Outages are definitely less common than they used to be. But I would guess that reddit is one of the most popular sites on the internet because it's basically like an anonymous(ish) facebook with content guaranteed to be popular with the majority (by design).
They've also made major efforts to keep the site socially sane for the majority of users (for better or worse, IMO generally better) with their moderation model.
Whether or not it's a great site technically is irrelevant. It's something people want and something I keep coming back to because there's no equivalent when it comes to niche communities.
keep coming back to because there's no equivalent when it comes to niche communities.
Niche specific forums are better at everything niche communities want/need in a discussion space except bringing on new users. Considering the kinds of users you get when you're in close proximity to a colossus of internet riff-raff I don't think this is a big tradeoff.
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Outages are definitely less common than they used to be. But I would guess that reddit is one of the most popular sites on the internet because it's basically like an anonymous(ish) facebook with content guaranteed to be popular with the majority (by design).
They've also made major efforts to keep the site socially sane for the majority of users (for better or worse, IMO generally better) with their moderation model.
Whether or not it's a great site technically is irrelevant. It's something people want and something I keep coming back to because there's no equivalent when it comes to niche communities.
Niche specific forums are better at everything niche communities want/need in a discussion space except bringing on new users. Considering the kinds of users you get when you're in close proximity to a colossus of internet riff-raff I don't think this is a big tradeoff.