I actually think Reddit is quite optimized and not missing out on too many users. The Reddit homepage can take on the following states:
1) As it currently is dominated by memes and linkbait articles
2) Links to actual news and good content
3) A combination of 1 and 2
Out of the 3, my guess is #1 drives the most traffic. If you're goal is to get the most traffic, then almost by definition you're trying to get popular content as the default state.
Comments
I actually think Reddit is quite optimized and not missing out on too many users. The Reddit homepage can take on the following states:
1) As it currently is dominated by memes and linkbait articles 2) Links to actual news and good content 3) A combination of 1 and 2
Out of the 3, my guess is #1 drives the most traffic. If you're goal is to get the most traffic, then almost by definition you're trying to get popular content as the default state.