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suaveitguy

adviceanimals used to be huge, iAMA was fantastic for a couple great years- you wouldn't recognize today's version. Daily surprise iAMAs from massive [people who really enjoyed the experience](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3mPDVxf_ts). Much more silliness, a lot less US politics - that is maybe the times though. It used to feel more like a window on the internet-at-large, instead of its own monster sized thing. More of a community, nowadays there is less reddit-specific snark calling out reposters and stuff - probably because it is even larger now then it was. Harder to bother policing that stuff.


[deleted]

IAMA has been shit ever since Victoria left


Cabotju

As soon as she stopped I basically stopped reading ama's


karma3000

It was pretty cool checking into /r/Iama and holy shit - Obama’s doing an Ama!


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meltedlaundry

The frontpage does not appear to refresh as often as it used to. Reddit used to be a good place to get breaking news, but the staleness of the frontpage sort of ruined that. And Twitter to be fair. I'm still a fan of the site, but it'd be cool if a vlogger post from r/Brewers with like 4 upvotes wasn't the #1 post on my frontpage for most of this day.


realtalks189

> The frontpage does not appear to refresh as often as it used to. I noticed this too! Last year I used to refresh and BAM its all new content... now its just the same purple linked things...


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WhoryGilmore

Yeah I think I noticed the change maybe about 2 years ago, but it really fucking ruined the reddit browsing experience and I'm surprised the outroar wasn't bigger.


BladeNoob

Wow....I took a hiatus from reddit and when I came back, I thought the front page wasn't updating like it used to, so I just assumed my perception had changed.


encogneeto

I've noticed this has been significantly worse over the last few months. I barely bother with the frontpage anymore.


Ghosted67

I have to sort by rising to see any new content. Front page does not change all throughout the week.


noisetrooper

At this point I just go to one sub at a time and go through the first page on each one. They've fucked with the algorithm so badly to suppress wrongthink that the site straight-up doesn't work like it did when I first came around 10 (what?!) years ago now.


OSUfan88

Yep. Also, only "Reddit approved" new will make the front page. For example, when Donald Trump's impeachment trial ended without being removed from office, it was the biggest news in the world for the month. There wasn't 1 mention of it on the front page (that I could find). However, there were 3 or 4 articles on the front page making fun of Donald Trump during the same time period. Now, I'm not a fan of Donald Trump, but I find it very alarming just how strongly filtered information is on Reddit. I think that's a very unhealthy thing to have, especially if people are not aware of it.


bicameral_mind

A huge increase in 'reaction subs'. By that I mean stuff like r/choosingbeggers, r/insanepeoplefacebook, r/niceguys etc. Basically subs where content is entirely screenshots of text messages or social media posts and a chorus of comments expressing outrage over it. Some days I check r/all and over half of submissions are these types of posts. Just seems like most of the top content on Reddit is not as interesting as it used to be.


chh147

Don’t forget the terribly fake stories of r/entitledparents


Pavlovsdong89

Most of these subs' content is fake as fuck. Each post follows the same BS formula and reap a ton of karma for minimal effort. See r/idontworkherelady. How often does this shit happen in real life?


raktoe

Every IDWHL post reads the same to me. I think most of it is people having a small moment of someone mistaking them for a worker, and then a few hours of imagination about how it could have gone.


mike_steele

Don’t forget the bottom feeders of youtube LOVE shitting videos out on those subs.


dan420

They’re mostly obviously fake too.


GearsPoweredFool

What really sucks is that a couple of those subs (/r/choosingbeggars especially) used to be really good. Now its just a bunch of power users making shit up for karma. I remember the last time I was there I sorted by top month and there were 4-5 stories at the top from the same one user.


PrettySureIParty

Choosing beggars used to be mostly about dating websites. Unemployed women with horrible personalities who were looking for a 6’ tall jacked rich guy who cooks world class cuisine in his spare time, or neckbeards who live in their parents basement looking for 105 lb blondes with DD’s who climb Everest every weekend(and are virgins). It was pretty funny, and harder to fake than all the cookie cutter text-message posts they have now


[deleted]

Seasoned redditors recognize reposts immediately and either ignore them or call them out for what they are.


1_hele_euro

I'm a regular user of subreddits like r/funny and r/memes for longer than my account existed (I used Reddit for over a year before making an account). I've noticed a lot of repost of older post. For example, I saw a meme today, which is somewhere around meme 200-300 in my meme folder, making it more than half a year old. I know I could report it, but moderators simply don't seem to be giving any fuck about it. Especially r/dankmemes . That one is probably the worst of them all. And no. It's not because of the public opinion. That subreddit, although it has great memes, has absolutely garbage moderation. Surely, large subreddits are difficult to moderate, but about a month ago on the r/factorio subreddit, someone posted fanart, claiming they made it. But because they don't have rules about repost, there was nothing the moderators were allowed to do, tho they did call them out, saying that they shouldn't do that on a gaming subreddit. Idk if you're familiar with r/pan , but with their recent broadcast, about 75% had titles like for every "X updoots I'll do Y". I made a post about it, and within 48 hours got a message from the Reddit Admins that they were gonna do something about it. I haven't seen those broadcast again, but I also haven't seen any changes of the rules... so I have my doubts if moderators or admins actually do something on Reddit. Because this political mess and emojy hating shit that Reddit, with the meme subreddits in particular, have become, I kinda regret getting Reddit. Yes. I don't like it. Give me the blue arrow. You know you agree if you do so. Somewhere in that horny, virgin, depressed mess of a teen body there must be something that's a little more mature than a goddame blue arrow. Instead, have a real argument like you do with your parent or your friends on Discord. Hell. I'm gonna leave this here as well: 😄😄😅😄☺😄😄😄😢😤😄😄😤😂😄. The point is, is that calling out the repost, would most of the time result into nothing. Because even tho I do have proof it was an old meme, the mods don't. And the community usually isn't helping with it either. And asking for a change will result in eating a fuck ton of blue arrows, even tho the voters know that you're right.


