[propogandist]

Reddit was great, many years ago, although there are many sub-reddits that are still excellent today. Moves they've made in the recent years, like hiding vote counts, were to improve growth, but it has also enabled more astroturfing and censorship (widespread).

More recently, they started injected tracking into outbound link clicks and introduced the terrible redesign to help with growth/monetization also. As they've grown, the quality of the content within sub-reddits and discussions within those communities, have fallen dramatically.

[naravara]

it never occurred to me before, but seeing it in a chart like this it really seems like Reddit has basically just turned into Gamers and their side interests, politics, and a few vestiges of old Reddit, like AskReddit, which at this point might as well be their own separate site for what all they have to do with the main demographic.

The Video Game sphere takes up a huge chunk of it. Then many of the other subs are basically gamer adjacent. Many of those technology subs are just about building PCs and stuff, which is largely gaming related or correlated. Even a lot of the politics is invariably linked to Gamergate type stuff. The Entertainment section is all genre fiction, anime, etc. Stuff you would expect a gaming forum to focus on.

The dedicated meme parts of the site are gone. The interesting stuff that fits in no particular category are gone. If you had told me 4 years ago that one day I would come to miss the derivative rage comics and image macros in the face of the unrelenting stream of toxicity that the site would become I wouldn't have believed you.

Just look at this joke post https://external-preview.redd.it/dv9xRUyCUzzan5wZnVBCmmHIriH... from 6 years ago. It all seems so innocent compared to what it is now.

[screye]

Interestingly enough, I almost completely ignore the gamer side of reddit.(DotA being the exception)

To me, Reddit's the last bastion to find good conversation for people with many niche interests without going too crazy. (4chan is a bit too eccentric for my tastes)

I frequent the soccer, manga, headphones, metal, male fashion, thrifting, cooking and fitness subreddits.

No other forum let's me feel like a part of such a wide array of topics with discussion being the core focus. To be able to maintain anonymity while nuturing a community is incredibly hard, and Reddit had somehow managed it. The communities in Reddit are second to none. From meta jokes to entire sagas, Reddit in some ways reminded me of the times when I played Mmorpgs and joined guilds.

The removal of custom subreddit themes was where to me it started going wrong. I didn't care what they did with the popular subreddits and r/all, as long as they left the niche subreddits alone. But no, they had to interfere.

Reddit's forced UI change is to me a symptom of a greater problem. The idea that a company never stops growing. Sometimes you hit gold and the best decision is to stick with it.

I don't think any website offers the product Reddit does, and allows easily migration for entire communities without compromises. Thus, if the current web landscape stays the same, Reddit isn't going anywhere. But, it took weeks for Digg to die once Reddit came alive, and the introduction of a well moderated website for discussion may be all it takes for the Reddit exodus.

It is no surprise, that I find myself on HN typing this comment. An HN clone may just be where Reddit refugees find their calling.

[sjs382]

> Interestingly enough, I almost completely ignore the gamer side of reddit.

Same. I'm a frequent reddit user and have almost no exposure to the "gamer" bits. Reddit, in my experience, is exactly what you make of it. For me, it's a DIY and craft forum.

[O-Malley]

> Reddit's forced UI change

To be fair, it isn't really a "forced" UI change, as you may disable it in the settings or use "old.reddit.com" as URL.

[bliblah]

Unfortunately it's opt-in and if you don't have an account (like me) it can be a pain to constantly look for the little itty bitty link to revert back.

The best part is that the subs I lurk have banners that only appear in the redesigned view that instruct you to use old reddit because they rely on custom CSS for filtering and other things.

It's amazing that reddit management has thrown it's creators under a bus in search for monetization.

[jplayer01]

For now.

[huebnerob]

I don't know how you draw the conclusion that Reddit is all gaming and gaming-adjacent unless you dilute the definition of "gaming-adjacent" past all meaning. There's never been greater diversity in defiance of the gamer/geek persona on Reddit than there is today, and I say that as someone who's been a regular user for more than a decade.

[kevin_thibedeau]

"site:reddit.com <niche topic>" is still useful and bypasses most garbage.

[TylerE]

Funny you should mention AskReddit. I'd consider the sad state of that sub an example of exactly how far mainstream Reddit has fallen. It's mostly content that makes me feel like I'm actually losing intelligence by reading it. Endless September writ large.

[SOLAR_FIELDS]

Thing about askreddit is that I don’t think it’s gone downhill, it’s always been the same few recycled questions every day with some actual decent discussions popping up about once a week. I have been browsing the subreddit for about 7 years now and I can’t see a noticeable decline, more so that the same old questions have become even more tired after seeing them over and over.

[bspammer]

Strange that you say the dedicated meme parts of reddit are gone. In my mind they're more active than ever, between /r/me_irl, /r/prequelmemes, /r/deepfriedmemes, and if you really want the old fashioned stuff /r/adviceanimals is still surprisingly active.

[wilsonnb3]

/r/dankmemes, /r/bikinibottomtwitter, /r/teenagers are also meme heavy and make it to the top of /r/all regularly, not to mention the variety of spin off meme subreddits (lotrmemes, dankchristianmemes, etc.)

[mercer]

While the whole 'meme' thing has definitely affected/infected my life, I do find myself getting tired of a lot of it. Notable exceptions are /r/freefolk and /r/dankchristianmemes

I'm at a point where memes in themselves have become a bit of an interest of study. Why do I enjoy the aforementioned meme-y subreddits more than others? I'd like to think it's because there's a certain creativity and unicity to them, but I can't be sure. Assuming I'm right about that, what is it that makes them work in a way that, say, /r/prequelmemes doesn't (anymore)?

And I guess more importantly, how did I get to the point where I'm asking questions that are multiple layers of 'meta', and how might this affect my general wellbeing?

