It's always heartening to hear that people miss Culture Ramp. I think I probably have editing in my blood, but it's been nice just working as a writer for a while. I've also had a few op-eds at Polygon, so you can catch me there every so often as well. I think the Reddit founder was probably right about subreddits contributing to the site's popularity. Some of the most popular platforms on the Web are built on internal contradictions. It's part of what gives them traction, since it gives the platform a kind of problematic texture, something to work out. People love a puzzle.
Honestly, I started realizing I needed to quit Reddit when I started wondering how much was faked. I can go really deep into that rabbithole. (Like, what if a group of moderators/insiders created Game of Trolls in order to give older reddit users something interesting to pay attention to so that when you initially get bored with the site, you have something else to get involved in? But nah. That's crazy talk. GoT isn't an inside job...right? But the factions that appear on Reddit and are based pretty much solely around Reddit interest me. It would be clever if you could create that sort of thing on purpose in order to keep user interest. Reddit became, to me, like a soap opera or daytime drama at times due to this.)People love a puzzle.