/r/awwnverts/

a community for one year with 4,964 subscribers!

There are so many individulas today who are blinded by their own ignorance. They live in a world of black and white. Right or wrong. Good or evil.

Cats or dogs.

But no, not you! You are not sheep. If I sheer you, I will not get wool. I will get blood. The blood of a man. You're an individual, with his own thoughts and feelings. You don't run with the pack, you run against it and mow down anyone that gets in your way like bowling pins.

Strike.
Strike.
Strike.

Turkey, mother fucker. Gobble Gobble.

Those of us that choose to lead and not to follow will make the arduous trek to the Mecca. They come to /r/awwnverts. Not all will make it, many will fail, but not you. This is your destiny.

Open your eyes brothers to the new and exciting world of animals without spines. Lose yourself in pictures of snails and squids. Marvel at the spiders. Feast your eyes on the caterpillars.

But most of all my dear brothers, dream. Dream like you never have before.

We only have one life. Make it count.

1. What inspired you to create /r/awwnverts?

redditopus: I have a deep and abiding love for cute little invertebrates - which constitute about 97% of all animals - and was disappointed at how little play they got on places such as /r/aww.

2. What is /r/awwnverts ? What should people expect to find in your subreddit?

redditopus: Well, I think the description is pretty straightforward; it's a place for invertebrates that make us go 'aww'. There's an awful lot of arthropods and mollusks in it - which is not that surprising to me because those phyla are both the two biggest out of all the animal phyla and also probably contain the most charismatic critters - but periodically you get a couple of other groups like velvet worms and Christmas tree worms. I wanted /r/awwnverts to be a place where people could appreciate that cuteness is found in all parts of the animal kingdom.

theNYEHHH: Awwnverts is a sub for cute invertebrates, things lacking backbones! There's a wide range of creatures that fit this description, cephalopods like cuttlefish and octopuses, insects like the 10-lined june beetle, even arachnids like this colorful little peacock spider! They're all cute in their own ways, backbone or not.

Tsssss: A place to look at pictures of adorable invertebrates, but also a place to celebrate the diversity and awesomeness of life.

3. In your opinion, what's the cutest invertebrate post in your subreddit?

redditopus: This critter.

theNYEHHH: It's hard for me to pick between this one and this one. That bee on the keyboard is so very cute but so is that crab. I can't pick

coloicito: This one, because it's unexpected, and this one because it has a perfect combination: cute & deadly ('straya!)

Tsssss: I usually like the insects, but you can't beat this one.

4. Do you think reddit has a racist biased towards animals that do have spines?

redditopus: Absolutely. 'NOPE' is a bad word on /r/awwnverts.

theNYEHHH: Reddit is very picky in regards to our spineless friends, it's not uncommon to see a love for octopuses or cuttlefish, but mention anything of spiders or most insects and it's unfortunately met with many Nope!'s and Kill it with fire!'s :( Spiders and bugs need love too.

coloicito: Absolutely. Mainly against bugs. In almost every thread that includes an insect (not a cephallopod, reddit seems to like them), one of the top posts are a variation of "nope" or "kill it with fire". It gets boring after a while.

Tsssss: Not only reddit, you can see this everywhere. But the "kill it with fire" circlejerk definitely doesn't help.

5. Best part about being a moderator of this subreddit?

redditopus: Seeing people discover animals they haven't heard of before or overcome fears of spiders and such.

theNYEHHH: I really love just getting to see posts from this sub as I check my mod queue, between this and /r/sloths modding is always a fun experience for me. :)

coloicito: Meeting the other wonderful mods. Also, this sub gave me my first experience when it came to moderating, and I've grown quite a bit afterwards.

Tsssss: The positive vibrations, man :) It's hard to finish reading one of the comment threads without a smile on your face.

6. Any rules that you would like new subscribers to be aware of?

redditopus: /r/awwnverts is a no-nope zone

theNYEHHH: Please please please don't leave any comments about wanting to burn the spiders or insects or making any Nope jokes, this is a place to look at and enjoy cute invertebrates, not be mean about them. :(

coloicito: Well, we just have 2 rules, so I don't think they're pretty hard to follow. Say whatever you want as long it doesn't include "nope" or "kill it with fire".

Tsssss: Not really, it's a simple subreddit that pretty much moderates itself. Just come come in and d'aww at the cute critters!

7. Anything else you'd like to say? To your subscribers or people interested in joining your subreddit? The floor is yours.

redditopus: If you enjoy this subreddit, thank you for being part of the community (and a special thanks to the other mods on the team for working with me and making this community into something awesome) and I'm so glad you have an appreciation for the cute 97%! If you're interested in what we're all about, please come by!

theNYEHHH: Here's a bunch of cephalopod gifs! Also I'd like to say that I think our css is pretty lovely, /u/tsssss did such a wonderful job with it.

Tsssss: Just want to congratulate /u/redditopus because this subreddit is such a good idea! Here, have a little snail :)