HN doesn't need subreddits.

I don't want to see the community fragmented into walled gardens like subreddits (I'd rather see everyone focus on submitting the best possible links to the front page), but it would be interesting to have a front-page algorithm (or an additional page on "lists") that tries to predict not the best links, but my best links.

why? I notice you've received (18) upvotes, which in this case probable means agreement, so there's obviously some support for not having this feature.

Is it specifically subreddits to avoid? I completely agree that subreddits are a terrible implementation of user-content customization because they force items into a single-parent hierarchy.

However, categories that filter content according to different weights would be quite useful. By pre-selecting these categories and thus pre-computing them, it would even be reasonable to implement (actual per-user filters might not work so well in real-time).

The fear I have is it would splinter the community.

But HN has become so big. It not logical to think that everyone will be interested by everything now.

I'm not convinced the community has become so big that subdivisions are necessary.