[sehr]

but the overall focus of the site has changed to humor from discussion.

I disagree. I'd even argue there really isn't a focus after all. It's a massive site with an even larger userbase.

For example, once you leave the top 10-20 subreddits, you encounter places like /r/askscience, /r/books, /r/hiphopheads, /r/dataisbeautiful etc.. All primarily discussion based subs with consistently in depth threads on esoteric topics, even by HN means.

That's not even mentioning the live updated threads on huge news stories, or all the sports subs with their game threads and on the second updates. It's a viable resource that's looked down upon because of the front page, and that blows.

[hypron]

I agree with you on /r/askscience, it's probably my favorite subreddit now. Don't get me wrong - there are still sections of reddit that are designed for (and achieve) in-depth discussion. However, in general, the comments that are upvoted are usually jokes/wit and references.

[c23gooey]

> However, in general, the comments that are upvoted are usually jokes/wit and references.

I dont understand why you would try to generalise a site with 110 million users and billions of pageviews. It's a very narrow point of view to hold.

If you go through the top 125 subreddits [0], I think you would find that a small number of them can be categorised as you say - but the vast majority would all hold their own nuances and generalisations

[0] - http://redditlist.com/

[tomjen3]

In general the internet is just spam, black hat SEO and worthless garbage.

In general blogs are abandonded after their first post.

In general does not really make sense on a place as big as reddit.