[maurits]

I deleted my account yesterday. As a community it has given me nothing back, except pictures of funny cats (ok slight exaggeration)

It seems as if every single comment that hints to insight fulness, knowledge or that comes accompanied with a (scientific) source is ridiculed or downvoted into oblivion. And top comments increasingly are inside jokes. That is all ok, but I am not putting energy in it anymore.

Compare that to HN, where I comment very little, yet nearly every interaction sparked an email or two with people who do cool stuff.

Reddit commenters seems to take some pride that they are not as worse as their cousins at 4chan or youtube. To me they seem to be the internet white noise, and if they don't deviate into the tail, they will be fine. The usenet comparison by blhack is spot on I feel, so new communities will spring to live where others slip.

edit:typo

[ohashi]

If you got no value out of the place, I think you were doing it wrong. My city (DC) has a thriving subreddit that meets up probably 2-3 times a week officially to do things - zombie invasion simulations, drinking, board games, go karting, etc. It's been a fantastic way to just get out and do stuff with people. There is a whole subreddit dedicated to 'Barcraft' which brings watching pro starcraft live to bars (like you would watch any other sport). People are spending their time to put on these live events with help from companies like Justin.tv/Twitch. Those are two examples that hit home close to me, but I am sure you can find stuff for you as well, you just have to look and engage with the proper communities.

[maurits]

You gave me a new idea. I have two hobbies, one is a niche, and its subredit is dead in the water. The other is so broad its subredit suffers a bit from the fun&games comments.

Which brings me to this. HN is a pretty nice community. What would happen if we make it a subredit, /r/hn? Its a pretty cool place with a group of growing, devoted followers. All is good. So one day, it gets promoted to the default frontpage. How long before the lol cats outnumber the hackers?

[ohashi]

I suspect there is a large overlap as it is. What would be the point of /r/hn when HN is functionally similar? As far as dead subreddits, they can be revived, but it takes effort on someone's part - if you're serious contact the current mod and ask.

[bostonvaulter2]

Apparently the subreddit mod can disable a subreddit from appearing on the default frontpage.

[ubernostrum]

So many of the comments I see here follow a pattern of "I didn't give much to the community, but expected a lot more in return".

Reddit is what you make of it. Granted, it's not for everybody, but I get value out of it (and give back when I can).

[uriel]

> Reddit commenters seems to take some pride that they are not as worse as their cousins at 4chan or youtube.

As a redditor for >5 years, I'm not sure they can claim even that anymore.