I find stuff I like via the algorithm very often. Subscriptions cover channels that I want to see every upload of, but that doesn’t cover channels I don’t yet know about or channels only have a percentage of videos interesting to me. I use the algorithm mainly for finding content that I wouldn’t have discovered otherwise, and I can tell the algorithm knows to suggest me videos like that (low view/sub count videos show up for me way more than normal).

The way we used the service is different I guess. /r/all always had too much garbage for me to enjoy. I just subbed to whatever I was interested in and never had to worry about nonsense subreddits.

groups for every single damn anime in existence.

Subreddits for small niche interests is the thing I miss most from reddit and the only thing I return for now and then. Maybe I don’t care for those singular anime, but I’m glad the people that do have/had it available to them.

Right now I can’t watch twitch whole working so the only places to get a quick update on evo (what many consider to be the biggest fighting game tournament yearly, happening now) are reddit and twitter. Not great imo.

It’s an unattainable ideal yes. But it’s okay to lament the decline in behavior as a social web service grows. Perhaps as a reminder to everyone to try to be better.