Don't forget that they also banned subs devoted to sharing alcohol, and /r/gundeals, which doesn't involve user-to-user transactions at all.
It's all part of a move to a sanitized social media platform. Which is a shame, since I tried for a long time to ignore the fact that it was turning into Facebook with strangers. Hopefully the niche subreddits will still keep their communities, which is really the only reason I go there now.
It absolutely is. Reddit was at its best when it was essentially a hub for random guru sites and insights into people's lives - the big subreddits, especially the defaults have been getting all the attention and advertising revenue, but the real gold has been down in the niche communities. And now it looks like they're moving to stomp out all that individuality and make the whole site into a series of ugly identikit pages serving up a bland paste that appeals to advertisers and investors. And, coincidentally, here I am experimenting on Hubski all of a sudden, and I'm probably not the only person in this boat...
Agreed. /r/neutralpolitics and some of the religion-oriented subs are about the only places I post anymore.