Please do:

• Keep your submission titles factual and opinion-free. If it is an outrageous topic, share your crazy outrage in the comment section.

• Moderate based on quality, not opinion. Well-written and interesting content can be worthwhile, even if you disagree with it.

• Look for the original source of content, and submit that. Often, a blog will reference another blog, which references another, and so on with everyone displaying ads along the way. Dig through those references and submit a link to the creator, who actually deserves the traffic.

• Post to the most appropriate community possible. If you're submitting an article about American politics, for example, it would be better suited for /r/politics than /r/worldnews.

• Vote. The up and down arrows are your tools to make reddit what you want it to be. If you think something contributes to conversation, upvote it. If you think it does not contribute to reddit or is off-topic in a particular community, downvote it.

• Use specific day or dates - "Jon Stewart's rally is in DC Saturday" or "Colbert's rally in DC 2010-10-30"

• Use proper grammar and spelling. Intelligent discourse requires a standard system of communication. Non-native English speakers appreciate gentle corrections.

• Search for duplicates before posting. That said, sometimes bad timing, a bad title, or just plain bad luck can cause an interesting story to fail to get noticed. Feel free to post something again if you feel that the earlier posting didn't get the attention it deserved and you think you can do better.

• Put the file type at the end of the title if it is something other than HTML or text, like [pdf] or [video].

• Link to the direct version of a media file when the page it was found on doesn't add any value.

• Link to canonical and persistent URLs where possible, not temporary pages that might disappear. In particular, use the "permalink" for blog entries, not the blog's index page.

• Consider posting constructive criticism / an explanation when you downvote something, but only if you really think it might help the poster improve.

• Report any spam you find.

• Browse the new submissions page and vote on it. Regard it, perhaps, as a public service.

• Actually read an article before you vote on it (as opposed to just basing your vote on the title).

• Feel free to post links to your own content (within reason). But if that's all you ever post, and it always seems to get voted down, take a good hard look in the mirror — you just might be a spammer.

• Submit links as links. If your post is in reference to a website, put that URL in the link field rather than linking to it from a text post. This makes it easier for people to see what you are trying to share.

• Link to original embeddable content where possible. YouTube? videos (for example) can be viewed within reddit; YouTube? videos embedded on your blog cannot. See a list of embeddable sites here: http://embed.ly/

• Posts containing explicit material such as nudity, horrible injury etc, add NSFW (Not Safe For Work) tag

• State your reason for any editing of posts''' Edited submissions are marked by an asterisk (*) at the end of the timestamp. Even if it was just edited for spelling, a simple "Edit: spelling" will help explain. This avoids confusion when a post is edited after a conversation breaks off from it. If you have another thing to add to your original comment, say "Edit: And I also think..." or something along those lines.

• Read the rules of a community before making a submission.

• Use a "Innocent until proven guilty" mentality. Unless there is obvious proof that a submission is fake, or is whoring karma, please don't say it is. It ruins the experience for not only you, but the millions of people that browse Reddit every day.

Please don't:

• Engage in illegal activity.

• Complain about reposts. Just because you have seen it before doesn't mean everyone has. Votes indicate the popularity of a post, so just vote. Keep in mind that linking to previous posts is not automatically a complaint; it is information. Votes indicate how the community values information, so just vote.

• Hint at asking for votes ("Show me some love!", "Is this front page worthy?", etc.)

• Post someone's personal information, or post links to personal information. This includes links to public Facebook pages and screenshots of facebook pages with the names still legible. We all get outraged by the ignorant things people say and do online, but witch hunts and vigilantism hurt innocent people too often, and such posts or comments will be removed. Users posting personal info are subject to an immediate site wide ban. If you see a user posting personal info, Please contact the admins.

• Plead for votes in the title of your submission. ("Vote This Up to Spread the Word!", "If this makes the front page, I'll adopt this stray cat and name it Reddit", "If this reaches 500 points, I'll get a tattoo of the Reddit alien!", "Upvote if you do this!", "Why isn't this getting more attention?", etc.)

• Conduct polls using the title of your submission. Instead of "Vote up if you're male, down if you're female", say, "Are you male or female? (Vote in the comments)" and then post two comments, "Vote for this if you're (male/female)"

• Use the word "BREAKING" or other time sensitive words in your submissions. By the time your post reaches the front page, it probably won't be 'breaking' any more.

• Send out IMs, tweets, or any other message asking people to vote for your submission — or comply when other people ask you. Your submission should get points for being good, not because the submitter is part of a voting clique.

• Ask for upvotes in exchange for gifts or prizes. "Upvote me to the top and I'll give away ..."

• Mass-downvote someone else's posts. If it really is the content you have a problem with (as opposed to the person), by all means vote it down when you come upon it. But don't go out of your way to seek out an enemy's posts.

