I've already Reddit on Social Media

My Welcome Letter

Today we are here to learn about a social media site I have yet to sign up for. I decided to choose Reddit because it is a sister site to Imgur. Truth is, I joined once, but never returned after that. 

For the last five days I have been exploring the website. 

It seems very time intensive, but most likely worth it. I rather wish I hadn't forgotten my old log-in, and actually joined the first time I signed up. 

  I am unsure how to describe the website, however I think I found someone who can.

When I signed up I thought VERY carefully about my username. I am under the impression that it can be important, but I don't know why. After over thinking many choices, I went with the innocuous Snowballthethird.  A nod to my long-time love, The Simpsons.

I decided to explore through the various threads, and even commented after very little lurking. 

This is often a bad idea, and if you're not careful you'll start thinking...

I knew if I didn’t try to be social, there wouldn’t be any interaction. I started with comments, then went on to answering questions then on to random subreddits looking at how many different categories there were. 

I looked at subreddits for my new video game, and 

I eventually searched for Korea to see what popped up. 

I also considered asking for some advice on my car, since I had an issue ...

but changed my mind.

Next, Sleuthing: 

Finding information about Reddit outside Reddit, feels weird and isn’t the easiest of tasks. Trendblog talks about getting people from Reddit to traffic other sites. Since it has a fairly loyal following* it makes sense that if people on Reddit create a buzz about something, it’s going to get attention.

*400 million uniques as of 2012. 

A unique is someone who repeatedly visits the site.

Due to the population of the website, it is not without controversy nor politics. At Inc.com, the online version of the print magazine about business start ups, one discussion picks at how Facebook encouraged the spreading of false stories, and how that influenced the election. Mark Zuckerberg is vehement the influence is minuscule, but Facebook wanting to remain neutral takes the stance of "we are a platform". In the wake of that realization Steve Huffman, Reddit’s chief executive, is responding on how Reddit’s website should now be thought of in regards to social media.

"Reddit is home to thousands of communities and those communities are choosing what they see and what they talk about,To that extent, Reddit is very much a reflection of humanity...We are a communications platform primarily, bringing people together."

To make sure we end on a happy note, here is a cat, directly from the AWWW subreddit:

InDesign is driving me InSane

It almost looks like a real magazine

.... and I am enjoying every minute of the crazy. I love getting to be creative, and InDesign is giving can do 3D Effects? You can even put one image into multiple frames.

me new ways to achieve this. I remember looking at the magazine covers and wondering how they made the headlines, articles, designs for ads. Now I know how to drive myself mental attempting to perfect my page in an effort to accomplish the same task. InDesign has several features to help you create pretty much anything you’d like to look professionally printed. However, learning to use those features can be very difficult without instruction. There are so many options with this program, that it can really boggle the mind. Did you know you

I am still a beginner with this program, but I am really having fun getting frustrated by it. Starting from the beginning:

If you’re looking for something more in depth, namely information on a specific tool or feature Layers Magazine has a tutorial on the Color Theme Tool. Once there, “You’ll learn how to create and change color themes from any pixel- or vector-based image in your document.” 

 There is an archive of tutorials there as well, many of them several years old- which is good if you happen to have an older version.

Pluralsite also offers tutorials on InDesign from beginner to pro with 23 courses and videos ranging from 45 minutes to 7 hours.  The videos are broke down into sections so you can pick and choose what you watch, and in what order. However, you have to be a member to watch anything.  (I didn’t sign up)

After checking out websites, I decided to look for some videos with professor Youtube. 

I chose to look for magazine tutorials since that’s what we were working on in class. I had a lot of trouble finding a photo I wanted and creating what I wanted - how I wanted it. Therefore, I decided to see what I could find. This was the 7^th video I clicked on. 

The others were lacking something, often actual direction. 

This is part 2: