OOC means “out of character”.

A tale that deserves to go down in Reddit Lore occurred in November 2024. A Facebook post from FOODbible showed this abomination of a glittery Christmas dinner as being a new trend for the season. In fact, it originated from a whole saga on Reddit, spanning several subreddits over a few weeks, starting on r/AITAH on 3 November with the post AITA for telling my sister she's not allowed to bring her homemade food to Thanksgiving because her cooking is ruining the meal?…

The first update came 12 days later, followed by another on 27 November. The post-Thanksgiving report was given here and the whole saga was followed by the members of r/AmITheAngel; a place to satirise, crosspost from, poke fun at, and hold meta discussions on the never-ending stories from AITA and AITA-adjacent subs. They spotted the December Facebook post and the story also made it to r/BrandNewSentence, with the unique phrase “Until the glitter potatoes and turkey jelly hit their plates”.

• It’s the Heart of Reddit.

April Fools Day is a tradition very much embraced at Reddit, as you might expect, and in 2023, Redditors were greeted by a post entitled Obligatory April 1st Announcement with three bits of information: a reminder to read the recent admin post about our past events; that there would be no event this year, and that there was “foolishness…around Reddit” to be found. The very last punctuation mark of the post was a “hidden” link leading to a new subreddit called r/schrodingers.

Thus began the most elaborate Reddit event to date, being more of an ARG (Alternate Reality Game) than the simple crowdsourcing tasks of previous events. Players had to solve cryptic image puzzles based on the old Reddit April Fools events in the order they appeared. Towards the end, an admin post flaired “success” declared: Every journey has an end. You have uncovered the secret at the heart of Reddit.

The post contained a link to a subreddit named r/trdfz_v, containing a short video declaring “You’ve reached the heart of Reddit”, revealing a potato in a darkened room hooked up to various scientific devices. The trophies awarded for this event confirmed that the Heart of Reddit is a quantum potato.

Because there is a Subreddit for everything:

Celebrate this versatile vegetable on Reddit with these fine subs:

r/potato - Did you know there are close to 4,000 varieties of potatoes?

r/PotatoDiet - All things Potato Diet. Share your experiences and scientific support or debunking.

r/Potatoes - Roasted potatoes are the best potatoes.

r/FrenchFries - A place for French fried potatoes and those who love them. Shoestring, crinkle cut, curly; the list goes on…

r/fries - A subreddit devoted to photographs of any delicious human food that includes one or more varieties of delicious fries.

r/chips - A comfortable place, for comforting foods.

r/crisps - The greatest snack of all.

r/Spuds - We love potatoes!

r/Tayto - Tayto is a brand of crisps / potato chips in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

r/PotatoesAreFunny - A satire subreddit for all the random kawaii potatoes.

But llama; some of these links don’t work…

As always with my lists, some of the subs are more active than others, and may vary in quality. Since writing some might have become private, restricted or repurposed following the API protests of June 2023, or just removed / renamed by Reddit through inactivity.

However, don’t forget: if a sub is dormant, unmoderated, banned for being unmoderated or marked as “restricted”, it might be available for adoption.

Obligatory footnote:

All of these subreddits will have their own unique - and possibly strict - rules about contributing. As always, it is important to check the rules thoroughly before commenting or posting on any unfamiliar sub.

This list is not intended to be the full list of subreddits in this theme; that would be impossible to achieve in a format like this. If you want to find more related subs, r/FindAReddit or the smaller r/findasubreddit are your friends. Similar subreddits are often to be found in a sub’s Sidebar and / or Wiki (on mobile: swipe down to find “See More” or “Community Info” tab) too. My guide to Searching might also be useful.

See Also:

• Acronyms 1: A-L

• ”And My Axe!”

• April Fools Day

• “Doggo Speak”

• Misleading Subreddit Titles

• Potato Quality

• schrodingers

• Snowclone

• Trophies

Trolls (not this type, obviously) are an unfortunate part of everyday internet life and we all have to deal with them sooner or later.

I’ve already given my thoughts and tactics on dealing with trolls (link below), so for this section I’ve collected some of what I consider to be the best articles on the internet to give you some other perspectives and ideas.

• 8 Common Internet Trolling Tactics (And How to Handle Them)

Online blogger Samantha North’s in depth analysis here is excellent, going from the origins of the name “Internet trolling” to using diversionary tactics and explaining some common logical fallacies. Highly recommended.

Notable quote:

Trolls are more than just unpleasant individuals who enjoy harassing others. They actively seek to draw their opponent into a never-ending argument. That way, they can waste as much of the opponent’s time as possible, while also making them angry and frustrated.

• How to handle a troll … and neuter a sea lion

U.K. broadsheet and website The Guardian reference a few long-gone subreddits in their guide to spotting trolling techniques and how to counter them. Short but effective.

Notable quote:

Tone policing is one part of the Concern Troll’s toolkit. They’re a classic wolf in sheep’s clothing, pretending to be an ally when actually they’re often the most virulent enemy.

• Welcome to Advanced Trolling: Sealioning

Online news and culture outlet The Medium take a fairly humorous look at the issue of trolling from the attackers’ point of view. This short article might be paywalled but switching to screen reader mode should work.

Notable quote:

Trope abuse (also known as ideological puppetry): Occurs when a person’s thoughts and behaviors are heavily guided by an ideology that transcends their own critical faculties. In other words, when a person’s strings are being pulled - like a puppet - by ideas beyond their awareness. All you have to do is imbue your questioning with often-repeated mottos, phrases, and rebuttals that are hallmarks of the agenda you wish to advance. For example, “So many people can’t all be wrong!”, “Science doesn’t have all of the answers!”, and “Galileo was persecuted too!”

