But good riddance!
I was a redditor for almost 4 years, and I loved every bit of it. Until recently that is. At first it was the best place on the internet. Everything I enjoyed, right there, in one place. And the best part was, everyone was together, trolls and all!
But things started changing when the fire nation attacked! mods started changing things to try to stay above the other sites.
So, I will miss it. But it's nice to start new again, on a largely untouched site. So, hello hubski!
To be honest, I don't really care about the policies or actions that anyone really took. What pushed me to leave was the change in community. It seems like if you weren't mad about something, you didn't fit in. Either you hated the evil SJWs or the crazy Menninists, the mods or the admins, or Comcast or Time Warner. It just got to the point that there wasn't anything on the front page that was subliminally pushing some agenda. Everyone was always up in arms about something, no matter the importance or relevance. It went from a site with some cool stuff and some discussion to a political battle arena. This place is like walking into a nice coffee shop after a demolition derby; no yelling, no blaring music, no revving engines - just a peaceful calmness.
I think a large part of my dissatisfaction with reddit was that I am getting older but the average redditor is getting younger. That and the culture of outrage and anger that you mention just don't make it such a nice place to be any more. If you find yourself holding the "wrong" opinion (or you have the "right" opinion but your words are misinterpreted), forget any discussion - let's go straight to the downvotes and death threats. Don't get me wrong, there is still some good stuff there. But it's swamped by a toxic ocean of shitposting as everyone tries to outfunny, outmeme, and outvitriol each other.
I got the same way, but I'm still probably younger than most of the site. It's just the involvement that everyone had in everything got me really agitated. Every little opinion got transformed into this black and white issue where there was an apparent "right answer". If you even tried to sway away from the consensus, there was 100 people there to try to set you straight. They acted like there was some conspiracy behind every little change, and if you were out of line, then you were just a shill trying to turn everyone into sheeple. Just look at how the front page is right now. It's just filled of directionless hate at everything that they believe is causing grief - whether or not it has anything to do with anything. Then there's just the lack of discussion. I had to move to the meta subs (subs that looked at Reddit rather than any content) in order to find any semblance of actual civil discourse. People there at least tried to see your point of view and actually challenged it - rather than use the standard "downvote and call a fucktard" procedure that happened in most places. People were there to just talk; not regurgitate the same stale meme that was posted 100 times before, often in the same thread, and in rare cases, the same parent comment (there's seriously been occasions where I've seen 10+ people use the same exact response to the same comment in a thread). I came here and it has been great. Everyone's so calm and kind. There's no scapegoats or wrong opinions or mindless hate - there's just conversation.
I think you nailed it. It's the hyperbole. The inability for people to even try and see the other side of a discussion. You know the core thing I think that really breaks reddit, and it's not obvious, but good comments get squelched all the time by being downvoted, because they are unpopular opinions. Not that they are not well thought out or not well argued, but simply because a bunch of people see it, downvote it and it ends up being buried. It kind of discourages people from posting dissenting opinions and having a real discussion, because whats the point of posting something you know will probably get downvoted into oblivion? Come of think of it, I've sat in front of my computer, and spent an hour composing a long, (what I think was, haha) thoughtful and well-written reply, only to just close the tab in disgust because I know that my opinion wouldn't well received and I'd have 30 comments of people telling me to go fuck myself, and find my comment buried and hidden. The whole upvote/downvote system polarizes the discussions, bit by bit, which polarizes the community. Add that to a management that isn't transparent at all and you end up with a site that has effectively bred into it's community it's own problems. Ew.
I would always do the same thing, too. I'd have this giant, well written piece explaining my point, and I'd just go "What's the point?" and delete it. I know two people are going to read it, it's just going to sit at 1 and be buried under a bunch of half-assed puns and stale jokes that are going to be gilded, voted to the top, and be regarded as the "best comment on Reddit, ever!" If it goes against the grain, I just don't even hit the reply button. I know it's just going to get brigaded by a bunch of red pillers or gamer gators that are going to call me an SJW-lizard shill, even if I actually have support. Seriously, I had someone call me an Anita Sarkeesian shill when I pointed out that some paper wasn't being used by schools, after a bunch of people said that this optional assignment on a website - unrelated to Common Core, said that Common Core was being used to teach kids that video games are bad. I was just like "Really?" I mean, I made some snarky remarks about Reddit's inability to actually read or research something, but it got people really upset for some reason. It feels like a few years ago, before the admin changes, before Gamer Gate, Reddit was a pretty nice place to be. There were still politicized discussions and lame jokes, but there was still a lot of good discussion. Now, it seems like the only cream that comes to the top is just another post about how either the admins or women are ruining the world. It's just sad.
Then you'd find posts such as "what are good alternatives to hubsky" on #askhubski