content: 4chan works like a traditional forum.  Most recent content is pushed to the top.  Whoever has the most resources to spam shit all day has the biggest voice.  Reddit (and voat) were a response to that, intended to push quality content up to rise above the noise. The most important feature of the modern era is achieving a good signal to noise ratio.  Digg died because it favored monetization over content, ruining the signal to noise ratio.  Reddit is dying for the same reason.