Thursday, February 16, 2012

Why I haven't logged into Reddit for over a year

This is not a rant. This is NOT a rant. Understand? Ok, lets continue.

I loved Reddit. Loved it with the impassioned zeal of a nerd who just stepped into a room full of nerds - who were different. Different in delightfully strange ways. I seem to remember some poll which came up with results that said that Reddit was mostly male, white, late 20s and large your sysadmin. I did see it turn into something more diverse, but still, delightfully quirky. But you know what the deal with quirky is? It eventually begins to pall. At some point, you ask the question - is being quirky merely a phenotype, or is it the be all and end all of this person (or club). Hence, Zooey Deschanel. Seems, somehow, that quirky is her main stock-in-trade. Hence, also, Reddit's abiding unidirectional love affair with said Zooey.

But this aside, Reddit appeared to be this fantastic place where people can be fanboys with no fear. Where "The Hero of Canton" is a real song and you cannot say River Tam without half the thread bursting into sobs. Where, also, inexplicable mediocrity like Arrested Development becomes gold. I do not effin' get this obsession with Michael Cera. Why?

And the smarts. I remember a random post about the Depression Era with Studs Terkel referenced in the very first comment. Yes, the Redditors were smart. They were funny too - what with the narwhal bacons at midnight and much, much, more. And then there was Bozarking... dear Gawd, there was Bozarking.

But the plain fact of the matter was that it was turning into a 4chan meme repeater more than anything else... and a gigantic time drain into the bargain. So one day, I pulled the plug on this delightful bad habit and never logged in again. I was mostly a quiet lurker with very leetil karma. So the withdrawal symptoms were minor. But I do still have my weak moments. Anyway, Redditors, hope ya'all are having a good time of it.

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