Hacker News Reader

- Reddit didn't do anything to Usenet. Reddit postdates Usenet's glory days by over a decade.

- Sears, a dying company, bought K-Mart, and they died together. K-Mart didn't do anything to Sears.

- Walmart didn't do anything to K-Mart except sell stuff cheaper and work on its supply chain. Wikipedia article says this: "Unlike its competitors Walmart and Target, Kmart failed to invest in computer technology to manage its supply chain."

I don't understand the analogy at all.

I would argue that Facebook had a much bigger impact pulling users there.

As did multiple independent web forums (based on phpBB etc.) which allowed closed communities and moderation and we're more approachable for beginners.

Not entirely sure about your summary or your historical analysis there buddy.

If we want to pin it to a single entity I would say one of these two:

AOL's CD mailers, or microsoft/apple including an http browser in their operating systems.

Not really. Usenet was circling the drain a long time before Reddit was a gleam in Ohanian's eye.