About r/whatisit
In its own words:
Do you know what it is? No, we don't either. Maybe someone does?
Community guide
r/whatisit (#379, about 2.9 million) is for mysterious objects: you don’t know what it is, and maybe someone does. Rules ban medical/drug advice questions, demand civility, block reposts/bots and low effort, and require updating flair when solved. Very high volume (~279.1 ppd).
Show the mystery, update the flair
Image/gallery posts dominate; start with “New, what is it?” style flair and switch to Solved once answered.
Not a clinic
Medical advice and drug questions are an important ban—identify objects, not symptoms or substances for treatment.
Practical pointers
Avoid low-effort dumps and reposts; serious-answers-only flair exists when you need less joking.
SubMouse Editorial
The community was created on Jul 26, 2009, which makes it 17 years old. Since Oct 26, 2026, it has gained 22,458 subscribers (+0.77%). It sits just behind r/yesyesyesyesno (#378) and ahead of r/AskHistorians (#380) in our ranking.
What sets r/whatisit apart
Compared with other large communities, r/whatisit leans heavily on images (45% of recent posts; the typical Top 100 subreddit sits at 19%). It is a discussion-heavy community, with about 36.7 comments per post over its lifetime versus a Top 100 median of 13.6. For its size it is unusually busy: about 95.4 new posts a day per million members, more than 97% of the Top 100. It is also one of the faster-growing big communities: its 5.00% gain since Sep 19, 2026 beats 100% of the Top 100.
Subscriber growth
Between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026, r/whatisit climbed from 2,786,709 to 2,925,932 subscribers (+139.2K, +5.00%). That is about 3,164 new members per day. The chart uses our weekly snapshots (9 so far), so it gets longer every week.
What r/whatisit talks about
We read the titles of 698 recent posts (Oct 29–Nov 5), the words that come up most are “found”, “weird”, “wall”, “help” and “stuff”. Other frequent themes are box, room, metal, bag, bathroom and came. Recurring phrases include “thrift store”, “hotel room”, “halloween candy” and “free library”. By format, 45% are images, 42% are galleries and 7% are videos.
Popular post flairs: New, what is it? (562), Serious answers only please! (68), Solved! (4).
Activity and best time to post
r/whatisit gets about 280 new posts a day. The public archive holds 229,296 posts and 8,408,083 comments in total, about 36.7 comments per post. Last week the busiest day was Friday (313 posts) and the quietest was Wednesday (242). Posting peaks around 18:00 UTC and is lowest around 08:00 UTC.
Rules of r/whatisit
The moderators of r/whatisit list 5 rules. In short:
- IMPORTANT - No Medical Advice or Drug Questions
- Please Be Civil
- No re-posts or bots.
- No Low Effort Posts
- Update your post flair when solved or unsolved once you have had replies.
How to join
Open reddit.com/r/whatisit 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 big is r/whatisit?
r/whatisit has 2,925,932 subscribers (Nov 2, 2026), which makes it the #379 safe-for-work subreddit in the SubMouse ranking. It added 139,223 members between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026.
How old is r/whatisit?
r/whatisit was created on Jul 26, 2009, so it has been around for 17 years.
How active is r/whatisit?
Very active: r/whatisit gets about 280 new posts a day (average of the last week). Over its lifetime the archive counts 229,296 posts and 8,408,083 comments. In a sample of 698 recent posts we counted 665 different authors.
When is r/whatisit most active?
Based on post counts from Oct 29, 2026 to Nov 4, 2026, the busiest day was Friday and the quietest Wednesday, and most posts arrive around 18:00 UTC, with the fewest around 08:00 UTC. More posts also means more competition, so a quieter hour can help a post get noticed.
What is r/whatisit about?
The community describes itself as: “Do you know what it is? No, we don't either. Maybe someone does?” Recent post titles often mention found, weird, wall, help and stuff. Most posts are images (45%).
Is r/whatisit safe for work?
Yes. Reddit does not mark r/whatisit as an 18+ (NSFW) community. SubMouse lists safe-for-work subreddits only.
How do I post on r/whatisit?
Join the community on Reddit first, then use “Create post”. r/whatisit accepts both text and link posts, with images, videos and galleries enabled. It has 5 posted rules, starting with: “IMPORTANT - No Medical Advice or Drug Questions”; “Please Be Civil”; “No re-posts or bots.”. Moderators remove posts that break the rules, so read them in the sidebar before posting.
Which communities are like r/whatisit?
Communities with similar topics include r/DoesAnybodyElse (2.8M), r/maybemaybemaybe (3.9M), r/YouShouldKnow (5.6M), r/mildlyinteresting (25.4M) and r/explainlikeimfive (23.7M).
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/whatisit.