Before I rant, I LOVE reddit -- it provides me a ridiculously valuable service as well as some good chuckles and occasional deep thoughts.<p>After discovering reddit, one of the first things I realized was that signing up gave me a way to <i>unsubscribe</i> from the defaulted subs, most of which get really old, really fast; and this is when the smaller communities really shine.<p>As a new home owner, I routinely ask questions on /r/homeimprovement and /r/diy that get answered in a timely manner and normally by people with some level of expertise. I live in Seattle so I regularly browse /r/Seattle for the local happenings, etc. You get the point...<p>Getting defaulted is certainly more of a curse than a blessing for these communities. Sure, your audience skyrockets, but for anyone who spends anytime in an online community, one of the worst things that can happen is exponential growth past a certain point. I suspect the one that will quickly fall to this fate is ELI5, one of my current favorite subs. As much as I want to hold onto faith for it, I just suspect there is no way it will survive the 200 new members a minute they've seen since yesterday.