I share many of the sentiments in the comments here and thought I'd share that if anyone is interested, I'm working on a new hybrid aggregator/real time discussion site for a general audience. I started it to scratch my own itch after spending lots of time on r/worldnews but yearning to have a way to chat with other readers in real-time in a more "slack-like" experience.

It's focused on simplicity, readability, and low-friction. Anyone can view posts/conversations simply by going to the url. There's also no voting and ranking is by conversation activity etc.

It's small but have had some great people stop by so far & you're welcome to check it out. (https://sqwok.im)