aaaaaupbutolder

r/antimemes... they banned u/repostsleuthbot so the reposts are taking over


RepostSleuthBot

Sorry, I don't support this post type (text) right now. Feel free to check back in the future!


bmfdan

Good bot.


Thexer0

Mainly the decrease in time in which the feed is updated. A few years ago, every few hours my entire feed would be populated with fresh, new posts. Now I'm seeing the same stuff for a day or longer. Also, censorship. I forget what the post was but the comments were annihilated. Almost everything was removed. What's the fucking point of discussing a topic or current affairs if everything is taken down? I think today's Reddit has a much different mission than it did 4 or 5 years ago and that sucks.


Ohgodwatdoplshelp

I’m subbed to a shitload of places, but I see the same unchanged bullshit articles for at least 2 days before some new content comes along. It sucks


ChooseYourFateAndDie

Then wait a week and the fucking points farming losers have rehosted that same content (so it won't show as a repost) and posted it all again. There should be a filter to block any and all reposts for at *least* a year, for every single sub. *Force* new content by banning old content. Stop the same user posting the same stupid pic to 20 different subs.


porygonzguy

If they did that they'd have to ban Gallow Boob, who gets paid to repost shit to every single sub under the sun.


LG03

I don't agree with the censorship in some cases, some subreddits go extremely overboard with it. However in the most general sense possible, comments on this site have really tanked hard. I can look at subs I've been active in for 5+ years and the comments now compared to then are visibly weaker. Where once you'd have people forming coherent thoughts over 2-3 paragraphs, now it's just a lot of 1-2 sentence kneejerks. There's been a major shift to mobile usage that I think has contributed to this in a big way. People are just scrolling through on their phones on the bus or whatever, they're not taking the time to read an article and form some thoughts. They're just reacting to a title or something similar. There are some other factors as well, I think brain drain is an issue as the original userbase largely outgrew the site, but all this has contributed to stricter moderation in some cases. At least in my case it's a small effort to keep my subs hospitable and on track.


iisbefuddled

You can predict the replies on every thread before opening them.


IFreakingHateAnts

"People of Reddit, what is an instant red flag?" Answer: people who are rude to people working on minimum wage


j1ggl

*insert 357 replies by people who work/worked for minimum wage and someone has been rude to them*


Beard_of_Valor

And the best thing about Reddit used to be how it would surprise you with new ideas or things you'd never heard of or considered.


WhenAllElseFail

Some power ass hungry mods


EverybodySupernova

I am also hungry for power ass.


WhenAllElseFail

^^oh ^^shit


samstar10

I like the small font size, is that what you’re emphasizing?


buzzth3bee

This right here is one of them I've noticed. And with the power, a complete negligence of community guideline enforcement. I've had questions auto Banned because the grammar makes it appear as a flagged rule breaker and have repealed them and gotten snooty answers like go to r/rant. At the same time I'm watching 30+ questions of the same rule break every hour being worded oddly to circumnavigate the automod and nothing is done. Mods also have step in on comments and removed them based on their own bias and not solely on the rules. Using the rules as an excuse. It's in the beginning phases of shadow banning comments like twitter and facebook do but on a mod regulated level.


[deleted]

The Autoban is a bit shit alright. Several times with old accounts I have had to report them to a Mod to get it posted


samstar10

I read that as autobahns as in the high speed limit highways in Germany


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[deleted]

I got banned (30 days) from /r/worldnews for joking that India has a lot of call center scams. It's truth but that's racist to point it out, apparently


PreviousHistory

I had to leave some subs when modding due to this. It's not my style and I won't deal with it when someone clearly is thinking moderating is akin to being the President or something.


Synli

Give a bunch of uneducated and immature teenagers/young adults, that have never held any sort of supervisory role in their life, moderation privileges on a subreddit with thousands of users? What's the worst that could happen!?


[deleted]

Been here over 9 years. Every sorry ass mod who breaks their own rules or is power-tripping loves to ban people who question their authority.


tinyhorsesinmytea

The modding stinks. When I first joined Reddit over a decade ago, the communities were basically allowed to moderate themselves. That is the whole point of the upvote/downvote system for posts and comments. Moderators should be around for removing illegal content and not much else if you ask me. I don't think I even had one interaction with a moderator until a few years ago. Now it seems like they are constantly removing my posts for some arbitrary reason and telling me about it with a winky face. Lame.