(I suppose the pragmatic answer is that regardless of how meta it gets, reddit is probably best in moderation, like most things. And an interesting in the whole process is not inherently tied to how much time I spend actively consuming/participating)

[DoreenMichele]

Since the recent redesign, I get a custom front page full of wholesome goodness and I never see r/all. Perhaps the GP has a similar experience?

[jplayer01]

I feel charts like this completely miss the point or the magic of Reddit. I have dozens of subreddits in my metasubreddits. There's a subreddit for everything and so many of them are so filled with helpful people and useful information. It's the best resource I have for all kinds of topics, far better than a Google search could ever provide. Even if these subreddits are nowhere as big as r/games, they're still a core part of what makes Reddit special (and something Apple has traditionally understood as a critical part of their success with the App Store - the long tail).

[HeadsUpHigh]

This really surprises me. Reddit to me feels like the easiest social network to customize your feed towards what you want( the redesign sucks though). Only recently after years of using it I found out that there are default subs and I was only subbed to r/funny and r/askreddit Every time I want information on whatever subject, be it a game or technology etc I first look if there's a subreddit for it and most often there is. I'm also building a multireddit for photography related stuff. You don't have to follow outrage or game-culture related subs whatsoever. Just sub to what you want to read about.

[clumpthump]

I feel like your comment would be more accurate a few years back. Browsing /r/all is a lot more tolerable since it's gotten a lot less Gamergate-y. Mocking Gamergate is a lot more common nowadays. I really don't know what you mean by "the dedicated meme parts of the site are gone", because goofy meme subreddits are very popular right now. One of the most popular ones mocks Gamergate and related views: /r/gamesriseup.

Anyway, the userbase is so huge that even "smaller" subreddits has a decent amount of activity. Sure, video games and SF movies/TV is all you'll get browsing /r/all, but there's, e.g., /r/truefilm, /r/flicks, lots of music subreddits.

[doublepg23]

this is a very weird take. I've been on Reddit for 6+ years and if anything it's gotten way way more diverse than just "gaming".

[naravara]

I’m taking about volume of users in the aggregate based on that chart. Not any individual’s curated feed.

[jplayer01]

Yes, but charts like this are proof of how misleading data can be. While the volume of users interested in gaming is large, the vast selection of different subreddits in every possible topic is what makes Reddit special.

[naravara]

But the fact that a big chunk of the user base is there for particular kinds of content inevitably colors all the other communities. This is why the best parts of Reddit are the parts that either restrict themselves from /r/all (or moderate so aggressively that people who show up from /r/all functionally don't post), or are too small/niche to ever show up on it.

They can actually foster an internal community without getting Eternal Septembered once they break a certain size.

[thelasthuman]

https://www.reddit.com/r/FiveYearsAgoOnReddit/

[nitwit005]

I'd be curious what the overlap is. I suspect a lot of those users have edited their subscriptions to see only gaming stuff.

I've notice a number of questions on how to filter out all political content, so I suspect a lot of people are just trimming out the parts of reddit they don't care about.

[HiroshiSan]

Not to mention their dark patterns to get you to install the mobile app while browsing on mobile.

[mattpk]

They've recently added javascript that mimics system UI asking you if you want to open the content in the app or in the browser. I'm also almost certain that the loading bars on mobile web are artificial sleeps.

[kdamken]

If you hit the hamburger icon you can turn off the constant asking you to open the app pop ups.

[babyloneleven]

It's still a dark pattern.

[HiroshiSan]

Thanks for this, I don't know if it's because I'm getting older or what but it never occurred to me to think to check for a setting... I can't keep up with all these ui trends.

[Zarath]

I've used reddit quite a bit the last two years and have felt the content quality has decreased. That, or I'm just used to it or bored of it. Feel like I may be getting a little old for it. There are still some subs that are useful, like fantasyfootball

[drankula3]

It seems like after Reddit exploded trying to catch the Boston Bomber, the insane velocity of content was nerfed to prevent hivemind comment. I don't know if any data is available on how things have changed though.

[SOLAR_FIELDS]

The thing about recent moves is that, unlike Facebook, they still support older ways to have the non-painful experience from the user side at least. i.reddit.com is still alive and I use it regularly. Lightweight, decent UX with some flaws, but pretty much no ads. The user tracking is harder to get around, but a combination of pi-hole, ublock origin, and privacy badger helps there. So it’s not terrible yet. I think when they finally kill i.reddit.com is when I leave the platform.

[dorfsmay]

And old.reddit.com.

[Avery3R]

They started tracking outbound links before the redesign, so it's on old reddit too. You can disable it in user prefs.

[austincheney]

I deleted my account out of frustration early this year.

Discussion is simply not important. Demonizing opposing opinions is very important though. Very much an anti libertarian echo chamber.

[baq]

Basic group dynamics in absence of sufficient moderation. Usenet went through the same process.

[nurino]

No offence but apart from HN I wonder what community takes libertarians seriously? In fact from my experience they are mostly non-existent outside of the US, so much that libertarians are a staple of the American culture for me.

[austincheney]

> No offence but apart from HN I wonder what community takes libertarians seriously?

Allow me to rephrase. Are you immediately fearful or deeply (emotionally) offended by original opinions or opinions challenge assertions you care deeply about but are not fully informed of? Libertarianism is simply the idea of individual independence (each individual is equal) which is the opposite of democracy (majority rules). John Stuart Mills spells this out in his On Liberty book.

The most clear example of absurdity is challenging the belief that WASM is replacing JavaScript. The position on this issue is stated by Mozilla, the WASM working group, and individual contributors to the WASM spec. Regardless of what the technology, or what's the authors mention, people form an independent reality and demonize anything contrary in an aggressive manner. Contrary opinions are taken as a personal threat necessarily demanding punishment.