I seem to have gotten myself into a bit of a dilemma. During this last year that I’ve been blogging, I have somehow found myself in a very unhealthy relationship. It’s completely one-sided and at times feels like it’s sucking the life out of me. I can’t deny my love for this partner, however I find my emotions being trampled on time and time again… Every single time I put myself out there, this partner crushes my spirit. From the constant disapproval to the snide side-comments, nothing I put forth is good enough. I know what you’re going to say, trust me… I’m not an ignorant girl. You’re going to state that I should stay as far away, as humanly possible… and I’ve tried. Oh my God…. I’ve tried. But this relationship is like crack and I have come to realize that I am completely co-dependent.
The source of all this anguish, is simply known as “reddit”
I came across reddit, in the usual way… through my blog. ADD Brain wouldn’t allow me the time to fully understand how reddit functioned… so I attempted to jump in blindly. I submitted one of my posts and my views went shooting upward. At first I was ecstatic, I mean… what blogger doesn’t want a cpar-pile of views? Wait…. a what? Freaking typo. A crap-ton of views….. Every blogger’s dream. But, then I saw the downside… The post’s actual vote count, on reddit. It wasn’t pretty. To make it really simple… reddit hates me, reddit hates kimberliah.com and reddit hates my keyboard.
I’ve tried posting multiple times, even though I’m aware that reddit looks down on posting your own crap and have never had any form of success. It’s seriously messing with my mind… I’m like “I think the stuff on reddit is funny… shit, I spend hours browsing it on my phone. But reddit thinks I’m lame. Mega-lame.
and that makes me sad…. and then angry….and then a little crazy.
There are multiple stages to dealing with yet ANOTHER reddit rejection. The first stage is sadness. As the avalanche of down votes start pouring in, completely consuming the 2 upvotes you had managed to procure (and let’s be honest, one of those upvotes is actually yours from its submission) you will feel your heart drop a little. You will question your comedic sense. You will wonder if the world might be a better place if you never blogged again. On the inside, you will weep as your post is quickly buried in virtual thumbs down. Someone will leave a comment belittling your post and that will begin your journey into the second stage. Initially the mean-spirited comment will leave you wounded. You will assume that if some internet stranger felt THAT compelled to leave you a note, telling you that your post sucked… then you and your stupid post must be pretty lame. You will wallow in that feeling briefly and then find yourself barreling into the second stage. Reddit Rage. All of a sudden your self-confidence will come rushing back. You re-examine your post and still manage to find it hilarious… you read the comments of appreciation that were left on your original post. It’s all coming back to you now…. You kick ass and reddit is freaking LAME. Your anger with reddit boils over. You attempt to comment back, defending your post… only to have reddit be like “UGH, You Suck!!!” and mass downvote your comment. You will never be good enough, in reddit’s eyes. But you know what? You’re freaking AWESOME… and reddit can go suck a……Woah!!! ummmm. I probably need to chill out. But, yeah… you’ll momentarily hate reddit and assume that any downvotes you’ve received are either from trolls or lame ass people who can’t read and comprehend more than what is listed on your typical meme. Reddit will be sworn off at this point. No one needs that kind of negativity in their lives…
Welcome to the third stage… crazy-ville. The first few hours go by, without incident. However, as the time passes, you can feel a certain application beckoning from your phone. You KNOW reddit’s got the stuff…. The stuff you need. All you want to do is browse… Hang out a little. Maybe get a back rub. It’s all innocent. But, you resist. You know this familiar path a little too well. The longer you are able to resist, the more 51/50 you become. You’ll find yourself drunk, at a bar, attempting to explain to a homeless man what reddit is and how they did you wrong. You’ll find yourself babbling, for 7 straight miles in your friend’s car, about how you looove reddit and you don’t know why reddit can’t just freaking love you back. Reddit’s funny, you’re funny…. you don’t see what the issue is…. towards the end of the ride you will find yourself staring blankly out the passenger window, mumbling “F*ck you, reddit” over and over and over. At home, as you watch your views return to normal… you begin to feel a little bit antsy. You KNOW that 1 simple click of the reddit share button can possibly nab you hundreds of views, along with all the hate and fury that reddit has to offer. But, maybe this time will be different… maybe people who actually appreciate your humor will take the time to read your post and be like “Damn, this chick is funny” Maybe the post will take off… maybe, for once, you can get more upvotes than downvotes…
Once again the reddit fever will start to set in… and it burns. Real bad.
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Reddit is lame. I tried to answer questions with links to articles and they banned me. There are lot’s of great places to post that will love your humor Like I do and appreciate linking to your blog try http://adderworld.ning.com.
Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll check it out
Reddit is pathetic. Try Stumbleupon. It works far better for me
I’ve been even less successful on Stumbleupon… I haven’t put much effort into that one yet, though.
Nodding along in agreement reading this! Love it
Thank you… it’s nice to know that I’m not alone. LOL
Hey. I’ve experienced the same thing with Reddit, StumbleUpon and Digg… pretty much ignored most of the time. Over a year ago, I got mad at Reddit because when I would post my own stuff from my blog, they would call it spam. Spam, in my opinion, is when one is trying to sell something – not share. Isn’t that what the internet and those sites are about? Sharing? Who gives a crap if one is sharing their own stuff or someone elses. So I closed my account back then. I’ve cooled down and reopened a reddit account, but I’m rarely on there. What drew me today was that I saw I was getting a lot of hits on my post, “Photos that will mess with your mind | Human Illusions” – which you were the one that posted it on Reddit. I just wanted you to know that you did send over 2,000 views to that posting. So although not many did the thumbs thing, they liked what you shared.
Shoot, that post has done the best out of anything I’ve ever posted on there! Congrats