About r/whatisthisthing
In its own words:
For the identification of mysterious objects
Community guide
r/whatisthisthing (#331, about 3.2 million) identifies mysterious objects. Rules: be civil and helpful (no jokes); include links when useful; reply “Solved!”; don’t delete posts; be detailed; no AI answers; no URL shorteners/tracking links; check F.A.T.; follow submission guidelines. Gallery/Image (~55 ppd).
Detail + Solved! protocol
Be detailed; don’t delete after ID; mark Solved!; skip AI-generated answers.
Helpful IDs only
No joke answers; avoid shorteners/tracking links; check the F.A.T. first.
Practical pointers
Gallery/image dominated; Solved!/Open flairs track status.
SubMouse Editorial
The community was created on Sep 5, 2010, which makes it 16 years old. Since Oct 26, 2026, it has gained 1,337 subscribers (+0.04%). It sits just behind r/popheads (#330) and ahead of r/Boxing (#332) in our ranking.
What sets r/whatisthisthing apart
Compared with other large communities, r/whatisthisthing leans heavily on images (40% of recent posts; the typical Top 100 subreddit sits at 17%). People mostly look and upvote here rather than comment — about 5.5 comments per post, against 14.0 for a typical large subreddit.
Subscriber growth
Between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026, r/whatisthisthing went up from 3,161,862 to 3,172,883 subscribers (+11K, +0.35%). That is about 250 new members per day. The chart uses our weekly snapshots (9 so far), so it gets longer every week.
What r/whatisthisthing talks about
We read the titles of 365 recent posts (Oct 29–Nov 5), the words that come up most are “found”, “plastic”, “small”, “metal” and “black”. Other frequent themes are white, house, looking, object, long and hard. Recurring phrases include “black plastic”, “small black”, “small white” and “dark blue”. By format, 57% are galleries, 40% are images and 2% are text posts.
Popular post flairs: Solved! (49), Open (14), Solved (8), Open ! (8), Solved ! (8), Likely Solved! (6).
Activity and best time to post
r/whatisthisthing gets about 55 new posts a day. The public archive holds 1,299,492 posts and 7,157,032 comments in total, about 5.5 comments per post. Last week the busiest day was Tuesday (65 posts) and the quietest was Saturday (41). Posting peaks around 20:00 UTC and is lowest around 08:00 UTC.
Rules of r/whatisthisthing
The moderators of r/whatisthisthing list 10 rules. In short:
- Be civil
- Be helpful / No Jokes
- Try to include a link...
- Reply "Solved!"
- DO NOT DELETE YOUR POST
- Be detailed
- Do not post AI generated answers.
- Do not use URL shorteners or tracking links
- Check the F.A.T.
- Posts must adhere to submission guidelines
How to join
Open reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing 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/whatisthisthing?
r/whatisthisthing has 3,172,883 subscribers (Nov 2, 2026), which makes it the #331 safe-for-work subreddit in the SubMouse ranking. It added 11,021 members between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026.
When was r/whatisthisthing created?
r/whatisthisthing was created on Sep 5, 2010, so it has been around for 16 years.
Is r/whatisthisthing still active?
Yes. r/whatisthisthing gets about 55 new posts a day (average of the last four weeks). Over its lifetime the archive counts 1,299,492 posts and 7,157,032 comments. In a sample of 365 recent posts we counted 337 different authors.
What is the best time to post in r/whatisthisthing?
Based on post counts from Oct 29, 2026 to Nov 4, 2026, the busiest day was Tuesday and the quietest Saturday, and most posts arrive around 20:00 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 kind of posts are on r/whatisthisthing?
The community describes itself as: “For the identification of mysterious objects” Recent post titles often mention found, plastic, small, metal and black. Most posts are galleries (57%).
Is r/whatisthisthing SFW?
Yes. Reddit does not mark r/whatisthisthing as an 18+ (NSFW) community. SubMouse lists safe-for-work subreddits only.
What are the rules of r/whatisthisthing?
Join the community on Reddit first, then use “Create post”. r/whatisthisthing accepts link and media posts (no plain text posts), with images and galleries enabled. It has 10 posted rules, starting with: “Be civil”; “Be helpful / No Jokes”; “Try to include a link...”. Moderators remove posts that break the rules, so read them in the sidebar before posting.
What subreddits are similar to r/whatisthisthing?
Communities with similar topics include r/UFOs (4.2M), r/Astronomy (3.2M), r/astrophotography (2.6M), r/mildlyinteresting (25.4M) and r/interestingasfuck (16.9M).
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/whatisthisthing.