> I know everyone in the world hates the atheism sub, but after 23 years of being a conservative fundamentalist Seventh-day Adventist Christian, I needed an outlet for my anger and frustration

I can appreciate that. When someone finds themselves in any kind of situation where they see a popular or long-held belief to be in error I think many people find themselves wanting to metaphorically run through the streets yelling "the emperor's new clothes are a lie! Don't you see?!" This applies to much more than atheism, too, though it's a very predictable kind of backlash when so much of the world's day-to-day workings are influenced by some form of religion or another.

On one hand, the common perception of /r/atheism is pretty spot-on. It really is kind of a circlejerk, and I'm not sure that being involved with it for a long period of time is healthy. On the other hand, I think that having a place like that to rage and commiserate with others is an important aspect of transitioning to atheism from a lifetime of religious belief. When someone feels like they've been tricked by everyone around them, it's good to have others they can go to to be reassured that they're not crazy.

What I'm not understanding, and the Primer didn't really clarify for me, is how to "clear" my feed page to see new content. On Reddit I can set it up so that once a post is up- or downvoted it will disappear from my front page once the page is refreshed. How does that work here? Is the only way to remove a post from appearing in my feed to hide it? Is there any way to "upvote" a post without me sharing it with whoever is following me? Because while there are many posts I may like and think are positive contributions, I won't want to share all of them with my followers.

When I read this comment I found it difficult to believe that all of those posts could be gone that quickly, especially considering how long the various outrage posts about the recent subreddit bans continued to flood the front page. A detour over to Reddit's /r/all page confirmed it, though. Aside from a few recently submitted news articles about the petition to remove Ellen Pao as CEO the whole page was scrubbed clean of any mention of Vcstoria Taylor, the blackout, AMAs, and so on. I really don't see how that could be the result of anything other than censorship from the top down. It's very sobering to see it happen so quickly and obviously.

I don't think so, no, but now that you've mentioned it I'll check it out.

I tend to gravitate towards hobby and interest subreddits versus ones that are political, social interest, or meme-based. I've found that the narrower the focus a sub has, the more people are likely to stay on track with the topic and have a genuine desire to engage in a positive way with other commenters. This can promote groupthink, as you've touched on in your original post, but that's not inevitable. People have always made connections through mutual interests and a desire to share the things that give them joy with others.

Forgotten Misdirection

Bonus words: I asked my GM husband to contribute and he offered up... Vermin Asian

Uh...please don't draw any kind of correlation between those two words., as there's none intended! Good luck with your campaign!

> Because Reddit is horrible.

You're absolutely entitled to this opinion, but I don't think it's fair or accurate to lump a site that is composed of almost 10,000 communities into one category or descriptor. It seems to me that categorizing Reddit as an "it" is only applicable when referring to Reddit corporate or the Reddit administration. Reddit is many communities with millions of contributors.

Take Yahoo Groups and give it a "front page" where you could access all the posts from the groups you subscribe to in one handy place and you'd have something very similar to Reddit - the difference being that most subreddits on Reddit are public posts and require no membership to view/comment. My point is that few would make the mistake of holding Yahoo Groups itself responsible for the culture of individual groups or say that "Yahoo Groups is horrible" because they disliked the content of individual groups.

I'm not denying that what you describe in your post can happen and does happen frequently, especially in default subreddits subscribed to by large numbers of people. You'll find that kind of mob rule in practically any large public community on the internet and it's ugly. What I'm saying is that such interactions are not the only experience that Reddit has to offer and there are plenty of places to have quality discussion and respectful disagreements.

The key is to seek out subreddits where that kind of culture is encouraged and actively moderated. If your front page on Reddit is made up of default subs, then yes, what you've described above is a pretty accurate description of the experience you're going to have. If you put some time and effort into subscribing to subreddits that favor quality content and interaction, your Reddit experience can be both enjoyable and rewarding.

Edit: Hah...and in all of that I didn't actually answer your main question; shame on me. My answer is that I found myself self-censoring or not contributing at all in larger sudreddits because of the prevailing culture of those groups. In smaller and more fairly moderated subreddits, I found the opposite to be true. I contributed more frequently and generously, forged beneficial connections with other members, and was mindful of the feelings of those I was communicating with.

I was really pleased with several of the announcements at E3 this year - Fallout 4, Dishonored 2, Dark Souls 3, and I'm cautiously optimistic about Mass Effect 4. I'm also looking forward to Assassin's Creed: Syndicate, though after the way AC: Unity didn't live up to expectations I'll be waiting to see what others have to say about it before hopping on the bandwagon.

I know they're all sequels, but I try not to get too excited about new franchises until they've been released and well-received.

I'd never heard of Firewatch until I browsed an AskReddit thread about interesting/creepy experiences that park rangers and the like had encountered while out in the wilderness. Several people mentioned Firewatch, and after checking out the preview I have to say that I'm intrigued. BTW, that Reddit thread wound up getting a lot of submissions from rangers, campers, and other people who spend a lot of time out in nature. There were some very good submissions, and anyone interested can find it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/3b4ifn/serious_national_park_rangers_and_any_other/?sort=new

Edit: I'm also looking forward to watching my husband play Just Cause 3. He had a ridiculous amount of fun with JC 2, and it was a joy to be around while he played it.