I think unsubscribing from the defaults made it better. There were some small groups where it wasn't so much "we'll never disagree!" But "we share common interests" and polite disagreement actually happened.
Comment sections on any of the defaults were frustrating for me, especially when the stupid inside jokes would rise to the top and people with actual interesting comments would be lost down in the other two thousand something replies.
I feel like there was also more of a culture of cynicism there thanks to trolls that went well beyond "trust but verify" to "everyone on this site lies" which made me have no desire to post about personal experiences that I thought were relevant because I didn't want to have to justify myself. I don't know. So far Hubski is feeling like a nice change. The comment sections aren't making me facepalm yet at any rate.