Unity and Division Among the Randonauts

United We Stand

After taking a glimpse at the subreddit “r/randonauts”, you may be left with many burning questions that range from, “Who are these people and what do they mean by ‘intention’?” to “What the **** did I just read?!” Honestly, I don’t blame you for having these questions. (I definitely had my fair share of concerns too) However, the longer you look at r/randonauts, the more you will see the level of camaraderie among the users. If one user posts a question about the app Randonautica and how it works, you can expect to see dozens of users flocking to the post and answering the question to the best of their ability. If another user posts pictures of the place that Randonautica sent them, several users, sometimes in the hundreds, will comment on the post and offer their opinion and advice. For example, user u/fckyouanyway posted about their Randonautica discovery of an abandoned and unfinished mansion after they set their intention for something cool and abandoned. This prompted another user to advise the original poster to check out squatters’ rights as some states have different laws regarding abandoned buildings and they may be able to claim the abandoned property as their own. I personally did not know about this and thought that it was interesting how the original poster may potentially be able to keep an abandoned mansion because of the advice of a fellow randonaut. It was refreshing to see, but it also makes you wonder why these users are so nice to one another, especially on the internet, where anything and everything goes.

Turning a Subreddit into a Home

There are some people who love to go exploring, but they don’t know where to start and they’re in the mood to see something specific. Some people prefer to see cute, fun things and others prefer to see creepy, weird things. Either way, they all turn to the app Randonautica, where they can simply set their intention, which is basically them manifesting a theme they would like for their destination. It all sounds grande and exciting. However, sometimes the topic of manifestation is considered to be…taboo, especially if whatever you’re manifesting is scary and/or strange. So, when r/randonauts was created, Randonautica users came to the subreddit in droves. And, of course, who could blame them? This is a community where they could interact with other people who believe in the same things as them without feeling judged and ostracized. They could talk about numerous things pertaining to Randonautica. Things ranging from app mechanics to their satisfaction with Randonautica itself. The mutual love of randonauting and the fear of being judged is what brings them together, it is the glue that is holding the subreddit together.

Divided We Fall

After perusing through a few posts on r/randonauts, one may be led to think that all of the users of the subreddit are always on the same page and it is always peaches and cream. However, that is not entirely true. Aforementioned, many users of r/randonauts post pictures and videos about the places and things that they see while randonauting, especially if they think that the destination perfectly matches their intention. It seems innocent enough, right? Well, this can lead to other users voicing their strong opinions about how they think the original poster is grasping at straws and wasting everyone’s time by posting. One r/randonauts user by the name of u/majikcitymike posted a video of them exploring the woods on a Randonautica adventure claiming that something weird was happening in the video. There were many comments on the video, most of which were negative. User u/rayray180 bluntly stated, “Thanks. I’ll never get that two minutes of my life back. Great.” Another user named u/everydreyday commented, “This is like the Blair Witch Project but with no witches and no Blair.” (I will not lie, I did giggle a little) It would appear that the users of r/randonauts are always in solidarity until someone posts something that the users think is useless or a waste of time and energy. This causes some users to fly off at the mouth, or, well, keyboard.

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Tough Love?

r/randonauts is a place for admirers of randonauting. They willingly give out advice and tips to help others enhance their Randonautica experience. They gleefully give out their opinions on posts about the various places Randonautica has sent people. They even take the time to explain some, if not all, of the strange language they use. However, they are not afraid to show tough love. They giveth and they taketh away. If you’re going to post something, you’d better come correct as they are not afraid to call you out, but that’s to be expected. This is the internet, after all.