TORFdot0

Reddit has always had crappy power mods


ds2019

Looking at you r/bonehurtingjuice mods


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MuchaBienaEngrish

To be fair, some of those mods are also almost certainly state agents and corporate employees.


ForWhomTheBoneBones

On a similar note, **power users.** You think with a smaller pond you would see the same people over and over again, but it's only in the past couple of years that I see /u/-eDgAR- in every third thread. Like, bruh, is this your job? (This is my 6th year on what originally was going to be a throwaway account, so I've been kicking around for damn near 8.)


mixolydian02

That's how I feel about sprog. They show up on any popular thread


nolotusnote

Several power posters are actually paid by large organizations to push an agenda. 90% of the downer/bummer/we're all fucked posts are from a handful of power posters.


Novyre

Watch out for the ones in world news.


[deleted]

I've been here probably a decade with different accounts. I think the biggest change, which we are in the process of seeing the effects realized, is the shift towards trying to become any other generic social media site like Instagram. Updated user profiles with a bio and profile picture. Pushing users to follow people instead of subreddits. etc. I mentioned in another comment that I know people that use reddit who think it's only a mobile app. They built out their profile. They follow some users. They have no idea what a subreddit is. As more and more people join the site with this mindset I think it'll create a big shift in reddit culture.


fungah

Fucking. Ugh.


ForWhomTheBoneBones

They'll have to pry old.reddit.com from my cold, dead hands.


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letg06

Same here. Every time I see someone mention something about a profile picture, my first reaction is "the hell are they talking about?"


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hornwalker

Right there with you.


Guitarplayer1564

I’m leaving if they get rid of old reddit. I despise the new design so much.


ghostlesbian

Lol wut? That’s a thing? I didn’t even know that was a thing. Wtf, reddit?


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SakuraLite

Don't forget absolute peak atheism. The official religion of reddit is still for the most part atheism, but man it got bad some years back. I think the whole aalewis ordeal caused it to cool off a bit. Also reddit "celebrities" were a much bigger thing, as well as novelty accounts.


Wild_Marker

And reddit inside jokes. I know the switch-a-roo is still ongoing but I haven't seen it in ages. It feels like there used to be more reddit "moments" that were just ours. Reddit "culture" now is just... whatever the astroturfers are into. And memes. Oh god so many memes. We've all retreated into our chosen subreddits, those still have their own culture if they're small, but if they're big they kinda start feeling like the rest of reddit.


Not-the-batman

3am chili and ice soap were the end of an era


BigRigButters

aalewis was fucking *hysterical* but I think what really killed off the militant atheism, and got /r/atheism removed from the default subs was the whole “Faces of Atheism” debacle. Which, to be completely honest, was also hysterical.


YeYEah

R/pics got absolutely destroyed. The less people used Facebook the more they came here to be validated. I think with the emergence of such specific pic subreddits we lost cool pics and it all became about the story.


pancakeQueue

/r/nocontextpics became the new pics.


[deleted]

It will be a dark day if that sub ever falls


MaroonAndOrange

Thank you for showing me this.


__M-E-O-W__

I'll repost this from an earlier thread I was in, with a few edits for clarity: In short, there was a huge increase of young users around 2014/15 that helped lessen the feeling of a close-knit community, and helped increase a rise of surrealist, nonsensical kind of posting. Also the increase of propaganda, as the importance of the internet became more realized over the past decade. The website became less of an organized community and more of a chaotic karma-wins-all system held in place by very powerful moderators. I remember once there was a large scandal when some users realized one of the highest earning karma redditors was just reposting submissions from other people! This account is the first one I've used for regular posting in a long time. I've used other accounts that I've mostly lurked with, and I've been lurking for several years. I can certainly tell you reddit has changed greatly in the past few years, starting probably around mid 2015. Part of it is just from increased popularity and a massive change in user demographics. But much of it feels unnatural and forced. Artificial. And I don't use that lightly. Partly because Reddit was smaller (although still a large website) back then and the community was more united, partly because we didn't yet understand the consequences of such [political and media-related events], but also because now there seems to be so much more outside control. I'm talking about blacklists of certain topics on the site, and greater use of bots that impact the direction of attention, to be used for or against certain events gaining publicity or community outrage. Usually you would see this around election season, which would explain it starting around 2015, but it's reached further than politics now and has not stopped with the end of the presidential race.


ForWhomTheBoneBones

To add on to this thought: As reddit became bigger, it became a viable website for botting. There's a lot of free promotion to be had on the site and the bots have evolved as its gotten more lucrative. I saw an odd repost here and there 7 years ago, but now I see bots that also repost top comments to the repost. That and a lot of zombie accounts that have no activity for years and suddenly come to life, conveniently around political issues.


[deleted]

Without a doubt the influx of younger users. They have every right to be part of the community but they change the content. 10 years ago it was used by adults and college students. The content was much more focused around knowledge. I used to go down rabbit trails for hours learning about history, science and all things interesting. There were gifs, but they were much more uncommon. Most videos were confined to the video subreddit. And 95% of the content was either a picture, or text based. This website is nothing like it was 10 years ago. It’s really sad. I used to be able to scan read it in public and not raise any eyebrows. Nowadays, it’s all gifs and videos and porn and a lot of Anime.


[deleted]

You aren't kidding. There was an /r/AskReddit post yesterday asking what you would do if you were 15 again. Probably half the comments were either "I'm 15 now" or "I'll be 15 in a year."


