[JaumeGreen]

It works because of the people in here that write exceptional comments and act as a regulator.

I've noticed a certain reddification of comments: memes, funny answers, and uninformative drivel. These answers are usually downvoten, rightfully so in my oppinion.

If a huge influx of new users comes too fast and they don't get used of the culture here they could upvote those kinds of comments, and change the culture to a different one, one where memes go to the top instead of interesting comments.

I'm not against when it happens in the right places, I do browse reddit, but I come here for the expertise of the participants in the discussions. Surely some of them may express better what I've said, or even disagree with some or all of it, but I'll grow wiser thanks to that.

[GFischer]

Adding to your point of "huge influx of new users", that's called the "Eternal September" effect, after a time where Usenet was flooded with AOL users and they destroyed that culture:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September

Interestingly enough, some time ago HN did a study of what new users upvoted compared to old-timers, and the deviation wasn't significant.

You can compare the current front page to the "old-timers" front page by visiting HN Classic:

https://news.ycombinator.com/classic

Edit: pg's post where he mentions the lack of a difference

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=607271

[hexane360]

I love/hate to watch the same thing happen (on a small scale) to subs on reddit. Some communities can grow and grow while maintaining a culture, but most have some drift, or even a complete change in the userbase.

[sotojuan]

/r/minimalism is a good example of this. Not to sound pretentious, but I was one of the first hundred or so subscribers to it. It's been bad for a few years now but in general it was killed by a massive influx of users who all had their own definition of minimalism, and they came before the sub had enough time to have its own culture/definition.