By: Nick Gambino
Reddit is going to do away with one of the most recognizable features of the platform. Reddit CEO Steve Huffman says they’re getting rid of r/popular because it “sucks.”
r/popular stands as the main default feed for users and that’s the way it’s been since 2017. The problem is as the site has grown into the behemoth it is, this default subreddit feels outdated and unwieldy.
“For a long while, we were known as the ‘front page of the internet,’ but we’ve outgrown a singular front page for everyone,” Huffman said in a Reddit post this week. “You have different interests than I do, and your Reddit should look different from mine. And from your neighbor’s or your coworker’s, or your best friend’s.”
The r/popular subreddit is made up of content that has the most upvotes in the community. This does not automatically translate to what’s most popular, especially according to what you’re interested in.
This system may have worked back in a simpler time when these social platforms were a lot smaller. With millions, and even billions of users, algorithms have become a lot more complex and aim to give you a more curated experience. Reddit alone boasts 116 million users every day.
Using r/popular as the main feed for everyone, makes Reddit feel too homogenized, which is the opposite of what they’re going for, according to Huffman.
That’s why they are removing r/popular from the main group of feeds very soon, unless you’re a regular reader, in which case you’ll still see it in your app. So r/popular isn’t being shut down, it’ll just no longer be the default feed for every Reddit user.
There’s no indication of what might replace it. Perhaps there won’t be a main feed shared amongst communities. You’ll just see posts from across your subreddits.
RIP to the erroneous front page of the front page of the internet.
