Reddit Axes r/popular
Reddit’s CEO calls it 'a mess'

Reddit is making a significant change by removing its r/popular feed, a highly visible community aggregation that Steve Huffman, Reddit’s CEO, described as subpar and frustrating. Huffman admitted that r/popular "sucks" and is not delivering a quality experience to users, prompting the decision to retire it. This move aims to tackle issues around content quality and community management.
In addition to axing r/popular, Reddit is also implementing new limits on how many popular communities a single user can moderate. This step is designed to prevent overextension of moderators and improve the quality of community governance. Moreover, Reddit plans to push more personalized feeds to users, tailoring content to individual interests rather than broad, catch-all aggregations.
These changes reflect Reddit’s shift towards enhancing user experience by focusing on more curated and manageable content streams, addressing longstanding complaints about the chaotic nature of popular community feeds. The platform’s evolving approach could reshape how users discover and engage with Reddit’s diverse content landscape.