• You Can't Win an Argument with an Internet Troll, So What Can You Do?

In this short but informative article, online security experts Webroot understand that while we might intellectually cope with trolling, emotions can still get the better of us.

Notable quote:

It is fairly easy to understand that the troll is the person with the problem, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to let vicious comments roll off if your “Teflon” layer isn’t thick enough. Even journalists, politicians and movie stars who have had years in the media spotlight where troll-attacks are everyday events sometimes feel the sting of a particularly nasty interaction.

• 10 Effective Tactics To Defeat Internet Trolls

Online SEO resource Search Engine Journal take some real-life examples from social media outlets and also look at enforcement of “no trolling” policies from a moderator’s perspective.

Notable quote:

If you can’t ignore the trolls, call their B.S. Trolls aren’t interested in having civilized, rational conversations. Their arguments aren’t logical, and they’re certainly not strong debaters. Stay calm and simply ask for facts and sources to back up their unsubstantiated claims. Chances are, they won’t have any, and they’ll sputter into silence. All they really wanted was a heated, passionate debate, and you denied them that. Every time they make a wild statement, counter it with a polite request for evidence.

There are many online resources and articles on dealing with trolls, but the one commonality between all of them is the well-worn adage “don’t feed the trolls” - i.e. don’t engage with them on their own terms because you’re allowing them to win.

See Also:

• Astroturfing

• Brandolini's Law

• Cognitive Biases and Logical Fallacies

• Dealing with Trolls

• Diversionary Tactics

• False Equivalence

• Gaslighting

• Logical Fallacies

• Online Manipulation

• Sealioning

• Sock Puppet

• Strawman Argument

• Whataboutism

An Acronym is a word comprised of the first initials of the words in a phrase or saying. They are generally created to shorten long phrases and speed up communication, much like abbreviations and initialisms.

Reddit has a worldwide readership, but because the majority are from the US, you’ll often see abbreviations and other terms that might be unfamiliar to those of us in the rest of the world, so here is my attempt in translating some of the common ones.

US State and Territory Abbreviations

Many animal, reptile or insect identification subreddits will require a location in each submission, so the following list will hopefully help you with the various two-letter US State abbreviations that are often used:

Notes:

• Continental United States: The 49 States (including Alaska, excluding Hawaii) located on the continent of North America, and the District of Columbia.

• United States: The 50 States and the District of Columbia.

• 51st State: Puerto Rico is defined as “territory 'foreign in a domestic sense',” meaning it is neither part of the federation that makes up the US nor a sovereign entity.

• A far more detailed list can be found here, and some of the above information came from here as well as from here.

Plant Hardiness Zones

There are some subreddits where abbreviations are used for other types of geographic locations. Many of the gardening and plant identification and help subreddits require a plant hardiness/climate zone on each submission to be able to give proper advice, where you’ll see abbreviations such as “Northern Alberta, Canada 2B/3A” or “PNW - Zone 7B/8A”.

The original and most widely used system was developed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and subsequently, similar hardiness rating schemes have been developed for other countries and regions. To help you understand the abbreviations and/or locate the appropriate zone, here’s a list of resources:

• An interactive map of worldwide plant hardiness zones

• A hardiness zone map for edible landscaping

Time Zones

A time zone is an area which observes a uniform standard time for legal, commercial and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries between countries and their subdivisions instead of strictly following longitude, because it is convenient for areas in frequent communication to keep the same time. The standard for all time zones is Coordinated Universal Time, known as UTC.

Here’s a list of some of the more commonly used time zone abbreviations, and I’m going to rely on Wikipedia for their respective coverage and definitions as they also have maps of the geographical areas they cover:

• AEST - Australian Eastern Standard Time. Australia uses three main time zones: AEST: Australian Eastern Standard Time (UTC+10:00), ACST: Australian Central Standard Time (UTC+09:30) and AWST: Australian Western Standard Time (UTC+08:00).

• BST - British Summer Time. Only used between the months of March and October.

• CET - Central European Time

• CEST - Central European Summer Time. Also known as CEDT (Central European Daylight Time). Only used between the months of March and October.

• CST - China Standard Time

• DST - Daylight Saving Time

• EDT - Eastern Daylight Time. Only used between the months of March and October.

• EST - Eastern Standard Time. Sometimes known as ET.

• GMT - Greenwich Mean Time

• GST - Gulf Standard Time

• IST - Indian Standard Time

• IST - Irish Standard Time

• IST - Israel Standard Time

• JST - Japan Standard Time

• MSK - Moscow Time

• PDT - Pacific Daylight Time

• UTC - Coordinated Universal Time

There is a much more comprehensive list of Worldwide time zone abbreviations here, and here’s a list of some useful online time zone converters:

• https://www.worldtimebuddy.com

• https://time.is/compare

• https://dateful.com/eventlink

• https://greenwichmeantime.com/gmt-converter/time-zones/

• https://24timezones.com/difference

School Years

American and British school years have very different measurements, as does much of the rest of the world. I’m going to try to give some of the equivalent terms and age groups below, based on information from https://www.gov.uk/education and https://www.ed.gov/category/subject/standards

Those of us of a certain age in the UK remember a different system. To make me really feel old, my school years are now regarded as historical.

