Welcome to the internet; I’ll be your guide.

Whether you’re looking for recipes, lifehacks , or just a steady dose of memes , Imgur has you covered. The site has more than 100 million users ; some like to post daily while others lurk in the comments.

The large community can come off as intimidating, but Imgur doesn’t chastise newbies. If you’ve been curious about the community, we’re here to help.

Imgur: The complete guide for beginners

First off, what is Imgur?

Imgur is a site for sharing pictures, GIFs, and videos. It is popular on both mobile and desktop. Posts first enter a channel called “ User-Sub .” In here, posts receive upvotes, downvotes, and are “favorited.” If a post gets a lot of upvotes, it is sent into “ Most Viral .” This channel is Imgur’s front page for its millions of users.

When you favorite a post, it enters a favorites folder on your page. You can sift through your favorites at your leisure. This especially comes in handy for recipe or “how to” posts.

More upvotes can be earned through comments. Users can upvote or downvote a comment, which adds to your running total of Imgur points. We talk more about those later.

You can add appropriate tags to a post to help gain traffic. You can also click on a tag to see other similar posts. For example, if you post something having to do with GTA V, you can add the GTA tag and then see other posts about GTA.

As an incentive for remaining active on the site, Imgur awards trophies to users. Some trophies are awarded automatically for things like your yearly anniversaries.

In case you need more than the 140-character limit in the comments section, Imgur has a chat feature. Like most instant-messaging services, you can block and report users.

Points

Points and comments can earn you Imgur points. These “ fake internet points ” don’t mean much in real life, but they are heavily sought after on Imgur. Points feed your notoriety , which other users can see on your page.

You’re not going to make money or get famous in real life if you have a lot of points. However, you can immortalize yourself on Imgur.

Posting

Posts can be put into two separate groups: original content and reposts. Original content or “OC” means that the content came from you and you alone. GIFs you created, screenshots of your own social media pages, or videos you shot yourself are all examples of OC. Imgur also has a full catalog of tools and extensions to help your posts.

In theory, OC has a better chance of making it to the front page. However, most users would agree that there is not an airtight formula for getting on the front page. The title, description, tags, and even the time of day can affect whether you make Most Viral.

Reposts are posts that came from somebody else. This does not mean that they won’t make it to the front page, but some users do hound content for not being OC. If you make a repost, you should always include the source to give credit to the creator. If you don’t, you’ll probably get downvoted to oblivion as you see comments asking “sauce?” That’s not a typo; users say that to be funny. (It’s internet slang for “source?”)

User Sub and mature content

If you are casually surfing Imgur, you should stay away from User Sub if you are anywhere public. The Imgur terms of service and community guidelines prohibit posting inappropriate content. However, it can take a while before these posts are caught by admin. This means that a lewd image can potentially grace your computer or phone screen if you aren’t careful.

Blatantly inappropriate content does not typically make it to the front page, so you are safe surfing Most Viral. Imgur has a bit of  a blurry line between what is explicit content and what is simply “mature.” Mature content can be provocative and sexual, but won’t include nudity, gore, etc. Posts should also be marked as mature if they contain mature material.  You do this by adding the mature tag when posting. If you fail to do so, Imgur will send you a courtesy message and mark the content “mature” for you.

For example, let’s say you want to post some of your favorite cosplays. If some of the cosplayers are scantily clad, you should mark the content as mature.

You can also choose whether or not you want to see mature content on Imgur.

The founders

Imgur was founded by Alan Schaaf in 2010. He still serves as president and CEO of Imgur. He doesn’t post often, but he does have an account on the site.

One of the most prominent users you will find is @Sarah. @Sarah is Sarah Schaaf, Imgur’s first employee and the head of the community team. She is also Alan’s sister and vice president of the company. Her account posts lots of news and updates about Imgur. She also urges users to message her with any questions or concerns they might have.

There is also a conspiracy theory floating around Imgur that @Sarah is actually Weird Al Yankovic. We’re not confirming or denying this theory, but have you ever seen both of them in a room together?

Other popular users to follow

Given the millions of users, it’s hard to narrow down just a few that you should follow. What you should do is search by your favorite tags , and follow users who post a lot of that content.

However, Imgur has created some legendary users you might want to follow:

Two of the most popular users on Imgur are @thund3rbolt and @undercovergiraffe . The two have nearly 30 million combined Imgur points. Their viral content launches on Imgur before making its way to the rest of the internet. You can see it first by following both of these users.

You might wonder from time to time why Michael Cera’s face pops up so often . You can thank @ANewBadlyPhotoshoppedPhotoofMichaelCeraEveryday for that. Although he doesn’t habitually post daily anymore, he typically posts every few days. The community erupts when he does, and you can always count on seeing his content on the front page.

Sometimes even celebrities make their way to the Imgur community . Adam Savage from “Mythbusters” is an active Imgur user. His username is @mistersavage. He doesn’t post that often, but he does engage with users in the comments and has been known to participate in Imgur events.

Imgur events

From time to time, Imgur sponsors special events. Some have died out, but there are some notable ones to mention.

Imgur users have their own personal birthday-like celebration known as “Cake Day.” Your Cake Day is the anniversary of when you first became an Imgur user. If you don’t remember when you first became an Imgurian, your account page will tell you.

On your Cake Day, it is Imgur tradition to make a post in celebration. Users who stumble on the post in User Sub will theoretically upvote you to the Most Viral.

This isn’t your traditional office secret Santa. Imgur Secret Santa is looked forward to all year long. Users who sign up are randomly assigned someone to give a gift to , and your name is sent to a user as well. There is even a backup Santa program where you can have someone else send you a gift if your person flaked on you. When you get your gift, most users post it and tag their Imgur Secret Santa to thank them.

Camp Imgur was an event in 2015 where Imgurians camped out in the woods of northern California. The event wasn’t as much focused on the camping aspect as it was focused on community members engaging with one another . Imgurians who missed out on the event have been begging the admins to bring it back. If and when it does return, you can count on @Sarah to give you the details.

Two weekly events you can always expect to see are Red Head Monday and Thigh-High Thursday . On RHM, users post lots of content featuring red-headed people. Typically, it’s a lot of attractive female redheads. On Thigh-High Thursday, you’ll see a lot of content of women wearing thigh-high legwear. Is it kinda creepy? Yeah, it’s pretty creepy. However, if this is not the content you want to see anymore, let the community know. Downvote the content you don’t like, and post your thoughts on the issue.

Imgur self-policing

You might be thinking to yourself, “This all sounds cool, but how do I stay protected on the site?” Imgur has a unique self-policing policy where the community itself can condemn bad behavior.

Imgur admins do monitor posts and can remove them, but it does count on its users to help police the site. Admins will remove posts that violate community rules, but some can slip through the cracks for a while.

Imgur users post and comment to gain upvotes to build their clout on the site. If you post something toxic to the community, users will most likely downvote you. Those downvotes are r eflected in your running total of Imgur points and will remain there until you delete the post or comment.

Why you should use Imgur

Imgur is much more than just a way to share cat GIFs. It’s a community. People have made lifelong friends and even met their spouses on Imgur.

Imgur has been known to get hacked. However, it is not common, and they are not blatantly stealing data like other social media apps. Also, Imgur is known for being very upfront about issues with the app, and hold themselves accountable.

Are you definitely going to meet your future husband or wife on Imgur? Probably not. Are you potentially going to make friends while surfing through your favorite content? Most definitely.

Have fun, don’t be a creep, and always upvote Zoidberg.