Could anyone who was on reddit years ago tell me if it used be better or not?
I've only been on reddit for probably the past 5 years, and the best responses on reddit posts are all mostly posts from 14-16 years ago.
When I'm searching for information or a discussion and I get pleasantly surprised by the responses, I always end up noticing it's an extremely old post. The top comment doesn't seem to be some weird attempt at a sparky joke that doesn't really contribute like it is now, but rather the top comments look well deserved to be there by being a long, well written response in detail.
I notice now Redditors sometimes even comment "I'm not reading all of that" under anything that's not super short, even if it still could literally be a pretty quick read. I'm not sure why they think not wanting to read is a flex to the point where they come to announce and shame a post or comment that someone put effort into about the discussion or relevant to the subreddit that they are in.
But back to what I'm saying mostly, it also didn't seem to be an echo chamber or things being mass downvoted that didn't make sense to downvote that extremely. Everyone in older comments from years ago seemed to all be pretty evenly mixed, and their emotions seemed a lot more in check and mature. They seemed to be able to handle other opinions, and they just talked to each other a little more like real people in the real world than they do now, if that makes sense?
Something seemed more comfy or casual, I guess, if that sounds right? They didn't seem as far removed from reality as now, and I didn't see many people who seemed to be battling to just be right no matter how dumb it made them start to look.
I really don't think many Redditors even care about the topic they're discussing and only want to feel as if they won a debate and they also try to turn everything into a debate even if it wasn't one. Also, on older posts it seems the commenters were better at comprehending. A lot of times you can tell that Redditors skimmed through a post by commenting a point no one made or something like that.
Also, I noticed there weren't really any stereotypical Redditors putting 500 sentences or words that the OP said in quotation marks and trying to make them feel like what they said was stupid. I think Reddit could've really been a great tool, but people use it in such an unproductive way.
I'm interested in why Reddit is so strange as a whole and wondering if it changed in anyone's opinion who was on Reddit years ago. I don't have experience of actually being on Reddit that long ago, but I was wondering if anyone was to tell me if they agree or disagree and why. Also, if you think it did turn into a mess and was once decent, then what do you think could've happened?