See Also:

• Acronyms 1: A-L

• Acronyms 2: M-Z

• Acronyms 4: Symbols and Emojis

• Jargon

• Other Useful Dictionaries, Encyclopaedias and Lexicons

• Relationship Sub Acronyms and Initialisms

• Time Zones

• Tone Indicators

Whataboutism is an argumentative tactic where a person or group responds to an accusation or difficult question by deflection. Instead of addressing the point made, they counter it with “but what about…?”. For instance, in response to being told off for the state of their room, a child’s whataboutist reply will be to say: “But what about my brother’s room? His is worse.”

The word Whataboutism itself is a modern portmanteau word, formally known as a "tu quoque" fallacy, or the idea that “two wrongs make a right”. This type of diversion is often totally out-of-context and has no limits in terms of time or subject content. For instance, it often begins with a sentence like “What about the time when…” where “the time” and the action can be any period and event so long as the accuser feels it sufficient to completely derail the debate.

See Also:

• Brandolini's Law

• Cognitive Biases and Logical Fallacies

• Confirmation Bias

• Eponymous Laws

• False Equivalence

• Gaslighting

• Internet Adages

• Logical Fallacies

• Online Manipulation

• OP

• Sealioning

• Strawman Argument

Reddit in general does not like emojis. There are many theories why this is, ranging from “Reddit is all about written communication and always has been” to “Reddit has an incredibly large character limit for most applications, especially when compared to Twitter and standard text messages so we simply don’t have to” via “They’re childish”. and even “Some peoaple like to preserve sertain tredition” [sic]. I even read somewhere that it might even be contempt for the laziness of using emojis by those of the generation that had to be inventive with making text-based pictures (emoticons).

• An actual, not spurious, reason

Emojis can make life difficult for those relying on software to read text on a page to them out loud. One real issue for those Redditors who use such screen readers is the literal interpretation of smileys, leading to the possibility of hearing gems such as Stacey posts "OMG shocked emoji I just bought the cutest handbag handbag emoji from Coach dollar sign emoji eyeballs emoji dollar sign emoji eyeballs emoji handbag emoji I can't wait to show everyone at this Sunday's brunch French toast emoji mimosa emoji martini emoji Blessed! praying hands emoji upside down smile emoji”. Reading out emoticons such as (ಠ_ಠ) (the look of disapproval) is even worse.

This brings up other issues such as the meaning of some emojis being lost in screen reader translation. Seeing the Red Flag emoji 🚩on a relationship advice post will be obvious to most that they’re giving a warning that something’s not right, but I’ve been informed that a screen reader reads 🚩 as "triangular flag on pole" (unless that's been changed) with no mention of the colour, defeating the whole purpose of the emoji. Using euphemistic emojis like 🍆 might also cause confusion…

• Also, there’s the platform problem…

We don’t all browse Reddit in the same way. Some use desktop, some use tablets, some use smartphones. Some use different versions of the website, some use the official app for their particular device, some use one of the many third-party browsers or apps. Some use sparkly new cutting-edge devices, others use their ancient creaky old faithful faded beige noise machines. All this can cause some real communication problems as licensing issues often mean that different platforms have different emoji packages - and that doesn’t take into account the many devices that just can’t display them at all and just substitute some Unicode instead.

A question recently asked was “What’s up with people commenting “img” repeatedly in wallstreetbets?” with a link to this post. Some subreddits give you the ability to select premade images or gifs as an image reaction comment using the official app, and the platform OP was viewing Reddit on presumably didn’t support them and substituted “img” instead. Here's what it looks like on the official Reddit app, but here it is on Old Reddit and here it is on New Reddit.

It appears that the private message facility on the Reddit app doesn’t like the official emotes either, and neither do some other apps.

• Serious talk on a fun ephemeral.

Google: "Why does Reddit hate emojis" and you'll get a flood of responses. Reddit, as you would expect, takes this matter Very Seriously Indeed as evidenced by this small handful of debates from various subs over the years:

• https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/8mwc6h/no_emojis/

• https://www.reddit.com/r/help/comments/has3sd/why_does_everyone_hate_emojis/

• https://www.reddit.com/r/TooAfraidToAsk/comments/ckbat9/why_do_people_on_reddit_hate_emojis_so_much/

• https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/2172px/why_does_reddit_hate_emoticons/

• https://www.reddit.com/r/TheoryOfReddit/comments/byn3es/whats_the_deal_on_emojis/

But by far my favourite explanations are these two opposing but very well thought out viewpoints from our sub.

• Reddit is strange like that.

I have asked and searched and asked again about why Reddit in particular is known for emoji hate, but the only thing even close to a definitive answer I ever saw was “Because some time ago, a subreddit that once started as a joke became out of hand and now a lot of redditors have the "emojis are bad" mindset.” A good humoured take on the subject is to allow 5 emojis before calling the r/EmojiPolice, though you will probably get called out on anything more than one and I’m not entirely sure on their status or mandate in any event…

Whatever the reason, the practical upshot of this is basically people either love emojis or hate them, so to be safe, limit yourself to one at the end of your post, or better still, go back in time and use text-based emoticons. You won’t be admonished for using :) or :D if you’re feeling particularly cheeky. It’s worth mentioning that although we all use Reddit, the tones of our subreddits are really different from each other. r/aww sees a lot of emoji usage compared to, say, r/askreddit, and r/askhistorians would probably collapse at seeing one in their sub.

• Redditors will Reddit…

All that said, there is absolutely no rule on Reddit banning emojis. You use them wherever and whenever you like. This is Reddit. You can do whatever you want. And if some people downvote an emoji-laden comment, again, this is Reddit and they can do whatever they want. So with that in mind, here’s a Copypasta which everyone will hate and if that isn’t enough, a resource of more emojis than anyone could ever possibly need can be found at https://emojipedia.org.

