Certain subreddits used to be like this.

But all my favorites have taken one of two paths:

• Get algorithmically deprioritized (due to a “bug” as an admin told a mod), and hemorrhage users. The collective ‘intelligence’ of the sub in particular drains; interesting intellectual discussions are gone. One such example: /r/localllama

• The sub gets huge. Bots repost memes as attention farms. It doesn’t feel like a small town anymore. Deeper discussions drain away in favor of shallow repetition of the same things over and over again. One example of this for me is /r/thelastairbender.