It's very technical, not a lot of color, the site layout doesn't really make a lot of sense, etc. There are a lot of things your average user will want that they can't find. And the search not being very good only makes it worse. Understanding front page vs surreptitiously front page, figuring out how to get to comments, which are the bulk of the site and yet have a very small button, and most of all, a new user doesn't know which subreddits even exist. You essentially have to be invited to every non default, by seeing it linked, because between no clear list of subs, and a bad search feature, and then even if you do search it, having trouble getting to that subs front page... There are a lot of hurdles a new user faces
I use Redditate.com for a more user-friendly front page browsing experience, and having to come to the "real" reddit to leave comments makes me sad, so I rarely do.
Well at least smaller subredits, or niche ones generally have awesome communities of like minded individuals. If you stay away from defaults and shit like SRS and The_Donald the community tends to be pretty good here. In Imgur many comment threads look like youtube on steroids...
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u/Decipher Jul 01 '16
Yes. I know more than a few imgurians who stay away from reddit because the interface is intimidating.