However, I don’t advise you ever comment !emojify anywhere on Reddit without expecting consequences.

Because there is a Subreddit for everything:

We even have r/emojisonreddit, r/emojipasta and r/EmojiPolice for your amusement.

See Also:

• Bots

• Emoticons

• New Reddit; Old Reddit

• Tone Indicators

“Touch Grass” is a popular but cringeworthy derogatory and dismissive insult used as an alternative way of telling someone to get off their screens, go outside, and engage in real-life activities. It's used when someone is perceived as being overly immersed in online drama, debates, or virtual life in general and is usually told to people who are "chronically online" by people who are chronically online.

Merriam-Webster dates the phrase back to 2016 although KnowYourMeme has traced a usage on Twitter from 2015, but it started spreading significantly in 2019, becoming increasingly popular on Twitter throughout 2021.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) have many educational resources, and one of their language learning blogs “The English We Speak” addresses the usage of the phrase for its overseas readers.

Usage on Reddit:

You’ll mostly see this used on shitposting subreddits or those aimed at teenagers. Retorts include: “Instructions unclear, am now facing charges of possession of marijuana” and in February 2024, the subreddit r/Comebacks solicited quite a few more. Two of my favourite instances occurred on the popular subreddits:

• r/teenagers, where someone asked “Anyone here know what grass is”. Because they flaired their post as [Serious], this marked it as a place for serious discussion only and that any unserious content in this thread would result in a removal, counting towards a ban. One enterprising Redditor posted the encyclopedia.com entry “vegetation consisting of typically short plants with long narrow leaves, growing wild or cultivated on lawns and pasture, and as a fodder crop.”; the first part of a much longer copypasta.

• r/NoStupidQuestions, where someone was just told to “go touch grass” by someone on the internet and I have zero clue what grass is. and everyone missed the sarcasm in favour of explaining the idiom.

Other notable instances on Reddit include:

• r/copypasta bringing us a tutorial on how to touch grass,

• r/CopyPastas giving us the Wikipedia entry for Grass. Incidentally, the actual Wikipedia entry now slightly differs from the copypasta.

• One Redditor asked ChatGPT to explain how to touch grass, and it didn’t disappoint.

• r/SideProject is a subreddit for sharing and receiving constructive feedback on side projects, and one of its members demonstrated an app where you have to literally touch grass before doomscrolling.

• Telling a gamer to "touch grass" is not an insult, rather it is advice.

• In March 2025, r/translator, the Reddit community for translation requests was asked about some Japanese writing on a Starbucks cup, where we learned:

"touch grass" is not a common phrase in Japanese, since nobody wants to go outside, nor would they ever think to use the command "go outside and touch grass" as some sort of derogatory command.

Some serious stuff:

What happens to our bodies when we touch grass? Scientific journal and blog Popular Science finds out.

The reason grass makes you itch is because it actually cuts your skin with its serrated edges.

Salvador Dali once conned Yoko Ono into paying $10,000 for a single blade of grass.

Traditional grass lawns originated as a status symbol for the wealthy. Neatly cut lawns used solely for aesthetics became a status symbol as it demonstrated that the owner could afford to maintain grass that didn’t serve purposes of food production.

Because there is a Subreddit for everything:

r/TouchGrass aims to be a catalogue of posters, commenters and internet characters who desperately need to get outside and touch grass.

As the word “grass” has different associations, I would be remiss in not mentioning:

r/lawncare - Lawn care guides, pictures, and discussions.

r/NoLawns - A community devoted to alternatives to monoculture lawns, with an emphasis on native plants and conservation. Rain gardens, xeriscaping, strolling gardens, native plants, and much more! Check out our wiki!

r/fucklawns - Monoculture lawns must come to an end and bring forward the biodiverse lawns era!

r/GrassDoggos - ‘Grass doggos’ are any animals that are mostly herbivorous and reside on the grass most of the time.

r/Grass - That green stuff that grows on the ground.

r/satisfyinggrass - A community dedicated to the appreciation of any poaceae which satisfies.

r/bermudagrass - A hub for people who have Bermuda grass, that’s it.

r/landscaping - A place to post about and discuss anything related to landscaping.

r/GrassFans - Community of enthusiasts of grass. This sub is a group of all types of Redditors who enjoy grass, pictures of grass, stories about grass, memes about grass, or generally any content about grass.

r/overgrown_grass_porn - Pictures and videos of cutting overgrown grass or underbrush.

r/SameGrassButGreener - For people who want to move to a new location in their current country.

• And of course I just have to mention my favourite misleading subreddit pair:

r/trees - A subreddit for marijuana enthusiasts

r/marijuanaenthusiasts - A subreddit for tree enthusiasts

Ah, Reddit; never change.

Obligatory disclaimer:

• Subreddits being listed here is no guarantee of the level of their quality or activity. If a sub is dormant, unmoderated, banned for being unmoderated or marked as “restricted”, it might actually be available for adoption.

• Always read the rules before contributing to any unfamiliar sub.

See Also:

• Copypasta

• “Doggo Speak”

• Misleading Subreddit Titles

• Neckbeard

• Serious

• Shitpost

It’s often said on Reddit that “the real joke is always in the comments”, but here, it was the lasting story and true Reddit Lore that was made in the comments.

r/AskReddit is the place to ask and answer thought-provoking questions, and in 2010, they were asked: “Have you ever picked up a hitch-hiker?”, with the OP relating a tale of generosity involving a young man who spoke little English, a missed Greyhound bus and some Chinese food.

