Twitter threads and Reddit posts contain some of the best stories and insights, but they're hard to discover. These free tools will ensure you don't miss social posts you should be reading.

Twitter, Reddit, and other platforms on the internet have given anyone and everyone a soapbox. In this constant barrage of voices, it's hard to sift the grain from the chaff. However, a few tools and people are doing this for you, especially for Twitter threads and Reddit posts and discussions.

1. Thread Hunt (Web): Hidden Twitter Threads From Undiscovered Creators

Thread Hunt is a free newsletter that highlights tweets from undiscovered creators

The credo of Thread Hunt is that "Most Popular" doesn't mean it's the best. With this backbone, Thread Hunt curates Twitter threads from undiscovered creators, scanning hundreds of threads to come up with five that are worth your time.

At the time of writing, the newsletter launched only a few days ago, and so it has yet to establish a track record. But so far, the selections have been impressive. Handpicked threads include self-help, marketing, writing, design, productivity, machine learning, NFTs, and online businesses. By keeping it to just five threads per newsletter, and clearly describing the topic and the content, Thread Hunt also saves you from information overload.

The common factor across all these threads is that it's made by a creator (the definition is used loosely) who doesn't have an exceptionally high follower count. The understanding is that users with high follower counts get retweeted enough that the thread will make it to your timeline at some point or the other. Thus, thread Hunt is for the undiscovered gems.

2. Awesome Thread (Web): Categorized Twitter Threads for Easy Discovery

Awesome Threads is a large collection of must-read Twitter threads neatly sorted by categories

Awesome Thread collects and curates the best Twitter threads across a range of categories. And more importantly, it neatly tags them by topic or category so that it's easier to discover them. After all, how do you search for a thread by keywords?

Go to the Categories section to find sections like cryptocurrency, books, marketing, entrepreneurship, story, making money, self help, COVID, writing, career, etc. For example, in the book tag, you'll find threads that summarize whole books and book list recommendations by different types of people and topics. The app shows the first tweet in each thread, and the date of the tweet.

Awesome Thread regularly adds new Twitter threads to its collection and offers to update you about these through a newsletter. You can also try the "Surprise Me" button on the main page to jump to a random thread, which might be an intriguing discovery through serendipity.

3. Thread Readers (Web): Discover and Unroll Threads Saved by Others

Thread Readers is an app to unroll Twitter threads and, in the process, discover threads worth reading

Instead of the default Twitter layout, Thread Readers provides a clean interface to read threads like they're a single blog post. This is especially useful with tweets that include images. The good news is that as users save threads on Thread Readers, you can also see what people are saving.

The Discover section of the app shows the latest as well as trending threads saved with the app. You can also browse through several topics to find threads on subjects like health, coronavirus, politics, news, inspiration, business, etc.

One of the neat features in Thread Reader is the ability to archive threads as PDFs, so that even if the original user deletes them, you can access them later. This is a premium feature ($5/month) though, and only worthwhile for Twitter addicts and professional users.

Thread Readers is just one of the apps to turn your tweets into a clean reading experience. You can also find the same feature on the Threadreader app and Threader, which are two of the best tools to discover amazing tweets. And yes, both of those apps also have discovery sections, so check them out.

4. r/BestOf and r/MuseumOfReddit (Web): Reddit's Best Comments and Discussions

r/BestOf collects the best Reddit comments, letting other redditors upvote them for more discoverability

A while ago, we found various apps and sites to discover Reddit's best posts, whether as short stories or through a newsletter of highlights. But we should have guessed that the ideal solution is made by other Redditors on Reddit itself.

r/BestOf is where users submit comments by other Redditors so that they can get a wider audience. For example, you might not subscribe to r/Boston, but with r/BestOf, you'd still get to read the story of how one determined voter changed an election there. It's the easiest way to find quality Reddit discussions you might miss out on otherwise.

r/MuseumOfReddit is more about saving the all-time best Reddit posts and comments, even if the original writer deleted them. Visit their Wiki for a quick rundown of categories like funny, weird, meta, and so-bad-it's-good. It's guaranteed to be a great read, as approved by thousands of Redditors over the years.

5. Best of Show HN (Web): Best Product Demos and Discussions on Hacker News

Best of Show HN is a simple place to find all the Show HN posts on Hacker News with neat tagging

Hacker News is one of the 100 best websites on the internet, even if you haven't heard about it much. It's a place for geeks to talk to other geeks, and you're expected to be sufficiently technologically literate to participate in the forums.

"Show HN" is a tag for developers and product-makers to demonstrate their latest creation to the community. It can be a little hard to browse these on the Hacker News interface, especially since these posts can get easily lost in the mess of other links and posts. Instead, head to Best of Show HN to see the most-upvoted posts with that tag.

Here, you can also filter the post by sub-tags like algorithms, artificial intelligence, machine-learning, javascript, YCombinator years, and more. The list goes back to 2010, and includes sections like young talents and most successful. Of course, to read the discussion, you'll still need to head the Hacker News through the provided link. Best of Show HN can also send you the top five new posts through a newsletter.

Meanwhile, the Worst Tweet Ever Is…

You've got the tools to see the best. It's now time for the rest. TV writer Mike Benner collected some of the most-hated tweets on the internet, gave them a seeding, and created a mini-contest. Feast your eyes on the "Worst Tweet Ever Championship Tournament," where the audience votes to decide the most hilariously lousy thing ever posted on Twitter.