50 ‘Cool Guides’ People Shared On This Group That Contain Information They Don’t Teach At School
InterviewOne of my secret pleasures (and feel free to chime in if you’re a geek like me) is looking through various colorful guides and infographics, from what plants are edible in forests to hypothetical explanations on how best to survive the zombie Apocalypse that 2020 promised but never delivered.
The multi-million-member ‘Cool Guides’ community on Reddit is the prime place to go to for (yup, you guessed it!) cool guides. From aesthetically pleasing and very informative ones to quirky and funny ones, you’ll find a bit of everything to keep those noggins of yours learning and yearning for more, dear Pandas.
Bored Panda had a lovely chat with redditor Dadschool, who founded the r/coolguides subreddit way back in 2014 and is still its head moderator to this very day. Having started the sub with no real expectations of forming a community around it, he filled a niche on Reddit that had been empty. "I had a bit of a compulsive habit of saving every guide I came across on Reddit with the idea that I'd somehow reference it when I needed it later. There weren't really any subs for general guides so I made one and uploaded all my guides at once. I think a lot of people have a similar affection for bitesize trivia and hoarding generalist knowledge." You'll find the rest of our interview with the founder below.
Upvote your fave guides as you scroll on down, drop us a comment with your thoughts below, and go and join the r/coolguides subreddit if it’s right up your alley. But a quick note of warning before we begin: this is a community mostly for guides; infographics are in a bit of a grey area.
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The founder, Dadschool, was very humble about his role in expanding the community. "I can say it is only able to be this size because moderators like @etymologynerd and @robinsparkles18 are as active as they are, and the time they take out of their day to check in," he praised his colleagues. With a leader so supportive, no wonder that the mod r/coolguides mod team stands shoulder to shoulder, come hell or high water.
"The unique thing about Reddit is that subreddits really are independent and are autonomously moderated communities. I think our subscriber ranking is something like 190 across all of Reddit and it's not like there's monetization options after you break 200 or conversations with Reddit corporate. We're the same mod team we were a few years ago, excited that we broke 100k, and checking Reddit throughout the day to make sure no one uploaded the same damn apple guide uploaded 100 times that week," the founder claimed that things are still pretty much as they've always been.
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Dadschool revealed that the biggest challenge that he and the other moderators face is reacting in time to remove hateful and troll guides as soon as humanly possible. However, that's not always possible because they all have day jobs; moderating is something that they do during their spare time. "We all are working professionals so it's easy for something to slip by and stay out there for way longer than it should and that's always a total bummer—a total lose/lose for the community."
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Nowadays, the founder of r/coolguides is a tad more lax about infographics than when he first founded the subreddit. These days, he's more keen to let the community decide what direction it wants to go via upvotes and engagement. He trusts the community. "I see the moderator role as more akin to a landscaper: pruning [troll] posts, removing harmful posts, and moderating for content diversity. Subscribers are much better judges of content quality and validity than moderators and I think it's important to trust them in that role." He added (and this is a feeling that I completely agree with): "I will admit, however, that the majority of guides I enjoy most myself rarely break 50/100 upvotes."
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How about let people eat steak how they like it. The chef can shove the rare steak where the sun don’t shine.
For those of you Pandas who are raring to post a guide on r/coolguides, head moderator Dadschool is all for it: "Go for it!" Just remember to avoid reposts, so have a look through the newest posts. "We do try to maintain some content diversity, so don't upload all ten of your favorite ab workout guides at once. If you have the source, be a buddy and list that too in the comments or title to give credit where it's due!" he gave some advice for newcomers.
Paper Snowflakes
I'm so bad at crafting, mine would probably end up being just confetti :/
I Liked This One
The niqab and the burka should not be legal in our society. First because the face is the way of conveying emotions and covering it it’s dehumanising but specially for security. The other veils should be all legal for adults but not for kids since they cannot consent to them. I am heartbroken each time that I see a 8yo covered like if she needs to be hidden while her brothers run around freely.
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The University of Bath has some excellent advice on how to create a proper guide that’s useful for your readers. Yes, it's a guide for creating guides: we're officially in meta-territory now.
They suggest that you address the reader directly, rather than in the third person (i.e. ‘you Pandas should upvote this awesome article’ instead of ‘Pandas may upvote this absolutely amazing article at the very bottom of the page’).
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What’s more, you should aim to write concisely. Plainly. Simply. Structure and break up the content to make it easier to read. Give your guide some flow and make it easy for the reader to understand what’s what.
Meanwhile, some of the things that you should avoid are incredibly technical terms in the title and headings. Also, omit useless words and info. Less. Is. More. (Unless you absolutely have to add in those extra words for whatever unavoidable reasons.)