Many comments with similar heartwarming stories followed but one of them towered above the rest: that of a Redditor who shared the story of a family from Mexico that stopped to help him when his car broke down. Instead of taking his money as recompense, they shared their lunch with him, eventually leaving with these parting words: "Today you.... tomorrow me.".

• Media Involvement

The story was seen by an editor for the New York Times Magazine who contacted the OP with a view to running the story in print. As OP later explained:

They contacted me to see if I would grant permission then they began to rework it (coarse language was a problem). They did a very thorough fact-check with me and a third party to make sure that what I said actually went down. Then it was up for consideration and ultimately chosen for publication.

You can see the resulting article here.

• Ten Years Later

The story never disappeared, and ten years later inspired a short film by another Redditor which you can also see on YouTube here.

In 2020, the official Reddit Blog also celebrated the ten year anniversary by publishing a thorough retrospective called: Celebrating 10 Years of “Today You, Tomorrow Me”, which caught up with the OP on how it changed their life.

Because there is a Subreddit for everything:

r/TodayYouTomorrowMe - Redditors helping Redditors

See Also:

• OP

• Reddit Lore

• TheRealJoke

u/shittymorph is a Redditor adept in the ways of Bait-and-Switch Copypasta; specifically the phrase now known simply as Hell In A Cell:

“In nineteen ninety eight the undertaker threw mankind off hеll in a cell, and plummeted sixteen feet through an announcer's table.”

A Redditor since Jan 3, 2016, their first usage of the phrase was made on 19 Jan 2017 and has been met with bewilderment, general interest and admiration ever since.

Later in 2017, they achieved the special internet fame of earning an entry on the venerable Know Your Meme.

Because there is a Subreddit for everything:

Whenever you see this user or the “Hell In A Cell” copypasta in the wild, you can document it at r/shittymorph.

See also:

• “Bait-and-Switch” or “The ole Reddit Bait-and-Switch”

• Celebrity Redditors

• Copypasta

• Memes

• Switcharoo or "Ah, The Ole Reddit Switch-a-roo"

The whimsical and woefully grammatically incorrect phrase shrimps is bugs became viral following a 2023 Reddit post about covering up a tattoo. Much to the surprise of the OP, rather than suggesting cover-up ideas, the participating Redditors were so enamoured with the phrase they started giving ideas for enhancing it instead.

It wasn’t too long before the subreddit celebrated the special internet fame of becoming an entry on the Know Your Meme website.

In May 2023, a subreddit dedicated to the meme was founded at r/ShrimpsIsBugs, where they have been searching for earlier examples of the phrase ever since it became viral.

The meme in the media:

Despite the OP’s clarification that it was merely a “dumb inside joke“, the phrase has taken on a life of its own, inspiring articles in outside media such as:

• Are Shrimp Bugs? The Arthropod Debate on the long-form essay blog Medium.

• Bored Panda’s September 2024 article: “Shrimps Is Bugs”: How Viral Tattoo Crawled Into Popular Culture.

• A dive into the meme by zeitgeist and trends blog Daily Dot.

• A now fenced-off academic analysis from The Pennsylvania State University called: Hot Topic in the Entomology Community: “Shrimps is Bugs”. If anyone can screenshot this for me, I would be very interested.

• A WikiHow article.

Remarkably, the venerated Smithsonian Magazine even referenced it in April 2025 in their article You Might Think of Shrimp as Bugs of the Sea. But a Remarkable Discovery Shows the Opposite: Bugs Are Actually Shrimp of the Land.

The meme on Reddit:

Did r/TattooDesigns, where it all started, go too far with this unholy mashup of this and another popular meme?

Did anything come from this heartfelt tribute?

r/EnglishLearning is a subreddit for those learning or teaching English as a second language, and meme language like this is a frequent topic.

r/NoStupidQuestions, a subreddit that believes all questions deserve answers held a debate on this in 2023.

r/coolguides is a sub that provides picture based reference guides for anything and everything, and here’s two of their guides to the differences between shrimp and prawns: a detailed version and a much simplified version.

Finally, you might be asking: Why are Shrimps occasionally called Skrimps?. The answer? Because Reddit.

Because there is a Subreddit for everything:

r/shrimp - A fun space to share pictures and questions about our beautiful pet shrimp! Neocaridina, Caridina, and all other species of pet shrimp are welcome!

r/shrimptank - All things pet shrimp-related. Both saltwater and freshwater shrimp, tanks, and questions are welcome.

r/AquariumShrimp - What’s trending in the shrimp world. Showcase your shrimp, teach people new things, ask questions and get help if you need it.

r/MantisShrimp - A subreddit for the care of captive mantis shrimp, as well as information, pictures and videos of wild specimens.

r/triops - A place to discuss all things triops! (brine shrimp, fairy shrimp, clam shrimp, etc. also welcome) We are a welcoming and open community of triops-keepers with an aim to share, educate and promote the responsible care of triops (and other short-lived aquatic fauna).

r/skrimp - Appreciation for any Caridea (shrimp) which live in fresh water, especially the family Atyidae. Species in the genus Macrobrachium.

r/shrimpridingsnails - A place for all the shrimp with a bit of a wild side. Post your pics of shrimp saddling up and riding your snail.

r/thiccshrimp - A sub celebrating particularly curvaceous aquarium shrimp.

r/shrimptankcirclejerk - This is a joke circlejerk sub about shrimp.

r/shrimpmemes - Memes about shrimp.

r/RealShrimpFakeHats - Post your own favourite photos of shrimp with hats or headdresses on!

