Get better search results WITHOUT Reddit

Reddit has been a hive of scum and villainy for some time, but it wasn’t without merit. Hell, even I had a Reddit account for years, participating in a number of subreddits.

With the recent API changes and - more importantly - how poorly Reddit leadership is handling the response, I myself am no longer going to interact with the site.

This leaves me with a conundrum.. My Google-Fu has evolved over the years to integrate Reddit into my search queries in order to filter out low-value greyhat SEO results. I did this to find quick, simple answers to questions about skeevy-looking vendors, ways to solve various problems, and more.

Without adding “reddit” at the end of my search result.. How am I supposed to get answers?

To do that, we just have to take a step back in the history of online communities.

No, I’m not talking about dial-in BBSes and fingering someone’s .plan (yes, I am fucking old, and no, that’s not as dirty as it sounds although the joke is just as old).

The solution is, in fact, extremely similar to what the “reddit” search query was.

You instead add the word “forum”.

You see kids, back in the days of AOL CDs, getting yelled at that you’re tying up the phone lines, and big-ass CRTs monitors, there was a thing called a forum.

These were one-off communities typically focused on singular niches.

You could find a forum for a single video game, a forum for crocheting, a forum for investing, and even forums for porn (ok, you could find a LOT of forums for porn - the more things change, the more they stay the same).

By appending “forum” to the end of your search results, you may not get exactly the same answers, but despite the reduced effectiveness you’ll still find answers frequently.

You can also try “thread” or “discussion”, but “forum” tends to be adequate for most searches because Google knows what a forum is, and most forums frequently have the term in the full URL/slug, title, page, and more.

So, there you go folks. Happy searching.