OP (Original Poster)

OP is an internet abbreviation for "original poster" (or sometimes "original post"), referring to the person who started a given discussion thread or the submission that began it. The term predates Reddit, emerging on message boards and Usenet in the 1990s and early 2000s as a quick shorthand so that replies could single out the author of the first message without repeating their username. When commenters write things like "OP delivered" or "as OP said," they are pointing back to the person who launched the conversation everyone is responding to.

On Reddit, OP has a precise and consistent meaning: the user who created the post that a comment section is attached to. Reddit reinforces this by visually highlighting the original poster's username within their own thread, making it easy to see when the OP returns to answer questions or add updates. The label carries social weight—threads often pressure the OP to follow up, provide proof, or resolve a story ("OP delivered" versus the disappointment when they do not). It is worth noting that in gaming and broader slang, "OP" can instead mean "overpowered," so the intended sense depends on context, though on Reddit "original poster" is the default reading.