Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Reddit is run by a bunch of leeches who rely on moderators to create content and never reward them. I think sites like Reddit emerged at a point where infrastructure for sharing was very valuable for users in its own right. It seems amazing now that the submit/upvote/downvote flow was so novel and we all lapped up the spirit of freedom. But actually the powerful feature of sites like Reddit and HN is the moderation…
> submit/upvote/downvote flow was so novel What was the timeline again... Slashdot emerged in 1997, it developed voting on several different criteria, you could filter for "funny" or "insightful" posts, and it had a pretty sophisticated meta-moderation system. Digg simplified that with up- and down-votes. Reddit borrowed digg's model. I'm not 100% sure what the innovation of reddit was at the time, but I feel like th…
In contrast Reddit has thousands of small communities that let new users be heard. Down voting and arguing over "bad" comments gives an impression of authority that make the user want to learn and impress the group. It is really all just a game.