Ask HN: Why are subreddits so toxic?

11 points by hn_reddit_human 7 years ago | 1 comment

Has reddit always been so toxic? Should subreddit moderators have stricter codes of conduct, especially those that are more "industry/tech/profession" oriented? I'm from the "tech" industry, and I was surprised to see that tech subreddits are also fairly _arbitrarily_ toxic instead of the negging-but-constructive type comments that pass on HN.

Or is that entire idea just against reddit? HN is a more moderator based forum, for example.

What are your thoughts on community censorship? When do things cross a line? Or should it just be a subreddit owner/moderator based thing and let everyone just figure it out...

accrual 7 years ago |

I think popular subreddits tend to support more toxic behavior, especially those easily accessible by keyword and more so the defaults. They invite anyone and everyone to post. "Niche" subreddits tend to be smaller groups and seem more self-moderated. Sometimes you can find these in the sidebar of the subreddits you're interested in.

Reddit definitely didn't start this way. In many ways it was similar to HN in that it was a small group of technical users, but it grew into a public forum for all topics. The demise of Digg was another factor but is arguably small considering Reddit's popularity today.

Reddit is an immensely useful resource if you know what you're looking for.