Hosting is half of it, but the user-submitted section is a thriving social ecosystem. It’s a lot like reddit or Lemmy, but all submissions are image-based only with sizable comment sections attached like anywhere else. I was very involved there 12 years back and enjoyed it quite a lot. I tried really hard to earn my green (highest karma) badge, but I believe I got second or third highest before running out of steam. You had a profile full of badges and stuff, and users actually valued karma there, unlike on reddit or Lemmy.

But the mood changed other time and it became a hub for bullshit, sob stories and very tired, very played-out jokes. Then the eventual UI changes drove the nail in the coffin and I found it unusable.