These keywords allow you to tell Reddit to search for only specific things, rather than the entirety of Reddit. These aren’t menu-based, meaning you’ll need to know which terms to enter into the search bar to get the results you want. There are eight in total, and you can use them in the following ways:
- author: This word filters by username of the named account. For example, entering author:PresidentObama lists content posted only by u/PresidentObama.
- flair: This word filters by a subreddit’s flair, which means this filter will vary based on the subreddit. Some subreddits use flair to categorize posts, so entering flair:discussion will only show results that are based on user conversation and debate, rather than, say, news.
- self: This word filters posts made by an individual account, rather than posts linking to another site. Use self:true to search for only text-based posts, and self:false for all other types.
- selftext: This word searches text posts for a specific query. Entering selftext:dogs, for example, will search text posts for the word dog.
- site: This word filters for specific URLs. For example, use site:lifehacker.com to search for Reddit posts sharing Lifehacker articles.
- subreddit: This word filters for the specific subreddit listed. Use subreddit:askreddit to search for posts from only r/askreddit. Alternatively, if you search for something while browsing a subreddit, Reddit will automatically search only within that subreddit.
- title: This word filters for specific submission titles. If you search title:”broken keyboard,” you’ll only see posts that contain broken keyboard in the title. Note: always put multi-word searches in quotes.
- url: This word filters for specific words in a website’s URL, to narrow down a website search. You should combine this one with the site filter. For example, site:lifehacker.com url:iphone will only return Reddit posts with Lifehacker URLs containing the word iPhone.
On their own, these filters can range from helpful to useless. However, combining them will make your searches way more accurate. If you’re trying to find an answer to why your iPhone is heating up, you can string together something like subreddit:iPhone title:overheating flair:question and find ultra-specific posts about your question. There’s apparently no limit on the amount of strings you can put together, so go ham.
Source: How to Search Reddit and Actually Find What You Want
Robin Edgar
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