Update, having made a new Reddit account after three years, I suddenly remember why I left. On the one hand there’s way less ragebait. People actually talk about the topic of the sub and don’t try to shove a mention of Trump or Palestine in at every opportunity. On the other hand it’s still dangerously addictive to scroll infinitely. I’m already adding firewall rules to block reddit at night to keep me from scrolling instead of sleeping. They’ve also tried to make it addictive on purpose I think. I’m constantly getting notifications, by email and internally, every time a post or comment is upvoted. They have engagement analytics for every post, and encourage you to improve them by cross-posting. It seems gross and cynical, like you’re not having a genuine human interaction but churning out “content” that can be monetized.

And the ads masquerade as normal posts and comments. Granted that was the case when I left, but it’s worse now. I’m not a naive hippie who thinks you can run a massive online platform on sunshine and vibes. I get there are bills to pay, but surely there’s a way to do that that doesn’t compromise the user experience.

So I’m stuck between an awful platform with a nice community and a nice platform with a (mostly) awful community. Of course I could abandon both and stick with old school forums.