[steven2012]

reddit has some of the most helpful, positive and encouraging communities on the Internet. It really depends on the tone that each particular app/forum cultivates. Sure, there are assholes but for the most part, the communities created in some subreddits are simply fantastic. And their upvoting/downvoting system is far superior to anything, including HN and slashdot, and really helps clean up the noise. Had I never used reddit, I probably would have thought the same thing of Sam Altman, but reddit has such positivity in some of the subreddits that it is really great to see.

[jordigh]

I have recently quit using reddit because I got tired of the bickering, particularly in the more mainstream subreddits. The smaller subreddits seem fine. While there is also some bickering in HN, it seems to me to be much more moderated.

It seems like once a community grows large enough, so do its number of assholes, but the asshole count must be absolute, not relative, since it just takes a few to ruin the fun for everyone. This is why HN seems to me less bickery than reddit right now, because it's more focussed on just one niche.

What really did it for me was the pack rape mentality that parts of reddit exhibit. I want nothing to do with a website that allows this:

http://betabeat.com/2012/08/reddit-watches-with-glee-as-camg...