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The key to make Reddit still an amazing resource is finding niche subreddits that fit your interests. The very broad subreddits like funny, news, pics, politics

The key to make Reddit still an amazing resource is finding niche subreddits that fit your interests. The very broad subreddits like funny, news, pics, politics (where this is likely from), etc. etc. are all just full of spam, and trash like this. They have been for YEARS now. However, say you dive into a subreddit for a specific video game you like, it's going to be full of relevant content with very little spam. Or if anything, the type of spam is just reposting content which still may even be new for you. Reddit is not dying, just the giant stadium size subreddits are trash. I visit video game subreddits for games I actively play almost daily and they are all incredibly useful and interesting.

nolok 2y ago
I mean, it's pretty much where half of "smaller forums" went. The other half being on discord.
- RicoElectrico 2y ago
  And the third half on Facebook groups.
  - bingleboy 2y ago
    That's why some people spend their entire lives on non-english speaking forums.
  - ziddoap 2y ago
    And the fourth half still on their own domains, on some old vBulletin board or something (thinking of car forums mainly, like NASIOC).
  - sixothree 2y ago
    As much as I dislike reddit, Facebook groups are awful to use. The interface is such a huge turnoff.
- GolfPopper 2y ago
  Or still being quietly run somewhere on BBCode.
  - karma_pharmer 2y ago
    Ssssshhhh!!!!!! Those are the best ones; stop telling everybody about it or they'll get flooded with losers from that orange site I keep hearing about.
    - GolfPopper 2y ago
      You'll note I'm not saying which ones or where they are. ;-)
nomilk 2y ago
I know this is (almost hopelessly) subjective, but can you (or others) recommend a few? (I'm a reddit newb and my feed resembles a mainstream news website).
- bonestamp2 2y ago
  What things are you passionate about or at least interested in? There is likely a subreddit for each one.
- lelanthran 2y ago
  I visit /r/programming, /r/gamedev, /r/projectcar and a few others (woodworking, home building, short scifi stories)
- rvba 2y ago
  https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueReddit/ https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueReddit/ https://www.reddit.com/r/longreads https://www.reddit.com/r/longreads
- the_snooze 2y ago
  If you're a college sports fan, /r/cfb, /r/collegebasketball, and /r/collegebaseball are excellent. The first two are large subreddits, but their mods absolutely stay on top of things. Not just clearing out spam and off-topic discussion, but also posting "official" game threads and post-game summaries so you don't have dozens of "Auburn defeats Alabama 34-28" posts clogging up the front page.
- bluetidepro 2y ago
  I don't use reddit for any real news, I just use it for hobbies/interests. Using reddit for news is a terrible idea for all the content farming and spam trash that this post is talking about. That would be like getting your news from just random people shouting on the side of the street. So the hobbies/games I'm currently playing are subreddits I subscribe to and actively browse. Games like Anno 1800, Cities Skylines, and Manor Lords. All 3 have very active and passionate community members that are constantly posting high quality content around inspiration for builds, tips and tricks, community update news, patch discussions, mods, etc. etc. If you want more silly subreddits not related to hobbies, it depends on what your humor is. Here is a wide range of options: r/AnimalsBeingBros, r/ActLikeYouBelong, r/softwaregore, r/raspberry_pi, r/lockpicking, r/FellowKids, r/dogswithjobs, r/BirdsArentReal, r/BreadStapledToTrees - subreddits that are related around hobbies or niche humor will make you love reddit. Again, tl;dr, reddit is not the place for real life news. If you don't use it for that, you'll find yourself enjoying the website a ton more.
Retr0id 2y ago
I know a couple of people who moderate niche-but-active subreddits, and they're still inundated with spam. The only real difference is that they can stay on top of it, for the most part. So yeah, the niche subreddits are still alive, but I think they're struggling. One of them closed to non-approved submitters, and now they get AI-generated requests for account approval.
- btreecat 2y ago
  This is exactly why I gave up moderation of a sub that was around 100k members. It just was so much spam and noise and poor tooling to deal with it all.
lelanthran 2y ago
> Reddit is not dying, just the giant stadium size subreddits are trash. From a user's PoV, this is at worst a good thing and at best completely irrelevant. I never go to the large subreddits anyway (political, news, pics, etc), so whether or not they are around, or around and filled with LLM trash is completely irrelevant to me. OTOH, the subreddits I do visit are alive and well and show no signs of being less valuable to me than before.
rospaya 2y ago
Why would I dedicate my time to a subreddit that might vanish overnight or might get taken over by the admins? Way back, subreddits were independent forums, and now they're one protest away from being kidnapped.
- bluetidepro 2y ago
  I have never seen a subreddit for a game/hobby that I've subscribed to vanish overnight. In all my 13+ YEARS on reddit. EDIT: "Vanish" forever. Yes, there have been protests and black outs, but everything I have ever subscribed to did come back.
  - MOARDONGZPLZ 2y ago
    A bunch of subreddit admins took their ball and went home because they didn’t agree with site changes. This is practically the same thing. There was a whole website to track it. https://blackout.photon-reddit.com/ https://blackout.photon-reddit.com/
    - bluetidepro 2y ago
      Right, but they pretty much all came back. I'm not saying some don't do the blackout for protests, but none I have ever subscribed to have gone away 100% forever.
      - MOARDONGZPLZ 2y ago
        That’s different than your initial statement that none have vanished overnight. Hundreds or thousands vanished overnight. Many returned, but it was very unclear whether they ever would. Thank goodness the Reddit admins stepped in and basically forced lots of them to come back. Even major ones like r/video are still gone. In fact, the biggest losers were the users of the small, niche subreddits that the admins couldn’t strongarm into returning. Your statements are really baffling to me.
      - bluetidepro 2y ago
theChaparral 2y ago
I really agree. I think the key to your key is you have to actively seek out media that interests you. Don't just be a passive consumer of it.
asicsp 2y ago
I'm part of a few book subreddits and I definitely enjoy the reviews and discussions there. My TBR list is in thousands thanks to them...
cableshaft 2y ago
r/boardgames is pretty good, if you're into board games.
- bigstrat2003 2y ago
  /r/boardgames would be good, if they didn't go on rants about politics every so often. I couldn't take it any more after a while. I'm trying to read about board games to enjoy myself, not to be reminded of life's problems.
avgDev 2y ago
I moderate a niche subreddit, we were focused on information backed by science. The mod team is doctors, chemists, and devs. However, as we are growing we are noticing a lot of new people are spreading myths and since our average user is becoming dumber wrong opinions often end up at the top. This is what made me realize that reddit is actually an awful platform for information, while there is a lot of good stuff there the average user is NOT educated, and the average users outnumber the individuals educated in a particular subject. I have been downvoted to hell many times even though my information was backed by multiple studies and factual.
floren 2y ago
There's still just so much fucking garbage though. Yesterday I was wondering if I ought to switch to a flipphone so my son doesn't see me playing on my smartphone so much, so I headed over to /r/dumbphones to try and get a feel for what's currently a good option. I figured I'd look through the top posts of the last month to find good discussion. Instead, the top post is some dipshit meme, and all but 1 or 2 of the first 25 posts are "my EDC as an 18/f/cali", just pictures of the contents of their pockets! Because there's no way to have "the EDC thread" or the "post pics of your phone" thread, this low-effort shit fills the subreddit.

