Being banned from reddit is a blessing. Such a weird place.
There are tons of smaller ones that offer good value for your time, my personal favourites are r/ragdolls and r/raspberrypi
It's an aristocracy with the progenitors being chosen on a first come first rule base. One could say: "So what? It's a private website with its own rules, make your own!", but then again for most topics and most groups the relevant subreddits are THE biggest forums: Country, province, city specific subreddits, politics, etc. And that makes it extremely problematic.
Reddit might be a private company but the reach of their subreddits makes them a significant player in world wide public opinion forming and opinion sharing -and they largely leave it in the hands of powertripping, chronically online weirdos.
It’s tolerable mostly by dipping in for targeted issues and lurking. I stopped contributing to any subreddit either by commenting or posting. In many subreddits to which I tried to contribute in the past, users seem not to care in the least that I’ve given thoughtful answers. So I lurk, taking what I need without feeling obligated to reciprocate. In other settings I try to add value; but for Reddit, I don’t care.
I think it's largely become focused on generating AI training drivvel for current TV shows.
I don't understand this desire to ignore that aspect and pompously dismiss Reddit as a whole. It's like dismissing an entire country as worthless because you didn't like the vibe in a couple of the big cities.
A belief I hold not of just Reddit but several countries I'm surprised have a tourism industry[0]
[0] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/06/turkey-blocks-...
Monitor my comment go grey in few minutes.
You, as a user, only see one side of it. I'd quit, but I don't want to let down good people who are making an honest effort to keep the sub a nice place to be. Some part of me hopes I catch another site wide shadowban for vpn usage, and I have an excuse to put my account to the torch and start over as just a normal user
The biggest issue is power tripping reddit mods, and mods trying to shape the discourse by deleting posts or banning dissenting voices.
Banning someone because their software uses AI is clearly an example of it.
Now, post removals, we do a lot more of. We do try to moderate the sub such that it has an open, positive vibe in line with it's stated purpose.
I do fully understand what you're saying though. I've been banned for everything from merely asking that a sub enforce it's rules consistently, to asking for sources, to even posting in a particular collection of subs that another sub found objectionable. You have to run pretty far afoul of reddits sitewide rules as a mod to be removed from the position. That's why you see so many thing2 or thingNoCensor subs on subreddit maps.
I do agree HN is substantially better, more behaved though I find many too questionable
After researches, I can tell where they are learning toward.
There are good people but mods will eventually try to "shape" your mind accroding to what they believe in regardless what HN officially claims to do.
Same for Reddit and other "mod" maintained communities.
And who has the most people in the world?
[1]: Politically biased moderation drives echo chamber formation on Reddit https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4990476
If your sub exists as a sort of support sub for one small group that feel they are oppressed by $largerGroup, the most bitter, jaded and cynical users will be the most active. The most active users are the most likely to be recruited as moderators. Those moderators then do not bother to moderate content that matches their more extreme world views, and that pushes more reasonable folks away from the sub. Before you know it, the sub's tone turns more bitter, the wheel turns, more moderate folks leave, and on it goes till your sub is now a profoundly negative and bitter space.
It takes very proactive moderation to prevent that slide, and most folks aren't equipped for it.