This I think, is the truth of it. Reddit is becoming a lower and lower quality platform, providing less value to users. However each of these moves reduce the barrier to entry (thus increasing user base) or provide value to those who pay them. Often both.
Reddit as a business does not want to be a discussion platform.
In my opinion it will succeed, but it does so whilst providing mixed value to me, it has destroyed many small communities by amalgamation and then normalising them.
Subreddits related to my core interests are useless. Overrun by an endless stream of amateurs and the lack of a consistent user base makes it draining to use and fails to reward involvement at a high skill level (where you need to make repeated connections with others at a high skill level and break the norm).
However subreddits related to passing interests are brilliant, the provision of novice level instruction is very common and normally of high quality (due to catering to a constant stream of newcomers and a tendency towards the norm).
I can see your point. However how much of that is because of Reddit's decisions in contrast to how the internet itself changed from geek niche to mainstream?
Over the years I feel like the entire experience got worse and I might even go so far as to put in question if it isn't a net negative for society. The flood of shallow and biased information has pretty much killed quality in every platform. The signal to noise ratio is abysmal. Hate mongering is rampant world wide fueled by social media.
I don't think society is mature enough and ready for this much level of interconnected discourse. Yet here it is. It will be a while until we adapt I believe.
Reddit as a business does not want to be a discussion platform.
In my opinion it will succeed, but it does so whilst providing mixed value to me, it has destroyed many small communities by amalgamation and then normalising them.
Subreddits related to my core interests are useless. Overrun by an endless stream of amateurs and the lack of a consistent user base makes it draining to use and fails to reward involvement at a high skill level (where you need to make repeated connections with others at a high skill level and break the norm).
However subreddits related to passing interests are brilliant, the provision of novice level instruction is very common and normally of high quality (due to catering to a constant stream of newcomers and a tendency towards the norm).
Reddit is group think.