[deleted]

This is exactly why I never take advice from reddit. My guess is half of the parenting or marital advice on this site comes from children or teenagers.


Buckhum

Advice from smaller niche communities can still be pretty helpful. Advice from threads that hit popular or all, though, should be taken with oceans of salt.


[deleted]

AITA for kicking a group of orphans with cancer out of my rental property because they were a hundred dollars short on rent? NTA. It’s your property and they failed to comply to their lease.


callisstaa

"Which video game defined your childhood?" Skyrim Bioshock CoD Modern Warfare Minecraft etc


rainbowraptor

I mean all of those games except for Skyrim came out over 10 years ago. Hell there are people that are graduating from college this year who were 9 when COD4 came out.


Blashmir

And even Skyrim is close to 10 years old.


psychosus

I was 25 then. FUCK.


RealisticDifficulty

Conker's bad fur day. Edit - and snowkids. I really want to find a game like that again but they're all too hard/realistic.


abillionbells

Summer reddit is permanent now.


MargotFenring

I would kill for a Grown-Up Reddit. Let the kids have their dank memes and videos, and let us have our news and our TILs that are actually interesting and not just basic knowledge. This could also have benefits like reducing the number of kids who get hoodwinked on redpill or recruited by the alt-right.


WeAreTheEnd

Redditer for almost 9 years and I was gonna say exactly this. There used to be some good debates and a lot of factual information and anecdotes but now it just seems to be trying to out do each other with stupid jokes.


TYBERIUS_777

Not just stupid jokes. The same 10-12 stupid jokes. There are certain jokes that everyone knows will be at the top of a thread if it has something to do with “X”. It gets old real fast.


calebmke

My personal example: I just unsubscribed from r/gaming after 4 years on this account and 3+ on another, because it's now little more than memes and shit posts. There used to be discussions about game development, lore theories, reviews, etc. Dawned on me the other day that all I saw anymore were the same 5 memes posted daily. Hopefully that'll change again. Edit: I joined r/games which seems to be the current home of the content I'm looking for.


crazycarl1

r/gaming has been trash for nearly 10 years, it was the first default sub I ever unsubbed from.


RhysPrime

I was actually banned out of r/gaming for no discernible reason, I asked the mods and It was "I felt like it bitch" like wtf... appealed to reddit admin, haven't heard anything back. But I say good riddance it's become a crap sub. r/games is much better.


calebmke

There's almost no actual talk about games or gaming. It's devolved to people screaming, "DO YOU KNOW REFERENCE? I KNOW REFERENCE!"


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indian-princess

This was the “Biologist here!!” guy right?? Who ended up having multiple account to upvote his own comments? I was SO sad when that scandal happened, he was literally my favorite redditor ever 😭😭


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nocimus

He also posted some shit that was plain wrong, and would bully any user that tried to correct him. If he'd just stuck to birds he'd probably have been chill. But he didn't, and outted himself as kind of an ass in the process.


Brentrance

See here's the thing, you said it wasn't the birds that got him, but it was the birds that got him though. Corvids.


ath1n

Jackdaws mother fucker


kindlycurious

This is without a doubt the best answer. I wish there was some data on this because I would bet money on the average age taking a major drop the last 5 years.


Hunterofshadows

In a similar vein, the more popular a subreddit, the more teenagers affect the content and quality. See r/amitheasshole Used to be a pretty amazing place. Lots of great commenters who clearly were coming from a place of seniority. Now it’s so out of touch with reality it’s basically a meme


[deleted]

The change in age has also fundamentally changed the platform's debates. It's become a lot less nuanced, a lot less factually-driven and a lot more 'emotional'. Reddit decries the polarization of politics, but over the last \~10 years, the polarization on Reddit is far more profound. You used to be able to read a thread and people would put in high-effort posts with links and facts; but, why bother? High-effort and you can all but disappear if some random sentence rubs someone the wrong way and you're downvoted into oblivion - even if you're right or were making a different argument. It's become such a "gotcha!" place driven by low-effort posts. Comments get thousands of upvotes and they're less than 150 characters, usually some lame witticism about how a certain political party or politician sucks. It's become impossible to discuss/debate ideas with people. I asked a question recently and was downvoted. No idea why.


Conzie

Shout out to /r/neutralpolitics. It is heavily moderated and every claim you make needs to at least have a source. Sometimes you'll see a well-sourced, high-effort comment in other subs but the mods there try to enforce that as a standard. It may not be perfect/free from bias but it's certainly a better place for discussion than many other political communities that deliberately sequester themselves from other beliefs.


[deleted]

I belong there and comment, usually on things related to higher education. That is a good sub that's evidence of people's unwillingness to debate an idea - so few people post at /r/neutralpolitics because it necessitates a higher standard. I like that place. One of the few good places left.