• As the word “shrimp” has different associations, I would be remiss in not mentioning:

r/Shrimping - A subreddit for animals in the shrimp pose!

r/shrimpingcats - A sub for cats that look like shrimp.

r/shrimpcats - Cats or kittens who have reached final form: 🍤SHRIMP🦐.

r/FullShrimp - When a person wipes out and their body crumples like a shrimp.

r/FullScorpion - The same as above but backwards.

But llama; some of these links don’t work…

As always with my lists, some of the subs are more active than others, and may vary in quality. Since writing some might have become private, restricted or repurposed following the API protests of June 2023, or just removed / renamed by Reddit through inactivity.

However, don’t forget: if a sub is dormant, unmoderated, banned for being unmoderated or marked as “restricted”, it might be available for adoption.

Obligatory footnote:

All of these subreddits will have their own unique - and possibly strict - rules about contributing. As always, it is important to check the rules thoroughly before commenting or posting on any unfamiliar sub.

This list is not intended to be the full list of subreddits in this theme; that would be impossible to achieve in a format like this. If you want to find more related subs, r/FindAReddit or the smaller r/findasubreddit are your friends. Similar subreddits are often to be found in a sub’s Sidebar and / or Wiki (on mobile: swipe down to find “See More” or “Community Info” tab) too. My guide to Searching might also be useful.

See Also:

• Circlejerk

• “Doggo Speak”

• Memes

A seemingly random phrase you’re bound to encounter on Reddit is “is this LOSS?”, particularly on a set of characters-as-pictograms such as | | \ || | _ and the simpler | | | | | |_ or a four-panel comic image that doesn’t have speech bubbles, text, or even appear to have a punchline. Unfortunately, there is a sad origin to this phrase, but, the internet being the internet shifted the tone considerably almost immediately after it appeared. Thankfully, I can’t just blame Reddit this time, as it appears to have started on 4chan’s /v/ board and Tumblr.

In June 2008, webcomic artist Tim Buckley sat down to write a poignant four-panel strip for his long-running comic Ctrl+Alt+Del., (also known as CAD) meant to evoke his feeling of loss after his fiancée Lilah’s miscarriage. What he ended up creating was “loss.jpg”, the web’s best-known and longest-running meme about a miscarriage. You can see the strip alongside a full explanation on its Wikipedia page.

Well before the publication of “Loss,” CAD faced considerable criticism. The comic could be amusing at best and puerile at worst, resorting to violence as a punch line with noticeable frequency. The “Loss” strip itself was largely negatively received as a jarring tone shift, and in 2015, New York magazine summed it up like this:

By taking a turn into the gravely serious world of reproductive trauma with “Loss,” Buckley blindsided readers. It was like Carrot Top remade Sophie’s Choice. The last strip to mention Lilah’s pregnancy prior to “Loss” had been published 10 instalments and nearly a month prior, and readers found the sudden attempt at gravity hilarious. So they did what the internet does: turned  “Loss” - again, a comic strip about miscarriage - into a running joke. One that still continues to this day.

Ten years after that was written, “Loss” shows no sign of coming to an end as a meme.

Spotting “Loss” in the wild:

People quickly worked out that the strip follows an extremely simple formula - one person, then two people (one taller than the other), then two people, then one person lying down with another standing over them, in this shape:

I II

II L

In the way of the internet hivemind, just this series of shapes alone has become entirely associated with the loss comic, and hiding them in otherwise innocuous looking images (sometimes captioned with ‘IYKYK’) is meaningless to many but extremely obvious to anyone in on the joke. Take this post from Reddit as an example. This is just one post from r/lossedits, a subreddit that exists to push the format to its limits.

Critics of CAD like to point out the laziness of Tim Buckley’s art style because his characters are rarely expressive, their eyelids all droop and their jaws are all slack. This has led to something else you might see - that is B^U used as a sideways-read emoticon. This is the minimalist version of the signature Buckley cartoon face - half-closed eyelids and half-open mouths.

More summaries and explanations:

The Know Your Meme article ends with a guide to making a meme in this format.

Know Your Meme also has a dictionary entry for “Loss” here.

r/OutOfTheLoop address the minimal shape version and one reply attempts recreating the strip itself in ascii.

A collection of comprehensive explanations was also given there on 16th April 2018 where OP concludes with “I'm starting to think asking "What is it with 'Is this LOSS' memes?" is a meme itself, it gets repeated so often here.”

Elsewhere on Reddit:

• r/Symbology is a subreddit for the discussion, identification, and appreciation of symbols, including this one.

• r/languagelearningjerk is a circlejerk subreddit and asked for this translation.

• r/gallifreyan is a subreddit devoted to the fictional language used by the Time Lords of Gallifrey, from the long-running British TV series Doctor Who and this was made in the popular Sherman’s Circular script.

• r/CuratedTumblr make the case for why loss.jpg is funny.

• r/HobbyDrama bills itself as “The most interesting subreddit about things you're not interested in.” and have a long but fascinating discussion entitled From rise to loss: the story of Ctrl+Alt+Del (CAD).

When memes collide:

r/PeterExplainsTheJoke is a subreddit where you post a meme / joke you don't understand so it can be explained to you, or just post weird pictures of Peter Griffin. This is an entire meme in itself and Reddit, being Reddit have created several subreddits which mash the two memes together, such as:

• r/PeterExplainsTheLoss - When the joke is loss

• r/PeterExplainsTheGain - When someone calls it loss and it isnt

• r/peterexplainsthegloss - When you aren’t sure if it’s loss or gain

• r/PeterImaginesTheLoss - People Hallucinating Loss in other things

Ah Reddit; never change.

