What are Reddit "trophies," and how are they earned?

Reddit trophies are a collection of badges displayed on a user's profile that recognize specific milestones, behaviors, and participations in platform events. They are purely cosmetic — trophies do not affect karma, posting privileges, or any functional aspect of the account — but they function as a visible record of a user's history and engagement with the platform. The simplest trophy to earn is the One-Year Club, which is awarded automatically on the first anniversary of an account's creation, and updates every year (Two-Year Club, Three-Year Club, and so on). The Verified Email trophy is awarded when you add and verify an email address to your account. A Gilding trophy is awarded when you give someone else Reddit Gold, and it upgrades through tiers as you give more. The Inciteful Comment and Inciteful Link trophies are awarded when your post or comment is gilded a certain number of times. Many trophies are tied to specific Reddit events or programs that may no longer be active: trophies were given for participating in Reddit's April Fool's social experiments like r/place (the collaborative pixel art canvas) or the r/ThanosDidNothingWrong event in 2018, for watching RPAN (Reddit Public Access Network) streams, for participating in certain AMAs, or for completing other community activities. These event-based trophies are no longer obtainable once the event ends, making them historical artifacts that some users value as badges of having been on the platform at a particular moment. Reddit also added an "Achievements" system for newer users, separate from the traditional trophy system, which gamifies early participation through tasks like making your first comment or joining your first community. The official trophy wiki at reddit.com/wiki/trophies maintains the most current list of available trophies.