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Comment by jokermatt999 | Hacker News Reader

The trouble is that it feels like the shallow parts are growing much, much faster than the deep ends. There's pockets of good stuff, but you have to look harder for it. If you like the shallow sections too, then it's a great pool to play in. But if you came for the deep ends, it's kind of a pain to swim with all kids in the shallow end splashing everywhere.

Maybe I'm just bitter.

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Reddit is like the Internet. The weird tentacle porn sites are there, but you aren't obligated to subscribe to them.

You can unsubscribe from the subreddits you dislike.

Yes, I realize that. I've even started a few (report the spammers and postrock). You can't unsubscribe from the culture. If programming or minecraft end up filled with memes and crap, you're out of luck unless you can get enough momentum for a similar new subreddit.

You can't unsubscribe from the culture.

This is one of the most profound things I've ever heard, and it has applications well outside of Reddit.

I've found /r/soccer is pretty low on the "internet culture" stuff. And /r/gamedev, while too small to sustain much interesting discussion, does provide good links.

But yes, any large subreddit on any topic is infected with all the rage comic and meme garbage that Reddit inexplicably loves. You have to figure that the average age must be around 18-20, which becomes very tiresome if you're more than a few years older than that.

And main frontpage reddit.

Just like real life, I suppose.

/r/programming has become more like a generic technology link dump. The few programming-related links it does get tend to be either about functional-programming-language-of-the-month or a pointless JavaScript demo.

http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/top/?t=week

Maybe it's the sort you're using. Reddit link discussions can go on for weeks and months. You can hop in with a top of the week sort and read a good discussion, and still find active threads.

A lot of the complaints I see about reddit feel like the complaints people have jumping into Linux from Windows.

Linux isn't Windows, and reddit isn't Hacker News. Learn how to operate it, and you'll find out why people like it.

ETA: http://i.imgur.com/UWdeU.png

My biggest problem with this is that if a post that doesn't belong gets upvoted it'll reach the front page, and once it reaches the front page all of the worst parts of Reddit flood into the comment threads.

/r/coding has stricter moderation, but much much less content is posted there. People generally want to post their links where they'll garner the most karma, and cross-posting feels kinda dirty.

I think the percentage of good technical posts on /r/Programming is competitive with HN, if not superior, to be honest.

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