nolok 2y ago

I mean, it's pretty much where half of "smaller forums" went. The other half being on discord.

RicoElectrico 2y ago
And the third half on Facebook groups.
- bingleboy 2y ago
  That's why some people spend their entire lives on non-english speaking forums.
- ziddoap 2y ago
  And the fourth half still on their own domains, on some old vBulletin board or something (thinking of car forums mainly, like NASIOC).
- sixothree 2y ago
  As much as I dislike reddit, Facebook groups are awful to use. The interface is such a huge turnoff.
GolfPopper 2y ago
Or still being quietly run somewhere on BBCode.
- karma_pharmer 2y ago
  Ssssshhhh!!!!!! Those are the best ones; stop telling everybody about it or they'll get flooded with losers from that orange site I keep hearing about.
  - GolfPopper 2y ago
    You'll note I'm not saying which ones or where they are. ;-)

nomilk 2y ago

I know this is (almost hopelessly) subjective, but can you (or others) recommend a few? (I'm a reddit newb and my feed resembles a mainstream news website).

bonestamp2 2y ago
What things are you passionate about or at least interested in? There is likely a subreddit for each one.
lelanthran 2y ago
I visit /r/programming, /r/gamedev, /r/projectcar and a few others (woodworking, home building, short scifi stories)
rvba 2y ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueReddit/ https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueReddit/ https://www.reddit.com/r/longreads https://www.reddit.com/r/longreads
the_snooze 2y ago
If you're a college sports fan, /r/cfb, /r/collegebasketball, and /r/collegebaseball are excellent. The first two are large subreddits, but their mods absolutely stay on top of things. Not just clearing out spam and off-topic discussion, but also posting "official" game threads and post-game summaries so you don't have dozens of "Auburn defeats Alabama 34-28" posts clogging up the front page.
bluetidepro 2y ago
I don't use reddit for any real news, I just use it for hobbies/interests. Using reddit for news is a terrible idea for all the content farming and spam trash that this post is talking about. That would be like getting your news from just random people shouting on the side of the street. So the hobbies/games I'm currently playing are subreddits I subscribe to and actively browse. Games like Anno 1800, Cities Skylines, and Manor Lords. All 3 have very active and passionate community members that are constantly posting high quality content around inspiration for builds, tips and tricks, community update news, patch discussions, mods, etc. etc. If you want more silly subreddits not related to hobbies, it depends on what your humor is. Here is a wide range of options: r/AnimalsBeingBros, r/ActLikeYouBelong, r/softwaregore, r/raspberry_pi, r/lockpicking, r/FellowKids, r/dogswithjobs, r/BirdsArentReal, r/BreadStapledToTrees - subreddits that are related around hobbies or niche humor will make you love reddit. Again, tl;dr, reddit is not the place for real life news. If you don't use it for that, you'll find yourself enjoying the website a ton more.

