Reddit often gets criticised for it's toxicity but I wonder if it's worthy of note for the number of places that it avoids toxicity. It's a huge petri dish of different communities with different moderation rules and community norms. If a subreddit is failing you then start another one.
Totally agreed. As I look back at my reddit usage over the years is that reddit provides a structured view into shifting social sentiment. Any sufficiently massive, long-lived, and topically comprehensive discussion community will give you the same thing, but I have yet to find one that gives as much of an overall view into what everyone else is thinking than does reddit, mostly for the simple fact that you are shown all the content by default.
I know that it inadvertently helped me learn a lot about what factors can make people feel the way they do and behave the way they do. As I follow juicy comment threads and such, I also see this happening for others. That is indeed cool as fuck.