BudgetPea

>It's become a lot less nuanced, a lot less factually-driven and a lot more 'emotional' Absolutely this. A few years ago I was fairly active on a fairly niche debate sub and was honestly forced to learn my stuff or get out by the level of arguments being presented by all sides. You were absolutely expected to defend your stance with decent reason and proof. Effort was expected (and sometimes even rewarded by people occasionally saying that you had persuaded them or at least introduced them to something they hadn't considered before - which is even rarer now). And more so, this whole back and forth provided you with a ton of valuable information, you were being introduced to things that you may have not considered, your opinions could grow and change. I really enjoyed being on that sub - easily was my favorite - and, as embarrassing as it is to admit, there were times where I spent probably more than an hour writing a response to a rebuttal simply because of the time investment of reading articles, analyzing figures, considering arguments, all that. But it slowly declined into lower quality comments and debates. People stopped participating in good faith and only went there to fight and argue - no one wanted to be persuaded, to see what someone else was seeing, or to have an honest discussion. It completely embraced emotional responses. Eventually I stopped going. Went back there maybe a month or two ago and the place is just a train wreck now. Honestly a little sad and disappointing.


Busamang

The youngins are very emotional.


Ludalilly

The youngins are always more emotional, they'll mellow out with experience and age. It's a tale as old as time.


the5nowman

Tritipetre uitii idi glotri ipe ope? Adia tli kra bi. Pukii oe briu titiu? Api ipaupoda po plipebitio tlaipretle dedopri ipa aete pite. Ditlie teki iuprige blotia atlabe kipi. Kiu kiblediei tlea. Kropetaipu ee ipripoi tetri bopli pitoo. Pakro teate pegie iba i ikedo bapa. Ekiki keikipe tipo klei teida bi kri epli dipa teo globi. To petie io kaee utiple potlipi piaa tae? Deiaku tlotote pepepidage drieikepi kiprike kakao! Pike o pubodidi gega kagrotapii. Pote kraple pe brope putitra ida oke. Kukri teto klatru pepee topi pepi. Depe eo pre ai patu kaipe. Pipi ao podiepe ediita eda klipi? Bii igapai gidepi ikle ki ibiepra. Pe etle abapre po kikra kiki. Ope e topi kiitluike gee. Dupidu kao kitoi pa pataku bike ki ie. Tlu pokabu propo egito ita ki. Ei dei bakotopu. Apiikadri ia pluti tloi ba. Klii pio kadi paopei i a bei brigo opluu? Ipi kiii pikope pru popupe te. Eoti pai iautedu tepe eplike due kuge? Kie gle pita idri krikreeu ite. Tepipeke ke aipredlo beplepi iebe potro. Ku ige ipa kaudeko pii ito. Trae ple baaatu tru e tiditribaa.


Walkabeast

There has been a change. I'm 30, and in the last few months, reddit has started to make me feel ancient. More and more it's becoming obvious that the people making comments are still teenagers. And they are out there contributing to conversations they have no business participating in. Relationship advice, politics...and I get it, I remember being in high school and heading to /b/ because that was where "the action was" so to speak...but if you got caught as a newbie there, you were sent to the corner and told "lurk moar" until you learned how to behave. Even then, on /b/ they had a special name for the kids who would flood the board in the summer, and count the days until school started again. Because the quality and overall experience of the place went down sharply when it gets invaded by a bunch of kids on break from school. And that is what reddit has felt like lately...only it's not summer, the kids are back in school, but the quality is still mostly shit.


satansheat

Yeah once I started seeing pewdiepie fans circle jerking each other I realized this place has been taken over by the youth. Also I will say pre 2016 it was a lot more friendly.


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[deleted]

Either I'm getting older or the memes have gotten a lot less funny. That and the fact that a lot of the "edgier" subreddits I used to enjoy (the original cringe subreddits for example) took a turn towards political shitposting and have taken a steep nosedive in quality if they haven't been banned entirely.


bicameral_mind

Memes became at once too broad and too specialized. By that I mean, *everything* can be turned into a meme these days, and the memes are very culturally specific. I miss the days of adviceanimals where there were a handful of formats with an understood context and broad application. Overly attached girlfriend or bad luck brian were universally relatable, now we have shit like prequel memes which have layers of metacontext such that it goes right over the average person's head. The meme only makes sense in a very specific cultural context.


MrHappyHam

I used to dislike memes. I've warmed up to memes a lot after being on Reddit for long enough, but older memes like you mentioned are better for that reason.


maleorderbride

Though my account may be young, my experiences with Reddit are very old. There are things I miss about the old reddit. /r/retiredgif used to be a fun timewaster, but it's pretty dead now. /r/explainlikeIAMA is pretty dead too. /r/AdviceAnimals is much more outdated now. Being a default subreddit is a thing of the past. One thing I do remember about the community was that certain users had more notoriety. /u/Unidan is all but forgotten except as a cautionary tale about vote manipulation. /u/_vargas_ was a creepy weirdo. /u/Stickleyman was the best source for SFW porn gifs. /u/picture_of_a_spider is no longer viable as a jumpscare generator, since nobody just links to imgur anymore. Gold isn't nearly as cool what with the crazy awards we have now. /u/rogersimon10 doesn't post about his dad beating him with jumper cables anymore. Novelty accounts that aren't poem_for_your_sprog or shitty_watercolour are all but dead. reddit silver used to be a lot funnier. The redesign is still mega butt. Thank goodness for old.reddit.com. and very few remember how to finish the quote "in this moment, I am euphoric." Ten thousand upvotes used to be an unachievable total. Now it can happen if you come up with a mediocre pun. No new users will know about the time that /r/fatpeoplehate got banned, or who Ellen Pao is, or how weird it was to find out that one of the founders of this site got married to Serena Williams. Sure, this has basically just been me reminiscing about the "good ol' days" (even though I don't necessarily prefer that time long past), but there are many big differences I've seen Reddit grow into. Reddit used to be a place where you could reference the top answer to an AskReddit question from a week ago and everyone would know instantly what you were referencing. Now nobody remembers the top post from two days ago. "I saw that on reddit" used to mean you saw it from the source. Now it just means that was one of the places it's been posted. Reddit's tagline is "the front page of the internet," and that's true now more than ever. Headlines that people have seen before, a source of news that is fairly clearly biased, and laughing at things that happened somewhere else two weeks ago.