Retr0id 2y ago

I know a couple of people who moderate niche-but-active subreddits, and they're still inundated with spam. The only real difference is that they can stay on top of it, for the most part. So yeah, the niche subreddits are still alive, but I think they're struggling. One of them closed to non-approved submitters, and now they get AI-generated requests for account approval.

btreecat 2y ago
This is exactly why I gave up moderation of a sub that was around 100k members. It just was so much spam and noise and poor tooling to deal with it all.

lelanthran 2y ago

> Reddit is not dying, just the giant stadium size subreddits are trash. From a user's PoV, this is at worst a good thing and at best completely irrelevant. I never go to the large subreddits anyway (political, news, pics, etc), so whether or not they are around, or around and filled with LLM trash is completely irrelevant to me. OTOH, the subreddits I do visit are alive and well and show no signs of being less valuable to me than before.

rospaya 2y ago

Why would I dedicate my time to a subreddit that might vanish overnight or might get taken over by the admins? Way back, subreddits were independent forums, and now they're one protest away from being kidnapped.

bluetidepro 2y ago
I have never seen a subreddit for a game/hobby that I've subscribed to vanish overnight. In all my 13+ YEARS on reddit. EDIT: "Vanish" forever. Yes, there have been protests and black outs, but everything I have ever subscribed to did come back.
- MOARDONGZPLZ 2y ago
  A bunch of subreddit admins took their ball and went home because they didn’t agree with site changes. This is practically the same thing. There was a whole website to track it. https://blackout.photon-reddit.com/ https://blackout.photon-reddit.com/
  - bluetidepro 2y ago
    Right, but they pretty much all came back. I'm not saying some don't do the blackout for protests, but none I have ever subscribed to have gone away 100% forever.
    - MOARDONGZPLZ 2y ago
      That’s different than your initial statement that none have vanished overnight. Hundreds or thousands vanished overnight. Many returned, but it was very unclear whether they ever would. Thank goodness the Reddit admins stepped in and basically forced lots of them to come back. Even major ones like r/video are still gone. In fact, the biggest losers were the users of the small, niche subreddits that the admins couldn’t strongarm into returning. Your statements are really baffling to me.
    - bluetidepro 2y ago

theChaparral 2y ago

I really agree. I think the key to your key is you have to actively seek out media that interests you. Don't just be a passive consumer of it.

asicsp 2y ago

I'm part of a few book subreddits and I definitely enjoy the reviews and discussions there. My TBR list is in thousands thanks to them...

cableshaft 2y ago

r/boardgames is pretty good, if you're into board games.

bigstrat2003 2y ago
/r/boardgames would be good, if they didn't go on rants about politics every so often. I couldn't take it any more after a while. I'm trying to read about board games to enjoy myself, not to be reminded of life's problems.

avgDev 2y ago

I moderate a niche subreddit, we were focused on information backed by science. The mod team is doctors, chemists, and devs. However, as we are growing we are noticing a lot of new people are spreading myths and since our average user is becoming dumber wrong opinions often end up at the top. This is what made me realize that reddit is actually an awful platform for information, while there is a lot of good stuff there the average user is NOT educated, and the average users outnumber the individuals educated in a particular subject. I have been downvoted to hell many times even though my information was backed by multiple studies and factual.

floren 2y ago

There's still just so much fucking garbage though. Yesterday I was wondering if I ought to switch to a flipphone so my son doesn't see me playing on my smartphone so much, so I headed over to /r/dumbphones to try and get a feel for what's currently a good option. I figured I'd look through the top posts of the last month to find good discussion. Instead, the top post is some dipshit meme, and all but 1 or 2 of the first 25 posts are "my EDC as an 18/f/cali", just pictures of the contents of their pockets! Because there's no way to have "the EDC thread" or the "post pics of your phone" thread, this low-effort shit fills the subreddit.