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The History Of Confederate Flags.
In the age of cancel culture, I'm astonished that nobody's gotten to the Dukes of Hazard yet. 🤔
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The ‘Cool Guides’ subreddit celebrated its 7th birthday, a magical milestone if there ever was one, just over a week ago on March 20.
Since having been founded in 2014, the community now has nearly 2.1 million members and continues to grow. Despite the vast number of members, the team of moderators remains compact, numbering at just 5 (as far as we can tell from their page on Reddit—there may be more who choose to remain more mysterious and secretive).
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And please avoid using very twice or more in a row : very very very ...
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According to the mods, their online page is for “picture based reference guides for anything and everything. If it seems like something someone might print, physically post, and reference then it is a good link for this sub.”
However, this doesn’t always include infographics. The mods explain that infographics are learning tools, whereas guides are reference tools. Sometimes, the area between the two becomes blurred.
If you do end up posting what the mods deem to be an infographic, they might decide to remove it. “An infographic is more educational in layout and content, finding something specific on an infographic is not as easy because it is designed to inform through more narrative structures. If your guide is more of a visual essay than a structured table or list, then chances are that is an infographic. Sometimes infographics can masquerade as how-to guides.”
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The subreddit also has a no-tolerance policy for any content that’s dangerous, harmful, hurtful, or destructive. It’s supposed to be a wholesome and informative community that adheres to morality, the rules of Reddit, as well as common legal structures.
“Guides depicting harmful, dangerous, or destructive content will be removed. This includes guides describing the creation of dangerous items/materials and/or guides that are designed with the purpose to harm or hurt others do not fit the culture of this sub and will be removed.”
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From The Us Holocaust Museum
So, dear Pandas, which of these guides did you find to be the most useful (or, let's face it, the most intriguing because we all like looking at pretty pictures)? What's the most useful guide you've ever seen in your entire life? Is there a guide for something that you'd do pretty much anything to read through? Share your thoughts with everyone else below.
How To Assert Dominance Over A Waterfall
I hope I never have to come to a point where I would need this information
I hope I remember this if I ever come to a point where I would need this info
Load More Replies...It's just too bad waterfalls are so hard to avoid...and they strike when you least expect it!
Am I the only one who released their breath after reading the last panel? 😝
Should I ever find myself falling off a waterfall, I can guarantee I will not remember any of this
Better to hit your legs on rocks and not your HEAD. And yea bending your legs before you hit the bottom makes sense to redistribute/alleviate the shock if you hit rocks.
Load More Replies...Now that we know this, and how to avoid lava, all we need is an infographic on quicksand! *high fives all around*
Load More Replies...Step 6 is very important since the force of the water fall displaces the water near the surface, so if you swim up first it'll likely suck you back in under the waterfall
as somebody who died from a waterfall i can confirm this would’ve saved my life
There was a small waterfall in BC Canada that we used to body ride over for fun and this is Exactly what you do, although you don't have to hold your head real tightly, but this is the basic position to safely body surf a waterfall.
By the time I will have done all this I think swimming away from waterfall would be a waste of time, I would be dead or nearly
Nice infographics but pure trash - anyone who had jumped/slided from waterfall knows that "guarding" your nose with elbow or by holding it with fingers to seal it is a way how to break it. There is also one thing missing - keep your legs springy, if there are rocks underneath you can absorb the shock.
Y’know, I find that T-posing over the waterfall is better then getting wet but whatever y’all wanna do
How are you supposed to swim before you land but also hold your hands over your head and mouth and land feet first
Hopefully it’s deep enough at the bottom, because you really just wasted time on steps 1-5 if it’s not.
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First you decline, then be gracious. Wording is very essential and people tend to pay attention to the sentence after the "but". For example "I won't be able to make it, but thank you for considering me" vs "thank you for inviting me, but I can't come". I think the first one sounds better, even if it's essentially the same.
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This is very helpful because I go hiking a lot, next time I will pack this way!
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Sometimes it is just quicker to say be careful when in/near a dangerous situation.
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Sorry... green tea is tea, but the rest of them are types of infusions/tisanes.
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I really loved this one. Informative and relevant. I would love to read more of these.
thnaks, this was a very informative and interesting post!! more of these, please
You mean, a site consists of mostly left wing political people, and the site accommodates for that? OH NO GUYS BILL GATES IS AFTER OUR PICKLE! BIG SCARY AHHHH
Load More Replies...I really loved this one. Informative and relevant. I would love to read more of these.
thnaks, this was a very informative and interesting post!! more of these, please
You mean, a site consists of mostly left wing political people, and the site accommodates for that? OH NO GUYS BILL GATES IS AFTER OUR PICKLE! BIG SCARY AHHHH
Load More Replies...