How Reddit Attracts (and Rewards) the Worst Type of Comments
The best response on Reddit is the very first thing that comes to mind.
It’s well-known that the first rule of the internet is never read the comments. Personally, I’ve never been a fan of it as a hard, fast rule, but that’s because I have a bit of a bias. I used to be a commenter! In fact, I got my earliest writing jobs because editors of sites I commented on noticed the un-asked-for essays I was writing for free. But it’s rare to find a community like that, where people wrote thoughtful things, had camaraderie with the site authors, and members of the community talked civilly with each other.
Instead, it usually looks more like Reddit.
Admitting you read Reddit — and especially Reddit comments — is already a self-own, but I have to press on. Because there’s something unique about the way Reddit’s comment system works that makes it distinctly annoying. The community it has cultivated over the years is, like everything else, filtered by the system its built on. And despite the common perception among some users of the site that Reddit is some kind meritocracy, the site — and especially its comments — are primed to reward commenters’ most terrible instincts.
