Yep, having been around for Usenet I don't find Reddit all that different. The main difference is the moderators I guess. But for all the stodgy work related groups on Usenet it was the alt.* groups that caught fire. Reddit is much the same, there are subs for all kinds of serious moderated technical discussion still. Those aren't the popular parts but they weren't popular on Usenet either.
Unless you've received an award, have a gold subscription, or have moderation privileges, finding new comments in a thread is not easy. In a news reader, it's trivial.
old.Reddit.com along with RES and only having handpicked subreddits on your front page (ie none of the default dumpster fire ones) makes Reddit halfway decent.
