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Ask HN: Favorite subreddit?

68 points| tmaly | 9 years ago | reply

I read /r/programming and /r/golang and have found some really nice gems over the years.

What are your favorite subreddits that you have gained some really valuable insights from?

53 comments

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[+] Mizza|9 years ago|reply
https://reddit.com/r/SyrianCivilWar

Takes a lot of lurking to really be able to _really_ read what's happening, but I honestly think that this sub is quite possibly the best war reporting of all time.

The sub has even been publishing its own high-quality journal/magazine, "The Week In Review", ex: http://imgur.com/gallery/SdsG2

[+] jim-jim-jim|9 years ago|reply
I think Reddit is flawed by design and avoid it whenever possible, but I love r/SCW. If a community like that existed for every topic, journalism would be in a much better place.

One side effect though: I now find myself involuntarily gritting my teeth whenever I read more "respected" publications like the New York Times. The disconnect from reality is extraordinary.

[+] molloy|9 years ago|reply
Their IRC channel is pretty shitposty but when anything newsworthy happens it's the first place the news is aggregated to and discussed, generally even before making it to the subreddit and often while the newsworthy event is still ongoing.
[+] Gargoyle|9 years ago|reply
I really like the sub. As you hint, it has some strongly-slanted viewpoints, but there's enough variety in the voices that if you put in the time you come out with a good understanding of what's going on and why.
[+] sputknick|9 years ago|reply
I'll check it out, but can you give us a high level understanding of what you have learned about the war?
[+] hackerboos|9 years ago|reply
My Syrian coworker swears by this subreddit.
[+] rayalez|9 years ago|reply
http://www.reddit.com/r/rational/ - a community discussing rational fiction (sort of like hard SciFi). This is one of the best communities (aside from HN) that I am aware of, a lot of extremely intelligent people, I'm sure you guys will like it.
[+] tmaly|9 years ago|reply
would this include works like Sherlock Holmes?
[+] mhink|9 years ago|reply
Perhaps surprisingly, /r/dndbehindthescreen. They're one of the few subreddits I've found that has a subscriber count in the tens of thousands, consistently high-quality content, and an active community of people that actually contribute.

/r/roguelikedev is a fun community, as well- I love the opportunity for cross-pollination of ideas, since everyone's doing a rather similar thing, but with different languages, libraries, and so forth.

[+] zumu|9 years ago|reply
https://www.reddit.com/r/DepthHub/

It's a curated list of in depth submissions(posts and replies) from many subreddits.

[+] dhfhduk|9 years ago|reply
Not meaning to criticize your taste in subreddits, but I didn't have the reaction I thought it would. I was looking forward to it, but a lot of the posts seemed like links to megatrolling or something.

Maybe I picked the wrong ones to take a look at or something, but I found it disturbing more than anything else, sort of like "the best that reddit has to offer, by those who think they are offering it."

I have sort of a love-hate relationship with Reddit, though, so I think it's touching some deep buttons for me.

[+] tmaly|9 years ago|reply
I bookmarked this one, these would make some very interesting conversation topics.
[+] ahoy|9 years ago|reply
/r/askhistorians is always a delightful read
[+] Daishiman|9 years ago|reply
The most strictly moderated community I've seen, and thanks to that it has the highest signal-to-noise ratio of any online forum.

You could easily make a magazine out of the dozens of incredibly posts each week.

[+] tscs37|9 years ago|reply
/r/selfhosted - it contains several selfhosted gems of applications, a very interesting sub.

/r/netsec - to feel a bit paranoid

/r/homelab - for the homelab needs

/r/golang - overall friendly community and lots to learn

/r/programming - good sub for all needs

/r/polandball - I cannot come up with a good justification why this subreddit is one of my favorites.

[+] mikeleeorg|9 years ago|reply
For me, it's:

https://reddit.com/r/UpliftingNews

The media is too focused on sensationalized news nowadays, which often translates to negative news. It's hard not to be jaded and cynical. This sub helps give me perspective.

Also, as someone else already mentioned, /r/askhistorians is a truly delightful and interesting read.

[+] mindcrime|9 years ago|reply
A few of my favorites include:

/r/machinelearning

/r/artificial

/r/semanticweb

/r/electronics

[+] Someone1234|9 years ago|reply
Is semantic web just a branch of SEO? I don't really understand the point aside from making your site nicer for e.g. Google/Bing.
[+] tmaly|9 years ago|reply
Do you save a lot of links from them?
[+] AznHisoka|9 years ago|reply
/r/nofap - even if you don't believe in the "science", it's amusing to read the experiences of people attempting this.
[+] miguelrochefort|9 years ago|reply
/r/onebag

/r/minimalism

/r/ultralight

/r/frugal

/r/keto

/r/zerocarb

/r/personalfinancecanada

[+] hackerboos|9 years ago|reply
I love PersonalFinanceCanada but Canadian subreddits are very hostile to newbies.
[+] jetti|9 years ago|reply
/r/TIL

/r/programming

/r/woodworking

[+] Zikes|9 years ago|reply
/r/skookum is a pretty great community of engineers & DIYers with a sense of humor. I particularly like their subreddit rule #3:

> Users are strongly encouraged to submit posts for technical assistance. /u/datums personally guarantees that all possible resources will be mobilized to provide assistance if necessary.