Reddit sucks, but...

I guess I'm now part of the Reddit community, and I'm finally learning a lot about this aspect of American pop culture that, up to now, I've managed to avoid. I joined Reddit purely as a way to advertise my book for free. 

Through rumor and reputation, I already knew Reddit was something of a Wild West environment, chaotic and varied, but that's only half the story. Reddit is a throwback to the heady days of late-90s BBS-style message boards, but with better functionality. This means you get threaded message boards, and in many cases, you can add links, videos, images, etc. to whatever you post or reply to. If you post something on a huge message board like r/AskReddit, you will instantaneously receive a ton of hits. It's almost enough to make me wonder why I blog. Just type an innocent question into r/AskReddit (with its millions of followers, tens of thousands of whom are online at the same time as you), and watch your hits go up to 700 in under thirty minutes. Seriously, why bother blogging?

I'll tell you why. The other side of the coin is that Reddit is a goddamn police state, heavily moderated by both humans and algorithmic bots. I had one r/AskReddit question immediately rejected by a bot because I hadn't used a proper "Wh-" question word to begin my question. Other boards on Reddit have their own specific rules for what's allowable. Some explicitly say you can't advertise or plug anything, so I've quickly learned to stay away from such boards since I'm basically shilling for my book.

As with any police state, survival means learning how to navigate, and eventually game, the system. I'm still learning that part. Reddit is not an environment I want to remain in, but it represents a huge audience, so for now, I'm going to see what sort of headway I can make there. There are a few r/homeschooling boards (I'm on two of them), and I've begun making a name for myself in them as the guy who advocates for somatic (body-centered) learning for ADHD kids (of which there are, apparently, a lot, based on what I'm seeing on these boards). Once enough people come to know and trust me, they might get curious enough to click over and buy my book. We'll see.

More on this later as I hone my Reddit skills.

ADDENDUM: I forgot to add that Reddit doesn't let you select your own username (there's supposedly a way to change it, but I don't think it applies to post-renovation Reddit; meanwhile, you can select a screen name, but I never see it). I was given the username u/Lazy_Yak_6731. You can find me that way if you want. I hate the name, but I'm getting used to it.