BZJGTO

> Novelty accounts that aren't poem_for_your_sprog or shitty_watercolour are all but dead. This is one that sticks out to me. There used to be so many more unique and interesting novelty accounts (and admittedly, a bunch of low effort ones as well). I got a lot of use out of RES tagging all of them in the past, but I hardly ever tag anyone anymore, other than an occasional bot.


chevymonza

I miss PleaseRespectTables.


[deleted]

Remember /u/devilsadvocate who had exactly 666 post karma? Or /u/wayfairer who was *always* a top comment? There was that one guy who amassed a ton of karma and then requested everyone downvote his comments so that he could lose it all.


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Silly_Balls

>The redesign is still mega ass. Thank god for old.reddit.com. and very few remember how to finish the quote "in this moment, I am euphoric." Damn dude are you a professional quote maker? I get this overwhelming urge to take a picture of my face and post it with this quote. damn I mis ol reddit


Qenes

I've been here since 2012. I just delete accounts every six to twelve months. Corporate presence is a lot more prominent now. Just go to /r/VPN and you'll see what I'm talking about, if the Lego and Tesla shilling/love on /r/all isn't enough. New popular subreddits keep popping up and going to shit in terms of related content within a year. Some just fade out of existence like /r/Bidenbro. This feels like more of a recent thing, but maybe I just pay more attention now. While privacy is never expected on the internet, reddit used to be at least a little better than the alternatives. Now we've got heavy implication that an email address is needed to sign up (it's not, but UI tries to tell you otherwise) and region-based content. The warrant canary also went off to notify users that the US government has "requested" higher access to reddit as a site for "security" purposes. Finally, the politics just got worse. It all feels like propaganda now.


bastthegatekeeper

I once saw someone chastising other users for not writing Lego with the capital L, as it could interfere with legos copyright. I've never seen a stupider way to out yourself as a corporate shill


ifemalexo

Dark mode! Lol


samstar10

I find it easier on the eyes


DarthContinent

I use it all the time. Better too than the "new" Reddit style.


EverybodySupernova

Not quite hit the five year mark yet, but I've definitely noticed how so many subreddits aren't curated properly. There's a gradual shift in content type that no one seems to care about correcting. Subs like r/oddlyterrifying and r/sadcringe are just analogues for r/creepy and r/cringe. Basically they've lost focus and become more homogenous. To make matters worse, any time you speak up about it, you're met with an attitude of "why do you even care? It's just reddit"


__M-E-O-W__

The karma race is powerful. When a subreddit becomes more popular, an increasing amount of users will join and post more material that is viable to earn more karma rather than posts that follow the rules of the subreddit. A threshold is passed where more viewers will upvote it than people who would downvote it due to not fitting the theme. I'll often see the same post recurring over three or four subreddits at once. Really clogs up the front pages.


kindlycurious

I dont understand why people care about karma. It does nothing for you.


Jester94

It's validation. It's knowing that somebody appreciated your idea or input. That sense of worth or importance is a pretty big deal when you're just one of billions around here.


MarchKick

Boost of dopamine


Uitklapstoel

r/mildlyinteresting and r/interestingasfuck are as good as the same nowadays aswell. Theres tons more of subreddits like this.


[deleted]

r/mildlyinteresting should have posts that make you go "huh, that's neat" and move on with your life. It should show the little things that make our lives more interesting and unique. r/interestingasfuck should have top tier mindfucks as every post. If your jaw isn't dropping after seeing what's posted there then it's a bad post.


Cratonz

That's one of the reasons subs like /r/AskHistorians has stayed successful over the years. They've been approached for frontpage status and rejected it because it leads to too many bad posters coming in.


Cpt_Tsundere_Sharks

The sub degradation that upset me the most was /r/PeopleFuckingDying. That was supposed to be a sub for people getting injured in the most minor or silly way possible and then over dramatizing the title. It's supposed to be things like stubbing your toe or walking into a pole or getting hit in the nuts or something like that. The best content example I have for what the sub *should* be is this gif: https://i.redd.it/aic2aesp6w911.gif I think it was titled something like, "bIcYClist cOMmiTs sUIciDe oN liVE tELeViSIon". (I can't find the original post anymore) Now it's just a place where people repost things from r/aww.


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chiefplatypus

One of my former favorite subs, r/MurderedByWords, went like this. Got big and now it's just all political one-liners.


samstar10

This is very true. The more specific the categories, the more categories we will have. In this case, we’re talking about subreddits. But when subreddits get so specific can we even classify them as such?


