[orthecreedence]

> Terrible UX

old.reddit.com -- You're welcome.

> mostly useless answers

Any sufficiently popular platform degrades like this (including the entire internet itself).

> or it's just unavoidable to get this degradation after the userbase grows too much?

Pretty much. HN has pretty ferocious moderation, which is required unless you want every other response to be "sigh unzips." You see this in individual forums in general...once they grow past a certain size, the original intent is watered down, discussion suffers, etc etc.

That said, there are plenty of places on reddit that are still great.