About r/IWantToLearn
In its own words:
Have you ever wanted to learn a martial art, or to play the guitar, or how to program a computer? Have you had difficulty figuring out where to start, what path to take or just wanted some advice to get you to the next level? Well, that's what /r/IWantToLearn is all about! Tell our community what you want to learn, and let those who came before you help guide you towards success!
Community guide
r/IWantToLearn (#702, about 1.5 million subscribers) is oriented around: Have you ever wanted to learn a martial art, or to play the guitar, or how to program a computer? Have you had difficulty figuring out where to start, what path to take or just wanted some advice to get you to the… Recent activity samples show 8.6 posts/day in recent samples (~100% text). Public rules we collected include: Starting a Major Project or Learning a New Skill; "Just want to learn about..."; No posts that are just learning resources; No Personal Issues or Social Skills; Proper Title Formatting.
What belongs here
Stay inside the room’s stated scope rather than adjacent off-topic dumps. Self-promotion and ads are limited—read those rules before linking your own channel or shop. Match posts to: Starting a Major Project or Learning a New Skill; "Just want to learn about..."; No posts that are just learning resources; No Personal Issues or Social Skills.
How it differs from lookalikes
Prefer this room when your post matches its description and rules—not merely a larger sibling community. The public rule list is long enough that skimming all entries once beats assuming defaults from similar subs.
Practical pointers
Read the live sidebar/rules before posting; collected snapshots can lag. Common flairs in samples include: Academics, Personal Skills, Technology, Social Skills.
SubMouse Editorial
The community was created on Feb 28, 2010, which makes it 16 years old. Since Oct 26, 2026, it has gained 811 subscribers (+0.05%). It sits just behind r/microsoft (#701) and ahead of r/Python (#703) in our ranking.
What sets r/IWantToLearn apart
r/IWantToLearn is far more text-driven than most big subreddits: 100% of its recent posts are text posts, against a median of 35% across the Top 100.
Subscriber growth
Between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026, r/IWantToLearn climbed from 1,515,826 to 1,521,214 subscribers (+5.4K, +0.36%). That is about 122 new members per day. The chart uses our weekly snapshots (9 so far), so it gets longer every week.
What r/IWantToLearn talks about
We read the titles of 56 recent posts (Oct 29–Nov 5), the words that come up most are “iwtl”, “learn”, “start”, “useful” and “skill”. Other frequent themes are learning, skills, build, stop, reading and advice. Recurring phrases include “feels difficult” and “sucks remembering”. By format, 100% are text posts.
Popular post flairs: Academics (15), Personal Skills (15), Technology (7), Social Skills (6), Arts/Music/DIY (6), Misc (5).
Activity and best time to post
r/IWantToLearn gets about 8.6 new posts a day. The public archive holds 122,959 posts and 899,121 comments in total, about 7.3 comments per post. Last week the busiest day was Tuesday (11 posts) and the quietest was Thursday (2). Posting peaks around 04:00 UTC and is lowest around 03:00 UTC.
Rules of r/IWantToLearn
The moderators of r/IWantToLearn list 8 rules. In short:
- Starting a Major Project or Learning a New Skill
- "Just want to learn about..."
- No posts that are just learning resources
- No Personal Issues or Social Skills
- Proper Title Formatting
- No Self-Promotion
- Remember the Golden Rule
- Learning Illegal or Prohibited Stuff
How to join
Open reddit.com/r/IWantToLearn and press “Join”. Read the community rules in the sidebar before you post: every subreddit is run by its own volunteer moderators.
Frequently asked questions
How many subscribers does r/IWantToLearn have?
r/IWantToLearn has 1,521,214 subscribers (Nov 2, 2026), which makes it the #702 safe-for-work subreddit in the SubMouse ranking. It added 5,388 members between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026.
When was r/IWantToLearn created?
r/IWantToLearn was created on Feb 28, 2010, so it has been around for 16 years.
Is r/IWantToLearn still active?
Yes. r/IWantToLearn gets about 8.6 new posts a day (average of the last four weeks). Over its lifetime the archive counts 122,959 posts and 899,121 comments. In a sample of 56 recent posts we counted 53 different authors.
What is the best time to post in r/IWantToLearn?
Based on post counts from Oct 29, 2026 to Nov 4, 2026, the busiest day was Tuesday and the quietest Thursday, and most posts arrive around 04:00 UTC, with the fewest around 03:00 UTC. More posts also means more competition, so a quieter hour can help a post get noticed.
What kind of posts are on r/IWantToLearn?
The community describes itself as: “Have you ever wanted to learn a martial art, or to play the guitar, or how to program a computer? Have you had difficulty figuring out where to start, what path to take or just wanted some advice to get you to the next …” Recent post titles often mention iwtl, learn, start, useful and skill. Most posts are text posts (100%).
Is r/IWantToLearn SFW?
Yes. Reddit does not mark r/IWantToLearn as an 18+ (NSFW) community. SubMouse lists safe-for-work subreddits only.
What are the rules of r/IWantToLearn?
Join the community on Reddit first, then use “Create post”. r/IWantToLearn accepts text posts only. It has 8 posted rules, starting with: “Starting a Major Project or Learning a New Skill”; “"Just want to learn about..."”; “No posts that are just learning resources”. Moderators remove posts that break the rules, so read them in the sidebar before posting.
What subreddits are similar to r/IWantToLearn?
Communities with similar topics include r/learntodraw (3.2M), r/IWantOut (2.1M), r/nextfuckinglevel (10.5M), r/Guitar (3.5M) and r/Screenwriting (1.8M).
Stats from public data (data updated Nov 2, 2026; activity, rules and archive totals via the Arctic Shift archive, Nov 6, 2026). Point and comment counts are archive snapshots and can be lower than on Reddit today. SubMouse is an independent directory and is not affiliated with Reddit or the moderators of r/IWantToLearn.