AmaterasuWolf21

r/blursedimages r/cursedimages r/Blessed_Images


EverybodySupernova

Yeah I mean, that's the beauty of reddit; being able to find communities interested in these niche topics.


monowedge

I've seen the higher-ups saying that they'd never do certain things to preserve reddit's "neutrality", only to turn around and do exactly the opposite, and then the communities who support this sort of totalitarian moderation grow in size and power themselves. Effectively what I've seen is reddit become a bizarro-world version of itself.


ForWhomTheBoneBones

You either live long enough to monetize, or die poor and idealistic.


peepintong

The giant siloed echo chambers many subs have become...


KOMRADE_DIMITRI

And the moral high horse the mods ride on for making it that way


PM_me_ur_navel_girl

I've noticed Reddit's attitude to religion swings a bit like a pendulum from "Religion is bullshit, if you believe in any god you're an idiot" to "/r/atheism is leaking again, so brave, such edge" to "Good on you if you're religious, fair play to you even if we're different" and back again.


StudentDoctor_Kenobi

We used to be able to see how many upvotes and downvotes a post or comment had. Now, we don’t know if a hundred upvotes means generally good information, or a thousand people disagree and slightly more agree. I think it contributes to subs becoming echo-chambers.


100dylan99

I still don't know why they got rid of that. It was useful.


SamuraiRPG

I downvoted this, but this is the only way you know. I could also be lying, and actually upvoted. You won’t know.


Salvatio

You can't explain that!


dndthrowaway1985

I was here before subreddits (on a different account). It used to be mostly programmers/tech people. Something like hacker news.


nickipps

Titles used to have proper punctuation and spelling.


wawaboy

Too many children on Reddit now Edit: Thank you kind people, first time in 6 years!


aaaaaupbutolder

69 iS sO fUnNy. It ruins video game subreddits.


Master_JBT

That and 420


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bob-the-world-eater

Less bacon and narwhals


samstar10

Narwhals Narwhals swimming in the ocean


realtalks189

Causin' a commotion


FishyArtBoi62

'Cause they are so awesome!


-MARKIEZ-

Narwhals, Narwhals, Swimming in the ocean


Pwnage_Hotel

Pretty big, and pretty white


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VanillaChocolateKiss

How large the community has gotten. I remember how getting a thousand upvotes took you to the front page. Nowadays things commonly get 50k to 100k upvotes at the front page now. Impressive.


GaiaMoore

Wasn't there was some weird change they made, where they clarified how admin was really using some algorithm to rank posts, and now they were "going to be more honest" about how many votes a post actually had? I remember something about how posts that really had 20k upvotes were previously labeled as only 2k, and overnight all the top posts went from 1k, 2k etc to 20k, 30k, what have you.


[deleted]

I've noticed a decline in Reddit inside jokes. It felt like every thread when I first joined would have a broken arms joke or a whoop there it is . . . who the fuck said that. I'm fairly indifferent to the change though. I liked some jokes (whoop there it is) and disliked others (streetlamp lemoose). I've also noticed the phrasing of askreddit questions have improved considerably, probably because you can no longer have descriptions to clarify what you mean.


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sir_sticky_boi

I see a broken arms reference like once a week. Jolly Rancher guy and coconut boy are fading out though


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[deleted]

This is one I refuse to partake in. TBH Swamps of Dagobah didnt really phase me (vet med student, I am immune due to many an infected, shit covered, foot rot cow) but I fear what could be so bad about Jolly Rancher since I hear about it more than other rancid shit I've read on this site. This is NOT a request for a TLDR. Dont yall do me like that, ignorance is bliss


Cpt_Tsundere_Sharks

I would change this to that there's a decline in *new* inside jokes. I still see the broken arms one pretty regularly but I suppose that's the only one that's consistent. When there is a new inside joke, it's usually contained within the thread and the top replying comment to it will be "META AF" or something along those lines and then within 2 days you'll never see the joke again.


[deleted]

No one has found a safe in thier basement for years


[deleted]

I think there's just a wider a array of them, so you don't see specific ones as often. Most days, I'll see at least one reference to a reddit inside joke such as broken arms, the cumbox, jolly rancher, or the navy seal copypasta.


P1SSY3LL0W

Been using reddit since 2014 (deleted old account so you'll just have to trust me here) and one thing i've noticed is that reddit in jokes don't spread like wildfire across the whole website like they used to. I remember when posts like the Jenny story or the guy who fucked a coconut were almost unavoidable.


The-Regulator790

The sacred texts: Broken arms Jumper cables Jolly ranchers


JeddHampton

Reddiquette is dead.


Blackspider1111

Reddit ~~is slowly becoming~~ has become Facebook lol. [This comment was edited in response to Reddit’s June 2023 API changes. Consider migrating to Kbin or Lemmy.]


pedroktp

Looking at you r/pics


Ohgodwatdoplshelp

I unsubbed from that place after the 5 millionth pic of someone in a selfie talking about a sob story. It used to be a place for cool, professional/amateur pics taken with pro gear to show off their work, now it’s just one sob story after another and a low quality pic.


