Reddit and What I Found There

Reddit is a great site that contains many different types of people and places for discussion.  I researched Reddit for subreddits pertaining to my major, and am going to discuss what I discovered in this post.

Algotruneman.  "Discussion Icon" 8/3/13 via openclipart.  Unlimited commercial use license.

1. What kinds of things do people in the Reddit forums seem to be arguing about, debating, disagreeing about or otherwise engaging in meaningful exchanges of ideas about? Give us a descriptive and clear sense of the kinds of stories you're seeing in the Reddit forums.

I found the /r/programming subreddit to be the most active forum related to my major, and then I scanned all of the top post of all time from there.  The first thing I noticed was how big of a range the various threads were about.  Some posts were about fun things such as a website that was coding itself live, while another post was about how an important figure in coding has died.  It's hard to give an exact explanation of the type of stories on the subreddit because the subreddit is full of any and all things related to programming.

2. In your opinion, what are the two most interesting debates/disagreements you found in the Reddit forums? Hyperlink us to the two different Reddit threads and explain why you found those debates interesting. Be specific and honest and be yourself. I don't want you to blah-blah-blah this. I want you to really engage.

One of the more interesting threads was in a post about what programmers should not say to beginners.  The reason this thread interested me is because I am a beginner programmer myself, and it is eye-opening to see what experienced programmers have to say about/to beginners.  Another interesting thread was in a post titled "Programming Sucks."  The people in the post are discussing a hyperbolic article that explains why programming sucks.  This thread interested me because again, I am an aspiring programmer, and it is cool to see the potential suckiness that might come with the job.

3. Overall, what impression do you get of your discipline based on what you saw happening in the Reddit forums? Were the people in those forums talking in ways you expected or did not expect, about things you anticipated they'd be talking about or things you had no idea they'd be discussing? Explain in concise specific detail.

From what I read on Reddit, I get an impression that programmers have a brotherhood sort of thing going on where they are able to make fun of themselves and intelligently discuss programming at the time.  The people on the subreddit talked how I would imagine, intelligently but with a good amount of humor.  What stood out for me is how little I knew about what the people were talking about.  As a beginner programmer, this shows me that I still have a lot to learn.