Reddit is a website that works on the principle of voting aggregation. When contents are posted on Reddit, readers can either upvote or downvote them. Upvotes can give you good karma while downvotes can give your bad karma. Karma is basically the scoreboard on Reddit. When people upvote your links and comments you gain karma points. Likewise, you lose your karma points when your links and comments are downvoted. To a new user, it might seem a little overwhelming. However, when a user spends some time on this platform, it might turn out to be quite interesting. Things can get fascinating when your posts start getting more Reddit upvotes.
There are several reasons why people care about upvotes on Reddit.
- One of the major reasons is validation. There are people who are not valued in their real life. Many of them start spending a lot of time on Reddit to gain some power and support. In the real world, people can’t open their hearts and speak openly all the time. They get the liberty to do so on Reddit. Reddit lets you post and comment on other’s post anonymously. When you share something funny and interesting on Reddit and it gets upvoted, it boosts up your self-esteem and makes you believe that you have some influence over your fellow Redditors.
- Upvotes matter a lot to some people because it helps them gain some online reputation. You start feeling good about yourself when you realize there are people out there who value what you say. Besides, upvotes help companies in reaching out to a lot of potential customers. In today’s internet-savvy world, it has become essential for companies to build up an online reputation to sustain themselves in the world of business. Reddit is a platform where business can boost up their reach and give their business the status it deserves. This is a reason why businesses care a lot about Reddit upvotes.
- Another reason for people to care about upvotes is to balance the number of downvotes. Downvotes are basically like dislike buttons. Nobody likes to be disliked. Redditors worry when their posts get a lot of downvotes. Reddit being a site with a huge user base, it is highly possible that what a person likes may be disliked by a lot of others. To keep up the popularity on Reddit, it is important for Redditors to constantly get more upvotes than downvotes. A lot of downvotes on your posts can really hamper your reputation on Reddit.
- One more reason why people care so much about Reddit upvotes is their constant need for appraisal. Some people have this strange desire to feel special from an outside source. This makes them constantly come up with new content that can grab the attention of fellow Redditors and probably get their post upvoted.
Upvotes do not have much value outside Reddit. However, at certain times upvotes do come into use. For instance, when you are marketing your website through Reddit, upvotes on your posts can help you get noticed and eventually drive traffic to your website.
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