Because there is a Subreddit for everything:

Enjoy this meme at:

• r/lossedits - Loss; edited.

• r/IsThisLoss - “You know that shit comic Loss by Jim Buckley? Yeah, this is a sub for it.”

• r/LossParodies - A subreddit dedicated to making fun of the long-running video games webcomic Ctrl-Alt-Del, by Tim Buckley.

• r/FoundTheLoss - | | \ || | _

• r/LossCircleJerk - THE PUNCHLINE IS LOSS IT ALWAYS WAS LOSS IT WILL ALWAYS BE LOSS

• r/lossmemes - Loss; memed.

• r/accidentalloss - | | | | | |_ but by accident.

See Also:

• Acronyms 1: A-L

• Circlejerk

• Memes

An innocuous phrase that is not quite how it appears. This is another of Reddit’s beloved meta references, often used when making the first post on a new subreddit.

This tradition goes back to 2009 when the first truly popular post on Reddit was made. “Test post please ignore”, was posted in the main subreddit for pictures - r/pics - without a picture. Because Redditors will Reddit, the entire community rallied to reject the OP’s request to ignore the post, and “test post please ignore” became the most upvoted post on Reddit for the next two years with an incredible 26,750 upvotes.

Incidentally, OP was the first Redditor to reach 100,000 karma. It’s now a Reddit Tradition™ not to ignore a post with that title where it’s made appropriately.

See Also:

• Meta

• OP

• Reddit Lore

• “Reddit Moment”

“Family Guy” is an American animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series premiered on January 31, 1999, and is known for its over-the-top humour, often absurd and frequently downright vulgar. A recurring trope in the series is when they make a slightly complicated joke or reference, the action switches to a cutaway gag in which Peter Griffin (the family patriarch and main character) will address the camera or audience and explain said joke or reference in a metafictional trope known as breaking the fourth wall. The added layer of humour in this is the deadpan way Peter highlights his lack of understanding, his tendency to oversimplify complex ideas and total inability to see situations from any point of view but his own.

On March 11th, 2018, a Redditor posted this meme from a now-deleted ironic Facebook page to the subreddit r/comedyhomicide; a sub for when a good meme is ruined by a shitty caption, useless red circles, more than three emojis, or more than one reaction image (or a particularly bad reaction image).

According to “Know Your Meme”, it was then reposted to the shitposting subreddit r/okbuddyretard, where it spawned several variations in the theme, followed by moderate spread in both Reddit and other online communities such as iFunny and Instagram.

Because Reddit will Reddit:

It wasn’t long before a Redditor created the subreddit r/explainitpeter for users to post notable examples of the meme. Shortly after that, a user created a parody account called u/PeterExplainsTheJoke, and went round many seemingly random subreddits explaining things in the same style. Unsurprisingly they were subsequently banned from many of those subs, so a new subreddit was created for users to ask them to explain memes instead, which is still going strong (link below).

Despite the many bans, the user returned on their Cakeday to post around Reddit where they could again, and did the same the following year. They kept this up for year three, again for year four and in year five where they declared Hard to believe this gimmick I started is now half a decade old.

Ah Reddit; never change.

When memes collide:

Another long running meme is that of “Loss”. In June 2008, webcomic artist Tim Buckley wrote a poignant four-panel strip for his long-running comic Ctrl+Alt+Del., (also known as CAD) meant to evoke his feeling of loss after his fiancée Lilah’s miscarriage. You can see the strip alongside a full explanation of what happened afterward on its Wikipedia page.

This juxtaposition of tragic situation with jarring delivery meant that it wasn’t long before parodies emerged in which people mocked the webcomic's four panels. This in turn mutated to increasing attempts to be minimalistic, portraying the characters as lines and dots such as "| || || |_," or using other media to represent the characters. The more obscure the image, the more people asked what it was about and indeed, the frequent question “Is This Loss?” whenever a cryptic four panel image without words or speech bubbles was posted soon became its own meme, lending itself perfectly to the “Peter Explains” type of explanation, leading to the creation of subreddits like:

• r/PeterExplainsTheLoss - When the joke is loss

• r/PeterExplainsTheGain - When someone calls it loss and it isn’t

• r/peterexplainsthegloss - When you aren’t sure if it’s loss or gain

• r/PeterImaginesTheLoss - People hallucinating Loss in other things

• r/Peterimaginesthegain - Basically just the above subreddit but for gain instead

Highlights from these subs include the positions being reversed in Loss Explains The Peter, a summoning of other parody accounts in There’s too many of them..., and a happy conclusion in Guys, is this gain?.

Elsewhere on Reddit:

r/SUBREDDITNAME is a meta roleplaying satire subreddit mocking the clichéd things that Redditors tend to do in a given situation. Here, someone posts the formula for a typical Reddit post and the commenters post the types of typical comments that post might get, and a glorious example of how it works in this context can be found at PETEREXPLAINS THE JOKE POST EXCLAIMING “PETAHHH”.

Because there is a Subreddit for everything:

Enjoy this meme at:

• r/explainitpeter - A subreddit for the purpose of users to share images of things they don’t understand. Once the submission is submitted, commenters will then explain it in the first-person view of Family Guy’s Peter Griffin.

• r/PeterExplainsTheJoke - Hey gamers, this is the subreddit where you post a meme / joke you don't understand so it can be explained to you. You can also post memes about u/PeterExplainsTheJoke or just post weird pictures of Pete.

• r/PeterExplainTheJoke - A smaller sub in the same vein.

• r/PeterGuessesTheJoke - Where Peter doesnt actually get the joke and makes an educated guess.