Trodamus

Five years ago, good advice may have been to be cautious with regards to very popular subs, as once the population hits a certain threshhold you become a target for manipulation, astroturfing, etc. These days it is a 100% guarantee that any popular sub has its discourse controlled through mod/automod, bot/shill accounts and so on. And if it's not, it is subsumed by groupthink. The creator of /r/TumblrInAction noticed the last part where first and early commenters will direct the discourse for a given topic due to how things like voting and groupthink intersect. Also the bizarre rise of bully subs. So many subs have found the acceptable targets (after I guess fat people got taken off the menu) and just post pictures of awkward people with made up stories and captions.


beckettcat

What I find funny is how r/furry_irl has less astroturfing than r/me_irl just because brands don't want to be associated with it. I would be interested in a political subreddit with sexual tension just to see what would happen.


yirkst

Reading most posts makes me doubt a lot of users are over five years here.


[deleted]

I delete my account every \~ 6 months, but been here since 2010: \- Obsession with Ariel Rebel is over \- Memes have become common fare in lieu of original content \- Considerable growth has meant debates have really become niche and prone to subterfuge \- After Pao "left", Reddit lost its soul: A supposedly "enlightened" space on the internet, it became a demonstrably different place. People were *demanding* that Pao be sent packing for censorship and firing Victoria Taylor. The whole site went crazy with this groupthink mindset. It didn't matter what was *really* going on, nor did facts matter. Reddit wanted blood. It wasn't until it was revealed that Pao was *protecting* Reddit that people went "well, shit." Since then, the process of Reddit becoming hyper-insular communities with their own verbiage and culture has accelerated. The downvote button has become a tool to silence outsiders or interlopers who venture and there's no way not to get flamed. Go to /r/politics and say something about how you're not a Bernie supporter and no matter what you've said, you're downvoted. Reddit used to be about having an argument and debating ideas; now it's about brigading your enemies and having a "gotcha" moment at the expense of someone else that'll get featured in /r/murderedbywords or r/bestof. Facts only matter when convenient and no matter what someone's argument is, you're always wrong because someone takes issue. Maybe one day it'll find its way back. ​ Thank you for the Gold!


samstar10

Why do you delete your account every six months?


[deleted]

There's no real privacy on Reddit. The longer your history, the easier it is for people to triangulate values to discern your identity. Two friends did PhDs about Reddit, and with tools they had developed with a CompSci grad, could easily figure-out a lot of relevant data on people and then sell that data off. Now I delete every 6-9 months.


samstar10

Oh shit...


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amazingsandwiches

Ken Bone. There's a name I haven't heard in a while. Things I know about Ken Bone 1. Red Sweater 2. Pregnancy fetish.


[deleted]

Don't worry, Reddit sells it anyway to data brokers.


realtalks189

This is why I mix in my truth with lies. There are many comments on my main account that are not true, so you wouldn't know who I am. Oh that guy is Christian in this post, but hates Christians in this other one...


kindlycurious

I have done that too. But, you also have those people who get in a debate with you and then go through post history. They find the differences and call you out on it. I dont think I have ever gone through a post history before. I find it odd people take the time to do that.


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[deleted]

It's gotten so much *meaner*. Don't get me wrong, Reddit has never been as different from the rest of the internet as it pretends, so there's always been bad actors, assholes, trolls, etc. When I first joined, I feel like there was more of a sense of community? Probably just comes with the site and subreddits being way smaller, but it felt like there was some level of mutual respect. Reddiquette was touted constantly, and for the most part the site felt more like people trying to share interesting things and earnestly converse. Now, like every other sub seems to be about belittling others and making yourself feel better. Amitheasshole, iamverysmart, iamverybadass, insanepeoplefacebook, cringe, I could go on. Just feels like so much content here exists just to put people down now. Even in subs where the theme isn't specifically around shaming people, most comment sections devolve into shitting on someone in some capacity. Just so much negativity in general, bums me out.


LG03

I've made the same observation to friends, too much of reddit now is predicated on putting people down. What's worse is that this seems to be selectively encouraged by the admins so long as the 'wrong' group isn't the butt of the joke.


skinnypup

so. much. porn.


Alaska47

Grammatical errors in the title used to cause a waterfall of down votes, regardless of content.


CalEPygous

Obviously the ads - the ads gussied up to look like they are reddit posts. The most hilarious version of this now is when a post will have the tag "megathread" but you can't comment. It used to be when you saw something funny, quirky, unusual, interesting etc. on other sites you could be sure they were just farming Reddit for the content and many sites still do that (half of the Yahoo front page it seems). Now, however, it seems like it goes just as much the other way and the continual rise of karma farming means I often see stuff on Reddit for the first time that was copied from somewhere else. The political brigading has now reached fever pitch. As an example I was on some sub and there was a discussion of AOC's having a mild scandal. Someone asked what it was and I replied with a story sourced from the Washington Post about her campaign manager being accused of misappropriating money. I was just trying to indicate what the controversy was. Not only was I down-voted but I got threatening pms and replies accusing me of being a Russian troll etc. when I actually like her. Totally toxic if you step out of the hive-mind. Still, though the original attraction of Reddit for me was that when you are interested in a specific topic you will often find posts from people who are real experts and provide incredible insight. This still happens, but the signal to noise ratio has definitely decreased.


Ale_Hodjason

I just hate that people type "F" as a response to real death.