Reddit's new front page is all about popular posts — but it really depends on how you define "popular."
On Wednesday, social news site Reddit introduced a new version of its front page; more precisely, the front page that shows to new visitors who aren't logged into Reddit. Instead of showing posts from a hand-picked, default set of subreddits, the page — also available at Reddit/r/popular/ — now shows posts that are popular over a wider variety of subreddits across Reddit.
However, some subreddits are filtered out. As Reddit admin simbawulf put it, "subreddits that are large and dedicated to specific games are heavily filtered, as well as specific sports, and narrowly focused politically related subreddits," will not show on /r/popular. Furthermore, the announcement post said that "a handful of subreddits that users consistently filter out of their r/all page" will also be excluded.
That last bit is important, as it apparently includes the extremely popular pro-Trump subreddit The_Donald, which is nowhere to be seen on /r/popular/. According to this infographic posted by redditor ki85squared, that particular community has more than double the post count than any other subreddit that was filtered out of the new front page.
Image: Reddit/ki85squared
The_Donald's often aggressive user base caused quite a bit of grief to Reddit, at one point prompting Reddit CEO Steve Huffman to edit negative comments made about him by The_Donald users.
While that was an unwise move by Huffman, it's easy to see why Reddit moderators are getting frustrated with The_Donald, where a number of threads contained references to fake news, as well as insults and threats. In fact, in 2016 Reddit tweaked its previous front page — which can be seen at r/all — and though Reddit's admins didn't directly admit it, the move was likely a result of the popularity of the Trump-loving subreddit.
Now, for better or for worse, posts from The_Donald — as well as a few other popular subreddits, including AdviceAnimals and leagueoflegends — will not show for logged-off or new Reddit users when they visit the site's front page. Users who are logged into Reddit will see the same old thing — a selection of stories from the subreddits they've subscribed to.
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