The best part so far about this site is that I don't feel the least bit intimidated to contribute. Reddit feels like it's always about the glory of karma, and about who can get their message out there better than everyone else. Here, with the ultimate goal being thoughtful discussion... I feel liberated to just write. This is a truly great thing you guys have going here.
Eh, you may have just been visiting the wrong subreddits. This place, in my opinion, just seems like another version of /r/casualconversation. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, that's bit really what I'm looking for and the main reason I love Reddit so much. I personally like how specific Reddit is. If I want to look at Pokemon content, I can just visit /r/pokemon. /r/anime has discussion threads for just about every single show, every single week. If I wanted to visit the subreddit of a particular show I was watching and wanted to talk to people about that particular show, it was almost guaranteed that there was already a subreddit for that show with thousands of subscribers already there ready to welcome you with open arms. If these are the type of subreddit's you participated in frequently, you wouldn't have a single problem with the site. It was pretty much only the defaults who fit into the category that you described in your comment. If you're just looking for new friends and just overall discussion in general, then yeah, this website is probably the right place for you! I may use this website a bit for that, but I primarily used reddit to enjoy, talk about, and share things with others. Reddit is huge, and honestly, the subreddits like the ones I mentioned above (/r/Pokemon for example) aren't affected too much by all of the drama going on over there and I think that I'll continue to spend most of my time in those places.
I somewhat agree, but I'd like to give up reddit entirely based on the direction it's going. My real hope is that they turn it around and Reddit doesn't become a shithole full of paywalled AMA's and targeted advertising. I really like reddit and don't want to see it die.
Me too. I noticed that hubski's mechanics can aggregate focused content for its users too. But it seems to require effort on the user's part to teach hubski how to do that. Yet I can imagine user's starting what are essentially the equivalent of subreddits by creating accounts with usernames such as "popmusic" and more specific ones such as "1975 Chevy Impala". Of course under the influence of a single person those "users" would probably not be as good as a properly moderated subreddit. Hubski's tag system combined with following specific individuals is probably a better way of staying up-to-date on a particular subject, though.
I know exactly what you mean. That feeling of intimidation is what kept me from contributing to Reddit for a long time after I discovered it. I imagine another benefit of this site is that it won't encourage users to make one line puns or joke answers that have nothing to contribute to the discussion. If you take out the basic incentive of posting, you'll only get content and comments from people who actually want to take the time to post for the sake of posting.
Could you elaborate? I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Also the gilding system is a segregation of users.