To some degree, so it bitcointalk.
Reddit is more community managed then Bitcointalk. Thought there is still an overarching policy from the company in charge of the Reddit platform, where they set what subreddits are okay and what is okay to be on a subreddit. Meaning that -- they can ban certain subreddits due to them not being within what they, or their advertises like.
So yes, while there is some moderation from the 'community' there is still overarching admins that handle what is OKAY to be on reddit.
The problem with not having anyone enforcing basic rules is that the community would quickly become a hotspot for kiddie porn and people encouraging real world violence. And eventually a government will find a way to shut it down.
Well yes, that's what I've been saying over and over. No managament to enforce any rules is going to lead to an issue, but once you have a management team in the first place you're going to lead to the issue of this management team wanting to continue to expand the forum, and the only way to do this (if you want money) is to start putting up ads.
And to put up ads, you're going to have to silence more and more views in order to get ad money.
That's just how it works.