• Downvote opinions just because you disagree with them. The down arrow is for comments that add little or nothing to the discussion.

• Make comments that lack content. Phrases such as...
  • "this"
  • "lol"
  • "This should be the top comment"
  • "I came here to say this"
  • "This is awesome"
  • "needs more upvotes"
  • "Ctrl+F upvote"

... are not witty or original, and do not add anything noteworthy to the discussion. Just click the arrow -- or write something of substance.

• Downvote opinions just because they are critical of you. The down arrow is for comments that add little or nothing to the discussion.

• Announce your votes to the world (unless it's drawn on your nub). These predictable comments aren't terribly interesting and only contribute to the noise-to-signal ratio. More specifically, please refrain from saying,
  • "Upboat."
  • "Upvote."
  • "Upvoted."
  • "Upvoted for x."
  • "Upvote for you, good sir."
  • "I wish I had a million upvotes to give."
  • "My only regret is that I have but one upvote to give."
  • "TO THE TOP!"

• Linkjack stories: linking to stories via blog posts that add nothing extra.

• Post hoaxes. If snopes.com has already declared something false, you probably shouldn't be submitting it to Reddit.

• Flood reddit with a lot of stories in a short span of time. By doing this you monopolize a shared resource — the "new" queue. Be warned, your future submissions may be automatically blocked by the spam filter.

• Complain about too many stories on a particular topic.

• Complain about a story being old. Reddit is about interesting stuff, not new stuff only. Just hide the story.

• Complain when a duplicate story finds more success than the original. Posting a link to the original is okay, since earlier comments may be of interest.

• Complain about downvotes on your posts. Millions of people use reddit; every story and comment gets at least a few downvotes.

• Complain about not receiving upvotes, especially by making a submission voicing your complaint. You may have just gotten unlucky. Try submitting later or seek out other communities to submit to.

• Complain about a link being cross-posted to multiple communities.

• Complain or make a post about another user, even if it is praising their contribution to Reddit.

• Moderate a story based on your opinion of its source. Quality of content is more important than who created it.

• Write titles in ALL CAPS. This is unless you have previously made yourself known as a voter-approved wielder of the Caps Lock key.

• Editorialize or sensationalize your submission title.

• Link with TinyURL or similar services. There are few reasons to hide what you're linking to, and most of them are sneaky.

• Be rude when someone doesn't follow Reddiquette. Just point them here politely, and keep in mind that these are just guidelines.

• Create mass downvote or upvote campaigns. This includes attacking a user's profile history when they say something bad and participating in karma party threads.

• Reply to comments when you are really trying to address a sub-section of Reddit. Get a blog or start a new post; don't hijack comment threads to make your point if it's unrelated to the comment.

• Take moderation positions in a community where your profession, employment, or biases could pose a direct conflict of interest to the neutral and user-driven nature of reddit.

• Follow those who are rabble-rousing against another redditor without first investigating both sides of the issue that's being presented. Those who are inciting this type of action often have malicious reasons behind their actions and are, more often than not, a troll. Remember, every time a redditor who's contributed large amounts of effort into assisting the growth of community as a whole is driven away, projects that would benefit the whole easily flounder.

• Message the moderators or admins to ask why your submission was downvoted.

• Copy an image to imgur (or similar site) for your submission when the source web site is known. Original authors deserve attention and recognition for their work. It is acceptable to copy an image to imgur and put it into the comments to make the content available to readers in the event of server issues on the source web site.

• Submit an image that's just text. You can submit a self post with the same message.

• Ask people to troll others on Reddit, in real life, or on other blogs/sites. We aren't your personal army.

• Edit the CSS of your reddit to trick or confuse users. This includes clickjacking, spoofing or hiding a reddit's name, mods, and the actual text submitted by a user in an attempt to deceive readers. Questionable use of CSS will be dealt with on a case by case basis. In extreme and repeated cases the mods making the changes may be banned.

• Submit images of Reddit comments without proper attribution. This denies the comment the votes it deserves. Click the permalink button and submit the URL of the comment instead. You can provide an image in the thread in case the original comment is deleted. Also, consider submitting it to bestof.

• Conduct personal attacks on other commenters. Ad hominem and other distracting attacks do not add anything to the conversation.

• Complain about other users reposting stories, images, videos, or any other content. Users should give credit where credit should be given, but if someone fails to do so, and is not causing harm whatsoever, please don't point it out. They are only earning karma, which has little to no use at all.

• Upvote or downvote based just on the person that posted it. Don't upvote or downvote comments and posts just because the poster's username is familiar to you. Make your vote based on the content.

tl;dr: The Reddiquette Song