I don't know what content you're looking for on Reddit, but my experience is the opposite. Reddit makes it very easy for me to find focused, high-quality conversations about specific topics. As others have said, the trick is to stick to small subreddits. AskReddit, like most of the big subreddits, is a cesspool.
Also, I find that searching Reddit with Google yields much more trustworthy information than just searching Google, which tends to return a bunch of sponsored results, ads, and SEO garbage. Folks on Reddit (especially focused subreddits) do a very good job of filtering all that stuff out already. It's not perfect, but it's often vastly better than Google alone.
Agreed — don’t use the default subreddits. They’re cancer. But I’ve had a great time at the Formula1 subreddit and people are crazy at MechanicalKeyboards. I’m sure you’ll love a knitting group if you enjoy that. Go by your specific interests and really just say no to the generic or huge ones like funny, pics, askreddit etc.
The problem is that subreddit is very prone to heterogeneous opinions and groupthink, even among niche subreddits, mostly around what's appealing to mid-20 year old white US males.
The discussion is often very shallow, mostly aimed at "advanced beginners" because that's what appeals to the widest audience and anything else doesn't get traction, unlike in a traditional forum. This is very obvious if you're into a technical hobby like climbing or mountaineering.
Basically, if you don't fit the demographic / skill level mold, even niche subreddits (that aren't the dumpster fire that the large ones are) quickly lose their value.
One thing that's very noticeable compared to traditional forums, and I think plays into this: Traditional forums for deep topics have year-long threads where people are figuring something out together or share project logs. As long as they are active, they get pushed to the top. Reddit does not have that, and suffers for it. (HN too in some ways). Linking back to old reddit threads when continuing a topic is tedious and excludes the discussion even more, so it happens in way more limited contexts.
In contrast, "I just bought X" typically is one megathread in a forum and not half the submissions.
I can agree with this. This is great if you have a soft interest in something.
However, I like trading (stocks and stuff) and the subs focusing on that are very... questionable at times. A ton of people that mistake pure luck for skill perhaps... every other day.
Its no use telling some of them that, yea you just made $1000 this week trading but if you don't test your strategies legitimately you could and will just as easily lose that $1000.
>anything else doesn't get traction, unlike in a traditional forum. This is very obvious if you're into a technical hobby like climbing or mountaineering.
That's interesting, can you think of other examples besides climbing or mountaineering?
Don't get me wrong, great group of people in surveying- lots of stories about field work, current instruments, current products, etc - near zero interest (for the most part) in the deep technical aspects other than a certain passing "that's interesting | cool".
I'm not sure that's a strong criticism though, it's a social group, you can meet many people and occasionally bump into the few that actually write|develop instruments an software and then have all the off channel conversations you want.
My interest has been implementing numerics in no particular field; cartography, remote sensing, medical imaging, engineering modelling, financials, weddings, parties, anything, etc. I wander through a range of application areas and usually go deep on very dull specifics.
It's a common story - pick a domain area, there'll be a social group interested in that domain, with students, veterans, casual pass throughs, etc ; stories, yarns, classic photos etc are all popular but for the most part getting into the weeds on fine details will bore the pants off the bulk of that group.
Lots of people like to flex at the local climbing wall, few will ever bolt their way to the summit of Cerro Torre or cable ascend the Sydney Tower- this limits the discussion pools on portable generators and|or designing custom ascenders for cables and window washing tracks.
I inferred from the comment that Reddit posters are mostly young men, not that groups predominately composed of young women don't exhibit group think.
I'm not a Reddit user but a quick Google search confirms the ratio of males to females on Reddit is at least 2:1 and possibly 3:1.
There are also various other phenomena that suggest Reddit users of any gender or interest might see a disproportionate number of male posters, but we needn't go near those treacherous waters given the above numbers.
>the trick is to stick to ~~small~~ niche subreddits.
I think generality is more of a problem than size. The more general a subreddit's topic, usually the more of a cesspool it is.
The more specific and niche, the more likely it is to be focused, informative, and useful. Also the better moderated it tends to be, as the moderators are intensely interested in the topic and doing it as a labor of love.
Also, I find that searching Reddit with Google yields much more trustworthy information than just searching Google, which tends to return a bunch of sponsored results, ads, and SEO garbage. Folks on Reddit (especially focused subreddits) do a very good job of filtering all that stuff out already. It's not perfect, but it's often vastly better than Google alone.