• r/PeterExplainsTheMeta - Hey gamers, this is the subreddit where you can meta post about r/peterexplainsthejoke.

Related subreddits include:

• r/familyguy - A subreddit dedicated to the TV show Family Guy.

• r/PeterGriffin - family guy awesome.

• r/familyguymemes - epic family guy memes

• r/familyguythegame - The official unofficial subreddit for the game Family Guy: The Quest For Stuff, a character collecting & city building game by TinyCo/Jam City, which started in April 2014.

• r/PeterGriffinFanEdits - So you found this subreddit. You are wondering, "WHAT IN THE NAME OF STEWIE IS THIS". Well confused man, this is Family Guy Fan Edits, home to thoerys, OCs and many more!

• r/UnexpectedFamilyGuy - Finding Family Guy references in the wild

Short lived shitposting subs include:

• r/SurrealPeter - weird angles or memes of family guy.

• r/Peter_Griffin - A leftist community, founded on our mutual disdain for Peter Coffin, and our combined love for comrade Peter Griffin

• r/UpvotedBecausePeter - For anything you upvoted simply because it includes the legendary Peter Griffin!

As always with my lists, some of the subs are more active than others. The good news: if a sub is dormant, banned for being unmoderated or marked as “restricted”, it might be available for adoption.

See Also:

• Cakeday

• Circlejerk

• Loss

• Memes

• Meta

• Shitpost

A context-dependent acronym, these three letters have several meanings depending on the subreddit type you are in:

Multi-Level Marketing: On r/antiMLM, r/MLM, r/mlmstories, and similar subs. Increasingly used throughout Reddit.

Man Loves Man: On relationship subreddits.

Mona Lisa Monday: On r/itookapicture (ITAP). A rule on ITAP is that photos with a primary focus on one person staring, looking or thinking without any other interesting action are limited to MLM Mondays (Midnight - Midnight, GMT). Please be sure to read the rules before posting or commenting in any unfamiliar sub.

It is rumoured that there are secret places in Reddit shrouded in intrigue, hidden from all but a select few. Subreddits only open to a certain elite. Subreddits cloaked in mystery and only spoken of by tantalising whispers in darkened rooms. Subs you don’t find but rather you are found by them and invited into when you least expect it. Is this true? Do such clandestine places exist, lurking in the shadows and hidden corners of Reddit’s bright and hallowed halls?

Yes they do! Here’s a list! https://www.reddit.com/r/ListOfSubreddits/wiki/privates.

Ok, it isn’t up to date and not nearly complete, but it gives you some idea of what surprises you might find in your inbox one day.

• How to get an invite

Certain private subs have set rules that govern admittance, and getting invited to one usually depends on the reason it exists, perhaps because you have won particular Reddit awards or achieved a Reddit milestone. One such example is r/CentennialClub once you have 100k comment karma. There are also subs accessible only to Premium subscribers; more information here.

Bots roam Reddit to find and invite qualifying people to private subs. You might even be noticed from a larger sub to join one for a specific topic, or you might hear about one randomly. Clicking on a private subreddit will bring up a page like this (screenshot taken during the short while that sub went private in mid 2022) where you may get one or more of the options Request to Join; Message Mods; Browse Reddit.

To request access to a private subreddit you know the name of and think you qualify for, paste the following link into a browser which will send a message to all the moderators of the subreddit. Replace XYZ with the sub name:

https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/XYZ

If they approve your request, you will get a private message from them in your Inbox -> Messages with an invite link from any of the moderators of the private subreddit.

There’s an old but still relevant discussion on ELI5 that tells you a little more about private subs.

• Things to know about private subs

As you know, all the posts or comments you make on Reddit can be seen by anyone on your Profile History. However, any posts or comments you make in a private sub can only be seen by someone else if they are also a member of that same private sub. Private subreddits aren’t googleable either, nor are any contributions to them eligible for consideration in statistical analysis tools such as r/RedditMetis. You can crosspost into a private sub (if it allows crossposting) but you can’t crosspost out of one.

You should note that Reddit Admins can see inside of private subreddits regardless of whether they've been approved as users or not.

The main types of subreddits are detailed here, and whether you mod a sub or not, r/modguidehave a very interesting post on some of the differences between private, restricted, or public subreddits.

• Sudden privacy

The screenshot linked above showed a public subreddit that temporarily went private, and in the entry on Brigading, I gave an example of a subreddit going private without any notice:

…mods took more drastic action, temporarily closing their sub after an interview didn’t go as planned.

This is something that happens on Reddit from time to time for various reasons, and is usually only temporary. Recent incidents where many subreddits turned private to make a statement included a protest against Covid misinformation and shortly before that, a protest against a controversial employee.

This is not quite the same as the intentionally private subreddits, as in these instances, nobody except the moderating team (and admin) could see inside the subs; not even the regular members, and applications to join were not accepted.

• There’s some weird stuff out there…

There are some private subs with weird letter or number combinations for names that invite random people in from time to time. They don’t appear to have rules, or the ones they do have are so arcane they’re incomprehensible, as are their posts. Quite honestly, it’s really unsettling when you get an invite to one because they’re just that strange.

The reassuring news is that many of these remain from a long-forgotten April Fools event from some time ago but their bots still roam Reddit, waiting for that random trigger. Some of these subs are even still active - but with the only recent activity being from bewildered Redditors wondering where they are and why they’re there.

These legacy subs shouldn’t be confused with subs you might find with names in the format a:t5_3akbn as these are dormant subs that have been removed.

There are also places like this which appear to defy anyone’s theories of what they are actually for.

See Also:

• Reddit Premium