Comparing Reddit to USENET is probably one of the most insightful descriptions of Reddit I've seen anyone make.
It is indeed a big loosely-related collection of communities, from which users choose a la carte their areas of participation.
The Reddit my wife sees when she logs in is very different from the one I see, which is very different from the one fans of meme participation (rage comics, etc) see.
People have been calling reddit "Usenet 2.0" for a long time. In fact, usenet was something that often came up in discussions of how certain features should work and what features we should work on.
I don't disagree that some people have been comparing Reddit to usenet, but I've been an active redditor for 4 years and this is the first time I can recall someone comparing Reddit to usenet.
It is indeed a big loosely-related collection of communities, from which users choose a la carte their areas of participation.
The Reddit my wife sees when she logs in is very different from the one I see, which is very different from the one fans of meme participation (rage comics, etc) see.