This story originally published online in The 9th Street Journal.
To understand the Bull City Reddit, just browse a sampling of some of its recent posts.
“THERES A LEGO STORE OPENING AT SOUTHPOINT!” cheered Pak256.
“Where to find gluten-free vegan bread?” asked CassieKitten.
“MAGA/Trump/Musk Associated Businesses to Avoid,” offered EnvironmentalFriennd.
“FYI if you order from GrubHub and your courier is Ana, go outside and meet her, otherwise she will just drive off with your order,” warned Daughterboy.
“Thank you for the hospitality and kindness towards a fellow traveller. Had a great time in your community for the last few weeks,” wrote MrAmenianIsDead.
Hopper52 posted a photo captioned, “Just a chicken walking through downtown.”
With 74,000 members and 14 years under its belt, the Bull City Reddit is the prolific and pervasive hivemind of Durham. It’s a place where Durham residents seek recommendations (“Need a stone mason!”), air grievances (“Erwin and Cameron, New traffic pattern: Shouldn’t the city have put up a sign notifying there was a change?”) and celebrate the little things (“That sunset was bonkers”). It is snarky, progressive, and fiercely protective of its members – much like Durham itself.
I asked users on the subreddit how they would describe their online community and got a sampling of the love and the snark—and the occasional dig at Cary.
To fully grasp the Bull City Reddit, one must understand how Reddit itself fits into the modern social media landscape. New Yorker writer Carrie Battan described Reddit as one of “few unexpected strongholds of written communication.” It stands out in the new age of online photo and video sharing. While Reddit posts may include visual aids, the meat of the content is text. And often long-winded text, at that. Some entries are extensive and thoughtful essays. Others are snappier, punctuated with digs and familiar punchlines.
It’s less narcissistic than Instagram, and more civilized than YikYak. It shares the interactivity and cooperation of eBay, but without the exchanging of goods. It’s comparable to Facebook’s community feel, but without all the grandparents and baby pictures. Redditors ask and answer questions with no personal gain to motivate them. It’s part news source, part gossip column, part public square. As frequent user Dan Smith, aka u/BullCityBoudoir, put it, “Reddit is the spiritual successor to the community bulletin board.”
When you get to the site, you’ll be greeted by an exhaustive and constantly updated list of “Things to do in Durham this week!” Proudly posted in the top right corner, there’s the impressive statistic that the Bull City Reddit ranks in the top 2% of largest subreddits. The forum’s “Reddiquette” – guidelines for users’ behavior – and the team of moderators enforcing it are listed down the side.
Posts are sorted based on community interest. Reddit is a meritocracy: upvotes boost content to the top, and downvotes shove the junk into the subreddit’s basement.
And while the forum’s contributors range from doctors to entrepreneurs to stay-at-home moms, the anonymity that Reddit offers makes it wonderfully democratic. Here, you are judged solely by the quality of your words. Regular redditors find the anonymity to be essential to their freedom of text – “I talk a lot of shit on here,” said one well-known user in explaining why they would not give their name to me.
In place of names, everyone picks a username. The usernames offer ample opportunities for self-expression, often capturing some aspect of the user’s life or personality, with a “u/” in front::
u/anonoldermillenial
u/fine_sharts_degree
u/OfficialSandwichMan
u/FavoriteAuntL
u/InertPistachio
Active users collect accolades like “Top 1% Commenter,” “Repeat Contributor,” or “Community Elder,” signaling their spot in the hierarchy. As with any community, there are local celebrities, legendary arguments, and inside jokes.
Anyone who’s anyone on the Bull City Reddit remembers STAYUMBL, the license plate of a reckless driver unanimously hated by the subreddit. Users posted dashcam footage of STAYUMBL backing up into another car and parking across four spaces. They tracked the driver’s journey as she went to court and was exposed for having nine aliases, three social security cards and six driver’s licenses. “I hope y’all are having as much fun as I am,” u/Izzet-in-yo-Bizzet (Community Elder) commented as the drama unfolded.
Just as the subreddit has its villains, it also has its heroes.
When a user posted a photo of a white supremacist flag hanging from a parking garage near Seraphine restaurant at the American Tobacco Complex, a few workers from the restaurant scoured the area until they found it and tore it down. They were lauded for their service, and found even more fame not long after when a user posted about how helpful the staff had been during a fainting episode at the restaurant. “Huge shout out to Seraphine’s team,” u/plusharmadillo (Top 1% Commenter) posted. “I’m going to call them tomorrow to say thanks but wanted to show them love here too.”
Frequent Bull City Redditors agree the subreddit has a sense of identity that neighboring forums lack. “Raleigh and Chapel Hill are pretty much silent,” u/colossuscollosal says. Smith agrees. He says that other subreddits felt more like popular social media, where keeping up appearances reigns above all.
“The opportunity to interact in this way exists because of Reddit,” he says, “but the ethos of Durham is what makes the sub so vibrant.”
It changes with the times: sometimes lovingly liberal, sometimes cranky, always passionate. During COVID, the subreddit exploded with bickering as boredom festered. Before the election, warnings to avoid this and that MAGA-supporting business were everywhere. After Donald Trump was inaugurated in January, posts alerting about potential ICE presences and advising users about how to protect their immigrant neighbors proliferated.
Anyone who worries that interest in local politics has become obsolete should look no further than r/bullcity to restore their faith. Users debate city planning propositions with more detail than the planners themselves, and even the most insignificant public figures face intense scrutiny. It’s democratic participation at its finest.
What makes the Bull City Reddit special? It’s not the Reddiquette rules, the moderators running it, or any one user. It’s not STAYUMBL, or the Seraphine staff, or even the almost-unanimous liberal spirit. It’s the personality of this place, and how clearly it comes through.
R/bullcity is witty, nitpicky, and dedicated because Durham is. It’s the perfect canon of the city.
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