People seem to be under the impression that Reddit is a good place, unless the new API changes take place. I'd like to take a stance... contra to that?
- Reddit is a collection of echo chambers where users pile on and moderators ban those who disagree even on fair points.
- Reddit is a politically biased organization that banned the subreddit associated with former president and current candidate Donald Trump.
- Reddit uses shady tactics to hide the fact that they are banning a subreddit that has content they find disagreeable such as clearing out the moderation team and replacing them with a hostile mod that bans the normal users of the sub.
- Despite all this censorship there remains tons of creepy behavior hosted on Reddit such as adults hanging out on /r/teenagers pretending to be teenagers and trying to lure teens into sharing nudes and such.
The difference between a well run subreddit in a niche topic or with a smaller community vs. a huge default sub can be huge. Both can have their problems, and moderation is always an issue with online communities; but I think people are less insistent that Reddit is a "good" place and moreso that as it currently exists, warts and all, Reddit is useful and provides an enormous amount of utility to the internet, for better or worse. For some people using Reddit is "going on the internet" and they'll go to very few other websites --- the two are linked.
The recent changes to Reddit, to a certain extent, highlight a trend in the internet where the things that people find extremely useful end up transitioning in a way that seems actively user hostile.
- Reddit is a collection of echo chambers where users pile on and moderators ban those who disagree even on fair points.
- Reddit is a politically biased organization that banned the subreddit associated with former president and current candidate Donald Trump.
- Reddit uses shady tactics to hide the fact that they are banning a subreddit that has content they find disagreeable such as clearing out the moderation team and replacing them with a hostile mod that bans the normal users of the sub.
- Despite all this censorship there remains tons of creepy behavior hosted on Reddit such as adults hanging out on /r/teenagers pretending to be teenagers and trying to lure teens into sharing nudes and such.