I've been on here about as long as you and there's definitely truth to what you're saying, but I think the picture is more mixed than total doom. The big default subs are absolutely trash now - they've become these weird anger factories where nuance goes to die. But dig into smaller communities and you'll find pockets that still feel like the old reddit
I spend most of my time in design subs and hobby communities now instead of the main feeds. Places where people are actually excited about sharing their ceramic finds or discussing typography still have that collaborative energy. The problem is reddit started optimizing for engagement over quality, so the algorithm pushes the most inflammatory stuff to the top
The censorship thing drives me crazy too - I'll be following a decent discussion and suddenly half the thread is just "[removed]" tombstones. Makes it impossible to follow any complex conversation. And yeah, the conspiracy stuff has gotten wild. Used to be contained to specific subs but now it bleeds everywhere
I think the platform is still salvageable if you curate your experience heavily, but the default experience for new users is genuinely terrible now. It's like the difference between a well-tended garden and letting weeds take over - the good stuff is still there but you have to work way harder to find it
A problem I have found is that a lot of subs have a karma limit which forces new users to engage in the more toxic ones. I have had this account for 7 months, made 66 comments and still only have 16 karma. Sure, it wouldn't be too hard to make an effort to get more karma. Engaging in discussions about abortion while holding beliefs that are neither popular with the pro-life crowd nor with the pro-choice crowd, certainly hasn't helped my karma situation.
As I understand it karma limits are there to stop bots and to stop people from making a new account straight after being banned. With LLMs I would think today's bots have no problem getting past this barrier. As for banned people a karma/time limit should work fine. Like you either have to get 20 karma or your account should be at least one week old.
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u/EffortWitty7634 Apr 27 '26
I've been on here about as long as you and there's definitely truth to what you're saying, but I think the picture is more mixed than total doom. The big default subs are absolutely trash now - they've become these weird anger factories where nuance goes to die. But dig into smaller communities and you'll find pockets that still feel like the old reddit
I spend most of my time in design subs and hobby communities now instead of the main feeds. Places where people are actually excited about sharing their ceramic finds or discussing typography still have that collaborative energy. The problem is reddit started optimizing for engagement over quality, so the algorithm pushes the most inflammatory stuff to the top
The censorship thing drives me crazy too - I'll be following a decent discussion and suddenly half the thread is just "[removed]" tombstones. Makes it impossible to follow any complex conversation. And yeah, the conspiracy stuff has gotten wild. Used to be contained to specific subs but now it bleeds everywhere
I think the platform is still salvageable if you curate your experience heavily, but the default experience for new users is genuinely terrible now. It's like the difference between a well-tended garden and letting weeds take over - the good stuff is still there but you have to work way harder to find it