I'm a lurker, but one of the things I like most about reddit is that their community seems to be very self-sufficient; and contains less egocentricity than many other online communities.
This was motivated by reading a series of pretty powerful comments by the user kleinbl00. Most notable were his/hers September 11th comment and his/hers comment on his ex-girlfriend.
The latter containing the amazingly poignant quote:
If you can't dream for each other, you're dreaming against each other and a
house divided cannot stand.
The point of this? This user has 42,460 link karma and 174,178 comment karma. While this is all within the context of the community, it's very notable. And it's not tied to his/her real life. When you click on their profile, you don't receive links to their twitter, facebook, website, company, etc.
S/he is doing this because they want to be involved in the community. There is very little self-gain other than the feedback/satisfaction of other people seeing value in what you've stated. The community has such an ethereal feeling to it; that it's in no way connected to real-world tangible devices. It feels pure.
The level of anonymity that reddit contains makes it feel very natural and the comments (at times), very thoughtful.
I love this community, and while I'll most likely always be a lurker (more of a personality trait), people like this make lurking much more enjoyable.